An open letter about the NDF!

I got this email sent to me last April 23rd by Centcom's Lt. Mario Demaisip, Group Commander of the 3rd Civil Relations Group. This letter was supposed to be published on April 24th during the 42nd anniversary of the National Democratic Front in order to expose this above ground organization allied to the Communist Party of the Philippines. While it's a bit late for the NDF event, here is this letter in full. "An Open Letter to Bobit Avila WHAT WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ON NDF It is my great honor and pride to be accommodated to this column by no other than the famous Mr. Bobit Avila whom I am one of the fans. I am writing this article because I would just like to share some thoughts in relation to our advocacies being in the Armed Forces of the Philippines and how the reading public could take action on it.

Every 24th Day of April, the National Democratic Front of the Communist Party of the Philippines will be celebrating its anniversary since its creation in 1973. Much less known to the reading public on what is really the role of the NDF in the CPP organization and the role of the NDF to the New People's Army or NPA. In a simple understanding, the CPP is the leadership, the brain who runs and dictates the NDF and the NPA.

The NPA is the armed group waging armed revolution in the countryside. How about the NDF? The NDF is not armed, it is not outlawed in fact it is even legal but lethal. NDF has the biggest role because it is considered as the reservoir of all the requirements needed by the CPP and the NPA. NDF pursued the secondary struggle but it has a great role to the primary struggle which is the armed struggle being waged by the NPA.

In terms of personnel, NPA could not grow that big without recruitment and organizing from the NDF. And it is not the CPP or the NPA that does the recruitment and organizing because if that is so, nobody will join the movement. However, it is the NDF that introduced the recruitment in the guise of a legal organization in order to deceive the victims. NDF builds or infiltrates organizations or organizes different sectoral organizations including the youth and student sector utilizing legitimate issues.

It is deceptive because it is not really the plan of the NDF to help solve that issues but the main reason is to support the armed struggle and seek for recruits who will be brought to the countryside for immersion. In terms of material, logistics and fund support, oftentimes, it is the NDF who will do this thing. The AFP is continuing on its advocacy in educating our people with the deceptive idea of the CPP, which posed as a threat to our internal security for 46 years now. Due to this reason, a lot of insurgents who were our countrymen, women, farmers, workers, fishermen and youth and student sector had lost their lives in the process.

Just recently, this Group has received intelligence report that students legally recruited in the colleges and universities will be brought in the countryside for exposure with the armed group NPA this month of May. It is in this regard that we are warning parents to be watchful on the whereabouts of their children especially this summertime. The parents should check the activities of their children as to where they will go this summertime to save them from being dragged into the countryside.

CPP/NPA/NDF organizers will disguise the activity as an ordinary rural tour if the student is not yet aware on the treacherous techniques armed struggle slowly transforming the students into a fulltime red fighter. This has been the trend of the CPP/NPA/NDF that occasionally utilize student activist to visit rebel camps for exposure trips as a requirement once they will become part of the underground movement until such time that they will become a fulltime party member.

As of this moment, Centcom is still monitoring the bulk of students from Cebu who will be among the contingents that will be brought in the countryside for an exposure trip with the NPA in the nearby islands. The latest victim because of NPA exposure is Rachelle Mae Palang, a student from Velez College and the President of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) who died in a military encounter last September 18, 2008 in Dauin, Negros Oriental. Palang was undergoing an exposure trip in the countryside when an encounter happened between NPA's Mt. Pulang Talinis Front Command and members of the 79th Infantry Battalion in Negros Oriental.

Other students who died in Cebu are Marvin Marquez, a student of Southwestern University, Jerry Badayos, scholar of University of San Jose Recoletos and became a member of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), Guillermo Alburo, of the University of the Visayas.

Signed, LTC MARIO B DEMAISIP Group Commander, 3rd Civil Relations Group Civil Relations Service, AFP Centcom" More comments tomorrow!