EDITORIAL | Misrepresented

When former rebels were still inside the national democratic movement, whether aboveground cadres of the Communist Party of the Philippines or full-time New People’ s Army combatants, they were taught a central truth: armed struggle is the highest form of revolutionary commitment.

From Joma’s Philippine Society and Revolution (PSR) to the Party’s three-level courses, this principle had been drilled into us. To take up arms did not only make you one of the “best sons or daughters of the masses,” but also assured your “place in history.”

Why, then, does the CPP and its legal machinery consistently distort the truth when NPA fighters are apprehended?

This question is front and center in the case of the so-called “Agusan 8,” (or currently Agusan 6) an ongoing propaganda campaign and rescue mission of the CPP-NPA-NDF. Former rebels insist that the group should instead be called “Jaguar 8,” reflecting their NPA affiliation (Jaguar is the cipher code of their NPA unit) and argue that referring to them as ‘Agusan 8’ plays into the narrative of the CPP. When these eight individuals were arrested on June 13 in Agusan del Sur, their networks quickly insisted they were “civilians, dedicated farmers, activists, student leaders.”

But the truth is catching up. As of press time, the eight have become six. Two have since made the courageous decision to correct the narrative that had been imposed upon them. The Party’s mouthpieces can no longer hide behind press releases and hashtags. They’ve been exposed by their own.

Just last week, former rebels Job David and Alia Encela corrected the narrative surrounding their arrests in September 2023 through a Letter to the Editor published in the Visayan Daily Star. They acknowledged their former roles not just in the underground movement while they were still students, but also their involvement in the armed struggle. More importantly, they denounced the misrepresentation, saying that “the real perpetrators who hide behind the confusion continue to operate with impunity.”

These are far from isolated incidents.

In previous years, former rebels were witness to similar distortions. When Jo Lapira was killed in a 2017 encounter in Batangas, Kabataang Makabayan praised her as a Red fighter. But in its public statement, Gabriela referred to her merely as a ‘student leader’ and ‘activist,’ conveniently omitting her decision to join the NPA and the fact that she was killed as a member. The same happened to Kevin Castro, hailed underground as a martyr of the NPA, while aboveground media narratives, quoting national democratic organizations, framed him solely as a “volunteer teacher.”

There are cases where NPA combatants are misrepresented as merely “indigenous people's leaders,” like Michelle Campos who was arrested on March 2, or as “civilian farmers,” the latest being fugitive convict Juan Sumilhig, who joined the NPA and was killed in an armed encounter in Occidental Mindoro on August 1. And the list goes on.

These contradictions are not accidents; they are deliberate acts of deception. For decades, this modus operandi helped armed CPP-NPA members evade justice and scrutiny. Arrested with standing warrants? Deny everything. Paint them as civilian activists, and hope for the best that the lie will not unravel in front of you.

Yes, the accused have rights, which is precisely why they are being subjected to the full extent of the law. But let’s not confuse due process with dishonesty. To misrepresent a combatant as a civilian is not just misleading, it is a betrayal of the personal decision they pledged their lives to.

The Jaguar (n) campaign is falling apart. Because no matter how much the CPP-NPA-NDFP and its legal machinery try to hide it, they are the ones being caught in the web of lies they themselves are weaving.