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MANILA, Philippines – The New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), is forming attack squads based in urban areas against police officers, military and government officials similar to the “Sparrow” units. from the 1980s.
“There is a permanent order for the NPA to form partisan teams to impose punishments on enemy units and officers who have committed bloody crimes against the people,” said the CPP under the name of one Marco Valbuena, allegedly the information director of the CPP. .
The CPP cited as a “successful punishment” the murder of Manobo tribal leader Jumar Bucales, who was killed in an ambush by the NPA on October 4 in Lianga, Surigao del Sur.
Bucales was a strong supporter of the 2020 Anti-Terrorism Law and said its passage would help indigenous communities avoid extortion and killings by communist rebels. The CPP, however, claimed that Bucales was the leader of the Magat-Bagani paramilitary paramilitary group responsible for the 2015 Lianga massacre, where a principal of a tribal school and two other people were killed.
“In due course, the NPA will be able to form more partisan teams that can take punitive action in cities or near cities,” Valbuena said.
The NPA Special Partisan Units (Sparus) were active in the 1980s during the dictatorship of former President Ferdinand Marcos.
The communist rebel group then created an urban guerrilla unit called the Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB), which consists of attack squads that kill government officials and suspected government agents. ABB would later separate from the CPP-NPA due to ideological differences.
The Sparus were also called “Sparrow units” for their swift assassinations, and they often evaded arrest.
The Inquirer asked Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and National Security Advisor Hermogenes Esperson Jr. to react to the statement, but both had not responded for comment.
CPP members and supporters hinted at the Sparus revival during an online forum on December 26, at the time of the CPP’s 52nd anniversary, and CPP founder José Ma. Sison, who was among the guests, said that “This popular demand is widespread and that conditions are conducive to the return of armed supporters from the city to counter the murders and impunity of the Duterte regime.”
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