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: 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: 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

As “peace talks” get no traction, Philippine government war on people’s resistance slated to expand

Revved-up counterinsurgency

AT GROUND LEVEL, by Satur C. Ocampo (The Philippine Star) | January 19, 2013

“I am now in a position to influence the implementation of (Oplan) Bayanihan as chief of staff because I now become its operational commander. Unlike when I was the CGPA (commanding general of the Philippine Army), I had a limited role as the force provider. But now I will have a direct hand in the implementation of Bayanihan.”

Thus declared Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Bautista, who became AFP chief last Thursday, regarding the Aquino government’s six-year counterinsurgency program for which he is credited as key author. Basically the program is lifted from the 2009 US Counterinsurgency Plan applied in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One can gather from his statement both a sense of relief and gratification: relief from frustration, as Army commander having had an ancillary or “limited role as the force provider,” and gratification for finally being put fully in-charge of implementing his own plan.

Hence the go-go spirit exuded by Gen. Bautista. He told the press he would “hasten the tempo” of the AFP’s 44-year-old campaign against the Left armed revolutionary movement, with the end-goal to “render irrelevant” the NPA and its armed struggle.

Going by the timeframe of Oplan Bayanihan, officially known as the Internal Peace and Security Plan, Bautista has to work really hard and fast. (His stint as AFP chief ends on July 20, 2014.) The plan calls for the “substantial completion” of the end-goal within the first three years of the program, or in 2011-2013.

This is because within 2014-2016 the AFP aspires to relinquish its lead role in counterinsurgency “to appropriate government agencies” so that it can “initiate its transition to a territorial defense-focused force.”

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.]

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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.

Philippines: “Outrage sweeps Mindanao over Tampakan massacre”

Protest of massacre by military and mining companies. Photo by Bulatlat

 

They are demanding the military to account for such “act of barbarity” and pull-out these troops “who have become attack dogs against lumads who are only defending their land from being turned into ugly mine sites.”

By WARREN CAHAYAG, davaotoday.com

Tupi, South Cotabato  – Anti-mining advocates led by church, lumads and progressive groups in Socsksargen and Davao strongly condemn the brutal slaying of the family of a Blaan anti mining leader in Tampakan, South Cotabato.

They are demanding the military to account for such “act of barbarity”, saying that relieving the perpetrators is not enough but the pull-out of these troops “who have become attack dogs against lumads who are only defending their land from being turned into ugly mine sites.”

The Mindanao Alliance of Indigenous Peoples, Kusog sa Katawhang Lumad sa Mindanao (KALUMARAN) said that the killing of Juvy Capion, the pregnant wife of anti-mining indigenous leader Daguil Capion and his two sons “was intentional and not a result of an encounter as claimed by the Philippine army.”

Philippines: “CPP denounces plans to revert Subic to US military use”

Press Release, Information Bureau –October 10, 2012

Communist Party of the Philippines

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemned proposals by officials of the Aquino regime to refurbish the military facilities of the former Subic Naval Base in order to accomodate the growing number of visiting US troops involved in various types of US military operations in the Philippines.

At the same time, the CPP denounced the arrival of more than 2,200 American troops purportedly joining the Philippine Amphibious Landing Exercise (PHIBLEX) with 1,600 soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in various parts of the Philippines from October 8-18. 

Philippines: Subic Bay “makeover” as new pivot for US warships

[This year has seen US power beginning to shift its central focus from the middle east to Asia.  In line with this, the Pentagon has been making new deals for military force “visitations” and deployments, from Okinawa to Guam, Australia, and Philippines, along with new force buildups in Hawaii, Taiwan, Korea, and “joint operational and training” arrangements with India, Vietnam and elsewhere.  This article, from Stars and Stripes (US military media) in June, discusses the refurbishing — “makeover” — of Subic Bay, the former and future US navy base in the Philippines. — Frontlines ed.]

By Travis J. Tritten, Stars and Stripes (US military media)

Philippine government gives OK for US to use old bases

Published: June 7, 2012

[A Filipino father and son watch the guided-missile frigate USS Crommelin get under way after participating in Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training Philippines (CARAT) exercise in October, 2010. U.S. and Philippine officials have agreed to expand joint military training in the Philippines, raising the prospect former U.S. bases could be reopened, the Marine Corps Times reported July 17, 2012.  Thomas Brennan/U.S. Navy]

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — The Philippine government said this week that the United States military is again welcome to use Subic Bay and the sprawling Clark Air Base, two decades after the installations were abandoned due to political friction with Manila, according to media reports.

Philippine Defense Undersecretary Honorio Azcueta said U.S. troops, ships and aircraft can make use of the old bases, as long as prior approval is granted by the government. Azcueta made the comments following a meeting with Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, who traveled to the country as part of a regional trip to generate support for a military pivot toward Asia, according to the Philippine Star newspaper.

The United States had key bases in the Philippines for decades after World War II, but relations broke down in the early 1990s, and the facilities were returned.

The announcement of an expanded military relationship this week comes after months of talks between Washington and Manila, and appears to be another step forward in the U.S. plan to bolster forces in the Asia-Pacific region.

“They can come here provided they have prior coordination from the government,” Azcueta said following the meeting at the Philippine military headquarters of Camp Aguinaldo in Manila, according to the Philippine Star newspaper. “That’s what we want … increase in exercises and interoperability.”

US hegemony-media on the US’ military “pivot” to Asia

[This year has seen US power beginning to shift its central focus from the middle east to Asia.  In line with this, the Pentagon has been making new deals for military force “visitations” and deployments, from Okinawa to Guam, Australia, and Philippines, along with new force buildups in Hawaii, Taiwan, Korea, and “joint operational and training” arrangements with India, Vietnam and elsewhere.  This article, from TIME magazine in July, explores the responses to, and embraces of, these US moves in the Philippines. — Frontlines ed.]

American ‘Pivot’ to Asia Divides the Philippines

Recent trouble in the South China Sea has renewed debate as to whether the U.S. is a trusted friend, or an old foe

By Catherine Traywick , TIME magazine, July 23, 2012

Romeo Ranoco / Reuters — Members of a militant women’s group hold up placards condemning the joint Philippine-U.S. military exercises during a protest in front of the U.S. embassy in Manila on April 27, 2012 

Bai Ali Indayla, a human-rights worker and antimilitary activist, has met just one American soldier. They convened at a picnic table inside a Philippine army camp in Mindanao in 2010 to discuss the alleged suicide of a Filipino who died under mysterious circumstances after starting a job with the U.S. military’s counterterrorism program. Indayla believed the death was suspicious, and she wanted answers, but her first and only interaction with a U.S. soldier earned her none. He was dismissive, she says, as well as arrogant and profane. After a brief and terse exchange, he walked out of the meeting without warning, and she walked away with all of her prejudices soundly affirmed.

The encounter, colored by her mistrust and his apparent indifference, reflects an enduring dynamic at play between two forces in Philippine society: the U.S. military, whose decades-long occupation of the islands eventually gave way to civil unrest, and a small but historically significant network of activists who believe the former’s presence is tantamount to neocolonialism. As China more aggressively asserts its claim over the South China Sea and the U.S. ponders a “pivot” to Asia, the gap between these groups seems to widen, calling fresh attention to the question of U.S.-Philippine ties.

The relationship between ordinary Filipinos and U.S. armed forces is a tortured one, dating back to America’s “liberation” of the Philippines from colonial Spain more than a century ago. The U.S. takeover of the Philippines in 1899 kicked off a short, bloody war, during which Filipinos were forced into reconcentrados (a type of concentration camp), massacred in their villages and subjected to a new torture technique now known as waterboarding. When the U.S. finally gave the Philippines its independence in 1945, sprawling American military bases remained — and with them, an exploding sex industry and a legacy of human-rights violations widely publicized by the national press.

A decades-long antimilitary movement culminated in the 1991 closure of American bases and the ousting of U.S. troops. Yet American forces have nevertheless maintained a limited but continuous presence in the country, where they conduct regular joint training exercises and have, in recent years, extended antiterrorism efforts. Dubbed “the second front of the war on terror” in 2002, western Mindanao has played host to 600-strong U.S. troop rotations as they pursue two al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups. Though officially base-less, barracks, ports and communications infrastructure emerged within and near the Philippine military camps that host American soldiers. This year, the Aquino administration granted the U.S. Navy permission to use the former U.S. base in Subic Bay for the service of U.S. warships.

As US-Philippine military drills begin, CPP opposes VFA and weighs its role in possible China conflict

[The US role in the Philippines, militarily, began with the US’ replacement of the Spanish as colonial master, and the defeat of Filipino independence forces.  The formal colonial relationship continued for a half-century, when a comprador, neo-colonial relationship was established, with strong US controls and a string of US military bases in place.  During the US war on Vietnam (as part of its strategic “encirclement of China” campaign), the US utilized the Philippines as a major staging area and base for aggression, which also brought in the period of Marcos’ martial law to ensure US control over rebellious Filipinos.  In the years after the war, US strategic planning reduced the US military from full-time deployment on bases, to a recurrent “Visiting Forces” role.  The US is now pressing for larger forces and a more established presence once again.  With US hegemony feeling pressure from the growth of Chinese imperialist economics and power, the sharpening dispute over the Spratley Islands (between the Philippines and China–and other “China Sea” disputes involving Vietnam, Japan, and Korea) may be a flashpoint as the Philippines are once again becoming a geo-strategic pivot for regional contention.  See the following 3 articles on how these forces, including the Communist Party of the Philippines, may see their role in the period ahead. — Frontlines ed.]

The PH, US Marines begin annual joint exercises

Philippine Daily Inquirer, Monday, October 8th, 2012

SUBIC Bay Freeport—The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) starts Monday joint exercises with soldiers of the United States (US) to strengthen their defense partnership amid continuing tensions between Manila and Beijing over the ownership of the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal and other disputed islands in the West Philippine (South China) Sea.

In a statement, First Lt. Cherry Tindog, director of the Philippine Marine Corps public affairs office, said the 10-day Philippines-US Amphibious Landing Exercise (Phiblex) 2013 would focus on humanitarian assistance, disaster response and relief preparedness, maritime security and community development.

Annual training

Tindog said Phiblex was held yearly, providing joint training not only to Philippine Marines and US troops, but also the Philippine Army, Air Force and Navy.

The US helicopter carrier USS Bonhomme Richard, escorted by two frigates, arrived in this free port on Friday carrying 2,200 American troops. The ship carries amphibious assault vehicles, light armored vehicles, helicopters and Harrier fighter jets.

The USS Olympia, a submarine, docked here on Thursday, but it was not clear if it will join the exercises. The US Embassy, in a statement, said the Olympia’s visit “highlights the strong historic, community and military connections” between the US and the Philippines.

Exercise venues

The training venues are the Subic Bay International Airport here; Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija; Marine Barracks Gregorio Lim in Ternate, Cavite; Crow Valley in Tarlac; Naval Station

Apolinario Jalandoon in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, and the Naval Education Training Command in San Antonio, Zambales.

“[The conduct of Phiblex 2013] perpetuates a long and lasting partnership founded firmly on the common heritage between freedom-loving countries committed to true service and the preservation of liberty and democracy,” the Phiblex command said in a statement.

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Robert Gonzaga, Inquirer Central Luzon

Local Reds vow to fight with PH forces vs Chinese aggression

By Dennis Jay Santos, Inquirer Mindanao, Friday, September 28th, 2012

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Philippine communist rebels, while embracing the ideology of Mao Zedong, will not side with China in the event the two countries’ territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) gets ugly.

Jorge Madlos, spokesperson of National Democratic Front in Mindanao, said New People’s Army rebels will fight alongside government security forces if China declared war on the Philippines.

“If there is a direct foreign invasion of our country, the focus of the revolutionary movement would be to fight the foreign aggressor,” Madlos, also known as Ka Oris, told the Inquirer in a telephone interview.

Philippines: Iron cyber-fist in faux democratic velvet glove

Media groups, Filipinos protest tough cyber law

By HRVOJE HRANJSKI | Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Media groups and Filipinos stepped up calls for repealing a tough new law that targets cybercrime but activists fear will be used to suppress online freedoms in the Southeast Asian nation.

The Cybercrime Prevention Act took effect Wednesday despite last-minute petitions to the Supreme Court to stop it. The justices said they will take up the issue next week.

The law is envisioned as a measure against hacking, identity theft, spamming, cybersex and online child pornography. But citizens and groups who protested on social networking sites, blogs and out in the streets fear politicians will use it to silence critics.

The law contains a provision that says libel — which is already punishable by up to six years in prison — is also a cybercrime. It doubles cumulative penalties for online offenses and allows government agencies to search, seize and destroy computer data deemed libelous.

Associated Press/Aaron Favila – Filipino journalists and some media group leaders hold their petitions against the Cybercrime Prevention Act as they submitted them to the Supreme Court in Manila, Philippines

Philippines: Catholic Church leader an illegal ivory smuggler and pedophile?

[The neo-colonial domination of the Philippines by imperialism has long relied upon semi-feudal and comprador forces to ensure the ongoing subservience of the islands.  A crucial part of this equation has been the role of the Catholic Church.  Sections of the Catholic Church have, for many years, been cultivated as allies by activists in the Philippines, but new exposures of crimes by church leaders (long sheltered by the hierarchy) has raised anew the necessity of struggle against the Church itself.   —  Frontlines ed.]

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Msgr. Cristobal Garcia, known pedophile and accused ivory smuggler, here leading a Catholic “traslacion” procession in Mandaue City, Cebu in 2011

September 26, 2012

Priest Included in Philippines Investigation of Ivory Smuggling

By ANDREW C. REVKIN

There’s an important development in the global ivory wars, stemming directly from the great National Geographic article (explored on Dot Earth recently) that focused on the demand created by the market for religious icons carved from elephant tusks. A Catholic priest, whose statements about ways to illicitly ship ivory to the United States were featured in the magazine article, is being investigated by government authorities in the Philippines. Here are the details, as reported by Floyd Whaley out of Manila for The Times:

MANILA — Philippine law enforcement officials said on Wednesday that they were investigating whether a senior priest in the Roman Catholic Church was involved in the smuggling of elephant ivory to feed country’s passion for religious icons.

The investigation was prompted by an article in the October issue of National Geographic magazine that quotes Msgr. Cristóbal Garcia, a senior church official on the central Philippine island of Cebu, as telling an American reporter how to smuggle illegal elephant ivory figurines into the United States. “Wrap it in old, stinky underwear and pour ketchup on it,” he is quoted as saying, to deter inspection.

Philippines: “Shatter the illusion of the ‘righteous road'”

[This article from Ang Bayan by the Communist Party of the Philippines, takes a look at the current Aquino regime’s cultivation of petty-bourgeois illusions (of progress and reform) and support for the Philippines’ comprador relations with the US.  It argues that only through breaking with the US can corruption be ended, and can progress and reform take place.  The article does not speak to the Philippines’ relations (today and in the future) with other imperialists who wait in the wings, nor to whether the democratic struggle it promotes is linked to socialist revolution–and if so, if this is a distant prospect or one that is more contemporary.  In a period when some parties internationally have de-linked the democratic struggle from socialist revolution, this question deserves the attention of revolutionaries everywhere. — Frontlines ed.]

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Editorial, Ang Bayan, August 07, 2012

Under the guidance of its imperialist master, the Aquino regime is relentlessly conjuring the illusion of the “righteous road” and has been pouring in funds, lavishing attention and providing personnel to deceptive showcase projects.

This is an indication of the depths of the crisis of the ruling system. The regime wants to deceive the people, create false hopes of a better life and nip in the bud their determination to put an end to the rotten exploitative system.

These programs are particularly aimed at winning over the middle sectors of society, including the urban and rural petty bourgeoisie, using the framework of “good governance.”

It is crucial for the ruling classes to “gain the trust” of the petty bourgeoisie to maintain the stability of the ruling system. The petty bourgeoisie are forcibly isolated from the movements of the toiling masses and distanced from the path of revolutionary change. They are inundated by glittering propaganda and enticed through idealist slogans that are attuned to their dreams of making it big even as they partake of “concrete changes” as individuals, without disturbing the current order of things and abandoning their personal dreams.

Schools, the mass media and the internet are awash with the Aquino regime’s propaganda and programs to hoodwink and seduce the petty bourgeoisie. Their closest partners in this sinister endeavor to mobilize the petty bourgeoisie for attention-grabbing but limited housing, education and health programs are agencies appendaged to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB), the US Agency for International Development (USAID) or the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

“Resist Oplan Bayanihan in South Quezon-Bondoc Peninsula”

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.