CAMP DOWNES, Ormoc City -- The Philippine (PA) Army progresses the dismantling of the remaining politico-military structure of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) in the Municipality of Carigara, Leyte with the recent surrender of two self-confessed members of the so-called “Kangaroo Court” and a courier-spotter of its liquidation squad to the 93rd Infantry (Bantay Kapayapaan) Battalion of the 8th Infantry (Stormtroopers) Division.

They surrendered each a .45 caliber pistol with a magazine loaded with several ammunitions.

When interviewed, alias Jun and alias Kakay willingly confessed their membership with the CPP-NPA-NDF “Kangaroo Court,” while alias Tor freely admitted his past association with the Special Operation Group/Special Partisan Unit (SOG/SPARU) of the dismantled Guerrilla Front 41, Island Committee Levox, Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee (EVRPC).

Both Jun and Kakay claimed that the late Boy Caliwan alias Kumander Apoy, the late alias Santoy, alias Maan/Biyong, and alias Jay/Tibor, all of the defunct Platoon Agila, GF 41, IC Levox, designated them and several others to the Kangaroo Court without the benefit of any training and specific guidance on how to conduct the so-called “revolutionary justice system.”

They also identified the other members of the Kangaroo Court, four of whom are still alive today including one who earlier surrendered to the 93rd IB but merely as a mass member.

Kakay identified an employee of the Leyte Electric Cooperative III (LEYECO III) as one of the deceased members of the Kangaroo Court who was frequenting his house along with other motorcycle-riding LEYECO III worker-union members.

Kakay bared that he handed down the death sentence on a certain Tonyo who was executed by the NPA regulars – a certain alias Wally, alias Tikboy, and alias Joey. A barangay captain whose husband was a relative of Tonyo and a brother of the victim reportedly served as principal complainants.

For his part, Tor, a habal-habal driver, admitted his involvement with the CTG in Carigara and adjacent areas as a courier, spotter and driver for members of the local SOG/SPARU members. He revealed that he drove the SOG/SPARU members to a place in Carigara where they assassinated Cpl Erwin V. Niegas of the 8ID sometime in 2015.

Jun and Kakay admitted membership with the CTG-established Municipal Upland Farmers Association in Carigara (MUFAC) before they were designated as Kangaroo Court members, who identified, recommended, and imposed punishment on the so-called “Kontra Rebolusyonaryo Dautang Elemento” or KRDE.

Brigadier General Zosimo A. Oliveros, commander of the 802nd Brigade, condemns the summary execution of victims without the benefit of a thorough and just investigation similar to the purging of their own members in the gruesome Inopacan massacre.

“I am calling on our fellow Filipinos to unite and demand justice for the victims of the CPP-NPA-NDF’s baseless, cruel, and inhuman so-called revolutionary justice system,” Oliveros concluded. (802Bde, 8ID, PA)