The Tineg 8 Martyrs

The Tineg 8 Martyrs

Binnadang Founding General Assembly
Just recently, in October 10, an armed encounter between the government military – the 503 brigade and 41 Infantry battalion led by Col. Eliseo Posadas and Col. Noel Baluyon – and the New People’s Army (NPA) took place at Tineg, Abra in the Cordillera region. This is inevitable with opposing armed forces. History tells us that state violence and oppression has always been the breeder of rebellion. But what is deplorable in this clash is the gruesome slaughter and barbaric desecration of the 8 NPAs by the military. Of course, this is the military’s usual practice or shall we call it its SOP (standard operating procedure) but still, I cannot describe the horror I felt from seeing the photos of the dead NPAs that greeted me first thing in the morning after a week’s deprivation of the internet. It was so evil!

According to the news report, obvious signs of torture and overkill were viciously inflicted on the victims. The lone woman fatality may have been sexually abused since some of the locals found her naked. Even animals can never be treated with such barbarism. This is a universal law that any ism or belief cannot refute nor deny. In fact, this is a clear and gross violation of the article 3 of the International Humanitarian Law that “Persons no longer taking active part in hostilities such as the surrendered, the sick and the wounded shall be treated humanely.” This applies to both sides. I will also condemn if it were the government troopers who were violated of their human rights.

The Tineg incident shows the fascist character of the reactionary Armed Forces of the Philippines. Its training and indoctrination do not produce soldiers; it transforms good people into inhuman killing machines. Their blabs on human rights are outright lies in broad daylight. Their Oplan Bayanihan is a farce. In contrast, the revolutionary NPA treats its captives in combats fairly and humanely as attested by its freed prisoners-of-war (POW).

Please don’t get me wrong. I have a family member in the AFP whom I love dearly who is also greatly worried of my beliefs but this will never deter me to take the side of social justice. Every death in both revolutionary and reactionary armies is a waste of life. I just wish the bullet finds its way to the person with a blood debt. The 8 comrades in the people’s democratic movement took the road less travelled in the pursuit of social justice, as the cliché goes, and they paid it with their precious lives. May we take 2 minutes of silence in honor of these 8 martyrs who were brutally killed while serving the people in the Cordillera region…

Bridge Cosme Dang-ay
29 October 2011