CPP denies NPA hand in Masbate school burning

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has denied that its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), was involved in the burning of a school in Masbate province last Monday night. In a statement, the CPP accused the Army’s 9th Infantry Division of linking the NPA to the razing of the three-classroom school building in Gaid village in Dimasalang town. "Psywar operatives of the AFP are at it again, spinning lies to disparage the NPA," the CPP said in a statement on its website. It also said it will conduct its own investigation into the matter. "Local units of the CPP and NPA will look into the incident and determine how they can help the local residents assert their demands from the government," the CPP stated. The CPP noted that Maj. Harold Cabunoc, the division’s public information officer, claimed 10 suspected NPA members set the school building on fire at midnight Monday and fled while firing shots in the air. It said the AFP’s claim is actually a "carbon copy of a similarly baseless claim" last December that NPA fighters burned down a public school building in Quezon. PNP belies AFP claim But the CPP also noted the Philippine National Police (PNP) later belied the AFP claim. Masbate PNP Chief Ed Benigay clarified that the burning down of the Gaid Elementary School building "was done by some disgruntled parents who reportedly got mad... over perceived discrimination in the school’s nourishment program." School officials were supposed to provide one kilogram of rice per day for school children under the government’s "food for school" program, but parents of the school children have been complaining that their children weren’t being given their rice allocation. "Aside from seizing every opportunity to immediately blame the NPA for supposed wrongdoings, AFP officials are also out to cover up the real reasons behind the burning of the school building and thus put a lid on the grievances of the local residents," the CPP said. "In everything they do, the AFP’s mouthpieces spew lies in their desperation to demonize the NPA and cover up military abuses, bureaucratic corruption and the proliferation of other evils in the rotten government and ruling system," it added. On March 29, the NPA will be marking its 41st founding anniversary. Government security forces are expected to go on full alert that day in anticipation of rebel attacks. In June 2006, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the military and police to crush the communist insurgency by the time she ends her term in June this year. - RSJ, GMANews.TV