On the death of the FEU varsity player Keith Absalon at the hands of the NPA

Keith Absalon, 21 year old football varsity player of the FEU Tamaraws, only wanted to bike that day and yet a few minutes into his ride, Keith, wearing his football jersey, lay lifeless with half his handsome face blown off from a bomb that the CPP NPA NDF purposely detonated that targeted Keith and his group—all unarmed civilians.

A seemingly harmless activity—biking—had cost Keith and his 40 year old uncle their very lives. Keith’s 16 year old cousin bore major injuries that may cause permanent deformities and disabilities.

This is what this terrorist organization, the CPP NPA NDF, has made of our beloved Philippines: a valley of tears for mothers who have lost their children at such tender ages with so much of their promise yet unfulfilled.

Keith Absalon was a gifted athlete who had such a bright future ahead of him. And yet he is no more. The precious gift of life stolen from him by these violent extremists headed by the monster in Ultrecht, powerfully enabled by his serfs in Congress, the Kamatayan Bloc, who romantically call the terrorism, the pain and suffering they wreak on the Filipino people the “National Democratic Revolution”.

The theft of our children—either by deceptive recruitment of CPP NPA NDF fronts like IBON, ANAKBAYAN, BAYAN MUNA, ACT, KABATAAN, LFS, NUSP, NUPL, CEGP, SALUGPUNGAN, SAVE OUR SCHOOLS, etc, --or as victims of blatant violations of the IHL—where the body count has become sky-high, has created deep gashes in the national psyche and ripped the very hearts of our people who can only watch with clenched fists of rage.

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict joins the Filipino people in our collective Rage against the murder of Keith Absalon and Nolven Absalon and frustrated murder of the minor that was with them by the CPP NPA NDF in a most blatant display of disrespect for the IHL.

We also call on the Commission of Human Rights to join hands with us in the expression of this outrage and the ending of this tragic chapter in our country’s history by ending what must be ended—the life of this terrorist organization, CPP NPA NDF that has brought nothing but pain and suffering to our people.

And finally, we are challenging the self-professed human rights defenders in our midst—KARAPATAN, NUPL, NUJP, NUSP, CEGP, KABATAAN, BAYAN MUNA, ACT, GABRIELA, IBON, SAVE OUR SCHOOLS NETWORK—more precisely CARLOS ZARATE, EUFEMIA CULLAMAT, ARLENE BROSAS, FRANCE CASTRO, FERDINAND GAITE, SARAH ELAGO—people who take great pride in imagining themselves as having been duly elected by the Filipino people—to condemn this blatant violation of human rights and the International Humanitarian Laws that ended the young life of Keith Absalon and his uncle.

Will these high ranking party members of the CPP NPA NDF and their numerous fronts finally redeem themselves by doing what every human being ought to be doing—stand with us in our Grief and Rage against this monster that has devoured our children and its latest victim, FEU Tamaraw Keith Absalon—or will they, once again meet our challenge with a deafening silence or an endless stream of obfuscation that can only mean one thing—that this reign of terror will continue and that there will be more Filipina mothers who will be cradling the dead bodies of their children?

We await with bated breath the response of the Makabayan Bloc and the self-proclaimed human rights defenders in our midst.

Undersecretary Lorraine Marie T. Badoy

Spokesperson, NTF-ELCAC