Ka Frank Fernandez, chief of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army in Negros, yesterday said Pulupandan Mayor Magdaleno Peña is the primary target for liquidation of the revolutionary movement.

Peña thinks he cannot be touched by the reactionary courts, police, and civilian bureaucracy despite his widespread oppression of the rights of the people but the NPA will go after him for his blood debts to the people, Fernandez said in a tape-recorded message sent to media outlets.

Peña, when asked to react to Fernandez statement, asked "Is he still alive, I thought he was dead?"

He has not started to fight the NPA yet, but if Fernandez wants a fight, he'll give him a fight, Peña said.

"If you are trying to pick a fight with me, I will have to oblige you…showtime continues," Peña said is his answer to Fernandez.

The NPA had earlier claimed responsibility for the May 30 ambush on Peña's convoy in Pulupandan that caused him minor injuries, while two of his companions were killed.

"The NPA will continue and will not stop until revolutionary justice will be served on Atty. Magdaleno Peña. If not now, there is always a next time," the NPA had said earlier.

Fernandez yesterday also called on the sugar planters not to heed the call of Peña to revive the Sugar Development Fund "where 5 percent of every picul of sugar produced will be used for the counter insurgency operations of the Arroyo government."

Peña denied that he had called for the revival of the SDF. "But that's a good idea, thank you for reminding the sugar industry," he told Fernandez.

Fernandez called on local officials and Gov. Joseph Marañon not to support Peña's call to revive the SDF. If the landowners have more profits, they should use it to pay adequate wages and benefits to workers on the farms, he said.

Peña said if the NPA stops extorting money, the planters would not have to pay for security measures and can give better wages to their workers.

Fernandez said Peña wants to return to the dark days of Operation Thunderbolt that was regretted by Brig. General Jarque as thousands of Negrenses were dislocated from their homes and many died of illnesses at the refugee centers.

Jarque, as head of the Army in Negros in the 1980s, had waged Operation Thunderbot against the rebel forces in southern Negros Occidental. For later serving a court order on Peña, the mayor filed numerous charges against the general that made him seek refuge with the NPA.

Peña alleged that Jarque had caused the death of 450 children who became ill in refugee camps during Operation Thunderbolt yet the NPA, instead of punishing him, embraced him.

"Where you did not succeed in punishing Jaque, I succeeded in punishing him," Peña said.

Fernandez said Peña hopes to organize and arm thousands of paramilitary men who, in the past, caused widespread human rights violations against the people.

He also charged that Peña wants to replicate his unparalleled cruelty to the people in Pulupandan throughout Negros Occidental.

Peña thinks that by "using brutal force he can stop the legitimate demands of the people. He is wrong. The history of Negros shows that oppression triggers resistance. Suppression of workers…results in armed revolution," Fernandez said.

Peña, in response, said that, for the education of Fernandez, "the communist movement has been rejected and relegated to the dust bins of history."

People like Fernandez are the reason why the government was compelled to enact the Human Security Act, he claimed.

If people like Fernandez do not commit murder and mayhem, the government would not be forced to protect itself and the people, he said. "And when the government enacts laws like the Human Security Act to preserve order in society you cry like a baby," Peña told Fernandez.*CPG

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