NTF ELCAC Statement On the 33rd Year Commemoration of the Rano Massacre by the CPP-NPA-NDF

The NTF ELCAC enjoins the nation to join us in the commemoration of the Rano massacre that happened 33 years ago when 39 members of the Bagobo-Tagabawa tribe were mercilessly massacred by the communist terrorists CPP NPA NDF as they peacefully heard mass. More than half were children. One of them was a woman who was pregnant.

We ask that you keep them in the sacred spaces of your memory and to never forget them and the outrage done to them by the CPP-NPA-NDF.

On this day 33 years ago, blood gushed in Rano. Children were stabbed repeatedly by the NPA so that they swam in their own blood. The last moments of their brief lives on earth were full of terror- being chased by full grown mad men with machetes and seeing their own fathers beheaded.

Unarmed men and women were brutally murdered as they peacefully gathered to worship God.

Their only crime was rejecting clearly the CPP NPA NDF and asking them to leave their community where they lived happy, simple lives.

We’ve gone through this whole scene over and over in our minds and wonder if there was anything we could have done to stop that carnage on this day 33 years ago.

And the answer we come up with is “no”.

For as long as government did not serve the poorest of the poor, this slaughter was inevitable- as the mass murder of thousands of Filipinos were inevitable in all this 53 years of the CPP NPA NDF’s reign of terror.

We were all easy prey to these communist terrorist bastards- more so the most helpless among us.

And so that has been the tragic story of our country before Rodrigo Duterte sat in office as our President.

He alone had the courage, the heart, the political will, the experience and expertise to bring the CPP NPA NDF to this point of near-annihilation. Under his watch, the CPP NPA NDF has been brought to its knees and we can end this soon.

And PRRDs marching orders to us were crystal clear:

“If you want to end this, there are only two words to this: GOOD GOVERNANCE”.

SERVE THE PEOPLE.

If you don’t, grievous harm comes to them.

Build schools, farm to market roads, health centers.. take them out of poverty. Fight for them. Protect them.

Otherwise, stay out of government.

The poor only have government. And when you steal from them and when you don’t do your job, you put them in harm’s way.

This is what Rano massacre has taught us at the NTF ELCAC. And this is what our President has taught us too- not too much in words (that was just one sentence, that marching order, right?) but by his constant and non-stop action for us.

SERVE THE FILIPINO PEOPLE.

As we step on Rano’s sacred ground today where lives ended in the most brutal, most inhumane of ways, we will not forget the sanctity of our job as a public servants and how, when we hold a public office what we really hold in our hands are the Filipino people and their children.

Like the most highly beloved President who is about to step out of office in 5 days, we will hold you safely in the palm of our hands and we will fight for you and defend you.

Our hearts are heavy with his leave-taking but we will assure you that he will never leave us. And neither will we.

We will destroy the terrorist CPP-NPA-NDF and their fronts and we will name them and shame them. And we will continue to build schools, roads, health centers, livelihood etc.

Nothing- yes, nothing- can stop us.

Magtulungan tayo.

Undersecretary Lorraine Marie T. Badoy

Spokesperson for Social Media Affairs and Sectoral Concerns

25 June 2022