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.

Philippines: “Support the Moro struggle against the Aquino regime’s deceptiveness”

[Reporting on the recently-announced negotiations and agreement between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Philippine government, this article from Ang Bayan (organ of the Communist Party of the Philippines) traces the CPP’s view of the agreement, its dangers, and the CPP’s relationship with the Moro Independence movement. — Frontlines ed.]

Editorial, Ang Bayan

October 21, 2012

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the national-democratic revolutionary forces are among the most ardent advocates of the Moro people’s struggle for their right to national self-determination.

The Program for a People’s Democratic Revolution supports the struggle of national minorities against chauvinism and oppression and recognizes their aspirations for autonomy and their right to secede from the ruling oppressive state. This support is also unequivocally contained in the 12-Point Program of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

The struggle of the Filipino and Moro peoples are tightly intertwined. Both of them resist the same reactionary state that oppresses and exploits the toiling masses. As an instrument of US imperialism, the Philippine puppet reactionary state tramples on the rights of the Filipino people to national liberation in allowing American and foreign big companies to exploit the Filipino nation’s natural resources. It further allows the US military to interfere, dominate and freely operate in the country and make use of the Philippines as a platform for its power-projection and interventionism in other countries.

In recent decades, this same reactionary state, from the Marcos to the current Aquino regime, has gravely abused the Moro people’s political, economic and cultural rights. Fascist troops of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) occupy the ancestral land and political territory of the Moro nation in an effort to impose the constitution and political power of the reactionary state upon the Moro people.

The violent suppression of the Moro people has sparked their armed resistance throughout history. They largely succeeded in resisting over three centuries of Spanish colonialism. Their aspiration for self-determination was, however, more effectively suppressed with the supplanting of the Spanish colonialists by the new US colonial power. Using its bigger, more economically and technologically advanced capability, US imperialism, and later, its puppet reactionary state were later able to completely dominate the Moro homeland.

It was only through persistent revolutionary armed struggle since the 1970s that the Moro people were able to defend themselves, gain recognition for their struggle for self-determination and provide it a more national form. The Maguindanao, Maranao, Tausog, Samal, Yakan and other Moro groups united under the banner of armed struggle. Since the start of their national armed revolution, the revolutionary movement has been one with the Moro people in advancing their struggle for their right to national self-determination.

Philippines: Large raid by New People’s Army on mining company’s “private army”

NPA makes biggest haul of guns in raid on Butuan City security agency

By Franklin A. Caliguid, Inquirer Mindanao,  Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

BUTUAN CITY, Philippines—The National Democratic Front said Wednesday  that Monday’s raid by New People’s Army guerrillas on the headquarters of a security agency serving mining companies here resulted in the largest firearms haul for the rebels in years.

While NDF Mindanao spokesman Jorge Madlos did not say just how large the haul from the Earth Savers Security Agency at Aruville Subdivision in Barangay Libertad here was, police said the raiders carted away  46 AK-47 rifles, 3 M-14 sniper rifles, 10 shotguns, 10  9-millimeter pistols and an unspecified amount of ammunition.

Superintendent Martin Gamba, spokesperson of the Caraga police, said at least 20 NPA rebels in two vehicles arrived at the security agency’s headquarters, which is about two kilometers from the regional police headquarters, at around 8:30 p.m.

Gamba said the rebels gained entrance by posing as National Bureau of Investigation agents and presenting search warrants. They then disarmed the four guards on duty, he said.

Gamba admitted that the police failed to catch up with the fleeing rebels but an operation against them was continuing as of Wednesday.

“Investigations are also ongoing,” Gamba said.

Madlos, also known as Ka Oris, said in a statement that the volume of guns the rebels seized was so large it was considered the NPA’s biggest haul in years.

Philipppines: Statement on People’s War in Central Luzon

“Central Luzon perseveres along the path of people’s war”

Ang Bayan, April 7, 2012

 Central Luzon continues to reap victories in the armed struggle despite the brutal onslaught of the military;s campaign of suppression. The NPA was able to launch victorious tactical offensives, seize weapons from the military and mete punishment on those who owed blood debts to the masses.

The key factor in the region’s victories is its determination to advance the people’s democratic revolution from the present stage of strategic defensive to the next stage of strategic stalemate.

The masses and the revolutionary movement in Central Luzon have proven that no matter how much the state uses its most brutal oplan, it could never defeat a people waging resistance.

Philippines: Mindanao press reports large growth in New People’s Army

NPAs in Mindanao up 20 percent

By Edwin G. Espejo

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/28 March) – The communist-led New People’s Army (NPA) in Mindanao has grown in numbers over the last two years, according to rebel spokesman Jorge Madlos, a.k.a. Ka Oris.

Jorge Madlos, a.k.a. Ka Oris. Mindanews File Photo by Gigi Bueno

“We have formed additional platoons and increased our armed strength by almost 20 percent,” Madlos said in a statement sent to reporters on the eve of the 43rd founding anniversary of the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

He claimed the guerilla fronts of the NPA have increased to 42, up from 32 fronts three years ago.

“We have maintained 42 guerrilla fronts island-wide and increased the number of company-sized fronts,” Madlos said.

The communist rebels claim they have five regional party committees in mainland Mindanao.

Each regional party committee is reportedly maintaining at least a company-sized main regional guerrilla unit (MRGU) apart from several platoons of front guerrilla units (FGUs) distributed throughout the island.

The CPP-NPA rebellion is Asia’s longest running insurgency movement.

The NPA was founded on March 29, 1969 in Sta. Rita, Pampanga from remnants of the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB), the armed wing of the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP).

From an undersized platoon of poorly equipped fighters with less than 25 rifles and handguns, the NPA has expanded throughout the archipelago and became a major threat to national security during the Marcos dictatorship.

It is believed that more than half of the total armed regulars of the NPA today are in Mindanao, also the seat of the Moro secessionist movement.

Philippines: NDF Press Statement — “Long live the peasant army! Long live the NPA!”

Pambansang Katipunan ng mga Magbubukid — National Democratic Front of the Philippines

PRESS STATEMENT

March 27, 2012

Reference: Andres Agtalon, PKM spokesperson

With utmost joy, the Pambansang Katipunan ng mga Magbubukid – National Democratic Front of the Philippines (PKM-NDFP) celebrate and express its warmest revolutionary greetings to all the Red commanders and fighters on the occasion of the 43rd founding anniversary of the New People’s Army (NPA) on March 29, 1969.

The PKM salutes the NPA as its true and own army in achieving greater victories in advancing the peoples’ war. We cherish the NPA as a peasant army that is waging a peasant war in order to liberate the peasant majority from feudal and semi-feudal bondage. Resolving the worsening land problem is still the main content of the armed struggle and, because of this, the peasantry continuously advance the peoples’ war and wage campaigns to cherish the people’s army.

Majority of the Red fighters come from the broad masses of peasants. The Filipino peasantry will continue to be a deep source of Red fighters as we shall wholeheartedly offer our best sons and daughters to join the NPA and serve the people.

At this stage of the Philippine revolution, it is the task of the PKM to surge forward to a new and higher level of the people’s war: to inflame the countryside with peasant struggles, arouse millions of peasants to join the armed struggle and the NPA.

Philippines: “Armed revolution and the people will frustrate the intensification of militarization in Negros”

A statement by Juanito Magbanua, Spokesperson, NPA Negros Island (Apolinario “Ka Boy” Gatmaitan Command)
February 03, 2012

The Apolinario “Boy” Gatmaitan Command (AGC) salutes the unit of the NPA under the Roselyn “Ka Jean” Pelle Command (North Negros) for a successful military action against the 62nd IB PA where 2 elements of the AFP were killed in action and many others wounded base on initial reports. The encounter took place in Hacienda Lope, Barangay Andres Bonifacio in Cadiz City last January 31, 2012. The said tactical offensive frustrated the AFP’s plan for a coordinated campaign against the NPA in the said area that has been declared by the military as insurgency-free lately.
The AGC also recognizes the bravery and daringness of the members of a yunit under  the Armando Sumayang Command (Southwest Front) that fought  much superior columns of composite forces of the 47th IB PA that assaulted a temporary NPA encampment in Sitio Akol, Brgy Manlocahoc, Sipalay City last January 28, 2012. Four members of the Scout Rangers (SR) were killed in action based on the reports of the locals who saw the bodies secretly taken away by the military. On the other hand, the people are saddened by the martyrdom of a Red Fighter. The military has now occupy the local market and are conducting illegal searches and interrogation of the barrio folks on the area of the firefight.  Sipalay is a target of many foreign mining companies.

Philippines: What kind of peace do the people need? Revolutionary fighters on the deceptive call for a ‘peace zone’

Philippine Revolution Web Central

To Achieve Genuine and Lasting Peace, Roots of the Armed Conflict Must Be Addressed

Magno Udyaw, Spokesperson, NPA Mountain Province (Leonardo Pacsi Command)

December 04, 2011

The Leonardo Pacsi Command of the NPA-Mountain Province denounces the sham consultations and fabricated referendums being conducted by the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) in the various municipalities of the province. Reports coming from the participants in the last PPOC “dialogue” held in Aguid, Sagada last November 16 indicate that PNP personnel including escorts of Philippine National Police regional director Gen. Benjamin Magalong and personnel from various provincial and municipal line agencies who went along with Gov. Leonard Mayaen were allowed to cast their votes.

Indicative of the previous informal plebiscites held in five other municipalities earlier, the question written in the ballots furnished to the registered participants was not about the peace zone, but formed as “Do you want peace – Yes, No, Undecided”. This deceptive formulation coupled with delegate-stacking maneuvers clearly reveals the bullying tactics of the provincial government in calling for a province-wide peace zone. Who would not want peace, but on what basis and of what kind?

Philippines: Revolutionary Leader “Ka Roger” has passed

In this file photo taken Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2004, rebel spokesman Gregorio Rosal gestures as he talks to journalists during a clandestine news conference in a communist New People's Army encampment in northern Luzon, Philippines. The outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines said Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011, that Gregorio "Comrade Roger" Rosal died in a guerrilla zone on June 22 of a heart attack. He was 64. The popular Philippine communist guerrilla served as the movement's spokesman for years and gave a face to one of Asia's longest-running Marxist insurgencies.

“Ka Roger” dead at 64

By AARON RECUENCO, Manila Bulletin

October 9, 2011

Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal, for many years the spokesman for the communist insurgency in the Philippines, is dead, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) revealed Sunday.

In a statement posted on its website Sunday afternoon, the CPP said Rosal succumbed to a heart attack last June 22 in a guerrilla front in Luzon at the age of 64.

“The entire membership of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), Red fighters of the New People’s Army, and the Filipino people are one with his family and friends in mourning his death,” the statement read.

Marco Valbuena, the media liaison of the CPP Information Bureau, said the public announcement was delayed to allow CPP officials to inform Ka Roger’s daughters of their father’s demise.

“Intense military operations prevented information from reaching his daughters with dispatch. Ka Roger’s siblings have also been informed of his passing,” Valbuena said.

The third of the six children of sugarcane planters in Batangas, Rosal got his first taste of militant activism when he joined a small group called Kabataang Gabay ng Bayan, a Batangueño activist group, and later the Kabataang Makabayan.

He became more militant when martial law was declared in 1972. The following year he was arrested and detained in a military camp in Batangas City.

In November 1973, he and nine others bolted jail. It was after his escape that he joined the CPP-New People’s Army and became part of the guerrilla front established in the Laguna-Quezon border along the Sierra Madre mountains–the so-called Larangan ng Kagitingan or Front of Heroism.

Philippines: Communist rebels attack mining firm

MANILA : Suspected communist rebels in the Philippines attacked a mining company compound, while in another incident the rebels clashed with soldiers, the military said on Thursday.

GMA News reported that Major John Andrada, spokesman for the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, said about 40 New People’s Army (NPA) rebels on Wednesday attacked the compound of Drill Corp., a sub-contractor of Philex Mining Corp., in Nabulao village in Sipalay City in the central island of Negros. He said the rebels disarmed a security guard and burned the workers’ quarters as well as the personnel carrier truck.
According to Andrada, the rebels fled using a company’s vehicle, which was later found burned.
The Visayan Daily Star reported that the attack was an attempt to force the mining company to pay revolutionary taxes. Priest-turned-rebel Frank Fernandez said in an earlier statement that the revolutionary movement has been ordered to launch military and political struggles, aimed at stopping the ongoing mining explorations and operations of several mining companies that have pending mining rights applications in Negros.

Philippines: “Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan will fail to stop the advance of people’s war”

Members of the New People's Army of the Philippines

PRESS RELEASE:

Information Bureau

Communist Party of the Philippines

December 20, 2010

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today described the US-Aquino regime’s new counterinsurgency (COIN) campaign plan Bayanihan as “the same dog with a different collar.” The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is scheduled to unveil tomorrow its new COIN plan that will replace the previous Arroyo government’ Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL).

The OBL has been widely criticized for giving rise to the spate of extra-judicial killings and abductions targeting mainly social activists and critics of the government and the ruling system. It was known for its brutal military operations and other gross human rights abuses that have caused massive sufferings of the people, especially in suspected New People’s Army areas as well as those fighting in the legal and parliamentary arena.

More than a thousand people tagged by government military and security forces as “supporters of the NPA” were summarily executed by “death squads” identified with the AFP.

Philippines: New People’s Army carries out military operation in self-defense during ceasefire

During the ceasefire, the Philippine Army is continuing its counter-insurgency operations against the New People's Army and its strong base of political and military support among the people

Posted on Maoist Revolution, December 17, 2010

Press Release: Information Bureau, Communist Party of the Philippines

No treachery, truce violation in NPA ambush of operating Philippine Army troops in Samar

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today declared that “there was neither treachery nor a violation of the 19-day ceasefire declared by the CPP and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP),” when the New People’s Army (NPA) successfully carried out on December 14 an ambush against the operating troops of the Philippine Army’s 803rd Brigade in Las Navas, Northern Samar.

According to initial reports, the Red fighters were able to seize at least 10 high-powered firearms from the defeated Philippine Army unit.

“The CPP, NPA, NDFP and all revolutionary forces fully support the peace negotiations and faithfully abide by their declarations and commitments, including their December 16 to January 3 ceasefire declaration, simultaneous with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) ceasefire.”

As far as the CPP, NPA, NDFP and revolutionary forces are concerned, the Samar ambush last Tuesday should not in any way affect the progress of the peace negotiations. It was a legitimate act of war, carried-out in self-defense in response to an active enemy offensive operation,” the CPP said.

“On the other hand, the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mabanta’s claim of NPA treachery is hypocritical and turns on its head. In fact, it was the AFP forces that had treacherous intent in carrying out offensive operations against the NPA and the revolutionary mass base in the area just two days before the start of the simultaneous ceasefire.”

Communist Party of the Philippines welcomes order for release of the Morong 43, demands end to human rights abuses

International delegation of lawyers visit the Morong 43 at an army base

From http://www.phippinerevolution.net

[The Morong 43 are health workers who were arrested in February 2010 by units of the Armed Forces of the Philippines while they were attending a seminar in the coastal town of Morong in Rizal Province. The army accused them of being members of the banned New People’s Army.–Frontlines ed].

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today welcomed President Benigno Aquino’a order for the Department of Justice to withdraw charges against the Marong 43 as a boost of goodwill for the forthcoming resumption of peace negotiations.

Formal peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) are scheduled to resume in February 2011, in Oslo, Norway.

The withdrawal of charges against the Morong 43 is expected to be finalized by the DOJ [Department of Justice]  on Monday and pave the way for the immediate release of the detained health workers. Aquino’s order came weeks after repeatedly insisting that he cannot do anything except to await the court’s action, despite recognizing defects in the arrest of detainees and despite the fact that they have yet to be brought to court.

“The CPP and the revolutionary forces congratulate the Morong 43, their families, colleagues and supporters for their tenacious struggle and outstanding victory. These serve as inspiration in the fight of thousands of other victims of military abuses to defend their rights and in the effort to seek redress for the grave injustices inflicted on them by the puppet reactionary state and its fascist forces.”

Philippines: Successful ambush by New People’s Army is turned upside down by army disinformation

The Compostola Valley is located in southeast Mindanao, one of the two largest islands in the Philippines. Mindanao is currently the scene of intense fighting between the New People's Army and the Armed Forces of the Philippines

From http://www.philippinerevolution.net     December 5, 2010

10th ID-EastMinCom guilty of disinformation; NPA ambush kills five, wounds 10 elite Scout Rangers

By Daniel Ibarra, 
Spokesperson, Front 27 Operations Command
, NPA-Southern Mindanao

The Armed Forces of the Philippines’s 10th Infantry Division-Eastern Mindanao Command is again guilty of spreading disinformation to deceive the public and save face regarding the November 30 incident in Barangay Paloc, Maragusan, Compostela Valley province.

Initial disinformation released by the 10th ID-EastMinCom black propaganda machinery led by its spokesman, Lt. Col. Medel Aguilar, state that New People’s Army suffered six casualties — with a news from the Davao City-based Bombo Radyo even coming up with names of the four.

There is no truth to these reports. The truth is, the 50-man column of the 5th Scout Ranger Company of the 2nd Scout Ranger Battalion-AFP suffered heavy casualties resulting from the ambush by a platoon of Red fighters under the Rhyme Petalcorin Command Front 27 Operations Command-NPA.

Verified reports culled from eyewitness’s accounts reveal that at least five enemies were killed-in-action and another 10 were wounded-in-action. Three command-detonated claymore mines were switched, directly hitting the enemy. In fact, combat clearing operations were ordered immediately by the enemy higher command to make way for the aerial extraction and medical evacuation of their casualties. One Red fighter, Ka Boogie, was the lone casualty, martyred in the cause of the People’s War.

The massive militarization and intensified combat operations by the 10th ID-EastMinCom in Compostela Valley province and elsewhere is an attack against the rights and interests of the people in the countryside. Despite the “peace and development outreach” smokescreen, the people can see through the fascist machinations and pro-big business drive of the AFP under the new reactionary government. The incursions of 10th ID-EastMinCom in the guerilla bases and zones and their attacks against the toiling masses shall be punished accordingly.

 

Philippines: Underground youth group holds daring lightning rally, calls on youth to accelerate the revolutionary upsurge and join the New People’s Army

 

Manila police attack students in front of Malacanang, the presidential palace

Information Bureau, Communist Party of the Philippines, 2 December 2010

Posted on http://www.philippinerevolution.net

In celebration of the Kabataang Makabayan (KM, Patriotic Youth) 46th anniversary, hundreds of KM members joined today’s lightning rally near Malacañang, calling for support to the revolutionary movement’s objective to advance the peoples’war.

Masked students and youth joined the lightning rally bearing placards “KABATAAN, TUMUNGO SA KANAYUNAN, SUMAPI SA NPA!”, “REHIMENG US-AQUINO IBAGSAK!”, (“Go to the countryside, join the New People’s Army!”, “Down with the US-Aquino regime!”) “FILIPINO YOUTH, AWAKEN, JOIN THE NPA!”, “DOWN WITH US IMPERIALISM!”

“The revolutionary youth under KM declares its full commitment to advance the call of the Communist Party of the Philippines of fulfilling the strategic stalemate position vis-a-vis the rotten reactionary US-Aquino regime and its mercenary state security forces within five years,” states Ma. Laya Guerrero, KM spokesperson.

The participants of the lightning rally assembled at around 12:30 noon at the R. Papa St., barely a kilometer away from Malacañang palace, marched towards Morayta and Recto and dispersed near Avenida St. At the corner of Morayta and Recto, the group held a program that lasted for 10 minutes exorting the youth to join the New People’s Army (NPA).

“Under the aegis of imperialism particularly the United States of America, the Aquino regime has quickly shown its true colors of being anti-youth and anti-people. It has not departed from the hated polices of Arroyo regime that has bled the economy and push further impoverishment to our people. The Filipino youth has seen the monster in Aquino this early and we vow to make every day in his term a nightmare of protests.”

“As long as the rotten semi-feudal and semi-colonial system persists, the Filipino people and most especially the youth will rise up and heed to the calls of the times. There is no other solution but for the masses to tread the path of revolutionary struggle and join the NPA to ensure genuine change and brighter future for the Filipino youth and the next generation.”