The reactionary armed forces themselves publicly admit that they are engaged in systematic baseless red-tagging, mass murder and corruption by claiming to have “neutralized” far more than the DND-AFP estimate of 2000-4000 NPA commanders and fighters since 2016, by killing NPA commanders and fighters or bribing them with E-CLIP funds.

The usual method of the reactionary military in conquering people and territory in the rural areas is to abduct and kill a number of suspects in a barangay, coerce the rest of the people to attend and sign up as NPA surrenderers and receive promises of E-CLIP payments and CSP and BDP funds for the barangay. And the military officers end up pocketing the E-CLIP, CSP and BDP funds.

Then they proceed further to “decimate” the NPA by issuing press releases to claim more killings or mass surrenders of NPA commanders and fighters, abandonment of NPA armories and the disappearance of guerrilla fronts because the reactionary military have taken over the function of building roads and bridges for the landlords and the landgrabbing corporate owners of logging, mining and plantation enterprises.

The credibility problem of the reactionary military begins with the fact that they are the brutal and corrupt instrument of US imperialism and the local exploiting classes and that their commander-in-chief Duterte is already totally discredited as a traitor, tyrant, mass murderer, plunderer and political swindler.