Jonila Castro, a hardcore NPA member – NTF ELCAC
LE September 21, 2023
Jonila Castro, one of the two young women deployed by communist terrorist groups (CTGs) in fisherfolk communities in Orion, Bataan under the guise of being “environmental activists”, is a hardcore member of the New People’s Army (NPA) “in different capacities”, Undersecretary Jun Torres Jr., National Secretariat Executive Director of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), confirmed to the media Thursday (September 21, 2023). After an audio-visual presentation ran by NTF-ELCAC’s Integrated Communications Operations Center (ICOC) at the beginning of the virtual press conference, Torres pointed out that Castro herself admitted in her handwritten affidavit that she is a member of the NPA for four years until her formal surrender on Sep. 12 to the Army’s 70th Infantry Battalion based in Bulacan. “She (Castro) said she was an organizer then became a “hukbo”, which means an NPA combatant, then later went back again to the white area to organize. So, she performs in different capacities, notably as a semi-legal cadre,” Torres said. In the video, Castro said she belonged to the NPA Lino Blas Command and was among a group of terrorists figured in an encounter against government forces in 2021 in Pampanga. She admitted there were casualties on the NPA side in that firefight. Meanwhile, Torres pointed out that Castro also served as the recruiter, handler and schemer of Jhed Tamano who was only barely three months as a community organizer when they decided to leave the communist movement that led to their surrender to the said Army unit. Despite Castro and Tamano’s recantations, Torres believes the two women are “victims of terrorism” and that the government will not rest until they will be rescued from the clutches of the CTGs. He stood firm with the military and police that Castro and Tamano were not abducted. Speaking to the media, Atty. James Clifford Santos, Associate Solicitor of the Office of the Solicitor General and Spokesperson for NTF-ELCAC’ Legal Cooperation Cluster, labelled the recantations made by Tamano and Castro a “mockery of state policy,” as their sworn statements before a Public Attorney’s Office lawyer is a regularity under the 1987 Constitution.