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He added that 43 children have been killed by suspected military death squads. “It is obvious that the target of the war fund are the unarmed and noncombatant or civilians perceived by the Arroyo regime as its enemy,” he said.
Bayan said the P1-billion counterinsurgency fund should have been allotted to education, health and other social services.
Arroyo announced last week the adoption of Oplan Bantay Laya, a counter-insurgency plan which officials said is intended to end the communist-led rebellion in two years.
The president also said she was allotting P1 billion for war materiel and military operations against the 37-year-old rebellion.
The NPA was founded in March 1969 with less than a hundred fighters. Four successive presidents – Ferdinand Marcos, Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada – had failed to wipe it out.