Will A “Hugo Chavez-type” End the Filipino Revolution?

[The question arises: Can populist rhetoric sway hearts and minds without petrodollars?  —  Frontlines ed.]

Joma sees Duterte as Pinoy-version of Hugo Chavez

October 10, 2015

by JEFRY M. TUPAS, CORRESPONDENT, The Manila Times

UTRECHT, The Netherlands: Jose Maria Sison, the founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), made himself clear—he did not endorse Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as his preferred next president of the Philippines.

“But how can I do that when he did not yet declare that he is running for president?” he said laughing, in front of him a cup of brewed coffee sitting cold – untouched – on a long white table, the ‘centerpiece’ inside the office of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) here.

US Marine charged with killing transgender Filipina–Protests Stop US Navy Visits

Philippine Dept. of Foreign Affairs says 3 US ships canceled port visits

Allan Macatuno, Christine O. Avendaño | Inquirer Central Luzon Philippine Daily Inquirer

Tuesday, November 4th, 2014

Filipina transgender Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude, left, was allegedly killed by US Marine Sgt. Joseph Scott Pemberton,, right. The ensuing protests over yet another US military person charged with abuse or murder of Filipinas has created a suspension of “normal” US visits to the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines–Three US Navy ships have canceled their scheduled port visits to the country this month for operational reasons, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Monday.

“The reconsideration of the port visits is a normal occurrence as US ships are deployed in many areas in the Pacific and are subject to changing operational requirements,” DFA spokesman Charles Jose said at a press briefing, citing a US Embassy diplomatic note.

The Inquirer reported Monday that the Subic Bay Freeport Chamber of Commerce had said that nine US vessels had scrapped scheduled port calls because of “anti-American sentiments” stemming from the slaying of Filipino transgender Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude on Oct. 11 in an Olongapo City motel.

Philippines: Peasants Shut Down Trial of Political Prisoners

Tiamzon couple hearing suspended as Quezon City Courthouse Shuts Down

The Quezon City Regional Trial Court suspended work today, as peasants and activists protested on its grounds and called for the release of political prisoners Wilma and Benito Tiamzon.

 

BY DEE AYROSO
Bulatlat.com

 

MANILA – The pre-trial hearing of political prisoners Wilma and Benito Tiamzon was deferred today, Oct. 21, as the Quezon City Hall of Justice suspended work for the day at around 8:30 a.m., prompted by a protest of more than 1,000 peasants outside the court.

Inter-Imperialist Contention and Seeds of Opposing Blocs Forming

[We recently posted news of a recent study of the world’s imperialist system and China’s role as an imperialist power.  (See this post, https://revolutionaryfrontlines.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/should-anti-imperialists-oppose-only-us-imperialism/).  It seems that every day, new developments appear to verify the growing instability and inter-imperialist contention within the world system, as can be seen in the article below.  As such, this sets the stage for further growth of revolutionary and anti-imperialist movements and forces, but such growth can only take place if revolutionary peoples learn the full nature of the enemies they face, and forge genuine proletarian internationalist unity against all imperialism–and break with the all-too-common tendency to side with one imperialist against another. — Frontlines ed.]

China Calls for Security Pact with Russia, Iran

By Louise Watt, AP, May 21, 2014

SHANGHAI — China‘s president called Tuesday for the creation of a new Asian structure for security cooperation based on a regional group that includes Russia and Iran and excludes the United States.

President Xi Jinping spoke at a meeting in Shanghai of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building measures in Asia, an obscure group that has taken on significance as Beijing tries to extend its influence and limit the role of the United States, which it sees as a strategic rival.

“We need to innovate our security cooperation (and) establish new regional security cooperation architecture,” said Xi, speaking to an audience that included President Vladimir Putin of Russia and leaders of Central Asian countries.

Should anti-Imperialists oppose only US imperialism?

[The world imperialist system today has entered a period of crisis, internal instability and disarray, growing internal conflict and inter-imperialist contention, conflict, and the beginnings of opposing bloc formations. It is a far-from-healthy and broadly discredited system, forcing the costs of its desperate wars and troubled (and false) bourgeois “recoveries” on the masses of people worldwide. Wave upon wave of resistance and rebellion has begun, sometimes toppling old imperialist puppets, though finding the path to create liberated societies very difficult. Fantasies that the US had, since WW2, successfully formed a system of efficient and unchallengable control of world imperialist domination, have fallen on hard times. Imperialist Russia and imperialist China have grown from the defeat of socialism and the seizure of power by capitalists, and have set upon an assertion of power and authority in regional, economic, political, military, monetary and financial affairs (though each is struggling to contain growing internal discontent). Anti-imperialists and revolutionaries who only think in the framework of decades-long opposition to US hegemony in the world system will look in vain, and to their own discredit, for friends or allies among the contending imperialists. The only path forward is to build revolutionary proletarian class-conscious parties and mass-based political forces with eyes wide open, independent of ties and influence by any and all imperialists.
Revolutionary Frontlines has recently received a new study from redpath.net, which examines the shape of the imperialist system today, with special emphasis on the still-debated role of China and Chinese imperialism. The introduction to this path-breaking study and analysis is posted here below. The entire document can be viewed at the website of http://www.red-path.net, where the document (produced by an independent research and writing group) was first posted. It can also be viewed and downloaded at http://www.mlmrsg.com/79-statements/82-is-china-an-imperialist-country-considerations-and-evidence. — Revolutionary Frontlines]

IS CHINA AN IMPERIALIST COUNTRY?  by NB Turner, et al.

It has long been known and understood that the entire world has been under the control of capitalist-imperialism. For a time, a section of this world broke from it, beginning with the victory of socialism in Russia and continuing through the Chinese Revolution, constituting a socialist world. Yet, in time, the socialist countries, through internal class struggles in politics and economics, were seized by capitalist conciliators and advocates, and then by capitalists themselves, who were largely within the ruling communist parties themselves. First in Russia, and later in China, when these counter-revolutions and coups took place, there ensued a period of entry and integration into the world imperialist system. The Soviet Union, at first under the existing signboard of socialism, continued much of its established national and economic power relations into a new social-imperialist bloc (socialist in name, imperialist in reality). The Russian capitalist-imperialist attempt to maintain this bloc, or important sections of what had been part of this bloc, and its historic allies, has continued in the years since the “socialist” signboard was discarded. In China, the defeat of the proletariat and the capitalist capture of state power, after the death of the great revolutionary Mao Zedong, have also led to a period of integration into the world imperialist system. China still operates under a “socialist” signboard, but has conducted itself unambiguously as a capitalist power.
Before the last decade, especially since the demise of the “socialist bloc,” the US was commonly seen as the sole Superpower, to which all other powers had to defer. The system which the US had designed, at the end of WW2, was global in scope, and to some more “democratic” in appearance than the old colonial empires. But it was built around the elitist privilege of power and authority, meaning the US as Superpower was at the centerpiece of the controls.
But in the last decade the imperialist world system is not what it used to be. Throughout the world, corrupt and comprador regimes have faced significant and often unprecedented mass popular opposition movements which have revealed the deep instability of the old neo-colonial arrangements.

Philippines: The US’ military plan to ride the Trojan Horse of relief

“Let’s Take Advantage Of Suffering Filipinos!”

 

By David Swanson

14 November, 2013
Warisacrime.org

 

The same week in which a Washington Post columnist claimed that interracial marriage makes people gag, a USA Today columnist has proposed using the U.S. military to aid those suffering in the Philippines — as a backdoor means of getting the U.S. military back into a larger occupation of the Philippines.

 

While the Philippines’ representative at the climate talks in Warsaw is fasting in protest of international inaction on the destruction of the earth’s climate, and the U.S. negotiator has effectively told him to go jump in a typhoon, the discussion in the U.S. media is of the supposed military benefits of using Filipinos’ suffering as an excuse to militarize their country.

 

The author of the USA Today column makes no mention of the U.S. military’s history in the Philippines.  This was, after all, the site of the first major modern U.S. war of foreign occupation, marked by long duration, and high and one-sided casualties.  As in Iraq, some 4,000 U.S. troops died in the effort, but most of them from disease. The Philippines lost some 1.5 million men, women, and children out of a population of 6 to 7 million.

 

The USA Today columnist makes no mention of Filipinos’ resistance to the U.S. military up through recent decades, or of President Obama’s ongoing efforts to put more troops back into the Philippines, disaster or no disaster.

Filipinos protest US military presence

14 Aug 2013, Bangkok Post Online news

MANILA – The Philippines and the United States on Wednesday opened talks on increased American military presence, amid protests by leftist groups warning against foreign interference.

Filipino activists hold up placards as they stage a lie-in before a police line during a protest against a meeting between Philippine and US officials in Manila on Wednesday. The protesters were opposing the talks over an increase in US military troops in the country. (AFP photo)

Activists picketed the principal military base in Manila, where the first round of negotiations on a “framework on increased rotational presence” was being held.

The demonstrators denounced the talks and called on the Philippine government not to give the US military more access to the country, which shut down American air and naval bases more than two decades ago.

The US “pivot to Asia” — Thousands of US and Philippine troops in training this week

[News article, followed by statement from CPP, detail this deployment. — Frontlines ed.]

Over 8,000 PH, US troops to join Balikatan 2013

By Frances Mangosing, INQUIRER.net

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013

MANILA, Philippines – Over 8,000 Philippine and American troops will participate in this year’s Balikatan military exercises, which will be held from April 5 to 17.

In a statement, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said 30 aircraft and three vessels from both US and Philippine militaries are set to be deployed to support the joint exercises.

Of the 30 aircraft, 20 will come from the US military, 14 of which have already arrived in Clark Air Base, Pampanga last Monday while the rest will start to arrive consecutively on Wednesday until April 8. The air assets will be used for joint humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR)-focused military training in Central Luzon and will also provide air logistics support and services to the participating troops of both countries.

Meanwhile, the USS Tortuga, the only US Navy ship taking part in the annual military exercise docked in Manila Bay on Tuesday to offload military personnel and equipment for the exercises.

Nine aircraft from the Philippine Air Force will be deployed, while the Philippine Navy will deploy one of its Highlanders and two vessels.

The Balikatan is the 4th humanitarian assistance/disaster response- focused bilateral exercise held every other year since 2008.

Also invited to join are security officials from Australia, Brunei, Japan, Republic of Korea, and Thailand who will unite with high ranking officers from the AFP and US Military in the Multinational Maritime Security Roundtable Discussion in Camp Aguinaldo.

Del Monte’s Culpability in Mindanao

[For details on the action referred to in this statement, see the February 19 news report at https://revolutionaryfrontlines.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/philippines-rebels-attack-pineapple-plantation-in-bukidnon/  —  Frontlines ed.] ——————————————————- PRESS STATEMENT NDFP North Central Mindanao Region

CESAR RENERIO, Spokesperson
27 February 2013

Del Monte’s management makes a fool of itself by feigning innocence on their apparent culpability when the New People’s Army launched a punitive action against them. All these years, they consider their decades-old exploitation and oppression of workers, peasants and Lumads, environmental plunder and destruction as perfectly laudable.What a surprise indeed!

They are not a bit bothered by guilty conscience of the weight of the responsibility in permanently exposing to danger the lives and properties of the people living along the streams and rivers emptying into Macajalar Bay. Nothing concerns them more than amassing super-profits by exploiting the labor of their low paid workers.

Del Monte flaunts repeatedly that it has provided 20,000 jobs in the ten municipalities of Bukidnon, at the cost of the eviction and dispossession of hundreds of thousands of peasants and Lumads who once made their living in these lands. In reality, this figure is wittingly bloated to create an impression that Del Monte contributes significantly to the local economy. According to Chito Lorenzo, the US-Arroyo regime’s former presidential adviser on 1million jobs creation, Del Monte only employs 7,000 workers.

Philippines: Rebels attack pineapple plantation in Bukidnon

New People’s Army

From the Sun Star-Cagayan de Oro

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Undetermined number of armed men believed to be members of the New People’s Army (NPA) stormed the main office and plantation of Del Monte Philippines in Camp Philips, Bukidnon, Tuesday evening.
Radio reports said the rebels, numbering about 100, burned the company’s equipment and engaged in a firefight with the security guards of Del Monte.

One security guard identified as Alfredo Neri, a resident of Miranda, Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon, and under Cadre Security Agency, died while two guards were injured. A civilian was also reportedly wounded in the crossfire.

One of the wounded security guards is identified as Mario Ayuban. They were rushed to the hospital inside Del Monte but were transferred to Capitol University Medical City in Cagayan de Oro.

The wounded civilian identified as a certain Mario said over Magnum Radio that around 10 armed men, who wore military uniforms, asked him if he is an employee of Del Monte. When he said no, he was told to lie down.

Mario, who was hit in his legs, said an exchange of gunfire occurred between the rebels and the company’s security guards.

He said the rebels ordered them to give their cellular phones…..

Philippines: Destroyer due in Subic amid protests vs rising US presence

[The renewed expansion of US military in Asia has brought renewed opposition to life.  The US moves are driven by its reassertion of hegemonic relations, its enforcement of neo-liberal and neo-colonial relations, and its containment of China and others as rapidly emerging imperialist powers.  The US military command describes the Filipinos as well-represented within the US military, and that Filipino-Americans within the US military play a special role in “community/public relations” efforts in the Philippines, (which have historically ranged from openly promoting imperialism to playing a direct or supportive role in counter-insurgency campaigns.) — Frontlines ed.]
[Photo:  Militant groups wage another protest outside the US Embassy in Manila on Monday, burning the US flag, denouncing the presence of US troops and mounting a call to save Tubbataha Reef, the marine sanctuary damaged by a US minesweeper earlier this month. PAULO VECINA, INTERAKSYON.COM]

As militant groups continue to protest what they perceive to be a disguised stepping up of US military presence in the country, yet another vessel, the destroyer USS Stockdale, is set to make a “routine visit” to Subic Bay in Zambales.

The United States Embassy said the USS Stockdale (DDG-106) due Tuesday is scheduled to replenish supplies and provide its crew opportunities for rest and relaxation.

The Embassy said the visit is Stockdale’s first to the Philippines. “The visit is part of the ship’s nine-month deployment to the Western Pacific that began in January 2013,” it said.

Philippines: New Peoples Army unit assigned typhoon relief work, responds to AFP attack

Merardo Arce Command

Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command

New People’s Army

Press Statement

18 January 2013

NPA takes prisoners of war, defeats military raid vs AFP operations in Typhoon Pablo-ravaged towns

As the AFP and the US-Aquino regime resumed its fascist counterrevolutionary campaign in typhoon-ravaged countryside, the New People’s Army (NPA) secured two Prisoners of War and defeated a military raid against a detached team of NPA political officers in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental provinces.  This, after the Merardo Arce Command-Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command-NPA has directed all its units to take active military offensive stance after it lifted its temporary ceasefire last January 15.

In an NPA checkpoint, operatives from the Guerilla Front 34 Operations Command arrested and detained 60th Infantry Battalion’s Pfc. Jesrel Colanggo, and PNP’s SPO1 Ruel Pasion on January 17, 2013 at around 8:00 AM in Brgy. Mangloy, Laak town.  The NPA also confiscated a 45 caliber pistol in their possession.

The two prisoners of war are being treated well, their safety are of primordial consideration, as the NPA abides the tenets of international humanitarian law.

The NPA checkpoint was conducted to prevent undesirable elements and to counter the fascist Special Operations Team of the 60th IB under the AFP’s Oplan Bayanihan.  The 60th IB’s bloody record against the masses included the summary execution of peasant Totong Mabinse of Brgy. Datu in Laak town, and the forced recruitment and coercive surrender of peasants.

The day before, on January 16, the 67th Infantry Brigade and 72nd IB troops raided a detached team of NPA political officers belonging to the Guerilla Front 15 Operations Command in Sitio Limot, Brgy. Binondo, in Baganga town, Davao Oriental at around 7 AM.  The Red fighters were alerted and battled it out in a counter-defensive measure, but the team left its two high-powered rifles at the scene.

The Red fighters have detached from the main front guerilla unit at the time of the ceasefire to solicit goods for the relief and rehabilitation program of the People’s Democratic Government for the Typhoon Pablo victims.

In the ongoing brigade-wide operations of the 67th IB and 28th IB of the 701st Brigade in the towns of Baganga, Manay, Mati and Lupon in Davao Oriental, the AFP troops have gone berserk in violating the human rights of the poor, suffering Typhoon Pablo victims.  The fascist troops blocked the entry and exit of residents in Sitios Tigbawan, Limot, Mantapay and Bagangan of Brgy. Binondo in Baganga town, and Sitios 72 and Tangaan of Brgy. Manurigao in New Bataan town.

The NPA perseveres in taking part of the People’s Democratic Government’s medium-term program for the recovery of damaged farms and livelihood of suffering masses in Typhoon Pablo-hit areas in the region.  As the people’s war escalates, it will defeat the abusive and deceptive Oplan Bayanihan that has made the lives of Pablo victims worse than ever.

(Sgd.)Rigoberto F. Sanchez

Spokesperson

Merardo Arce Command

Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command

New People’s Army

Philippines: Revolutionary forces making gains in Mindanao

A victorious decade of People’s War in Mindanao

Jorge Madlos (Ka Oris), Spokesperson, NDF-Mindanao

December 26, 2012Together with all revolutionaries and the the people of Mindanao and the entire nation, the NDFP-Mindanao wishes to express its warmest congratulations and highest tribute to the Communist Party of the Philippines (MLM) on the 44th anniversary of its re-establishment. Through the Party’s leadership, the National Democratic Revolution has advanced to its current phase despite the relentless counterrevolutionary attacks of US imperialism and the local ruling class. We also proudly salute all our revolutionary martyrs who have heroically offered their lives for the revolution.

Philippine NDF rebels on Moro-Government peace moves, urge armed resistance

Mobilize Moro people for their struggle for self-determination — NDFP

Thursday, 08 November 2012

By JORGE MADLOS
Spokesperson, NDFP-Mindanao

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines – Mindanao urges the Moro Resistance Liberation Organization (MRLO), as one of its allied organizations, to be more resolute in its mandate to educate, organize and mobilize vast numbers among the Moro people to advance their struggle for the right to self-determination under the aegis of the national-democratic armed revolution.

While the signing of the Framework on the Bangsamoro may be considered a watershed in the Moro struggle, it cannot be denied that the pact itself is riddled with lopsided provisions that ultimately favor the design of the ruling classes, its reactionary government and US imperialism to fully and finally subdue the Moro people’s long-drawn armed resistance against national oppression and exploitation.

Underneath all the semantics in the pact, the US-Aquino regime has insidiously placed the avarice of local and imperialist monopoly capitalists to rake in superprofit over and above the general economic and socio-political well-being of the long-suffering Moro people.  After the signing, like moths to a fire, several multinational corporations immediately expressed interest to invest on and exploit the vast natural resources, such as arable lands, natural gas and minerals, in areas under the MILF’s control or influence.  In his foreign trips and kowtowing abroad, Aquino also used the MILF-GPH pact as a ticket to invite more investments in the country.

Philippines: Rebels warn MILF: “Don’t give up your weapons”

[see the news article, followed by the statement from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines — Mindanao. — Frontlines ed.]

——————————————————————————–

by Germelina Lacorte, Philippine Daily Inquirer Mindanao

 Tuesday, October 30th, 2012

[JORGE MADLOS, spokesperson of the National Democratic Front in Mindanao, in this photo taken December 2003 in his then hideout somewhere in Surigao del Sur AFP]

DAVAO CITY—Two weeks ago,  amid calls for the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army to return to the negotiating table with the government, Left leader Satur Ocampo had urged President Aquino to “uphold his vow to resume peace talks”  with the insurgent group, just like he did with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

But over the weekend, the communist National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) warned the Moro group against the government’s  “devious scheming” with regard to the framework agreement it signed early this month.

In a statement e-mailed to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Jorge Madlos, NDFP spokesperson in Mindanao, warned the MILF against readily giving up its arms, and said that agreeing to decommission its Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) would render the group useless in protecting the rights of the Moro people.

“Learning lessons from the    past, the MILF should not easily relinquish its effective military strength on the whim of the reactionary government so that it can continue to defend the interests of the entire Moro people,” said Madlos, also known as Ka Oris.