Fight Back! News Service is circulating the following statement from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines about the wave of repression launched by U.S.-backed President Arroyo.

The NDFP is an alliance of revolutionary organizations drawing from different sectors of Filipino society, including trade unions, peasants, women, students and religious organizations. The NDFP includes the insurgent New Peoples Army (NPA) and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FRONT OF THE PHILIPPINES NEGOTIATING PANEL

Press Statement

8 March 2006

NDFP Condemns Arroyo Regime's Continuing State Terror and Exposes Assassination Plots Against Rosal and Sison

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) condemns in the strongest terms the Arroyo regime’s continuing acts of state terror against the Filipino people.

Despite the announcement of the lifting of the state of national emergency, the Arroyo regime continues to illegally detain 73-year-old Congressman Crispin Beltran on trumped up charges of sedition and rebellion, threatens the arrest of five party list Congresspersons with immediate arrest if they leave the confines of the House of Representatives. It curtails press freedom by filing charges against three journalists critical of her regime and threatening to file charges against seven others.

It is harassing and putting under heavy surveillance UN Judge Romeo T. Capulong and other lawyers defending those persecuted by the regime. Moreover, NDFP negotiators, consultants and non-NDFP personnel who have helped in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations have been put on the wanted list of the Arroyo regime.

On March 6, the offices of the human rights organization, KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights) in North Mindanao were raided and ransacked. According to reliable reports, the offices of other people’s organizations and alliances are to be raided by the police in order to fish for so-called evidence.

The McCarthyist witchhunt is being pushed by National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and Romeo Intengan, S.J. Gonzales has been fabricating charges against progressive party lists, such as BAYAN MUNA, ANAKPAWIS and GABRIELA, to justify the arrest and detention of Congressman Crispin Beltran, and to charge with rebellion Congresspersons Satur Ocampo, Teddy Casino and Joel Virador of BAYAN MUNA, Liza Maza of Gabriela Women’s Party, and Rafael Mariano of ANAKPAWIS.

Intengan, in his “Groundwork for an Essay”, Armed Forces of the Philippines: Defender of the Nation, Guardian of Democracy, and Servant of the People, “Endorsed by the Office of the National Security Adviser,” sings a duet with Norberto Gonzales in the anti-Communist witchhunt by declaring Bayan Muna, Anakpawis, Gabriela and three other party lists as “controlled or heavily influenced by the CPP-NPA-NDF.” He accuses these progressive party lists who won seats in parliament with more than 2 million votes, without giving any proof, of “using government funds in the tens of millions of pesos each year to support the politico-military effort of the CPP-NPA-NDF.”

The Arroyo regime is a murderous regime. A few days after it declared the state of national emergency, 54-year-old teacher, Napoleon Pornasdoro, National Council Member of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) was shot dead. He is one of more than 500 victims of political killings under the Arroyo regime. Most of the killings have been perpetrated by motorcycle-riding assassins. Death squads characterize this regime.

According to reliable sources, the Arroyo regime’s Cabinet Oversight Committee for Internal Security has formulated “high impact” plans to assassinate Prof. Jose Maria Sison and eliminate the CPP spokesperson, Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal. Details of the plan to capture or kill Rosal have been laid. Surveillance personnel have been sent to Europe for the plot to assassinate Prof. Sison.

Already before the end of 2004, we received a report of the proposal of Norberto Gonzales, at a high level national security meeting in the Philippines, to assassinate Prof. Sison “in order to solve all our problems.” The report came from someone who was present at the meeting.

The NDFP calls on the international community to support the Filipino people’s struggle for freedom, genuine independence, democracy and a just peace. We call for increased international pressure to secure the immediate release of Congressman Beltran and a stop to the regime’s threats to arrest five other Congresspersons and a halt to the regime’s flagrant violations of human rights.

Luis G. Jalandoni

Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

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