Basic problems confront youth amid palliative, token reform

/by

Information Bureau | Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)
August 5, 2017

Yesterday, GRP President Duterte signed Republic Act No. 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (free tuition law) which is set to be implemented next school year. The reactionaries heap praises on Duterte for signing this law which promises to ease the financial burden on students in around 114 state colleges, universities and technical institutions.

But it is the student and youth movement which deserve far more credit for having long fought for militantly the right to free public education. The Party, the Kabataang Makabayan and the National Democratic Front have espoused such a demand in their programs.

While the students and youth groups welcome this gain, they are also keenly aware that this law is a mere palliative which does not constitute a fundamental change in the ruling state’s prevailing policies on education. There are far bigger and more fundamental issues besetting the educational system.

Commercialization and privatization remain state policy. Close to 60% of tertiary-level undergraduate students are enrolled in profit-oriented private tertiary institutions. They suffer burdensome fees, annual fee increases, prohibitive costs of books and high costs of going to school. Large amounts of so-called “government financial assistance” are alloted to ensure the profits of private school owners.

There is no reversal to the neoliberal policy of cutting social spending, including subsidies for education. In fact, right after Duterte signed the law, economic managers have already declared that “there should be no expansion in the student population” in the SUCs. In all likelihood, a myriad burdensome policies will accompany the implementation of the free tuition law. Over the past decades, malpriorities, limited allocations and budget cuts have made a mockery of the so-called free elementary and secondary education which has left millions of school children without teachers and facilities.

The Duterte regime is deaf to the clamor to end the K-12 program which is widely regarded as an additional burden on parents and students. Duterte is bent on implementing the K-12 thrust of producing enclaves-ready and export-ready 18-year old senior high school graduates. Tertiary education as well as higher scientific and technological research are actually low priority. There is strong push to further deprioritize the study of history, social sciences and liberal arts.

Is Duterte now a champion of the students and youth? Two weeks ago, Duterte earned the ire of the people for declaring he will drop bombs on Lumad schools which he has Red-tagged as NPA schools and told the children to run away. These schools are organized and set up by Lumad organizations in their communities, assisted by their church and civic supporters. Relying on military “intelligence,” Duterte insists these schools are illegal.

By signing the free tuition law, Duterte hopes he can grab credit and draw the attention of the students and youth away from the bigger problems of the educational system and the even more fundamental problems of the youth and people. Widespread unemployment, low wages, landlessness, landgrabbing, poverty, rising costs of living and other acute social problems are ever worsening under his anti-people and pro-imperialist regime.

He hopes to placate the anger of the youth and people over his martial law regime, the widespread campaign of mass murder and destruction, the big-scale crime and corruption involved in his plan to borrow billions upon billions of dollars to finance his infrastructure building, the additional tax burden he is itching to impose on the people as assurance to his Chinese creditors, and the all-out subservience of his government to US foreign policy and military intervention and surrender of Philippine sovereignty and rights in the South China Sea to both the US and China.

The progressive and revolutionary forces among the students and youth are keenly aware of the necessity of uniting with the people’s national democratic struggles and resistance against the neoliberal policies and fascist strongman rule of the US-Duterte regime as means to advance the cause of the Filipino people and students for national and social liberation.They will surely frustrate the attempt of the US-Duterte regime to silence them.

The PNP-AFP will Pay for the Cowardly and Brutal Massacre of the Casiguran 4

/by

August 4, 2017 | Press Statement | Tagalog »

The Armando Catapia Command (ACC)-NPA Camarines Norte extends its condolences to the family and friends of the two NPA comrades Andres “Ka Magno/Ka Carlo” Hubilla and Miguel “Ka Billy” Himor from the Celso Minguez Command (NPA-Sorsogon), and the two civilians Arnel Borres and Dick Laura. The ACC is one with the Communist Party of the Phlippines’s vow of exacting justice for the cowardly and brutal massacre.

Last July 28, combined forces of the Sorsogon Police Public Safety Coy (SPPSC), 96th Military Intelligence and Combat Operatives (MICO)-PA, 31st IBPA and 22nd IBPA raided the temporary resting place of the two NPA members in Sitio Namoro, Brgy. Trece Martirez, Casiguran, Sorsogon. Ka Carlo was able to maneouvre but left his short firearm. He was caught and murdered. Ka Billy and the two civilian witnesses were also caught and murdered. Acoording to the residents and the fact-finding missions launched, there were no other NPA units in the area, and no encounter took place, disproving the PNP-AFP’s claim that they fought with 30 NPA elements.

This is a clear violation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). The two NPA members were already caught, unarmed and thus, in no capacity to fight back, and should have been treated as hors de combat or outside the fight, with the basic right to life. Their murder, along with the murders of the 2 civilian witnesses, is a violation and evidence of the cowardice and brutality of the AFP and PNP. Nothing good can be expected from those who fight without principle, more so when they are egged on by their rabid President to kill, instead of arresting, the NPA.

Ka Carlo is known by the masses and comrades as a humble revolutionary cadre. A former teacher by profession, he loved discussions, even with other prisoners when he was incarcerated. Often called “‘Pay Carlo” (Father Carlo) by the masses and comrades whom he lived with and guided, his small frame hid the fact that he was one of the pillars of the movement in Sorsogon.

The rabid dogs of the AFP and PNP are mistaken in thinking that this will weaken the revolutionary movement. If they know their enemy, then they should know that each death and murder of a revolutionary, especially one as cowardly and brutal as the Casiguran 4 massacre, recruits more fighters for the NPA, and adds fervor and fire to the struggle of the revolutionary forces.

Carlito Cada
Spokesperson
Armando Catapia Command
New People’s Army–Camarines Norte

Tagalog

PNP-AFP, Mananagot sa Duwag at Makahayop na Pagmasaker sa Casiguran 4

Agosto 4, 2017 | Pahayag sa Midya

Nakikiramay ang Armando Catapia Command (ACC)-NPA Camarines Norte sa mga pamilya at mga kaibigan ng 2 kasamang NPA na sina Andres “Ka Magno/Ka Carlo” Hubilla at Miguel “Ka Billy” Himor ng Celso Minguez Command (NPA-Sorsogon), at ng 2 sibilyang sina Arnel Borres at Dick Laura. Nakikiisa ang ACC sa panata ng Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas na gawaran ng rebolusyonaryong hustisya ang duwag at makahayop na pagmasaker sa kanila.

Noong Hulyo 28, kinubkob ng pinagsamang pwersa ng Sorsogon Police Public Safety Coy (SPPSC), 96th Military Intelligence and Combat Operatives (MICO)-PA, 31st IBPA at 22nd IBPA ang 2 NPA na pansamantalang humimpil sa Sityo Namoro, Brgy. Trece Martirez, Casiguran, Sorsogon. Naka-maniobra si Ka Carlo ngunit naiwan niya ang kaniyang maikling baril. Nahuli siyang buhay at pinaslang. Nahuli rin si Ka Billy sa isang kubo, kasabay ang dalawang sibilyang saksi sa pangyayari. Pinaslang silang lahat. Ayon sa mga residente at mga fact-finding mission na inilunsad, walang ibang NPA sa lugar noong panahong iyon, at lalong walang enkwentrong naganap, taliwas sa pahayag ng PNP-AFP na 30 NPA ang nakasagupa nila.

Malinaw na paglabag ito sa CARHRIHL (Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law). Dahil nasukol na ang 2 NPA, wala nang armas kaya’t wala nang kakayahang lumaban, sila ay itinuturing nang hors de combat o labas sa labanan at may karapatang mabuhay. Ang pagpaslang sa kanila, kasabay ang 2 sibilyang saksi, ay paglabag at patunay ng kaduwagan at kahayupan ng AFP at PNP. Walang maasahang katinuan sa mga walang prinspiyo, lalo pa’t inuudyukan sila ng kanilang nauulol na Pangulong nag-atas na patayin ang mga NPA, imbes na arestuhin.

Si Ka Carlo ay kilala ng mga masa at mga kasama bilang isang mapagkumbabang rebolusyonaryong kadre. Dati siyang guro at mahilig sa pakikipagtalakayan, maging sa mga bilanggong kanyang nakasama noong dating madakip siya. Kadalasang tinatawag na “‘Pay Carlo” (Tatay Carlo) ng mga masa’t kasamang kanyang nakasalamuha at ginabayan, hindi halata sa maliit niyang pangangatawan na isa siya sa mga haligi ng kilusan sa Sorsogon.

Nagkakamali ang mga asong ulol ng AFP at PNP sa pag-aakalang napahina nito ang rebolusyonaryong kilusan. Kung kilala nila ang kanilang kaaway, alam sana nila na ang bawat pagkamatay at pagpaslang sa rebolusyonaryo, lalo na ang ganitong duwag at makahayop na pagmasaker sa Casiguran 4, ay lalo pang magpapadami sa sasampa sa NPA at dagdag pang mitsa sa paglaban ng rebolusyonaryong pwersa.

Carlito Cada
Tagapagsalita
Armando Catapia Command
Bagong Hukbong Bayan–Camarines Norte

On the cold-blooded murder of Ka Magno etal in Sorsogon

/by

Information Bureau | Communist Party of the Philippines
August 2, 2017

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemns in the strongest terms the massacre of CPP cadre Ka Magno (Andres Hubilla), NPA Red fighter Ka Billy (Miguel Himor) and local residents Arnel Borres and Dick Laura by police and military elements last July 28 in Barangay Trece Martirez, Casiguran, Sorsogon.

The CPP holds GRP President Duterte himself criminally responsible for the Casiguran massacre. A few days ago, it was Duterte himself who ordered his men to kill NPA fighters instead of arresting them in total disregard of the international laws on the conduct of war. The revolutionary forces indict as well AFP Chief Gen. Eduardo Año and PNP Dir. Gen. Renato dela Rosa and other key officials of the AFP and PNP as accessories to the crime.

Ka Magno and Ka Billy were unarmed when the military and police raided their temporary resting place. They had Ka Magno and others under their overwhelming power. Ka Magno’s hands were raised. There was no exchange of gunfire. However, the military and police opened fire and executed them in cold-blood, in violation even of the PNP and AFP’s own rules of engagement.

Under the laws of war of modern civilization, they should have been accorded the status of hors de combat (combatants who are not in a position to fight), have their rights respected and treated with humanity. The Casiguran massacre is an act of barbarism.

The killing of civilians Borres and Laura, a local tiller and fisherman, are outright violations of international humanitarian law. Under international norms, the rights and lives of civilians in time of war should be protected and upheld. Instead of doing so, the military and police killed Borres and Laura in an apparent effort to eliminate witnesses to their crime.

The Casiguran massacre highlights the rapid deterioration of the military and police under the murderous US-supported Duterte strongman regime. On Duterte’s command, military and police units, together with state-supported vigilante groups, have gone on a rampage of killing against anyone Duterte considers as his enemy.

The Party pays tribute to Ka Magno, tireless Party cadre, who headed the Party committee in Sorsogon and guided the Celso Minguez Command (NPA-Sorsogon). A former history schoolteacher and torture victim of Marcos’ martial law, he was a stalwart of the revolutionary movement in Bicol. Ka Magno (also known as Ka Carlo) was a beloved son of the masses. He always came across as a simple and humble man, wearing a simple shirt and shorts and an impish smile.

He is known by practically every poor peasant in Sorsogon among whom he ate, laughed and lived with. With his reliable hammock, he slept at any available corner after a nightlong discussion with his hosts. Ka Magno tirelessly served and inspired the poor peasants and people to organize and fight for their rights, advance their cause for land reform, take up arms and wage revolutionary struggle.

The Party extends its deepest sympathies to the families, friends and colleagues of Ka Magno, Ka Billy and civilians Arnel Borres and Dick Laura. The Party and the entire revolutionary movement vow to exact justice for their cold-blooded murder by Duterte’s military and police forces.

On Duterte’s anti-Joma tirades

/by

Information Bureau | Communist Party of the Philippines
31 July 2017

Duterte’s tirades against Prof. Jose Ma. Sison are a vain attempt to derogate a giant of a revolutionary intellectual and leader. In relentlessly attacking Ka Joma, Duterte is overcompensating for his drug-shrivelled and power-intoxicated brain. He has completely embraced the counterrevolutionary anti-communist US line and abandoned all pretensions for being a Leftist.

The revolutionary movement in the Philippines is fortunate that, at 78 years old, Ka Joma remains physically sound and intellectually potent. He continues to give invaluable service to the Filipino people and their revolutionary forces. As Chief Political Consultant of the NDFP, Ka Joma has helped the NDFP Negotiating Panel indefatigably advance the Filipino people’s national democratic aspirations and uphold the integrity of the NDFP.

His political acumen remains sharp and continues to make timely analysis of current developments in the country. The Party and revolutionary forces continue to value his masterful ideological guidance and practical advise.

The young Red fighters of the NPA as well as young activists of the national democratic movement continue to be inspired by Ka Joma’s sterling record as a revolutionary fighter and leader, his experience as a field general of the NPA and his impecable record as a Party leader. His volumes of theoretical writings are a treasure trove of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist gems.

AFP intel operatives, 2 others killed in NPA offensives in Davao Oriental, Bukidnon

/by

New People’s Army | Regional Operations Command
Southern Mindanao Region

Press Statement
July 24, 2017

With the recent extension of martial law in the entire island, the NPA in Southern Mindanao continues to defend the masses and exercises political authority of the People’s Democratic Government in different areas in the region. Two separate actions by NPA units over the weekend resulted in casualties of two AFP intelligence operatives in Caraga, Davao Oriental and 2 other enemy troops in Kitaotao, Bukidnon.

Sgt. Cerilo M. Galigaw and another intel operative were killed after they resisted arrest and tried to shoot at Red fighters under the Comval-Davao East Coast Sub-Regional Operations Command in Sitio Logdeck, Brgy. Caningag in Caraga town, July 21, at around 12pm. Seized from them were 2 caliber .45 pistols, cellphones, Galigaw’s identification cards and his mission order document.

Sgt. Galigaw’s mission order confirmed his assignment under the Philippine Army’s Military Intelligence Battalion as an agent operating in Region 10, 11, 12 and 13. The other operative did not have any identification with him.

Text messages in Sgt. Galigaw’s cellphone revealed he was on his way to gather tactical information regarding the NPA’s most recent Prisoner of War Alfredo Basabica, Jr., who was arrested in Cateel town last July 11.

An NPA unit was conducting a consultation among the masses who earlier reported that several farmers in their communities were being recruited by the 67IB to provide information on activities of civilians and NPA units’ movement in the area. While the consultation was going on, two men on board a motorcycle advancing toward the consultation venue were spotted by the NPA’s blocking team. In their haste to escape from the NPA team, the two men swerved their motorcycle, lost bearing and toppled to the ground. Sgt. Galigaw was pinned down by the motorcycle while his partner started to run away when Red fighters called out for them several times to surrender. Both soldiers started to draw their pistols, forcing the approaching Red fighters to defend themselves and open fire.

Meanwhile, two troopers belonging to the 2nd Special Forces Company of the 1st SF Battalion were killed while 9 others were severely wounded following a successful demolition operation by an NPA unit under the Mt. Apo Sub-Regional Operations Command against the enemy’s military vehicle in Brgy. Kitubo, Kitaotao in Bukidnon, around 10pm, July 22.

Even before martial law, the AFP’s 2ndSF is notorious for terrorizing civilians in Kitaotao, especially the Lumad families in Brgy. White Culaman who were forced to evacuate in 2015 and were never able to return to their farms and communities.

The railroaded extension of martial law in Mindanao will undoubtedly embolden the AFP’s impunity to commit more serious human rights violations against the masses. Already, Duterte is setting the stage for an all-out attack against revolutionary forces, which, in AFP parlance is every farmer, Lumad and child in the countryside.

On the other hand, it is sure to also intensify the Filipino people’s sentiment against the Duterte regime, particularly the Moro and Lumad people who are bearing the brunt of the state forces’ fascism. Five more months of martial law will spell out intensified armed and legal resistance from the Filipino people.

RIGOBERTO F. SANCHEZ
Spokesperson
Regional Operations Command
NPA-Southern Mindanao

People unite, and fight against the Duterte regime’s extension of Martial Law in Mindanao

/by

Press Statement | 22 June 2017

Thousands of protesters, mostly from the poor and oppressed sectors, march towards the Batasang Pambansa to manifest their anger and disillusionment with Duterte who failed to fulfill his promises to deliver more employment, solve landlessness, hunger, environmental destruction, corruption, patronage politics, and respect for human rights and commitment to peace talks. Photo by Alecs Ongcal/Rappler

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines in Mindanao (NDFP-Mindanao) urges all revolutionary forces, the Bangsamoro and the entire Filipino people to fortify their ranks and fight against the Duterte regime’s martial law, whose extension in Mindanao until the end of the year will lead to the escalation of the reactionary state’s wars of death and destruction.

With an extended martial law, the Duterte regime’s naked fascism will target not just the Maute group but also the revolutionary movement led by the CPP-NPA-NDF, other armed Moro groups as well as the struggling peasants, workers and other sectors in the island. There will be more aerial bombardments and shelling that will pulverize other areas in the island beyond Marawi City. It will further intensify the AFP’s brutal combat operations in both rural and urban areas.

It will prolong the agony of the Moro people, particularly the Maranaws, who now strongly demand the immediate cessation of AFP/PNP attacks and that they be allowed to return to their homes. Pressed by the need to save their lives and livelihood, they even plan to collectively march back to Marawi City on the day of Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (SONA). Four hundred thousand (400,000) evacuees from Marawi City and adjacent towns continue to suffer from degrading conditions in evacuation centers and other areas all over Mindanao and the country. They are also subjected to discrimination and unspeakable human rights abuses, which will only worsen as martial law drags out.

In their dogged loyalty to Duterte’s brand of militarism, the AFP/PNP will be further emboldened to violate basic freedoms and civil liberties of Moro and non-Moro alike. It will serve to quell Mindanao farmers’ anti-feudal mass movement, the workers’ fight for higher wages, better benefits and humane working conditions, and the Lumad people’s struggle to defend their ancestral domain against destructive imperialist mining and plantation.

The AFP’s fake news propaganda machine has repeatedly claimed that state security forces did not commit any human rights abuses since martial law was declared on May 23. But this is not true simply because right before the very eyes of the Filipino people, the AFP razed to the ground the entire city of Marawi, killed hundreds of civilians, looted houses deserted by residents, and committed abuses against Moro women. Numerous civilians have been harassed, intimidated, forcibly searched and detained in the hundreds of AFP/PNP checkpoints in the island. Extra-judicial killings perpetrated by death squads, reportedly run and funded by the police and military, continue to victimize leaders and members of progressive worker, peasant and youth organizations. All these will heighten in the next five months of martial law.

Duterte’s martial law has indeed become akin to that of Marcos’s, and is proving itself to be far worse. It is to the great dismay of the people of Mindanao that the first president from Mindanao has the proclivity to bombard the island with so much death and destruction unlike any other.

In his upcoming second State of the Nation Address, Duterte will surely highlight martial law as the ultimate answer to the country’s problem of “terrorism and insurgency.” He will spew out reasons not only to justify its extension in Mindanao but also widening the coverage to the entire country. Having failed to fulfill his promises of sweeping changes for the Filipino people, he will instead give much credit to his three brutal wars of death and destruction — Oplan Kapayapaan against the revolutionary movement, Oplan Double Barrel and the all-out war against the Moro people. All of these have already killed and maimed thousands of civilians not only in Mindanao but in the rest of the country as well.

He will also boast about his grandiose debt-fueled multi-billion infrastructure projects, such as the Mindanao railway, as well as the entry and expansion of imperialist plantations (oil palm), which serve, on the one hand, to favor the unbridled profit-making of local ruling classes and foreign monopoly capitalists and, on the other, the further exploitation of the nation’s toiling classes.

While the NDFP-Mindanao vehemently condemns terrorist groups and their anti-people acts, the AFP and PNP have proven to be more terroristic as shown in their utter destruction of Marawi City through direct attacks, bomb runs and shelling, which will only worsen with martial law’s extension. These attacks against the Moro people ignited the ire not only of the Mautes but several other Moro groups whose only choice to counter the carnage was to wage an armed resistance. Duterte has virtually led his troops into a war they could not easily get out of because of the renewed armed resistance of the Moro people.

On the part of the New People’s Army, which is one of the main targets of Duterte’s martial law, it mobilized its units in the five regions of Mindanao, namely Southern, North Eastern, North Central, Far South and Western Mindanao, to launch more and more tactical offensives to defend the revolutionary forces and the masses from the continuing onslaught of martial law and Oplan Kapayapaan’s all-out war. Thus, the NDFP in Mindanao calls upon the NPA in the island to do everything in its capacity to counter the atrocities of Duterte’s martial law.

The NDFP Mindanao calls upon the people to unite and strengthen its ranks for a prolonged fight against Duterte’s martial law and militarism. On the day of Duterte’s SONA, all sectors of the Filipino people, especially the religious sector and the academe, must gather by the thousands in order to demand the concretization of his promises to the people and to hold him accountable for the massive deaths and destruction brought about by his unjust and bloody wars.#

Ka Joaquin Jacinto
Spokesperson
NDFP-Mindanao

Duterte Kills Peace Talks, Blames Revolutionaries for Martial Law

/by

By Professor Jose Maria Sison | Published in TeleSUR » 21 July 2017

“After 7000 to 12,000 extrajudicial killings of poor drug addicts and low level pushers, he has failed to solve the problem of illegal drugs”
— Professor Jose Maria Sison.

By his own public declarations and expressions of admiration for the fascist dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte has long been obsessed with his scheme to establish his own iron-fisted rule through martial law and extrajudicial killings by way of asserting “strong man” leadership and intimidating the opposition and the people under the pretext of solving not only the problem of illegal drugs but also far graver social, economic and political problems of the US-dominated ruling system of big compradors and landlords. At last, he has declared the end of peace negotiations with the NDFP. The revolutionary forces and people have no choice but to fight back and intensify the people’s war along the general line of people’s democratic revolution.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte inspects firearms together with Eduardo Ano, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, during his visit at the military camp in Marawi city, southern Philippines July 20, 2017. | Photo: Reuters

Duterte is not daunted by failures in his use of brute force. After 7000 to 12,000 extrajudicial killings of poor drug addicts and low level pushers, he has failed to solve the problem of illegal drugs within the first three to six months of being in office. He has also used up six months of extending his bloody campaign and has aroused suspicions that he has acted against certain drug lords only to favor those who keep the business thriving. He has directed the bombing of Marawi and victimized the people far more than the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups could. But he wants to prolong the Mindanao-wide martial law proclamation up to the end of 2017. And he calculates that he can make martial rule nationwide by continuing to blame and target the revolutionary movement of the people as “terrorists”.

After pretending for a while to seek a negotiated peace between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP, representing the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army and sixteen other revolutionary organizations), he is flagrantly hell-bent on making the armed revolutionary movement the scapegoat and pretext for the proclamation of martial law on the scale of the island of Mindanao and eventually nationwide. Since the time he assumed the presidency, Duterte has launched offensives against the New People’s Army (NPA) and has always threatened to scuttle the peace negotiations whenever the NPA takes defensive or counter-offensive actions even in the absence of a ceasefire.

He has obscured the barbarities being committed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP) and paramilitary forces (including private security agencies and vigilante groups) that have been acting under his orders in the name of the extended Oplan Bayanihan, Oplan Kapayapaan and the all-out war policy signaled by Duterte’s termination of the peace negotiations on February 4 and spelled out by his defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana on February 7, 2017. The atrocities include aerial bombings and artillery fire, abductions, torture, destruction of lives and property, occupation of community buildings and forced evacuations and evictions. These are documented by human rights organizations and presented to the Joint Monitoring Committee of the GRP and NDFP.

Duterte has completely ignored the proposals of the NDFP to have an alliance for realizing national independence, democratic rights, economic development through national industrialization and genuine land reform, social justice, a patriotic and scientific culture and independent foreign policy and to accelerate the peace negotiations on the substantive issues on social, economic, political and constitutional reforms, to make a bilateral ceasefire agreement after approval of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) and to co-found the Federal Republic of the Philippines on patriotic and democratic grounds defined by a the Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Constitutional Reforms (CASER).

That Duterte has been insincere and not really been interested in the progress and ultimate success of the peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP is well proven by false promises that he has never had the intention of fulfilling. Even before he assumed his presidential office, he promised on May 16, 2016 that he would amnesty and release all political prisoners in compliance with the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). But he released on bail only 19 political consultants of NDFP, which also falls short of complying with the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).

Despite the breach of promise, the NDFP continued to hope that all the political prisoners would be released in conjunction with the mutually agreed plan to accelerate the peace negotiations, to forge and approve the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) and make an interim bilateral ceasefire agreement. To stimulate the peace negotiations, the NDFP agreed with the GRP to issue reciprocal unilateral ceasefire declarations that lasted more than five months, from August 28, 2016 to February 10, 2017.

But Duterte himself kept on saying publicly that he never had any intention of releasing all the political prisoners but wished to keep them as his trump card until the successful end of the peace negotiations. Worse, despite the unilateral ceasefire declarations which lasted for more than five months, the GRP unleashed armed offensives against the revolutionary movement under the name of Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan and then under that of Oplan Kapayapaan. Since February 4, Duterte has caused the declaration of the all-out war policy against the NPA and the people and has never withdrawn it before and after his Mindanao-wide martial law proclamation on May 23, 2017.

Every round of formal talks has been used by the GRP to cut down the hope for the release of the political prisoners in accordance with CARHRIHL and to put at the top of the agenda the GRP demand for bilateral ceasefire at the expense of negotiations on CASER, despite the repeated reminders of the NDFP to the GRP that substantive negotiations and agreements must come ahead of any protracted and indefinite kind of ceasefire. At one point, in back channel talks last March 11, the NDFP agreed with GRP to issue reciprocal and simultaneous unilateral ceasefire declarations. But the GRP backed out of agreement despite Duterte’s approval on March 11.

The Hague Joint Declaration and the Joint Agreement on the Sequence, Formation and Operationalization of the Reciprocal Working Committees have set forth the sequence of the items in the substantive agenda: respect for human rights and international humanitarian law (the subject of a comprehensive agreement approved by the GRP and NDFP principals since 1998), social and economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms and the end of hostilities and disposition of forces. The aim of sequencing properly the items is to address the roots of the armed conflict and lay the basis of a just and lasting peace.

For sincerely adhering to the agreements with the GRP and for refusing to surrender and pacify the revolutionary movement of the people under the guise of a premature prolonged and indefinite bilateral ceasefire, the NDFP is now being demagogically accused by the Duterte government of insincerity in the peace negotiations, being relentlessly blamed for the continuing revolutionary armed conflict, being targeted by propaganda aimed at preparing the public mind for the proclamation of martial law nationwide and using the CPP, NPA and the NDFP as scapegoat.

Coldbloodedly, Duterte intends to rule the Philippines with a combination of martial rule, the use of the mass murder methods of Oplans Tokhang and Double Barrel and the bombing and shelling of entire communities as already seen in Marawi and in the territory of the people’s democratic government and the NPA in the course of the extended Oplan Bayanihan, Oplan Kapayapaan and the all out war policy issued last February 5 against the revolutionary movement.

Even without the license of martial law, the Duterte regime has become culpable for at least 10,000 extrajudicial killings, already outstripping in one year the 3500 victims of murder under the 14-year Marcos fascist regime presented in the US court system. With the license of martial law, we can expect a far bigger catastrophe of extrajudicial killings and other atrocities from the AFP, PNP and paramilitary forces.

The Duterte regime has thoroughly exposed itself as an instrument of US imperialism, a creature of a certain overreaching group of big compradors and landlords and a bloody accomplice of pro-US military and police officers. Thus, the revolutionary movement has started to refer to the Duterte regime as a puppet of US imperialism. The chief objective of Duterte is to destroy the revolutionary movement of the people through deception and brute force and not to build national unity and peace on the basis of social, economic, political and constitutional reforms.

He daydreams about establishing a fascist dictatorship far stronger than that of Marcos. He is oblivious of the fact that his so-called high popularity rating has been bought by excessive amounts of money and has nowhere to go but down in the face of failures and promises proven false. The revolutionary forces and the people can avail of the strategy and tactics of the broad united front and armed struggle in order to pursue the people’s democratic revolution with a socialist perspective.

Joma Sison: No need for peace talks amid martial law, killings

/by

Inquirer » | Published July 20, 2017 5:31pm

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison on Thursday deemed the peace talks with the government unnecessary due to the Duterte administration’s “obsession with martial law and mass murder.”

Sison’s scathing statement was issued a day after the government canceled its backchannel talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF), the CPP’s negotiating arm, following Wednesday’s rebel attack on a Presidential Security Group convoy in Arakan, Cotabato.

“There is really no need for GRP-NDFP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines-National Democratic Front of the Philippines) peace negotiations if the Duterte regime is obsessed with martial rule and mass murder as the way to solve social, economic and political problems and to frighten in vain the revolutionary forces and people to surrender and give up their revolutionary struggle for national and social liberation,” Sison said in a statement.

President Rodrigo Duterte has put the entire Mindanao under martial rule on May 23 following the attack on Marawi City by Islamic fundamentalist groups sympathetic to the ISIS terrorist organization.

The 60-day martial law will lapse on July 22, but Duterte has asked Congress to extend it until the end of the year.

Attack on PSG
Regarding the attack on the convoy, Sison questioned why the PSG van was in the area.

“What is the PSG van doing in Arakan, Cotabato? To make provocations or to stage an Enrile-type ambush on the eve of the martial law proclamation by Marcos in 1972? A preparation for martial law nationwide, thus the PSG van is made to appear as the target of NPA ambush?” he asked.

The attack injured five PSG men namely Staff Sergeant Arniel Matunhay, Sergeant Gerry Torsar, Corporal Rodel Ledesma, Corporal Ayam Alia, and a Staff Sergeant Lisondra.

The Duterte administration has kept firm on its stand to discontinue peace talks with the communists if they persist in their hostilities against the government.

The fifth round of talks was put on hold in May after the government peace panel pulled out from it following the CPP’s call for the NPA to intensify attacks on the heels of the martial law declaration in Mindanao. —Anna Felicia Bajo/KBK/KVD, GMA News

Duterte’s dialogue with Bayan shows: change would only come from the people

/by

Press Statement
19 July 2017

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines’ Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reforms (NDFP RWC-SER) is gravely concerned with the statements made by GPH Pres. Rodrigo Duterte in his dialogue with leaders of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) last July 18.

Duterte’s decline of Bayan’s reasonable plea for the end of martial law and, on the contrary, his push for the further extension of martial law in Mindanao and relatedly the GPH’s insistence for a “prolonged ceasefire” as a precondition for the continuation of the GPH-NDFP peace talks – all these do not at all bide well for the peace negotiations.

All these indicate that the GPH is just looking at the military angle of the crisis in Marawi and of the problems of the whole country, and that the GPH lacks interest to work out with the NDFP fundamental agreements towards solving the socio-economic and also the political-cultural root causes of the armed conflict with the objective of achieving real and lasting peace in the country.

The RWC-SER bilateral teams of both parties have just recently met, and have gradually been making actual headways towards forging an agreement that would break up the age-old feudal land monopoly and pave the way for genuine agrarian reform throughout the country. The talks on socio-economic reforms should even be further accelerated, if only the GPH would take discussions on the NDFP’s proposed draft of the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER) more seriously.

Duterte’s supposed openness to other reform measures would eventually all be rendered meaningless, as he tends to scuttle the peace talks and gives in more and more to the interests of and pressures from the military fascists in government and from the US imperialists behind these fascists.

He had earlier said that he would also like to terminate labor contractualizaton, push for free school tuition and for more practical reform measures. None of these would find reality any longer, if the GPH keeps on insisting only at the military aspects of and apparent solutions to the country’s problems, and does not even look at the abuses made by the GPH’s military and at the intrusions of the US troops that have exaggerated and even further worsened the Marawi crisis.

We are calling on the Filipino people to intensify their struggles for real and significant reforms, raise their revolutionary consciousness, strengthen their organized strength, fight for genuine social change, and press for real peace efforts. Let us seek to mobilize hundreds of thousands, and up to millions, to push for progressive reforms that are pro-people – and against policies that are pro-US, fascist, militarist and neoliberal.

Let us intensify struggles for genuine land reform, for the junking of labor contractualization, for the grant of free tuition in schools, and for the release of all political prisoners.

Let us intensify calls to soonest end martial law in Mindanao and to prevent it from being declared throughout the country, to seriously continue with the peace talks, to end the militarization of Lumad communities and other victims of oppression in the countryside, and to junk the Visiting Forces Agreement and other one-sided military treaties with the US.

Genuine change – whether in the form of significant reforms within the current system or of the latter’s revolutionary overthrow – will only come from the collective actions of the Filipino people.###

REFERENCE:
Alan Jazmines
Vice-Chairperson, NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee on Socio-Economic Reforms
Contact Number: + 63 949 137 7260

On the plan to extend martial law in Mindanao to end of year

/by

Information Bureau | Communist Party of the Philippines
18 July 2017

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) firmly denounces the plan of GRP President Duterte to extend martial law in Mindanao up to December 31, 2017. This will result in worse military and police abuses. It will prolong the restrictions against civil and political freedom and aggravate violations of people’s democratic rights. It will further suppress the truth to control the narrative to favor the AFP.

Duterte continues to build the foundations of authoritarian rule under US imperialist tutelage. His supermajority of congressional sycophants are likely to approve without question Duterte’s Mindanao martial law extension plan.

Duterte wants to extend martial law in the vain hope of completing the suppression of the armed resistance in Marawi City. He has launched a war which he cannot finish. The Duterte-US-AFP war has roused the Moro people to take up arms to seek retribution for all the death and destruction perpetrated by the fascist siege and incessant aerial bombardment of Marawi City. They demand a halt to the siege in order to return to their homes. The submission of the revamped draft of the Bangsamoro Basic Law as an urgent bill in congress will fail to pacify the Moro people whose oppression has been underscored again by Duterte’s war to suppress their aspirations. A conflagration of Moro armed resistance is bound to flare up across the Bangsamoro.

Martial law in Mindanao is directed at the New People’s Army (NPA) and the Party-led forces as much as the Moro people. AFP armed offensives against the NPA have been stepped-up over the past two months. Aerial bombings and shellings have been carried out in North Cotabato, Bukidnon, Davao del Sur, Davao City, Davao del Norte, Compostela Valley and elsewhere. Workers rights have been suppressed. Attacks against civilian communities have stepped up. Paramilitaries have been emboldened by martial law and are subjecting the Lumad people to threats and harassments. Across Mindanao, at least 10,000 people have been forced to evacuate in less than two months in addition to the 410,000 evacuees from Marawi and nearby towns

Duterte’s martial law in Mindanao or nationwide, is an assault on every Filipino’s rights and freedom. Under its camouflage, US military forces are carrying out outright intervention through electronic surveillance and use of attack drones especially at night. It is set to be further reinforced by plans to implement a national ID system, which can be weaponized to restrict the people’s rights to free movement and as a tool for mass surveilance. With Mindanao martial law extension and threat of expansion, Duterte can exercise the power to railroad his tax reform plan and other economic policies and infrastructure projects that are detrimental to the people’s rights and interests.

Thus, it is imperative for the entire Filipino people to vigorously oppose this plan. Revolutionary forces nationwide are firmly united and ever determined to resist martial law in Mindanao. The New People’s Army must continue to strengthen itself nationwide by carrying out armed counteractions and offensives across the country to defeat the Mindanao martial law and nationwide all-out war.