Nothing wrong with anti-NPA billboards, posters –DILG

The Department of the Interior and Local Government said on Saturday that there was nothing wrong with billboards and posters that denounce the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front-New People's Army.

“The expressions of sentiment against CPP/NPA/NDF atrocities are free speech and are legally protected under the Constitution," said Interior Secretary Eduardo Año in a statement.

"Remember, these are the terrorists' groups driven by an archaic ideology who have been killing our police and soldiers and extorting from innocent civilians for the past 50 years. It is just right that people denounce them for their crimes against the people.”

Año added that only members of the CPP/NPA/NDF need worry about these posters.

While the DILG Secretary did not specifically mention Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, Moreno had ordered the removal of these posters

One such poster, printed on a plastic tarpaulin, was hung on the railings of a footbridge near the US Embassy along Roxas Boulevard.

Año believed that the posters were "expressions of citizens or certain groups that they are fed up with abuses and atrocities perpetrated by the CPP/NPA/NDF" and he welcomed such expressions.

However, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict denied the material was their handiwork.

Nevertheless, the NTF-ELCAC said that it fully supported and lauded "this message of a people united in their disgust and rage against this communist terrorist group."

Meanwhile, Año encouraged all LGUs and other organizations to place their own anti-communist posters and billboards "to send a strong message that their terrorism and criminal acts are not tolerated by the people." — DVM, GMA News