source: http://www.philippinerevolution.net, May 21, 2012
A massive and brutal terror campaign is currently ravaging the people of South Qezon-Bondoc Peninsula (SQ-BP) as part of the intensification of the US-Aquino regime’s Oplan Bayanihan war of suppression.
It is marked by one of the most concentrated deployments of fascist forces in the history of the enemy’s suppression and encirclement campaigns. Up to eight strike battalions are positioned in 22 towns, or an average of 200 fascist forces per municipality. They include the entire 74th IB, the 85th IB, the 76th IB and Special Forces Battalion, the 416th and 417th Public Safety Management Companies and three and a half battalions of CAFGU under the 59th IB. This is aside from forces of the Philippine National Police assigned to the various towns of SQ-BP.
The presence of these fascist forces are a major disruption in the normal course of the masses’ lives. They impose martial rule. They utilize their so-called “people-centered” tactics under Oplan Bayanihan but commit wanton violations of human rights.
Squad-size groups of armed soldiers comprising “peace and development teams” stay for long periods in villages. For up to six months, they live like fattened pigs in peasants’ houses in over 50 barrios, spending their days getting drunk, gambling and texting.They also use barangay centers and other public structures are bases. They are a bane to the masses’ livelihood.
The soldiers oblige everyone to attend their public meetings. They subject the locals to interrogation in the guise of conducting a “census.” They summon anyone they would like to investigate and harass those who have been active in mass struggles, accusing them of being members of revolutionary mass organizations or of being supporters of the armed revolution. They are then subjected to relentless intimidation to coerce them to cooperate with the military and “clear their record.” Those who refuse to cooperate feel compelled to leave the area to avoid threats to their lives.
The fascist brutality of Oplan Bayanihan in SQ-BP cannot be concealed. Since Oplan Bayanihan began ravaging the area, more than a hundred human rights violations have been documented, including violations of the rights of children, killings and abductions. Cases of illegal searches and arrests abound.
Oplan Bayanihan is being stepped up in SQ-BP in accordance with the US-Aquino regime and the AFP’s objective of clearing the area of the NPA by the end of 2012. Aquino wants to turn SQ-BP into his “trophy” for its long history of peasant struggles and armed revolution.
Nonetheless, the US-Aquino regime is inadvertently creating a contradiction. In intensifying its campaign of suppression, it drives the people toward the path of mass struggle to resist oppression and assert their demands for genuine land reform and an end to feudal exploitation. The US-Aquino regime’s mounting brutality only convinces the people all the more of the need to bear arms and fight.
In the face of the regime’s stepped up violence, the Communist Party of the Philippines calls on the people of SQ-BP, the concerned NPA units in the guerrilla front and in the entire Southern Tagalog region, and all local Party branches and revolutionary mass organizations to promptly and with all their might expose, assail, resist and frustrate Oplan Bayanihan. In the coming months, they must act with all courage and with utmost skill and invigorate mass struggles and intensify tactical offensives.
The massive militarization of SQ-BP opens many opportunities for accumulating big victories and advancing the revolutionary movement in a major way.
The local NPA units must launch more extensive, more numerous and more intensive tactical offensives in the coming months. They must punish the fascists who have been brutalizing the masses. They must steel their determination and further raise the capabilities of the NPA units in SQ-BP. They must develop expertise in taking advantge of the favorable terrain, the superiority of guerrilla tactics and the depth of mass support in order to inflict casualties on the enemy, seize their weapons and arm the growing number of Red fighters.
There are so many opportunities for launching tactical offensives that they are sure to win. The NPA must closely monitor the enemy’s movements to determine the poorly manned and scattered units of the AFP, their supply lines and other weak targets. The NPA must raise its offensive posture and its capability for quick and clandestine action in order to take advantage of the many opportunities that have opened to launch arned attacks on the fascist enemy.
NPA units in other parts of Southern Tagalog must launch timely tactical offensives in accordance with their reading and monitoring of the AFP’s deployment and movements. The NPA in the neighboring region of Bicol must also launch tactical offensives to force the enemy to shift its units currently concentrated in SQ-BP. Thus, local NPA units in SQ-BP will be further able to maneuver and inflict ever bigger blows on the enemy.
We must enhance the people’s courage to resist the US-Aquino regime’s campaign of suppression. We must forge their militancy to resist the rampage, terrorism, deception and brutality being inflicted on them by the fascist soldiers and other armed personnel of the reactionary regime. The people must launch various kinds of mass actions including organized evacuations and other protests in the town centers to denounce the presence and basing of soldiers in their homes and villages.
Simultaneously, we must propagate the demand for genuine land reform and agrarian reform and make it resonate throughout. The antifascist struggle will be deepened and strengthened through the invigoration of mass struggles to reduce land rent, raise the wages of farm workers, eliminate usury and have the peasants’ agricultural produce sold at the correct prices.
The revolutionary mass organizations and local Party groups and branches in SQ-BP must act firmly against the ravages of Oplan Bayanihan. They must strengthen mass struggles and quickly expand defense committees and people’s militias. They must strengthen the underground movement. They must unleash the masses’ initiative and creativity in using various tactics in order to seize weapons and launch various attacks on the enemy. NPA recruitmemt must be stepped up.
We must form a broad united front to support the people in SQ-BP against Oplan Bayanihan. We must strengthen the movement against militarization and for human rights advocacy. Let us call for myriad investigations on the growing number of human rights violations, especially violations of the rights and welfare of children. We must expose the criminal officers and personnel of the AFP.and file cases against them.
Let the cry for justice of the people of SQ-BP resonate worldwide. Let us win the sympathy of Filipinos and other nationalities abroad and encourage them to launch protests. Let us strengthen the call to hold accountable the officers and men of the AFP responsible for violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.
Let us learn from the experiences of the people and the revolutionary forces from other regions in order to achieve major victories in the coming months against Oplan Bayanihan in SQ-BP and pave the way for the advance of the peasant masses’ democratic struggles and the strengthening of the armed revolution.
As the brutality in South Quezon-Bondoc Peninsula has shown, Aquino has proven that Oplan Bayanihan is no different from, but even more violent than past oplans. It has been clearly demonstrated in SQ-BP that the AFP catchphrases “defending human rights” and “advancing peace” are worthless.
The Filipino people are acutely aware that the US-Aquino regime’s Oplan Bayanihan war of suppression is a war being waged in defense of the rotten oppressive and exploitative system. But no matter how brutal, it will surely be defeated in the face of the courage and militancy of the people and their determination to advance along the path of mass struggle and armed revolution.
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