Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Oct. 25 statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemns in the strongest terms the Philippine National Police (PNP) for the massacre of at least five peasants yesterday early morning in Barangay Bugtong, Mandaon town in Masbate province.

Contrary to the PNP’s claims in their press releases, the victims were not members of the New People’s Army (NPA). The PNP identified one of the victims as Eddie/Arnold Rosero, a local resident.

According to the NPA’s Regional Operational Command in Bicol, there was no armed encounter yesterday nor was there an NPA unit in the area.

We hold the PNP accountable for this heinous crime. This was committed by the police following direct orders of the police chief to “put an end” to the NPA in Masbate and the Bicol region.

The local unit of the NPA must seek to immediately identify and arrest those directly responsible for the massacre. We urge local police officers, whether involved or not in the crime, to cooperate with the NPA and reveal the whole truth about the massacre. The NPA must do everything in its power to give justice to the victims and their families.

This massacre forms part of the worsening acts of state terrorism perpetrated by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the PNP against the peasant masses and people of Masbate. The AFP and PNP seeks to terrorize the people through killings, abductions, unlawful arrests, beatings, armed intimidation, forced surrenders, hamletting of communities and other abuses in their futile drive to put an end to the people’s armed resistance.

Masbate is one of the provinces that has seen the biggest number of extrajudicial killings attributed to the military and police. Based on our information, there are now at least 74 killings in the province under the terrorist Duterte regime.

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