CPP salutes fallen Bicol revolutionaries, denounces 4 July Juban massacre ... PCF

By Communist Party of the Philippines

The leadership and entire membership of the Communist Party of the Philippines and Red fighters and commanders of the New People's Army rise up to salute

Frankie Joe Soriano (Ka Greg Bañares)
Christine Puche (Ka Nel)
Ted Palacio (Ka Gary)
Pehing Hipa (Ka Miloy)
David Llunar (Ka Rey)
Romero Añonuevo (Ka Nene)
William Villanueva, Jr (Ka Jay)
Ailyn Calma (Ka Kevin)

who were martyred in the early morning of 4 July 2013 in Barangay (village) Calomayon, Juban, Sorsogon.

Ka Greg Bañares served as spokesperson of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in the Bicol region. He was with other members of the Information Office of the NDFP-Bicol and a security detail of the New People's Army (NPA).

The CPP denounces the brutal massacre committed by the fascist troops of the 31st Infantry Battalion against the revolutionary martyrs. The CPP demands that the troops and officers involved in the massacre be made to answer for violations of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and pertinent protocols of the Geneva Conventions.

According to initial reports submitted by the NPA Sorsogon Provincial Command, local residents saw Ka Greg, Ka Nel and Ka Gary retreating from the site of the initial fighting. Despite being unarmed, they were seized and summarily-executed. They were shot in the face and their bodies riddled with bullets by the troops of the 31st Infantry Battalion.

Being unarmed and unable to put up any form of resistance, Ka Greg, Ka Nel and Ka Gary should have been arrested and detained as prisoners of war in accordance with provisions of the Geneva Conventions governing protagonists rendered hors de combat. They were, instead, mercilessly massacred by the soldiers of the 31st Infantry Battalion.

The CPP seeks an independent investigation of the 4 July Juban massacre. It calls on the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) tasked to oversee the implementation of the CARHRIHL to conduct a fact-finding effort in cases of violations of human rights and brutality. The CPP appeals to human rights groups, church groups, independent lawyers' groups and pertinent agencies of the United Nations to undertake their own investigation into this massacre.

The CPP and all revolutionary forces vow to exact justice and punish the perpetrators of this massacre. It calls on all units of the NPA to carry out more tactical offensives to defend the people, particularly the peasant masses in Sorsogon and the Bicol region, who are being subjected to more severe violations of human rights as the Armed Forces of the Philippines intensifies its Oplan Bayanihan war of suppression.