Senator Risa Hontiveros was accused of defending the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) during the joint session of Congress on December 13 on President Rodrigo Duterte’s request to extend the declaration of martial law in Mindanao for another year.
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The headline said “Hontiveros Ipinagtanggol ang CPP NPA sa Hearing ng Martial Law Extension” and the story was picked up by blogs, including netizenph.com, pepengscorer.blogspot.com, philrepublicnews.com, and newsinph.tk. It was then shared by Facebook pages and to Facebook groups such as “News Thatmatter,” “Solid Duterte-Marcos Supporters,” “Duterte KFWIPB Inc. Kilusang Filipino Walang Iwanan sa Pagbabago,” “President Duterte Supporters,” “President Rody Duterte Facebook Army,” and more.
But when we clicked on the link, we only found a collage of the photos of Hontiveros and CPP founder Joma Sison as well as a 15-minute long YouTube video.
The video shows Hontiveros questioning Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana about the extension of martial law when in the earlier part of December 2017, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque and the Armed Forces of the Philippines described the NPA as a “spent force.” The rest of the video was all about reports unrelated to the claim made in the headline.
The Inquirer wrote an article about Hontiveros’ question.
“If the NPA has been characterized by the Armed Forces and the Palace as spent force until as recently as early this month, why extend martial law by using it as one of the key reasons?” she asked.
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The senator was quoting AFP Public Affairs Office (PAO) chief Edgard Arevalo, who described the NPA in March as a spent force compared to the 1970s and 1980s.
In a press conference on December 2, Roque also called the NPA’s ideals as “laos” and “out of tune” and expressed his confidence in government troops in suppressing communist forces, considering how they were able to do so with the ISIS-inspired Maute terrorists in Marawi City.
Lorenzana responded to Hontiveros’ question, saying that the NPA has stepped up its attacks against government forces in recent weeks, especially in southern and eastern Mindanao.
“The reason why they are now part of the martial law—they’re not actually the main target of the martial law but still the continuing rebellion of Isis-inspired groups in Mindanao—is because they are already branded as a terrorist organization,” he said.
“And in fact, because of that, they have also alerted, directed the troops on the ground to intensify attacks on military troops that is why they are part of the martial law,” he asked.
To clarify, Hontiveros did not defend the CPP-NPA in any way during the joint session of Congress over the martial law extension. Instead, she questioned why the NPA was included was one of the reasons behind the request for the extension when it is already described as a “spent force.” The headline was misleading its readers.
Sources: ( newsinfo.inquirer.net , news.abs-cbn.com )
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