Parents, ELCAC, dismayed with Baguio City mayor

BEMEDALLED and highly-respected, retired police general Benjamin Magalong, the current mayor of Baguio City, has raised eyebrows after being shown on social media entertaining the officers of the Kabataan Party List (KPL) in Baguio City on Saturday, March 19, 2022, headed by its incumbent representative, Rep. Sarah Elago.

At the Facebook page of the KPL, the group also credited Magalong for “banning” the distribution and posting of ‘redtagging posters’ in the city and for “defending” the voice of the youth on vital national issues.

“Good thing na BANNED na ang redtagging posters sa siyudad. Salamat kay Mayor Magalong para sa pagtanggol ng boses ng kabataan sa mahahalagang isyu ng bayan,” reads the full quote from the KPL post.

The post, however, hardly made an impact on social with only 150 reactions, 6 comments and 15 shares, as of this writing.

How come, General?

But while Magalong, the former third highest ranking official of the Philippine National Police (PNP) as ‘DDO’ (deputy director for operations) has apparently earned the praise of the KPL, his ‘cozying’ with them earned him the dismay and shock of his colleagues at the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and from the ranks of parents whose children ended up as fighters and cadres of the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed terrorist wing of the CPP.

The League of Parents of the Philippines (LPP), in a statement, said they found it “alarming” that Magalong would be in “cahoots” with the KPL, which is part of the ‘Makabayan Bloc’ in Congress, the group that comprises the identified CPP front organizations that have infiltrated our legislature.

“Mayor, tamaan ka naman sana ng hiya sa ginagawa mo”– Usec. Lorraine Badoy

“It is implausible that the mayor does not know that by supporting the Kabataan Party List, he is answerable to the lives of thousands of children and youth who are being targeted by this perfidious group led by (Rep.) Sarah Elago.

“Why be friendlier with them than those who fight for the truth? Why take down posters that condemn act of terrorism in his city?

“Why won’t he stop instead the recruitment and brainwashing of many students in schools and universities there of the Kabataan Party List which lead to the armed struggle,” asked LPP secretary general, Arlene Escalante and LPP president, Remy Rosadio.

Given Magalong’s background as a former peace officer and law enforcer, “he should know better,” the LPP pointed out.

NTF-ELCAC spokesperson, presidential communications undersecretary, Lorraine Marie T. Badoy, said they found Magalong’s decision “unfortunate,” adding it is “a sober reminder to us at the task force that this fight to end this 53 year communist scourge is not a simple one because despite the existence of a task force that has clocked unprecedented gains in our fight to end this communist terrorist scourge, the fight continues on so many levels- including with those we thought were pillars of the Task Force.”

The negative reactions on Magalong’s favorable gestures towards the KPL is because he is the regional chair of the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) and NTF-ELCAC regional vice chair for the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR), aside from being a 1982 graduate of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).

The NTF-ELCAC had repeatedly identified KPL and other members of the ‘Makabayan Bloc’ in Congress— Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela—as front organizations of the CPP purposely created to exploit the country’s legislature and electoral system thru the partylist system.

The CPP, the NPA and their umbrella organization, the National Democratic Front (NDF), have all been designated as ‘terrorist organizations’ by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC), a fact that should not have escaped Magalong’s attention, officials of the NTF-ELCAC opined.

The task force, supported by pro-democracy and anti-communist mass organizations all over the country, had even come out with a campaign calling on the public to no longer vote for the Makabayan Bloc in the coming May 9, 2022 polls for their being CPP-created organizations under the acronym, ‘KABAG’ (KPL, ACT, Bayan Muna, Anakpawis, Gabriela).

Former cadres of the CPP who have surrendered to the government, from Luzon and down to Mindanao, have been unequivocal in their statements that those comprising ‘KABAG’ are, indeed, CPP-created organizations thru the NDF and being used by the terrorist group not only to infiltrate the government and other sectors of society but also, to recruit fighters for the NPA.

Being a ranking member of the task force aware of the above facts, Magalong’s colleagues are aghast that he has decided to officially entertain the KPL and even “ban” the putting up in Baguio City of posters and other visuals exposing KABAG as actually CPP-front organizations.

“Mayor Magalong claims he is doing all that because he cares for our children- while at the same time lending his powerful protection to the terrorist CPP-NPA-NDF front, the KPL—the top recruiter of our children into the criminal NPA for which an unbearable number of them have died while fighting government troops and an even more unbearable number of them now lie in shallow unmarked graves across the country,” Badoy explained, adding:

“Mayor, tamaan ka naman sana ng hiya sa ginagawa mo.

“Hindi na bale kung ang KABAG na mga urban operatives ng CPP-NPA-NDF ang nagsasabi ng mga pinagsasabi mo.

“Pero nanggagaling ang kasinungalingan na ito sa pinuno ng RTF ELCAC CAR/ RPOC CAR, dating heneral ng PNP at graduate ng PMA.”

Magalong earned the public’s respect and admiration for refusing to be pressured by Pres. Noynoy Aquino in “revising” the result of his investigation into the circumstances that led to the massacre of 44 members of the Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on January 25, 2015.

As head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) at the time, Magalong was designated to head the PNP’s ‘BOI’ (Board of Inquiry) to investigate the now infamous ‘SAF-44 Massacre’ and where he did not hesitate to put the blame on Pres. Aquino and his superior, PNP Chief Alan Purisima, for the bloody fiasco.