MENANDRO VILLANUEVA: A SLAUGHTERER OF THE POOR, A KILLER OF FREEDOM
As the CPP winds back the same rhetoric of deceptions by presenting their fallen comrade a part of the “legion of heroes of the Filipino people”, the people of Davao Region and Mindanao are witnesses to the reign of terror and violence that Menandro Villanueva (Ka Bok) has planted in Mindanao for five decades.
Oxford Dictionary defines hero as a person “who is admired by many people for doing something brave or good.”
Ka Bok is certainly a brave person, but definitely not for the good. He was a brave person for fighting to overthrow the government, a brave person to kill Filipino soldiers and a brave person to murder in cold blood tens of thousands of innocent civilians mostly are farmers and indigenous peoples.
We shall not forget the horrors and nightmares in the history of Mindanao, as follows:
1. Killings of Datu Bandajao Mampaundag and son, Jhonard Mampaundag, of Talaingod Davao del Norte
2. Killing of Datu Bobong Elizalde of San Miguel, Surigao del Sur
3. Killing of Talaingod Mayor Jose Libayao
4. Killing of Benedicto Dinoy or Datu Mantalasan of Impasug-ong, Bukidnon
5. Bombing of PNP Municipal Police Station in Quezon, Bukidnon
6. Burning of construction equipment in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat
7. Burning of agricultural machines in a banana plantation in Valencia City, Bukidnon
8. Burning of agricultural equipment in Don Carlos, Bukidnon
9. Burning of Lapanday Foods Corporation in Davao City
10. Killing of Datu Antonio Takinan in Magpet, North Cotabato
11. Killings of Nilo Bandalan, Naro Abegando, Asang Aranio, Balanggas Pupuan, Toto Latuan, Randy Latuan, Bae Aranio and many more in San Fernando, Bukidnon
12. Killings of Benjamin Tobias, Edwin Catog, Rowena Masukasi, Dione Masukasi, Alvin Cabiza, Lotec Mendez, Ronie Lapedario, Seno Bangian, Clowed Hamesola, Morendo Liwatan, Mark Anthony Bautista, Rey Rollon and Joel Bayate all of Pantukan, Davao de Oro
13. Killings of Datu Omelis Duyan, Datu Causing Ogao, Santos Sabuan and Ben Pandia all fo Davao City
14. Killings of Datu Naom Mundasan, Ganary Casiguan and William Balid all of Kapalong, Davao del Norte
15. Killings of Mayor Dario Otaza and son Daryl Otaza of Loreto, Agusan del Sur
16. And many many many more…
Ka Bok was a champion of terrorism and shall be remembered by the Filipino people as a patron of human rights violations and an apologist for violence. He died not serving the people, but serving the violent communist aspirations and imposing dictatorship and authoritarianism within our midst. He is never admired for the terror and fear he strewed in every Filipino community.
Marco Valbuena of the CPP’s Information Bureau must draw lessons from the series of setbacks that NPA units in Mindanao have suffered in the past 4 years, including the several arrests and deaths of its top leaders like Leonardo Nabong (KOMMID, killed in Zamboanga del Norte), Loida Magpatoc (Central Committee, arrested in Bukidnon), Jorge Madlos (Central Committee, killed in Bukidnon), Sandra Ramos (Central Committee, killed in Davao de Oro) and Menandro Villanueva (Politburo-Central Committee, killed in Davao de Oro).
The message of the Mindanao people is clear – THE CPP-NPA IS NOT WELCOME IN ANY CORNERS OF MINDANAO. Valbuena has exhaustively and repeatedly tried to twist this TRUTH by telling that they still earn the support of the people. He must be living in illusions!
If indeed you still earn the support of the people, these “people” you claim as your supporters must have defended NPA units and leaders from being placed in defensive postures and some were even killed and arrested in battles. But, sadly, and as a matter of fact, these people you claim “yours” are the same people who have tipped information to our government forces about the whereabouts of your notorious NPA units that led to arrests and deaths of many of your members and leaders.
Your war, in fact your terrorism, is never and has never been the highest aspirations of the people. If you are indeed paying attention to the interests of the people, you must have known that the people’s desires are PEACE, NATIONAL PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT.
Your communist aspirations have long been rejected by the people, rooting from a foreign and an obsolete ideology, proven failed in the USSR, China, Vietnam, among other nations who have tried to be socialists through a violent overthrow of the government.
The people have learned already. They already know the deceptions and lies you have expertly mastered for five decades. You can no longer fool the people!
Coming from a former cadre of the CPP-NPA-NDF, I enjoin all remaining forces of the NPA nationwide to surrender, return to the folds of the law, collaborate with the government for progress and rural development and render our people the avenue of peace, once and for all. Don’t wait for your body to rot to earth like your ideology.
by Joy Saguino "Ka Amihan"
Former Cadre, CPP-NPA-NDF