Communist spokesman says he’s alive, but AFP demands for his recent video

By Ronron
October 17, 2007

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) spokesman Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal said Wednesday he is “alive and fighting,” dismissing speculations that he already passed away due to illness.

In an e-mail statement from the CPP Information Bureau, Rosal said “the statements by the government armed forces and police suggesting that I am dead are meant to lure me to call up our media friends so that the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) intelligence units can revive their electronic surveillance to pinpoint my location.”

Rosal recounted that when he used to make himself available to the media in the past until middle of last year, he found out he was being closely monitored by the Intelligence Service of the AFP (ISAFP).

“Up to the middle of last year, before we finally stopped relying on cellphones to get in touch with the media and other friends, our counter-intelligence units and the masses noticed the suspicious presence of four vans constantly prowling the fringes of what the military believed was our office. We later found out that the vans were fully equipped with cellphone tracking and scanning equipment,” Rosal said.

Rosal said he “will not fall for that bait” of the government.

But AFP Public Information Officer Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, who has earlier suggested that Rosal has no significance to the communist movement, challenged Rosal yesterday to prove that he is alive by showing himself in a video footage holding a recent newspaper issue.

“To put substance to this e-mail statement, he should show himself to the public,” Bacarro said. “So that if he is really alive, then we will no longer have to exert effort to locate him or find out if he is alive or not.”

Bacarro belied Rosal’s allegation that the AFP is monitoring mobile phone calls, such as his, saying that already requires high-technology equipment that the AFP does not have.

But he admitted that there are continuous efforts to locate Rosal and other leaders of the CPP and New People’s Army in order to apprehend them.

Bacarro said the military is not to blame for the spread of speculations that Rosal is already dead because it is his long silence and absence from public view that served as indications of that, even if they are not really conclusive.

In his statement, Rosal also alleged that military troops have been forcing people from Tagkawayan, Quezon and nearby towns to disclose his whereabouts, violating their basic rights.

“We have received reports that several barrio folk have been arbitrarily taken from their homes and brought to military camps or secluded places and tortured to force them to reveal any information leading to our whereabouts,” Rosal said.

He urged the media, human rights advocates and democratic organizations to look into these.

Bacarro said this may just be part of Rosal’s propaganda to taint the image of the AFP but to allay the fears of the public, he said the AFP is prepared to investigate troops that could be involved in such activities.

“If there is an element of truth in what they are saying here, we are willing to conduct an investigation. However, this is a general and sweeping statement. We can see again that there is an interest that this statement would favor them. But to allay fears of the people, we are willing to subject to investigation soldiers whom we will be able to identify as being involved,” Bacarro said.

In the meantime, Rosal said he will continue to issue statements to the public through the CPP’s Information Bureau and the use of internet.

“The AFP and PNP mistakenly believe that by issuing statements about my supposed demise, they can entice me to let down my guard and draw them out,” he said./DMS