New Peoples Army \ Communist Party of the Philippines

Fodla32 · January 20, 2013

Fodla32 · January 20, 2013

Tensions rise between police and affected residents of Brgy. Runruno, Quezon, Nueva Vizcaya, the Philippines, as efforts of an Australian mining firm to demolish houses at a proposed dump site for mine waste was met with hostility in December 2012. Indigenous people in the area have repeatedly told officials of the offshore company that their land is not for sale. http://gmane.ws/TWCzVH

Fodla32 · January 20, 2013

Andres Bonifacio Protest Day March, Manila; U.S. Embassy; Mendiola .

Lugh Ildánach · January 25, 2013

http://www.philippinerevolution.net/statements/the-philippines-between-two-greedy-giants

Interview with Prof. Jose Maria Sison

Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philippines

By John Toledo

Features Editor, Philippine Collegian

1. Historically, who are the original claimants of the West Philippine Sea? Where did this dispute come from? Who are the claimants today?

Prof. Jose Maria Sison (JMS): Let us first put into context what you refer to as the West Philippine Sea. The Spratlys are a group of 250 islets plus the shoals and reefs spread over 265,542 square kilometers. They are claimed entirely by China, Taiwan and Vietnam and in part by Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines. The part of the Spratlys claimed by the Phiippines is what it calls the Kalayaan group of islets located in the West Philippine Sea.

China, Taiwan and Vietnam claim ownership of all the Spratlys supposedly since ancient times on the basis of historical references, seasonal visits by their fishermen and assertions of claims against colonizers as well as yielding of the Spratlys by the Japanese to the French and thus to Vietnam in the San Francisco peace treaty after World War II. Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines claim parts of the Spratlys that are geographically closest to them and within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone under the UN Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) plus prehistorical and historical claims that the islets concerned have long been the fishing grounds of their respective fishermen.

2. Why is the West Philippine Sea being claimed by China and Philippines? Is it economically and politically useful? Why or why not?

China arrogantly claims not only the entire Spratlys but also the entire sea south and east of China as its property and by making military shows of strength to assert its claims. But the Kalayaan group of islets, the Recto (Reed ) and Panatag Shoal (Scarborough) are all within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines under the UNCLOS. It is wrong for China to claim these.

In economic terms, the contested islets and shoals and the waters around them are at least rich fishing grounds and sources of corals but they also have a high potential as sources of gas and oil. The Recto Bank is well known for having rich gas and oil deposits as a result of explorations. In political and military terms, the contested islets and shoals can serve as outposts for military vessels and for controlling navigation and commerce or evoking power and influence.

3. Why is US joining in the conflict? Why is it strategic for US to support the Philippines with many armed forces and materials?

The US is fishing in troubled waters. As a matter of fact, it is responsible for stirring up trouble in the first place. It has undertaken controlled trouble-making just to make the Philippine reactionary puppet government run to it for support, to have the reason for entrenching US military forces in the Philippines and to have the Philippines as a base for influencing policies and development within China. The US has strategic objectives in using the Philippines as a strategic base in the US encirclement of China.

4. Is it logically possible that China will wage war on the Philippines because of this West Philippine Sea dispute? Or is it just a ploy for US to wage war with China? Why or why not?

China will not wage war on the Philippines but it will continue to take calculated actions, including shows of force, to discourage and prevent Philippine attempts to control and occupy the contested islets and develop the gas and oil resources there. Neither will the US wage war with China to support the Philippines in the territorial dispute. It has far more economic and political interests in good relations with China than in those with the Philippines.

The US has repeatedly proclaimed that it is neutral in the territorial dispute between China and Philippines. The most it can say is that it is militarily entrenching itself in the Philippines in order to discourage China from attacking the Philippines. However, it will not act militarily against the calculated military moves of China to prevent Philippine attempts to explore and develop the gas and oil resources in the contested islets and shoals.

But China and the US might even make a deal to exploit the gas and oil resources for the benefit of US and Chinese corporations and some big comprador Filipino-Chinese firms or the Indonesian-Chinese firm (Salim group) being managed by Manuel V. Pangilinan. The whole world knows that the mineral ores of the Philippines are being wantonly excavated by US, Japanese, Canadian, Australian, Swiss, Chinese and other foreign firms, together with their big comprador allies. And China has been a major destination of the mineral ores.

In an attempt to look nationalist, the US-Aquino regime is obviously play-acting against China over the well-hyped territorial disputes. It is well within the bounds of the collaboration between the US and China. The US is steering the Philippine government towards the attainment of the narrow self-interest and strategic objectives of the US.

One more reason why the US is entrenching itself militarily in the Philippines and using this as part of the US encirclement of China is not to wage war soon but to influence policies and developments in China. The US is trying to realize the complete privatization of the most strategic state-owned enterprises in China and to promote the liberalization of Chinese politics to the point of doing away with the authoritarian rule and causing the weakening or even disintegration of the bureaucrat monopoly capitalism.

5. What are the implications of the Sino-Philippine territorial dispute in relation to the sovereignty of the Philippines?

What is tragic about the Philippine ruling system of big compradors and landlords is that it is weak and servile to imperialist powers and that both the US and China take advantage of the Philippines. The US pretends to protect the Philippines but it is a bantay salakay. Having long become a capitalist country, China cannot be expected to be a gentle and generous giant.

The Filipino people can best assert their national sovereignty and defend their territorial integrity by overthrowing the ruling system and establishing a people´s democratic state that is truly independent and democratic, determined to carry out land reform and industrialization, realizes social justice and aims for socialism. Such a state is capable of using effective diplomacy and defending its territory against intruders.

Fodla32 · February 26, 2013

Worst among martial law torturers are still in power--CPP

Communist Party of the Philippines

February 26, 2013

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said not one of the torturers of the Marcos martial law regime has been punished for the grave abuses of human rights committed as officers and men of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), 27 years after the overthrow of the fascist dictator through the EDSA Uprising of 1986.

“The victims of the martial law regime have long demanded recognition for their struggles and compensation for the abuses they suffered under the martial law regime,” said the CPP in reaction to the signing of the martial law compensation law yesterday. “However, they demand much more.”

“The Filipino people have long sought punishment for the worst among the torturers and abusers of human rights, as well as the plunderers and most corrupt officials, bureaucrat capitalists and cronies of Marcos, many of whom are presently in government or in big business,” said the CPP.

“Among the worst torturers of the martial law regime were then Col. Gregorio ‘Gringo’ Honasan and then Col. Panfilo Lacson, who are now both members of the reactionary Senate,” pointed out the CPP. “They were among the principal agents of then Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile, chief martial administrator and warden of Marcos’ dungeons.”

“The AFP has been among the biggest stumbling blocks in the struggle to achieve justice for the victims of military abuses under martial law and under the post-Marcos regimes,” said the CPP.

“Not once has the AFP officially condemned, repudiated and punished any of its officials behind the torture of tens of thousands who rose up against Marcos’ martial law regime.”

“Add to this the officers of the AFP, including Gen. Jovito Palparan, who are responsible for the spate of fascist brutalities over the past several years, and who remain under military protection and have yet to be punished for their innumerable crimes against humanity.”

“The AFP reeks of hypocrisy in declaring its support for the compensation law,” said the CPP. “In refusing to condemn its own officers involved in the torture and other abuses of martial law and succeeding regimes, the AFP furthers the culture of impunity. The abuses under Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan reminds us all that martial law has never been completely dismantled.”

“The Aquino regime mocks the EDSA I Uprising in patronizing the people’s democratic upheaval while promoting historical amnesia in allowing the minions of the Marcos dictatorship, including his uncle Eduardo ‘Danding’ Cojuangco, to continue to lord it over Philippine society,” pointed out the CPP.

http://www.philippin...ll-in-power-cpp

Fodla32 · April 4, 2013

US presence may drag Philippines to military tensions in Korean peninsula

Communist Party of the Philippines

April 03, 2013

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) warned that the constant presence of US naval warships and armed American troops in the Philippines may drag the country to military tensions in the Korean pensinsula and a possible US-led war of aggression against the people and government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and called for an immediate end to the “all-out access policy” of allowing US-led foreign troops unrestricted intrusion to Philippine territory.

At the same time, the CPP echoed the demand of the Korean people to lift the economic blockade against the DPRK and respect the country’s right to self-determination, including the country’s right to develop nuclear, rocket and space technology for economic progress.

Over the past several weeks, the government of the DPRK has been issuing bellicose threats after the US flew at least two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force against North Korea. The US has heightened economic sanctions in the vain hope of making the DPRK kneel before its imperial power.

Last March 30, the DPRK government declared that it was in a “state of war” with South Korea after putting an end to the truce agreement forged in 1953 and has subsequently cut communication lines.

“The Filipino people and their revolutionary forces denounce the US imperialists for further intensifying the tension in the Korean peninsula by making threatening fly-bys of its nuclear-capable bombers and building up its military strength near the DPRK,” said the CPP.

“By using the Philippines as one of its key military stations and puppets in the Asia-Pacific, the US is putting the Philippines in the crosshairs of its enemies,” said the CPP. “By acting subserviently to the US, the Aquino regime allows the US to use the Philippines as a pawn in its geo-political strategy and wars of aggression.”

Yesterday, the US military deployed another naval warship in the Korean peninsula. The USS Decatur, a guided-missile destroyer, sailed into the area in addition to the USS John McCain.

There are close to 30,000 American soldiers in South Korea which hosts at least 20 US military bases and facilities. The US also maintains around 50,000 troops in Japan which hosts US Pacific Command’s military base. http://www.philippin...n-peninsula-cpp

Members of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards of the DPRK shouting anti-U.S. slogans.

lenin86 · August 25, 2013

New People’s Army defends environment, ancestral domain

August 25, 2013

More punitive actions shall be meted out by the New People’s Army to the reactionary armed forces and capitalist invaders in Loreto and other towns in Agusan del Sur to defend the masses from encroachment, human rights atrocities and dislocation.

It is only proper and rightful on the part of the Lumad Manobos and peasant masses to stand up and defend themselves against the onslaught of landgrabbing and plunder of their ancestral lands. That they shield their families from the abuses of the Philippine Army and evacuate to safer sanctuaries like Davao City reflect their independent tenacity and militant struggle to defend what is rightly theirs. As they expose the gross neglect and reactionary stance of civilian authorities like Gov. Eddiebong Plaza and Mayor Dario Otaza, they are rightfully holding the latter accountable for the torture, intimidation, and reign of terror perpetrated by the enemy.

While the peasant masses and national minorities struggle to defend their ancestral domain, Red fighters are determined to raise its capability to launch more and bigger tactical offensives against the enemies of the people.

Operatives belonging to the Comval North Davao South Agusan Sub regional Command-NPA have launched series of ambuscades against elements of the 26th Infantry Battalion and the 76th IB under the 4th Infantry Division-AFP since July to punish them for serving as goons to Loreto Mayor Otaza and his capitalist masters. The punitive actions, in the form of command detonated explosions and sniping operations have yielded to date 27 casualties in the Philippine Army and bagani paramilitary forces.

On July 27, the NPA harassed a team of soldiers in Binucayan, Sitio Onion twice during dawn time and in the afternoon; 2 soldiers belonging to the 76th IB and one paramilitary bagani were killed. On August 1, the NPA ambushed using a capto explosive in Barangay Pangkat hitting a military truck km40, killing four and wounding eight elements of the 26th IB. Since July 28 to August 7 in Brgy. Sabud Mansanitas, the soldiers were sniped by the NPA seven times wherein four 26th IB soldiers were killed and two were wounded. On August 8 at 6am, the NPA ambushed the 26th IB soldiers in Barangay Kauswagan, killing five and wounding one.

The NPA abides with the strict command and regulations of the People’s Democratic Government to thwart any AFP unit from entering guerrilla zones and prevent these troops from spewing tyranny and committing the worse forms of atrocities to the people. Red fighters follows orders to seize all opportunities in order to mete out blows against the fascist troops and punish them for bringing in companies that violate the policies and laws of the revolutionary government. The NPA undertakes punitive operations against notorious enemy elements, despotic businessmen and landlords, and known civilian assets—some of whom are under cover of business or government entities.

The entry of palm oil and large-scale mining companies in Loreto violates the policies set forth by the revolutionary government on environmental protection, against plunder of the country’s remaining natural resources and defense of ancestral territories. It directly contravenes the land reform program of the People’s Democratic Government.

As peasants and Lumads wallow in abject poverty in Loreto and other towns in Agusan del Sur, capitalists are salivating over its untapped resources for palm oil and mining wealth. The world’s leading palm oil magnate New British Palm Oil Limited is eyeing 36,000 hectares covering 11 villages in Loreto. Last year, individual agents for bugang and biofuel investors have approached Lumads and attempt to obtain their ancestral lands. The sharks offered to rent out ancestral lands for a fee of P35,000 for every hectare, covering a period of 25 years. Simple math would show that the lowly peasant or Lumad owner would only earn P1,400 a year or a measly P117 a month or P4 a day.

The masses are not fooled and can see through these wildly exploitative schemes. They, who have suffered from Typhoon Pablo and the continuing neglect of the US-Aquino regime, realize that these quick-money maneuvers are hugely disadvantageous. They realize that no genuine development can be had by the biofuel, palm oil plantations, nor in natural gas mining—projects that are heavily endorsed by the local reactionary government.

Indeed, true development is only within reach for the thousands of peasants in Loreto and in the countryside under the agrarian revolution program of the People’s Democratic Government. The NPA intensifies the armed struggle as the people advance the agrarian revolution. It is in direct contrast to the military’s so-called peace and development programs and the local government’s red carpet treatment for capitalist investors.

Thus, it is only through the people’s democratic revolution, not the military’s peace and development nor the pseudo development programs of the local government that can truly change the lives of peasants and Lumads in Loreto and elsewhere in the countryside.

The main content of the revolution is the fulfillment of the peasants’ demand for land and eradication of feudal and semi-feudal exploitation. Drastically reducing land rent, eliminating usury, free distribution of land and promoting productive cooperation-—these are activities that the 26th IB and 76th IB, paramilitary and the local reactionary government cannot surely do. Letting peasant associations function as cooperatives and mutual aid groups and permitting peasants to freely develop their own farms while cultivating communal farms are alien concepts in the so-called peace and development program of Oplan Bayanihan.

Thus, any pledge on the part of the military and the local reactionary bureaucracy in Agusan to give the peasants peace would merely be deceptive. The military and Mayor Otaza are intent in dismantling people’s organizations and structures that protect and serve the interest of the masses. Mayor Otaza himself has vowed to destroy the farms of the masses and wipe out the NPA during his term. In the face of an extremely militarist and arrogant bureaucracy, and by further exploiting and oppressing the masses, the reactionary state merely foment people’s resistance and revolutionary tide.

(sgd.) Aris Francisco

Spokesperson

Comval North Davao South Agusan Sub Regional Command

http://www.systemiccapital.com/new-peoples-army-defends-environment-ancestral-domain/

Fodla32 · September 14, 2013

Beautiful People

lenin86 · March 11, 2014

12 slain in communists attack in Philippines

Ten members of the security forces and two communists were killed in a string of guerrilla attacks targeting Philippine police and military on Monday, officials said.

A bullet-riddled military truck is parked outside a police station in Matanao town, Davao del Sur province in southern island of Mindanao on March 10, 2014, after communist rebels attacked a police station and a military outpost

At least 50 New People's Army (NPA) Maoistes overwhelmed a small group of policemen at the police station in Matanao on the southern island of Mindanao at dawn, said local military spokesman Captain William Rodriguez.

"They fell on the town riding trucks and a small bus, about 50 of them... thirty minutes later (other) rebels also attacked a (local military) detachment but they were not successful there," he told reporters.

An AFP photographer saw bloodstains on the floor in front of the police station, while ripped pieces of paper lay scattered on the hallway.

Two policemen were killed and three others wounded in the raid on the police station itself, while the two of the raiders, who were wearing military uniforms, also died, Rodriguez said.

One of the three wounded policemen later died in hospital, a military statement later said in an updated official toll.

Seven soldiers died and another seven were wounded about five hours later when their vehicle triggered a roadside bomb as they pursued the retreating Maoistes, the military spokesman said.

The AFP photographer saw a disabled camouflage-hued military truck sitting in the middle of the road amid civilian vehicle traffic in the afternoon, hours after the bomb attack.

The truck's windshield and hood were riddled with bullet holes.

Rodriguez said the rebels stole 10 firearms from the police armoury in Matanao, a hilly farming town of about 52,000 people located about 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) south of the Philippine capital Manila.

In total, about 100 guerrillas were estimated to have taken part in the coordinated attacks, said Senior Superintendent Ronaldo Llanera, the police chief of Davao del Sur province.

Nine suspected NPA guerrillas were later arrested as the security forces in Davao del Sur put up checkpoints to try and catch the raiders, Rodriguez said.

The government estimates that the armed Maoistes has claimed about 30,000 lives since it began in 1969 in a guerrilla campaign to overthrow the government and establish a Maoist regime.

However the military says the guerrillas' armed force is down to about 4,000 fighters from more than 26,000 in the late 1980s.

The rebels remain active in the hinterlands of the Philippine archipelago, attacking the military and police as well as rural businesses that resist their extortion demands.

The Philippine government has engaged the Maoist rebels in on-and-off peace negotiations since the 1980s but the talks have repeatedly stalled due to what the government says are conditions imposed by the Maoistes.

The last attempt to revive the talks ended with the government declaring that they had collapsed in April 2013.

lenin86 · March 11, 2014

Suspected NPA rebels burn nickel firm’s dump trucks

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Philippines — Suspected New People’s Army rebels burned two dump trucks working for a nickel mining company operating in the town of Sofronio Española, southern Palawan Sunday night, police said Monday morning.

An initial report received by the Provincial Police Office in Palawan showed that eight communist rebels flagged down the vehicles while on their way to the pier in Sitio Ulnog, Barangay Pulot Interior in Sofronio Espanola town to unload ore from the stockpiles of Citinickel Mining Corp. for shipment at 8:30 p.m.

After seizing the vehicles and freeing its crew, the rebels doused the trucks with gasoline and set them on fire on the road side before fleeing.

Insp. Pearl Marzo, the provincial police office spokeperson, and the spokesman of the Citinickel Mining Corp. both confirmed the attack in separate statements. Government troops have been deployed to pursue the rebels believed to be operating around the area.

“We are still completing the investigation,” Marzo told Philippine Daily Inquirer. The NPA in Palawan has not released a statement concerning the attack.

Pamela Miguel, Citinickel spokesperson, said in a radio interview Monday morning that they did not receive any demand from the NPA before the attack.

“I am not aware of any demand, not in my level,” she said in Filipino. Miguel added that the trucks were owned by a trucking contractor of Citinickel, Cherry Construction Inc.

Citinickel was recently a subject of a complaint raised by indigenous communities in Espanola about the company’s failure to release their royalty share from the mining operations’ profit as required by the Philippine Mining Code.

“Ang kabuuan hindi pa nairerelease (the entire amount has yet to be released) but we have made partial releases for scholarships that they asked. That was coming from their royalty funds,” Miguel said.

Citinickel is majority-owned by Caroline Tanchay’s Oriental Peninsula Resources Group that controls several large blocks of mining claims in the nickel-rich southern Palawan towns of Sofronio Espanola and Narra.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/583979/suspected-npa-rebels-burn-nickel-firms-dump-trucks

lenin86 · March 12, 2014

NPA rebels own up deadly attacks in Philippines; vow to strike at plantations, mining firms

DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 11, 2014) – Communist rebels have owned up to daring and deadly attacks on police and military targets in the southern Philippines that killed at least a dozen people.

Dencio Madrigal, a spokesman for the New People's Army-Valentine Palamine Command, said the attacks on a police base and military forces in Davao del Sur’s Matanao town were punishment for their “reign of terror” against indigenous tribes and other communities opposing mining operations in the province.

“The March 10 police headquarters raid and ambush demonstrated the NPA’s determination to punish the fascist AFP and PNP units operating in Davao del Sur and its boundaries. The 39th Infantry Battalion remains as security forces and fascist thugs of Glencore Xstrata - a mining giant poised to continue to exploit the nearly 100,000 hectares of mining-rich ancestral lands of Lumad Blaans and peasants in the region.”

“The AFP and PNP units in Matanao and other towns in Davao del Sur deserved to be disarmed and punished because in their defense of Xstrata mining, they have killed, injured, discharged aerial bombs, all part of their reign of terror against the Lumad and settlers communities who have fiercely battled against mining since 1992 when the project was still under the Western Mining Corporation,” Madrigal said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.

Madrigal said rebel forces seized seven M16 automatic rifles and several ammunition vests, two 9 mm pistols, one .45-caliber pistol, and a radio communication set from the police headquarters. He said the raid left 3 policemen and two other lawmen were killed in the fighting that also left two rebels dead.

He also accused the police of coddling drug pushers and other criminal syndicates in the province. “They are, thus, legitimate targets of the people’s army at any time of the year,” he said.

Madrigal also condemned the arrest of 9 innocent civilians on suspicion they were part of the NPA forces that attacked in Matanao town. “Their failure at intelligence work, notwithstanding, the Matanao PNP trained its eyes against nine hapless civilians, namely, Renante Urot, Joey Alberca, Rufoboy Gama, Laudemer Gama, Noel Morangit, Roger Natonton, Julio Sales, John Rey Pabillo and Christopher Sales.”

“The police tagged them as NPA members and arrested the group after the raid, at 7 in the morning. The civilians were on their way to attend a fiesta at Barangay Savoy in Matanao when they were illegitimately arrested,” he said.

Madrigal said 9 soldiers were also killed, including Lt. Ludevico Alejo; and 7 more wounded after rebels remotely detonated a military truck carrying reinforcements in the village of Asbang. He also dismissed allegations by the Eastern Mindanao Command that the NPA has been using landmines.

“It is hypocritical for the Philippine government and the AFP to condemn the NPA’s continued use of command detonated explosives as the latter's main weapon of choice for guerrilla warfare. The country’s mining laws and the state’s counter-insurgency policy, the Oplan Bayanihan, have resulted in the massive and indiscriminate pillage of resources, killings, and displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilian communities,” he said, adding mining companies are legitimate target of the NPA.

NPA targets

Jorge Madlos, a regional rebel spokesman, has previously warned mining firms and fruit plantations in the southern Philippines.

“Military operations in Mindanao have escalated and have become more extensive with the aim to thwart the ever growing and widespread people’s protest against destructive mining operations and plantations owned by imperialists, the big comprador bourgeois and big landlords. “

“After having ravaged the environment by way of wanton logging, imperialists and the local ruling clique insidiously intend to inflict even greater devastation to the environment; and, to deprive, oppress and exploit further the Lumads, Moro, peasants and workers in order to satiate their greed for super profit,” he said.

Madlos said among their targets are Russell Mines and Minerals, Apex Mining Corp. and Philco in southern Mindanao; Dolefil, Del Monte and Sumifru plantations in northern Mindanao; TVI Resource Development Philippines whose operations in ancestral domain of indigenous Subanen and Moro tribes are being opposed by the rebel group.

“If one recalls, more than 400 families were forced to evacuate their ancestral lands because of TVI and the ruthless military operations that ensued to protect it in Buug, Zamboanga del Sur. In order to defend the people’s human rights and general wellbeing, the NPA launched tactical offensives against TVI as well as against units of the AFP-PNP-CAFGU protecting it, such as the ambush on February 2012 that hit elements of the army intelligence group operating on the behest of TVI and the imposition of the local government to allow TVI mining operations on Subanen ancestral lands is one of the bases the NPA raided on April 9, 2012 the PNP station in Tigbao, Zamboanga del Sur,” Madlos said.

NPA rebels also intercepted a group of army soldiers who were using a borrowed truck from TVI and disarmed them in Diplahan town in Zamboanga Sibugay province two years ago. The rebels also burned the truck before releasing the soldiers.

“In view of these events, the NDFP in Mindanao calls upon the Lumad and Moro peoples, peasants and workers, religious and other sectors to further strengthen their unity and their courage to oppose the interests of imperialist mines and plantations, which are exceedingly damaging to Mindanao, to its people and to the environment. We call upon the units of the NPA in Mindanao to be ever more daring in their defense of people’s interests against the greed and rapacity of the local ruling classes and their imperialist master,” Madlos said.

TVI Resource Development Philippines has repeatedly denied all accusations against them. It recently ended its gold mining operation in Mount Canatuan in Zamboanga del Norte’s Siocon town after several years of operations and now has a gold-silver project in the town of Bayog in Zamboanga del Sur province and a nickel plant in Agusan del Norte province.

It is among mining companies operating in Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga del Norte that had been attacked in the past by Muslim and communist rebels. (Mindanao Examiner)

http://www.mindanaoexaminer.com/news.php?news_id=20140311105212

lenin86 · March 13, 2014

Block the US-Aquino regime's cha-cha schem

to watch clip click link below

lenin86 · March 16, 2014

Report from Ka Maria a formidable Philippines fighter and thinker

lenin86 · March 16, 2014

CPP denounces Aquino regime for offering US access to military bases

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemns the Aquino regime for selling out Philippine sovereignty in forging a new military agreement with the US government that is set to bolster the presence of US troops in the Philippines by officially granting them the privilege of setting up military facilities in the country.

Negotiations between security and military officials of the Obama and Aquino regimes are being rushed to prepare the treaty tentatively known as the Agreement on Enhanced Defense Cooperation in order to have it ready for presentation during the upcoming visit of US President Barack Obama in April.

“The new military treaty is bound to be as perfidious and violative of Philippine sovereignty as all previous agreements such as the Mutual Defense Treaty, the Military Bases Agreement and the Visiting Forces Agreement,” said the CPP.

“For over three years now, the Aquino regime has displayed out and out puppetry to the US military and government that so-called negotiations with its imperialist master can only turn out to be farce.”

In news reports today, negotiators of the Aquino regime said the most recent draft of the military agreement will allow the US military to set up facilities within AFP military camps or bases.

“This agreement is a throwback to the era of US military bases, where thousands of US combat troops, their warships, jetfighters, communication facilities, nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction were stationed within the country, and where the bases were used as launching pads for aggression in defense of US interests,” said the CPP.

“The so-called enhanced cooperation will be bringing back the Military Bases Agreement and worse, allow the US military access to facilities practically all over the country,” pointed out the CPP. “Wherever the AFP is, the US military can be also. Wherever the AFP is not, the US military can finance the AFP to set up or expand its military camps.”

The CPP cited the Aquino regime’s rush to construct and expand facilities within and around the AFP’s naval bases in Oyster and Ulugan Bays, both in Palawan, in order to address the demand for larger and more modern ports to accomodate the increasing number of US warships docking in the Philippines. “Thus, the funds of the AFP modernization program are essentially being used to upgrade facilities to be used by the US military.”

“Aquino’s Amboy officials are fooling the people when they claim that the servant who prepares the best room for his master can and will demand his master to let him enter the room to look around to make sure that the master will follow his house rules,” said the CPP. “The pretentious master can allow his servant to look around to make him feel as if he actually owns his home, but will not actually allow the servant to scrutinize his luggage.”

“How can the Filipino people ever trust the Philippine military and the puppet Philippine government to defend national sovereignty in the face of its obsequiousness to the US military which supplies its weaponry and provides for its “modernization,” training and indoctrination,” said the CPP.

“Negotiations between the US military and the Aquino regime have been going on for close to two years now, yet very scant information as to the details of the draft agreement has been made public. Aquino’s defense and military negotiators must be held responsible for keeping the Filipino people in the dark on a matter of crucial importance as one involving the country’s sovereignty.”

CPP Information Bureau

MORE…

http://www.ndfp.net/web2014/index.ph...military-bases

lenin86 · March 18, 2014

21-gun salute for all the heroes of the New People’s Army and the people’s democratic revolution

On the occasion of the 45-year milestone of the New People’s Army (NPA), let us give the highest honors to all fallen Red commanders and fighters of the NPA and heroes and martyrs of the Filipino people’s national democratic revolution.

Let us pay tribute as well to all the eminent proletarian revolutionaries who have persisted in four decades of arduous struggle and who continue to help lead and guide the people’s democratic revolution as it set its sights on the next higher phase of the people’s war.

It is with their sacrifices and selflessness that the Filipino people have achieved great victories in waging their national democratic revolutionary struggle. Let us recall and have their names etched forever in the Filipino people’s granite wall memorial which we shall erect at the moment of complete victory of the people’s democratic revolution.

Let us make use of the upcoming 45th anniversary of the NPA’s establishment to celebrate the people’s victories in waging revolutionary armed struggle, carrying out agrarian revolution to smash land monopolies and improve the conditions of the peasant masses and building the organs of the people’s democratic government from the ground up. Let us prepare to wave bigger struggles as we set our sights to achieving greater victories in the coming years.

Let us also celebrate the outstanding victories in democratic mass struggles achieved by the Filipino people as they carry forward the struggle for national and social liberation. In the past four decades, they have overthrown two reactionary puppet states and are determined to put an end to the current puppet, oppressive, mendacious and corrupt regime.

On March 29, 2014, all regional, subregional and front commands of the NPA and units of the people’s militias under their leadership will fall in formation to parade the flags of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the People’s Democratic Government and subsequently raise them high above the celebration grounds.

At high noon, prior to the general public singing of the Internationale, NPA commands and people’s militia units in formation will give a 21-gun salute. Depending on prevailing military and security conditions, different NPA commands and people’s militias can modify this plan by either extending, abbreviating or rendering an alternative gun salute.

http://www.philippinerevolution.net/statements/20140317_21-gun-salute-for-all-the-heroes-of-the-new-people-s-army-and-the-people-s-democratic-revolution

lenin86 · March 22, 2014

NDFP condemns illegal arrest of NDFP Consultants Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria

By LUIS G. JALANDONI

Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

Member, NDFP National Executive Committee

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) condemns in the strongest terms the illegal arrest of Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria by the Aquino regime's security forces this afternoon in Carcar, Cebu.

Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria are NDFP Consultants who have fulfilled and are fulfilling highly significant tasks in the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP/GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

Wilma Austria is holder of NDFP Document of Identification ND978226 under her real name. She is holder of the Letter of Acknowledgment signed by then GRP Negotiating Panel Chairman Silvestre H. Bello III which states: The above named person is entitled to the safety and immunity guarantees asprovided under the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) for the duration of the peace negotiations. You are hereby required to facilitate the safe conduct and free passage of the above named person.”

Benito Tiamzon is likewise the holder of NDFP Document of Identification ND 978227 under the assumed name “Crising Banaag”. He is likewise holder of a Letter of Acknowledgment signed by then GRP Negotiating Panel Chairman Silvestre H. Bello III.

The NDFP vigorously demands that Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria be immediately and unconditionally released.

This latest flagrant violation of the JASIG by the Aquino regime, in addition to so many other gross violations of the JASIG, most seriously prejudices the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations.

http://www.ndfp.net/web2014/index.php/peace-talks/2053-ndfp-condemns-illegal-arrest-of-ndfp-consultants-benito-tiamzon-and-wilma-austria

lenin86 · March 23, 2014

Communist leader’s arrest will not stop revolution – Sison

LUCENA CITY – Jose Ma. Sison, exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder, on Sunday said the arrest of CPP head Benito Tiamzon, his wife Wilma Austria, and five other rebel leaders in Cebu on Saturday will not cripple the revolutionary movement.

“When I was arrested, tortured and imprisoned by Marcos, the armed revolution did not stop but continued to grow because the root causes of the armed revolution were not at all solved by capture and detention,” Sison said in an interview with the Inquirer through Facebook.

Sison was arrested by military operatives in November 1977 and detained until his release in March 1986. During his incarceration, he suffered worst forms of physical and mental torture under the hands of his captors, he said.

Sison maintained that the arrest of Tiamzon, Austria, and five other still unidentified rebel leaders was illegal.

The seven rebels, all alleged members of the CPP central committee, were captured on Saturday in Carcar City, south of Cebu City.

The Tiamzons were served with arrest warrants for frustrated murder (criminal case 4702) and murder (criminal case number 4703) that had been pending before the Regional Trial Court Branch 31 in Laoang, Northern Samar.

According to military dossier, Tiamzon is the current head of the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), while Austria is also a top-ranked CPP central committee member and finance officer.

“Whatever are their positions in the CPP, they are covered and protected by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (Jasig). They are holders of the Document of Identification under Jasig and acknowledged by the other negotiating party,” Sison argued.

Luis Jalandoni, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace panel chief, also condemned the arrest of the Tiamzon couple and demanded their immediate release.

In a statement, Jalandoni insisted that Tiamzon and Austria are both Jasig card holders as NDFP “peace consultant” in the peace talks.

Jalandoni said Austria is holder of NDFP Document of Identification ND978226 under her real name “Wilma Austria” while Tiamzon is the holder of NDFP Document of Identification ND 978227 under the assumed name “Crising Banaag.”

Both Tiamzon and Austria are holders of Letter of Acknowledgment signed by then-government peace panel chairman Silvestre H. Bello III, said Jalandoni.

Under Jasig, signed in 1995 by representatives from NDFP and the government, the members, consultants and staff of the NDFP who are part of the negotiating team are granted immunity from arrest, detention and provide safety guarantees to prevent any incident that may jeopardize the peace negotiation.

The NDFP, the CPP political arm, had been engaged in peace negotiation with the government for the past 27 years. But the on-and-off peace talks have not moved beyond minor agreements.

Sison said: “It would be a pity if (President) Aquino is more interested in imprisoning a few NDFP consultants and prejudicing the peace negotiations by violating existing agreements like the Jasig.”

He said that if the Aquino administration no longer respects the Jasig, signed and approved mutually by NDFP and the government, “then Aquino becomes responsible for killing the peace negotiations.”

Sison said the rationale behind giving protection to peace consultants like Tiamzon and Austria “is to make the negotiations and agreements more effective.”

He said the forthcoming peace talks in Oslo “will be more effective” if Tiamzon and Austria, and detained rebel leader Alan Jazmines join the NDFP delegation.

Sison said the NDFP have already agreed to the proposal of the Royal Norwegian Government (RNG) to host another round of peace negotiation in the next few months.

He said the proposed resumption of the aborted negotiation will be informal at first before the holding of another round of formal talks.

But the government has yet to respond to the RNG offer.

In February 2011, the two parties met anew in Norway but again failed to reach a settlement particularly on issues over the release of detained communist rebels and long ceasefire.

Last May, the government peace panel announced the termination of the peace negotiation and put the blame on the NDFP with its preconditions and demands.

But the NDFP rebutted the government’s position that the peace negotiation has reached a dead end.

The communist group insisted that the government has not given any written notice of termination of the peace talks to the NDFP, which is the proper addressee of such notice as stipulated in the Jasig.

The military admitted that communist insurgency remains a “potent challenge” even as it reported that more than 800 rebels were “neutralized” last year.#

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/588236/communist-leaders-arrest-will-not-stop-revolution-sison#ixzz2wmVSHGrR
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lenin86 · March 23, 2014

The revolution is free to grow in strength and advance – Prof. Sison

On the arrest of Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria

jms ndfp-flag 09dec2013

Interview with Prof. JOSE MARIA SISON

Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philippines

By ROSELLE VALERIO

Liberation International

Roselle Valerio (RV): What was your immediate reaction to the arrest of Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria?

Jose Maria Sison (JMS): I thought immediately that the arrest of these two NDFP consultants in the peace negotiations is in violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). They are holders of the document of identification under JASIG and are protected from surveillance, harassment and arrest.

RV: Is it true, as Alex Padilla, the military and other Aquino government officials claim, that you are on opposite sides with the Tiamzon couple regarding peace negotiations? That Tiamzon and Austria are “hardliners” and “war freaks” and that they are at odds with you and the NDFP negotiating panel?

JMS: The Tiamzon couple are in support of the peace negotiations. That's why they are consultants in the peace negotiations. The claims of high officials and military officers of the reactionary government that the Tiamzon couple are at odds with the CPP founding chairman and the NDFP Negotiating Panel is a malicious intrigue. They should read the official declarations of the CPP Central Committee supporting the work of the NDFP Negotiating Panel and its consultants, including myself.

RV: How well do you know Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria?

JMS: I knew them as excellent cadres of the Manila-Rizal regional committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines in the early 1970s. Then Benny Tiamzon became secretary of the Eastern Visayas regional committee of the CPP in the mid-1970s onwards. He was outstanding for his comprehensive ability in ideology, politics and organization. Wilma was also outstanding. It is not surprising that they would rise to the highest central positions in tne CPP.

RV: What do you know of Tiamzon's involvement and role in the CPP in the 1990s, in the Second Great Rectification Movement?

JMS: Tiamzon played a leading role in the Second Great Rectification Movement, which started in 1992. This was an educational campaign that reaffirmed basic revolutionary principles and resulted in the rectification of serious subjectivist and opportunist errors and the revitalization and resurgence of the CPP, NPA, the mass base and the people's democratic government. The CPP cadres and members held on to the general line of democratic revolution through protracted people's war, while a few rabid opponents became NGO racketeers, yellow labor dealers, bureaucrats of the reactionary government and even spies and psywar experts of the military

RV: What do you know of the Tiamzon couple's current roles in the CPP and their activities in the Visayas when they were arrested?

JMS: My reliable source of information regarding the current roles of the Tiamzons is the CPP official statement published in Ang Bayan. They are described as senior leaders of the CPP paying close attention to the plight and rehabilitation of the communities and families victimized by the supertyphoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in the Visayas.

RV: What will be the impact of the arrest of the Tiamzon couple on the CPP leadership? The military say that without Tiamzon the CPP will suffer from a vacuum of leadership.

JMS: Leadership in the CPP is collective. It does not depend on any single leader no matter how excellent. When I was arrested in 1977, I was the CPP Central Committee chairman. But the armed revolution continued, grew in strength and became a major factor in the overthrow of Marcos despite his boast that he had finished off the CPP upon my arrest.

Like me and Julie when we were arrested in 1977, Benny Tiamzon and Wilma Austria will be replaced automatically by comrades. To use basketball parlance, I say that the CPP has a deep bench. The Central Committee is replenished and further strengthened by the increasing number of national cadres as well as regional cadres from some 17 regions.

RV: What will be the impact on the New People's Army and the people's war?

JMS: The NPA will become even more determined to wage people's war. The ground is fertile for people's war because of the system of oppression and exploitation that subjects the people to intolerable suffering. The people desire the overthrow of the rotten system of big compradors and landlords servile to US imperialism.

RV: What was the status of the NDFP-GPH peace negotiations before the arrest of the Tiamzon couple? What will now be consequences to the peace negotiations?

JMS: Before the arrest of the Tiamzon couple, the peace negotiations were paralyzed by the Aquino regime's noncompliance with and violations of existing agreements between the NDFP and the Manila government. The imprisonment of JASIG-protected consultants has had adverse consequences to the peace negotiations.

RV: Do you have a message you would like to convey to Benito Tiamzon, Wilma Austria, and their five companions?

JMS: Luis Jalandoni and the NDFP Negotiating Panel are working hard to demand their release in accordance with the JASIG. But the Aquino regime is extremely reactionary, narrow-minded and short- sighted. I told Marcos in 1977: you have imprisoned me but the revolutionary movement is free to grow in strength and advance. Imprisonment is an opportunity to perform an important form of service to the people. By manifesting their defiance, revolutionary prisoners can inspire the people to fight more fiercely for their national and social liberation.

RV: What is your message to the Aquino regime?

JMS: Respect the The Hague Joint Declaration and the JASIG and release the NDFP peace consultants. Respect the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and release the political prisoners imprisoned on trumped-up common crimes. Thus, there will be a sound basis for resuming the peace negotiations.

http://www.ndfp.net/web2014/index.php/publications/liberation/2056-the-revolution-is-free-to-grow-in-strength-and-advance-prof-sison

lenin86 · March 25, 2014

After arrest of CPP leaders, military asks NPA members to lay down arms

Will this end the 45-year armed struggle of the New People's Army?

After nabbing the leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front in Cebu, the Armed Forces of the Philippines on Sunday asked the insurgents to surrender.

"We call [on] the rest of the members of the CPP-NPA to lay down their arms, abandon the armed struggle, return to the comfort of their families, and join us in bringing peace and development to our nation," AFP chief of staff General Emmanuel Bautista said in a televised news conference.

"The arrest of Benito and Wilma Tiamzon is another victory for the combined efforts between the AFP and PNP (Philippine National Police) and other stakeholders in pursuit of peace and security," he noted.

On Saturday, around 3:15 p.m., the Tiamzon couple were arrested in Barangay Zaragoza, Aloguinsan, Cebu.

Wilma Tiamzon was allegedly the secretary general of CPP-NPA while her husband, Benito, was purportedly the chairman of the group.

"These [arrests] contribute largely to our cause of finally winning peace in our country. Remember that [benito] Tiamzon is the head of the military NPA and CPP who directs the armed struggle all around the country; who direct all the land mining, killing, and the violence perpetuated by CPP," Bautista claimed.

NPA will celebrate its 45th anniversary on March 29.

Bautista said that the rebels had transformed into bandits who "focus on extortion activities."

The AFP chief also noted that "no singular person was directly responsible" for the arrests.

"It is a continuing activity and it is a collective efforts of the all the units of the Armed Forces past and present," he said.

"Indeed, it was a great step forward... for us to finally put an end to armed struggle. [This] is a very big contribution to that effort," he added.

According to Bautista, the couple is currently with the PNP-CIDG (Crime Investigation and Detection Group) for processing and documentation. Then, they will be moved to the PNP Custodial Center.

Bautista also noted that the military is prepared for retaliatory attacks from the NPA following Tiamzons' arrest.

In a statement on its website, the CPP condemned the couple's arrest, saying that the criminal chargest against the Tiamzons were "trumped-up." — Rouchelle R. Dinglasan/BM, GMA News

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/353803/news/nation/after-arrest-of-cpp-leaders-military-asks-npa-members-to-lay-down-arms

lenin86 · March 25, 2014

NPA-Rizal attacks Philippine Army troops in Antipolo City, 8 soldiers wounded

Red fighters belonging to the New People’s Army Narciso Antazo Aramil Command (NAAC-NPA-Rizal) attacked government troops belonging to the 59th and 16th Infantry Battalions, Philippine Army in Barangay (village) Calawis, Antipolo City last 3 and 7 March 2014, that resulted to eight government troops wounded.

A squad of the NAAC-NPA forces harassed the detachment of 59th Infantry Battalion in Sitio Apya, Barangay Calawis, Antipolo City, early morning of 3 March 2014. A government soldier named Bong Manuva was wounded in this attack.

Another Squad of the NAAC-NPA forces attacked members of 16th Infantry Battalion conducting military operations under the guise of "community organizing for peace and development" (COPD) in Barangay Calawis, Antipolo City, at 7:00 pm. Seven government troops were wounded in this attack. This attack forced members of COPD teams to withdraw haphazardly. The residents in the area commented happily that the government soldiers retreated with their tails between their legs, too afraid to be hit by NPA fire. In both attacks, the NPA forces retreated with no casualties on their side.

These tactical offensives were launched in response to the peoples cries to to give justice to the victims of military abuses and human rights violations. Members of 59th and 16th Infantry Battalions troops wantonly harass, threaten and maim farmers, settlers and Dumagat tribesmen whom they always suspect as supporters of the revolutionary movement.

Thousand of government soldiers conducting military operations in the province with their intelligence units launching massive intelligence gathering operations failed to detect the attacking NPA units. This only shows that their much-vaunted pronouncement that their counter-insurgency OPLAN BAYANIHAN is winning the hearts and mind of the people is proven to be a much-vaunted lie. The people knows who their real army is, which is none other than the New People’s Army and not Philippine government troops whom they hate much. The NPA-Rizal members thrive on the support of the people in the province of Rizal.

The increasing capacity of the NPA-Rizal to conduct tactical offensives is an additional proof that OPLAN BAYANIHAN is a complete failure in the province of Rizal. It is an additional testament that General Bautista of AFP is eating his own words when he declared that he will make the NPA forces an insignificant force under his reign in the AFP. Instead of becoming insignificant, the NPA forces will vigorously advance in the struggle to end the semi-colonial and semi-feudal system now ruled by the US-Aquino Regime. Together with the Filipino people, the revolutionary movement will continue the advance the people’s war from strategic defensive to the next higher stage until victory.

Long live the Filipino People!

Long live the New People’s Army!

http://www.ndfp.net/web2014/index.php/news/statements/2060-npa-rizal-attacks-philippine-army-troops-in-antipolo-city-8-soldiers-wounded

lenin86 · March 27, 2014

MAKIBAKA calls on women to join the revolution to end oppression

Hundreds of women members of the underground movement MAKIBAKA (Liberated Movement of New Women), a member organization of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) staged a lightning rally at downtown Carriedo, Manila early morning today in celebration of the organization's 43rd anniversary and of the 45th anniversary of the New People’s Army (NPA).

MAKIBAKA women also condemned the arrest of revolutionary couple Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria, and called for their immediate release.

“Wilma Austria, in particular, has been concerned on the impoverished condition of women and children caused by typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda, and was on her way to oversee the rehabilitation efforts in Tacloban specifically of women and victim. She was indignant over the continuous neglect of the Aquino government where the relief goods were only rotting in the warehouses while the Yolanda survivors are suffering from lack of food, shelter, and jobs,” Libertad said.

Libertad added, “Wilma is the epitome of a revolutionary woman and cadre who should be exalted and not be incarcerated like an ordinary criminal. She should be released immediately especially that her health is failing.”

Masked women called on the people to join the revolution, which they say, is the only solution to change the systemic crisis in the country.

Majority of Filipino women are among the poorest sectors in the country. A large portion of them could hardly find a decent job, that is why more than a million women are unemployed. Majority of them are found in agricultural industry where 49% are unpaid workers. Such oppressive condition make women more vulnerable to sexual exploitation and trafficking.

Libertad declared, “The crisis continues because President Benigno Simeon Aquino – true to his class – kowtows to the whims of his real bosses, the US government, the top 50 richest families in the country, the big landlords, and the corrupt bureaucrats. He is the ultimate lackey of the US imperialist government and defender of capitalists and bureaucrats."

“At the same time, Aquino’s neoliberal policies reveal his utter disregard and abhorrence to the toiling masses, his treacherous sell out of the country to the imperialists, and his corrupt and deceptive methods.”

“Thus, it is a just and reasonable act to oust Benigno Simeon Aquino. MAKIBAKA joins the rest of the Filipino people to advance the national democratic revolution. Let us end this oppressive, corrupt, and negligent US-backed regime. Let Aquino pay for the rising poverty in the country! Down with imperialism and all its lackeys like Aquino!”

http://www.ndfp.net/web2014/index.php/news/statements/2064-makibaka-calls-on-women-to-join-the-revolution-to-end-oppression

lenin86 · March 29, 2014

Intensify the offensives to seize further initiative in advancing the people’s war

http://www.ndfp.net/web2014/index.php/discourse/2070-intensify-the-offensives-to-seize-further-initiative-in-advancing-the-people-s-war

lenin86 · March 29, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRIW...ature=youtu.be

lenin86 · March 29, 2014

Building the People’s Army and Waging the People’s War

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison

Comrades and Friends:

I wish to express my greetings of solidarity to all of you in this informative and cultural gathering organized by the International Office of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the founding of the New People’s Army (NPA) by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

I am deeply pleased and highly honored to be invited to speak on the building of the New People’s Army and waging the people’s war in the Philippines. I wish to share with you basic information and ideas on the following: first, the circumstances and reasons for founding the NPA, second, the growth and victories in the people’s war and third, the prospects of the people’s war.

With boundless joy, I recall how I presided over the founding of this revolutionary army of the Filipino people on March 29, 1969 in my capacity as Chairman of the the CPP Central Committee and and its Military Commission. This is a time to give the highest honors to the martyrs and heroes and to congratulate all the Red commanders and fighters for all the victories won through hard work, sacrifices and relentless struggle.

Let us give a special Red salute to Comrades Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria for their long service to the Filipino people and new democratic revolution. They have contributed greatly to the growth and advance of the revolutionary forces of the people. They are senior field consultants of the NDFP in the peace negotiations between the Manila government and the NDFP. We demand their immediate release in accordance with the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees mutually approved since 1995 by the aforesaid negotiating parties.

I. Circumstances and Reasons for Founding the NPA

Since the Philippine revolution of 1896, the Filipino people have fought for national and social liberation against foreign and feudal domination. But since the US defeated the Philippine republic in the Filipino-American War that started in 1899, the Filipino people have been subjected once more to foreign and feudal domination and have repeatedly sought to complete the struggle for national independence and democracy.

The formation of the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon in 1942 resulted in the most serious struggles of the people to liberate themselves from the Japanese fascist occupation during World War II and from the US-dominated puppet government up to the early 1950s. But serious opportunist errors of the leadership of the old merger party of the Communist and Socialist parties led to defeat. The rectification of these errors from 1966 onwards paved the way for the reestablishment of the Communist Party of the Philippines in 1968 and founding of the New People’s in 1969.

Since 1946, when the US granted nominal independence, the ruling system in the Philippines has become semi-colonial politically; i.e. ruled indirectly by the US through its Filipino political agents. It has retained its semi-feudal character economically; i.e. maintained directly by the comprador big bourgeoisie and landlord class and their political agents in collaboration with the US and other foreign monopoly capitalists.

The Filipino people aspire to free themselves from oppression and exploitation. Thus, the CPP has put forward the general line of people’s democratic revolution through protracted people’s war. This program seeks to realize national independence and democracy, social justice, land reform and national industrialization, a national, scientific and mass culture, international solidarity and peace.

The working class is the leading class in the democratic and socialist stages of the revolution. The peasantry is the main force of the revolution and demands the agrarian revolution. It serves as the largest source of personnel and inexhaustible resource base for the people’s army and people’s war. It provides the widest physical and social terrain for the people’s army to maneuver against the enemy in the expanse of the countryside.

The armed struggle is the the main form of revolutionary struggle. It answers the central question of revolution, which is the seizure of political power. But the united front is also an important weapon of the revolution. The basic worker-peasant alliance is the foundation of such united front, which includes the urban petty bourgeoisie as one more basic revolutionary ally and further takes on board the national bourgeoisie as a positive though vacillating ally. Under given circumstances, the united front may be further broadened as to take advantage of splits among the reactionaries and thereby aggravate and hasten the isolation and destruction of the enemy.

The NPA carries out the strategic line of protracted people’s war, which means encircling the cities from the countryside and accumulating strength until conditions are ripe for the seizure of the cities on a nationwide scale. This strategic line is of decisive importance. It allows the NPA and other revolutionary forces of the people to grow from small to big and from weak to strong. It avoids a war of quick decision which favors the militarily far superior enemy forces.

In a protracted people’s war, the NPA has the chance to develop in stages. At first, it takes the strategic defensive against the enemy’s strategic offensive but launches guerrilla warfare, waging tactical offensives that it can win until it has accumulated enough strength to put the enemy in a strategic stalemate. Through a combination of regular mobile warfare and guerrilla warfare during the strategic stalemate, it can destroy the enemy forces faster and change the balance of forces until it puts the enemy on the strategic defensive and reaches the strategic offensive.

In carrying out the people’s war, the NPA integrates armed struggle with agrarian revolution and mass base building. It gains the inexhaustible support of the peasantry only by carrying out the agrarian revolution. The fulfillment of the peasant demand for land is the main content of the democratic revolution. The mass base of the revolution must also be built by forming the mass organizations, the local organs of political power and the local CPP branches. Thus, wave upon wave, the people’s democratic government replaces the power of the reactionary state.

The agrarian revolution is done in two stages. The first is the minimum land reform program, which involves rent reduction, elimination of usury, fair wages to the farm workers, fair prices for products at the farm gate and raising production in agriculture and sideline occupation through rudimentary cooperation. The second is the maximum land reform program, which involves the confiscation of land from the landlords and the free and equable distribution of the land to the landless tillers. The anti-feudal united front relies mainly on the poor peasants and farm workers, wins over the middle peasants and takes advantage of the splits among the landlords in order to isolate and destroy the power of the despotic landlords.

The local organs of political power constitute the people’s democratic government and are established at the barrio, municipal and higher possible levels. The barrio revolutionary committees are assisted by working committees concerned with mass organizing, public education, land reform, production, health care, defense, arbitration, cultural activities and so on. They are supported by the mass organizations of workers, peasants, women, youth, children, cultural activists and so on in the implementation of social programs, campaigns and activities. The local CPP branch that arises from the local mass base takes the lead in mass work and governance..

II. Growth and Victories of the NPA

Under the leadership of the CPP, the NPA and other revolutionary forces of the people have preserved themselves, grown in strength and won great victories since the founding of the NPA in 1969 because they have a just revolutionary cause, which is the national and social liberation of the people from the terrible scourges of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. They have a clear program of people’s democratic revolution, the correct strategy and tactics and a definite socialist perspective.

We started the NPA from scratch in the second district of Tarlac in 1969. We had only 9 automatic rifles and 26 other inferior firearms to rotate among 60 Red fighters to whom we had given politico-military training. But we were confident. We had a party that had avidly studied Marxism-Leninism, the revolutionary experience of the Filipino people, the teachings of Comrade Mao Zedong and the writings of Vietnamese comrades on building the people’s army and waging thepeople’s war. We benefited from the guerrilla experience and mass base of 80,000 people in Tarlac as well as from the urban-based mass movement which we had resumed and revitalized..

We anticipated that Tarlac would become the focus of enemy attacks as soon as we launched tactical offensives in the people’s war. Thus, we recognized immediately the urgent need for expansion cadres to start the revolution in as many other regions and provinces as soon as possible. We gave politico-military training to a few expansion cadres for certain provinces in the Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Bikol and Western Visayas. In the period of 1969-72 (before the martial law period), the most successful of the expansion efforts was in the Cagayan Valley, especially Isabela.

In 1969-71, in less than two years, we were able to increase the number of NPA rifles to 200 through tactical offensives in Tarlac and we almost captured another 200 rifles from the armory of Camp O’Donnel of the US Navy. We were very successful at the minimum land reform program and improving the housing of many people. As early as 1969, Marcos organized Task Force Lawin, with a total strength of 5000 military troops and policemen.

By 1971 the CPP Central Committee had shifted its headquarters to Isabela to direct the rapid growth of the mass base (already about 200,000 people), the land reform campaign, the accelerated politico-military training of expansion cadres for the Northern Luzon and other regions of the country and the intensification of armed struggle with a significant increase of rifles from the successful raid on the armory of the Philippine Military Academy in December 1970. The Marcos regime formed the Task Force Saranay of so many battalions in Isabela after the enemy noticed the use of the Browning automatic rifles captured from the PMA raid.

Aside from developing the revolution in a region of strategic importance, the greatest value yielded by building the guerrilla bases and zones in Isabela was the politico-military training and the experience of guerrilla war and mass work given to the trade unionists and youth activists that came from cities all over the country, thanks especially to Kabataang Makabayan and the First Quarter of 1970. By early 1972, a significant number of expansion cadres had flowed out to new areas of expansion nationwide, including the rest of Northeast Luzon, Northwest Luzon, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Bicol, Visayas and Mindanao.

As early as 1970, the CPP was already forming regional Party committees to start the people’s war in their respective regions, with the assistance of mass organizations. Such regional Party committees tried to do their best and became ever more successful as they accumulated experience and summed up lessons, including bitter ones, and as they were reinforced by cadres and fighters who had previous politico-military training and guerrilla experience from Tarlac and Isabela. Consequent to the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in 1971 and the declaration of martial law in 1972, significant numbers of trade unionists and youth activists joined the people’s army.

When Marcos declared martial law, he claimed that the NPA had 10,000 fighters but in fact it had only about 350 rifles in the hands of the NPA fighters, excluding the people’s militia and self-defense units of the mass organizations. A relatively big number of national cadres were released from underground administrative functions in 1974 to be integrated into the people’s army and to conduct rural mass work. By December 1975 the country was well covered by relatively stable regional committees of the CPP and regional NPA commands.

The two NPA companies that had been isolated in the Isabela forest region since 1972, because of a wrong decision by the regional Party committee, marched out towards Cagayan province in 1975. The NPA in Eastern Visayas started to carry out platoon-size guerrilla offensives and these grew more frequent from 1976 onwards. The NPA grew steadily in Northwest Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Bicol and Western Visayas. It expanded rapidly in Mindanao. It was the first to use the term guerrilla front to define the combination of guerrilla bases and zones in a contiguous area. The CPP Central Committee adopted the use of the term and instructed the Mindanao Party Committee to divide the big region into several regions in 1976.

After the 1975 Plenum and the subsequent carrying out of guerrilla offensives nationwide, it became clear that both the CPP and the NPA were truly nationwide forces with deep roots among the masses in the regions and provinces. The point had been reached that the NPA forces could withstand concentrated enemy attacks on one guerrilla front or a whole region and could fight back not only in that guerrilla front or region but also in several regions and guerrilla fronts where the enemy forces were weaker. On a national scale, the CPP and NPA had overcome tremendous odds, become tempered in struggle and gained the strength for continuous growth.

When I was captured in November 1977, the NPA was already at the level of 1500 automatic rifles, excluding the far bigger number of men and women in the people’s militia and self defense units. I was confident that the CPP and NPA would grow in strength further and become a major factor in the overthrow of the Marcos fascist dictatorship. The NPA reached the level of 3000 rifles in 1983 and 5600 automatic rifles in 1986. Fearing the growth of the people’s war, the US, the Catholic church and the big comprador-landlord oligarchs in the country decided within the period of 1984 to 1986 that Marcos had become more of a liability than an asset and had to be removed from power the way Duvalier had been deposed.

The people’s army grew in strength and the people’s war spread because of the Maoist leadership in both the CPP and NPA. The cadres and fighters were well-versed on the specific characteristics of the people’s war in the Philippines, the revolutionary guide to land reforms and the urgent tasks in building the mass base.

Despite overall growth in the 1980s, a few members of the Central Committee spread the subjectivist notion that the Philippine was no longer semi-feudal and that by implication Marcos had greatly developed the economy with his big comprador-landlord policy dependent on foreign loans. Based on said notion, Right and “Left” opportunism arose and slowed what should have been a faster rate of growth. The opportunists deviated from the analysis of the Philippine economy as semifeudal, the general political line of people’s democratic revolution and the strategic line of protracted people’s war.

The worst of the Right opportunists wanted to do away with the working class leadership and make the bourgeois-led united front the main weapon and legal struggle the main form of struggle. The worst of the Left “opportunists” wanted to enlarge and regularize NPA combat units, without minding agrarian revolution and building the mass base. Upon failure of their line, the military adventurists raised a hysteria about deep penetration agents and engaged in witch hunts, thus eroding the strength of the revolutionary movement and the mass base in certain areas at various times from 1985 onwards.

Happily, the CPP launched the Second Great Rectification Movement in 1992. Comrades Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Tiamzon played important roles in this educational movement. Since then, the CPP and NPA have won resounding victories in reaffirming basic revolutionary principles and the strategic line of protracted people’s war, regaining the mass base (60 percent of which had been lost by 1991 due to the “Left” opportunist line), revitalizing the mass movement and carrying forward the people’s war. The line of the people’s war has been sharpened as the waging of extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare on the basis of an ever widening and deepening mass base. It has been resoundingly successful.

At present, the CPP is reported to have about 150,000 members, the NPA has about 10,000 fighters, the people’s militia tens of thousands of personnel, and the self-defense units hundreds of thousands. The guerrilla fronts number more than 110 covering significant portions of 71 provinces. The mass organizations have members in millions; and the people’s democratic government has millions of people in its territory. Despite the recent arrest of Comrades Tiamzon and Austria, the revolutionary movement of the people will continue to grow in strength and advance. There is a far bigger mass movement now than when Julie and I were captured in 1977.

The CPP, NPA and the revolutionary forces of the people have withstood and prevailed over the attempts of the 14-year fascist dictatorship and the subsequent pseudo democratic regimes to destroy them with US-instigated national plans of military suppression and deception, like the current Oplan Bayanihan. It has been proven again and again that the guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and the general line of people’s democratic revolution through protracted people’s war are correct and invincible against the rotten ruling system which is in a chronic crisis that is always worsening.

III. Prospects of the NPA and People’s War

Like the CPP, the NDFP has declared that the general line for people’s democratic revolution for the protracted people’s war is the same line for the peace negotiations with the reactionary government and that the people’s war is justified for so long as the demand of the people for national and social liberation is not satisfied. The revolutionary forces and the people consider the peace negotiations as a way of carrying forward and helping realize their demand for national independence and democracy .

They always resist the reactionary government’s obsession of perpetuating the semicolonial and semifeudal system and seeking the capitulation and pacification of the revolutionary movement. They have made clear that they are ever ready for the eventuality that their enemy terminate the peace negotiations. The reactionary government has been brazenly disrespecting and violating existing agreements, like The Hague Joint Declaration, The Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

The CPP and NPA are determined to realize the plan to advance from the strategic defensive to the strategic stalemate in the near term and to overthrow the ruling system and establish the people’s democratic revolution in the long run. They intend to bring up the number of CPP members to 250,000, NPA to 25,000, the guerrilla fronts to 200 and the scope of the agrarian revolution and the mass base to many more millions of people.

They aim to advance until they reach the strategic offensive in order to overthrow the ruling system and establish the people’s democratic state system. They are confident of advancing from stage to stage in the people’s war because they fight for the just revolutionary cause of the Filipino for national and social liberation, because they have the correct general line and strategy, because they accumulate strength though hard work and struggle and because conditions favorable to the revolution are provided by the unprecedentedly grave and ever worsening crisis of global capitalism and the domestic ruling system.

The broad masses of the people suffer terribly from the escalation of exploitation under the neoliberal economic policy, from state terrorism and from the imperialist wars of aggression. But they are driven to fight ever more fiercely for their national and social liberation and for a fundamentally new and better world of greater freedom, social justice, development, cultural upliftment and peace.

Prof. Jose Maria Sison

Founding Chairman,

Communist Party of the Philippines

March 30, 2014

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New Peoples Army \ Communist Party of the Philippines

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