Fight Back New Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Officials of the Marcos regime are daydreaming when they make declarations of attaining “strategic victory” and defeating the New People’s Army (NPA). These wishful declarations are not new. They have been issuing exactly the same statements for three decades now and have repeatedly been proven wrong by facts.

General Año’s pronouncement yesterday of “ending the local communist armed conflict” within the term of the Marcos government rings hollow, especially after an NPA unit carried out a successful against the much detested 85th IB in Tagkawayan, Quezon last Friday morning, in which Red fighters seized five high-powered rifles and inflicted a number of casualties against the AFP. The ambush blasts recent claims that Quezon is already “insurgency free.” Together with the recent tactical offensives of the NPA in Masbate and Negros, the AFP’s much-hyped PR line that the NPA has “only active guerrilla front” is clearly a figment of their imagination.

The Filipino people and their people’s army will continue to wage armed struggle as long as US imperialism, oppression, bureaucratic corruption and social injustice prevails. The broad masses of the Filipino people are continually being roused to take up arms by widespread landlessness, grossly low wages, economic dislocation, environmental destruction, and rampant dispossession of their sources of income and means of production.

Over the past few years, the fascist reactionaries have waged an all-out campaign of state terrorism with the desperate aim of shattering the bond between the NPA and the broad masses of the Filipino people. But the more Marcos employs terrorism against the people, the more that this bond is tempered and reinforced. Indeed, without the NPA, the Filipino people have nothing to defend themselves with and will be left to the mercy of multinational corporations, the IMF and World Bank, big bourgeois compradors, landlords, and bureaucrat capitalists.

The aim of achieving complete victory might not yet be within the immediate horizon of the NPA. But it is determined to frustrate the AFP’s current campaign of encirclement and suppression, fight the Marcos regime’s rule of all-out state terrorism, and carry forward the armed struggle to even greater heights.

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following August 21 statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines.

One year ago today, Benito Tiamzon (Ka Laan), Wilma Austria (Ka Bagong-tao), together with eight other revolutionaries, were arrested by troops belonging to the 8th Infantry Division, on their way to the coasts of Catbalogan town, Samar. While in the custody of their fascist captors, they were subjected to severe torture before they were subsequently killed. Their lifeless bodies were loaded on a boat and brought to sea where reportedly being exploded.

The torture and murder of the Tiamzons, and their companions Ka Divino, Ka Yen, Ka Jaja, Ka Matt, Ka Ash, Ka Delfin, Ka Lupe, Ka Butig, are dastardly fascist-terrorist crimes of the Marcos regime, perpetrated under the direction of their US military advisers.

The revolutionary forces reiterate their vow to attain justice for the Tiamzons and all other victims of state terrorism.

The Tiamzons long served as among the key leaders of the Party who selflessly dedicated their lives to the Filipino people’s struggle for national and social liberation and the socialist aspirations of the proletariat.

They served as consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in peace negotiations on the belief that a just and lasting peace can only be attained by addressing the deep social, economic and political roots of the armed conflict.

Marcos and his fascist ilk are grossly mistaken to think that by murdering the Tiamzons, they could kill the Filipino people’s revolutionary cause. On the contrary, the martyrdom of the Tiamzons will forever be remembered and inspire the younger generation of workers, peasants and all democratic classes to carry forward the Filipino people’s national democratic struggle.

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

The Marcos regime and its military and police forces must be roundly condemned for the increasingly malevolent use of the deceitfully named Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL) in their heightened campaign of suppression against various democratic forces, critics, and political opponents.

Over the past few weeks, human rights defenders and members of cause-oriented organizations have been “designated” as “terrorists” by the Anti-Terrorism Council or charged in court for “terrorism” in a patently arbitrary manner, without due process and in utter violation of broadly accepted standards of judicial processes.

The ATL is now being used as a tool for suppression with impunity. The most recent victim of the draconian ATL is Hailey Pecayo, a 19-year old human rights worker, who earned the ire of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for having actively exposed the role of the military for the killing of a nine-year old child in Batangas last year. She is now being charged by the AFP under the ATL, together with other members of their human rights group.

Before Pecayo, at least six others, including Windel Bolinget and three other members of the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA), were tagged as “terrorists” by the ATC. In a much earlier resolution, Dr. Natividad Castro, a medical doctor working for the Karapatan Alliance in Mindanao, was similarly tagged by the ATC. It is particularly noteworthy that the ATC resolutions against Bolinget and Castro both came after courts dismissed false charges filed by the AFP linking them to armed actions of the New People’s Army (NPA).

The use of the ATL as a tool of suppression has now reached absurd and brazen levels with the ATC “designating” Congressman Arnolfo Teves and 12 others accused of perpetrating the March 4 killing of former Negros Oriental Governor Noel Degamo. Marcos officials have resorted to using the ATL against Teves after failing to build up a court case him. Aiming the ATL against Teves also serves as warning of the extent that Marcos will use the law for his purposes.

The CPP denounces the use of the ATL as a weapon of political suppression. The Party also expresses its continuing protest against the “terrorist designation” of the CPP, the New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front, of its leaders and representatives, and others being linked to the revolutionary cause.

Despite the September 21, 2022 ruling of the Manila Trial Court dismissing the petition filed by the government to declare the CPP and NPA as “terrorists” under the Human Security Act (the former name of the ATL), the Marcos regime and its agents insist on pinning the “terrorist” tag as part of its systematic campaign against all patriotic and democratic forces.

In light of the heightened attacks against the broad democratic sectors using the ATL, the Filipino people’s demand for the abrogation of the draconian law has become even more urgent. All democracy-loving people must make a stand and lend their voice to the struggle to defend the people’s rights and freedoms against state repression.

The Party supports the Filipino people’s clamor to end the so-called “war on terror” which, in fact, is a camouflage for unbounded state terrorism. This fascist framework has long been abused by the Philippine ruling class state, in order to justify the systematic erosion of the people’s civil and political rights.

The military and security establishment has used the “war on terror” to claim extraordinary powers to assert domination over society, take control of the functions of civilian agencies of government and carry out any and all acts of state suppression with gross impunity.

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following July 25 statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines.

In his speech before the Philippine Congress yesterday, Marcos announced that he will be issuing an amnesty proclamation for all who will give up the Filipino people’s revolutionary armed struggle.

Communists and revolutionary fighters remain true to the aspirations of the Filipino people. The Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army will firmly reject Marcos’s treacherous offer of amnesty and surrender. It will vigorously exposed and condemned as an additional instrument of deception and oppression.

The revolutionary cause for genuine national freedom and social justice is far greater than any Marcos offer of amnesty. Revolutionaries are motivated not by the selfish desire for some personal gain, rather by the selfless devotion to serve and struggle with the people.

Marcos is being grossly insolent with his offer of amnesty. He is seriously mistaken to think that Red fighters of the New People’s Army will line up to gain a few individual concessions in exchange for giving up the much bigger people’s cause which they have committed themselves to.

History shows how the counterrevolutionary state have used amnesty offers as sugar-coated bullets against revolutionary forces. The US colonial government offered amnesty to Filipino freedom fighter Macario Sakay in 1905 but executed him later in 1907. In 1946, some leaders of the Hukbalahap were baited by the amnesty program of Quirino only to be murdered a few months later.

Installed into power by a combination of a military coup and giant mass movements, Corazon Aquino and Gloria Arroyo were pushed to declare amnesties and release a number political prisoners. Their regimes would later wage a brutal war of suppression marked by killings and massacres.

Marcos’ offer of amnesty for those who will surrender is duplicitous, considering that close to 800 political prisoners remain in jails, and everyday, people are being arrested and persecuted for their political beliefs and social commitment. Under the banner of the “war against terror,” people’s organizations everywhere are being suppressed and attacked, using the extraordinary draconian powers under the so-called Anti-Terrorism Law.

Marcos’ claims that his government’s “community development and livelihood programs” are effectively “addressing the root cause of conflict in the countryside” are utterly devoid of the truth, and completely out of touch with reality.

Marcos boasted of the Barangay Development Program (BDP) and the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP), farm to market roads and the “New Agrarian Emancipation Act,” all of which perpetuate the basic problem of social injustice and poverty, that are rooted in the problem of landlessness.

Marcos’ declared plan to issue an amnesty proclamation fits into the so-called “localized peace talks” and “surrender drive” in which rural communities are placed under military occupation (hamlets) and subjected to the AFP’s psywar, intelligence and combat operations. In the past five years or so, a few tens of thousands of civilians have been falsely depicted as “surrenderees” without being charged in court, in violation of their civil and political rights.

The peasant masses are daily subjected to worsening forms of oppression and exploitation. Even worse, those who voice their grievances and choose to assert their demands are subjected to political repression by armed agents of the reactionary state. Military and police abuses, summary killings, torture, unlawful detention, enforced disappearances and other violations of human rights are most rampant in the countryside, and are being carried out with utmost impunity.

The Marcos regime ignores the outstanding clamor of the peasant majority population for genuine land reform, and the Filipino people’s demand for national industrialization. It represents the interests of US imperialism and those of the ruling classes of big bourgeois compradors and big landlords.

There is widespread economic dislocation and agricultural crisis in the countryside. Hundreds of thousands of farmers and minority people are being dispossessed of land and their means of production. Agricultural and ancestral land are being grabbed by the expansion of plantations and mining operations, real estate, construction of dams, ecotourism, “green” energy and other foreign-funded infrastructure projects. Millions of peasant tillers and fisherfolk are being forced to bankruptcy by wanton importation of rice, sugar, vegetables and other agricultural and aquatic produce.

The need to wage revolutionary armed resistance, alongside all other forms of struggle, is now more than ever, urgent, just and necessary. With Marcos’ outright subservience to the US, corruption, onerous economic policies, political repression, and state terrorism, he himself, by negative example, is showing the people the need to bear arms and take the road of revolutionary resistance.

The revolutionary cause is far greater than Marcos offer of amnesty.

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

For more than a year now, Ka Daisy, a transwoman, has served as full-time Red fighter. She joined the New People’s Army (NPA) during the pandemic, three years after doing revolutionary work as a member of the Kabataang Makabayan. She recounted how her unit got engaged in an armed encounter on her second day in the unit.

Ka Daisy, also called “Inday” by some comrades, now serves as a squad political guide. As an official, she ensures the strengthening of the organization. She helps outline plans and programs, and ensures its implementation. She also performs daily technical tasks such as fetching water, cooking, and transporting supply.

“I have total respect for Ka Daisy,” said Ka Alas, her squad leader. “Apart from being helpful, she teaches well. Since her deployment here, she took to teaching me LitNum (literacy/numeracy). Because I’m quite past my prime, I sometimes forget our lessons, but Inday keeps encouraging me to learn.”

Ka Daisy was warmly received by comrades as a new recruit. On her part, she was able to quickly adapt to the NPA’s military regulations.

“Even before I joined the unit, comrades were oriented about my gender. They had study meetings about the LGBT struggle,” said Ka Daisy. In her unit, instructors include the LGBT orientation when giving basic military orientation. This aims to correct wrong views and treatment of LGBTs. Some misconceptions still manifest, but these are collectively struggled in a structured and comradely manner.

Like other comrades, Ka Daisy carries a heavy pack. Her bag contains printed reading materials such as Ang Bayan and other documents and books, kitchen materials, supplies and gadgets. Thrown in the mix is her make-up kit.

“Whenever we undertake mass work, we distribute documents like AB to update the masses on important social issues,” she said.

If asked how many women are in the unit, comrades would include Ka Daisy. It was a far cry from her experiences when she was still studying in a Catholic school. She experienced restrictions and gender-based discrimination. She was prohibited to wear the clothes she prefer and had to cut her long hair short.

Within the NPA, Ka Daisy is happy to be part of forging a society that has compassion and concern for transwomen like her. For her, gender is a non-issue for one to wage revolution. It is not a hindrance nor is it a basic question. It is not a matter of competing. It is enough for one to dedicate one’s heart and time to serve the revolution.

“As an LGBT youth, our role is important in advancing the revolution. To change society’s perception, we need to transform society itself,” she added.

In waging revolution, Ka Daisy can freely express her true feelings. During the 50th anniversary of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, she led celebrations in the guerilla front. She served as a facilitator of the program and decorated the venue. She was also one of the instructors for the dance and song cultural performances. Because of the special nature of the occasion, Ka Daisy put on some lipstick, face powder and eyeliner.

Hundreds of peasants from nearby barrios graced the occasion.

In the area of responsibility of Ka Daisy’s unit, there are a few LGBT members who belong to basic Party organs in the barrio. They actively took part in cultural performances and were open to socialize with the Red fighters.

Ka Daisy was so surprised to find someone like her, an LGBT, who is also a Red fighter.

“I have long known that the NPA accepts LGBT people like me. I am delighted finally to have met someone who came from the community. I thought I was alone here,” she jokingly said.

Indeed everyone has equal rights and responsibilities in the movement. In a society that oppresses and judges LGBT people, it is only in the revolution that they can experience genuine freedom to be themselves.

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and all revolutionary forces join the Filipino people in marking today 125 years of false independence under US colonialism and neocolonial rule. Let us mark this day by looking back on the history of the Filipino people’s struggle for genuine freedom and democracy and reaffirm our commitment to persevere along this path in the future.

Riding on the victories of the armed revolution led by the Katipunan since 1896 and waged by the peasants and burgeoning working class against the 300-year Spanish colonial regime, the representatives of the illustrado landlord class led by Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed Philippine independence on June 12, 1898 “under the protection of Powerful and Humanitarian Nation, the United States of America.”

Not soon after, the naval armed forces of Spain and the United States staged the mock battle at Manila Bay with a secret agreement to transfer colonial power to the latter while helping each other suppress and prevent the revolutionary forces from gaining advantage. The transfer of colonial rule would be formalized on December 10 that year, when the Treaty of Paris was signed in which the Philippines was sold by Spain for $20 million to the United States.

Hundreds of thousands of American troops were deployed to carry out the armed suppression and colonization of the Philippines. The US colonizers carried out a brutal war against Filipino revolutionary forces–denigrated as bandits–who persisted in armed resistance for more than a decade. At least 200,000 Filipino civilians were killed by US colonial forces, while more than a million (out of a population of less than seven million) died in the course of the war.

Employing its armed might, the US colonial forces rampaged throughout the country, plundered the country’s wealth, felling trees for lumber, and taking away vast tracks of land from peasants and indigenous peoples and turning them into commercial plantations for sugar, pineapple, and other crops, as well as mines for export to the United States. It carried out a drive to colonize the Filipino people’s minds by establishing an educational system that sought to erase the country’s history and portrayed US colonialism as “benevolent assimilation.” The US pampered a breed of bureaucrat capitalists who were trained in “US democracy” who represented the interests of the US and the new class of big bourgeois compradors who melded interests with the old landlord class.

Instead of being suppressed, the Filipino people’s spirit of patriotism would be further inflamed as workers and toiling people organized and waged mass struggles over the next few decades demanding “death to US imperialism!” The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP-Philippine Islands) was established in 1930 and since then played a critical role in leading the struggle for national freedom from US colonial rule.

In the course of inter-imperialist conflict between the US allies and its rivals, the US military forces abandoned the Philippines when it was invaded by imperialist Japan. An anti-Japanese guerrilla war was waged by Filipino revolutionary forces led by the CPP-PI in pursuit of the people’s aspiration for national freedom. Across the Philippines, as in other countries, Japanese forces were defeated in guerrilla warfare. Anticipating the defeat of the Japanese, the US forces returned to the Philippines by dropping bombs in Manila causing unnecessary devastation and forcing the country to its knees. Together with its puppet forces, the US subsequently carried out a campaign of armed suppression against Filipino guerrilla forces.

To placate the Filipino people, the US granted nominal independence to the Philippines, turning over the reins of political administration of the client-state to the representatives of the ruling classes and their parties. For close to 80 years now, the country has been under neocolonial or semicolonial rule where the Philippines remains under US political, economic, military and cultural dominance.

Under US semicolonial rule, the Philippines has been robbed of trillions of dollars worth of natural resources in unequal trade and economic relations reinforced through treaties giving the US parity rights. Wages have been kept low to allow US corporations to make maximum profit. Economic policy of the Philippine government is shaped by US planners through the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and other US-controlled financial and economic institutions.

The US has maintained cultural dominance through control of the educational system, domination of the mass media and other agencies for propagating the American mindset and worldview.

The US has maintained armed dominance through military treaties foremost of which are the Mutual Defense Treaty and the now expired Military Bases Agreement, which has been replaced by such treaties as the Visiting Forces Agreement and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), to allow US military forces to remain in the country and use the Philippines as springboard for its wars of intervention and aggression. The Armed Forces of the Philippines, together with the entire defense establishment is the main pillar of US rule. From the very outset and to this day, the US employs and directs the AFP to carry out counterinsurgency against the revolutionary forces who continue to wage a people’s war and all forms of resistance for national and social liberation.

The past several decades of US-imposed neocolonial policies have ravaged the Philippine economy and caused widespread suffering of workers, peasants, other toiling sectors and middle classes. Large segments of local productive forces, including agricultural land and manufacturing capacity, have been destroyed by investment and import liberalization, deregulation and privatization. The ruling classes of big bourgeois compradors and big landlords, and foreign capitalists have enjoyed all-out freedom under the neoliberal policy regime to plunder and accumulate profit and wealth. The Filipino people are now experiencing the grave consequence of neoliberalism in the form of massive unemployment, dirt-cheap wages, loss of income, spiraling prices, rural dislocation, and environmental destruction. The country is in the grips of a financial crisis marked by rising public debt, loss of state revenue due corporate tax exemptions and holidays, and rising expenses for a bloated military and police force.

We are currently in the advent of a new phase in the history of the struggle against US imperialism, amid rising inter-imperialist conflicts and threats of open war, and the US push to reinforce its neocolonial stranglehold of the Philippines and its military, economic and political dominance in the Philippines in the context of its geopolitical aims and saber-rattling against China. The rush of the US to construct a number of military bases and facilities in various parts of the country under the EDCA, especially in the northern areas which are closest to Taiwan and China, has once again highlighted the country’s lack of sovereignty and underscores how it is being used by the US as a pawn in its game of strategy to protect and expand its areas of investment and influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Amid deepening capitalist crisis, the US and other imperialist powers are increasingly resorting to wars and war preparations as means to jolt their economies and expand their markets, sources of raw materials and spheres of influence. As a consequence, semicolonial and semifeudal countries such as the Philippines are being subjected to worsening state of national oppression as the imperialist powers seek to consolidate their hegemony over countries and entire global regions. The absence of Philippine sovereignty is starker than ever before.

Since it was reestablished in 1968, the Communist Party of the Philippines has been at the forefront of the Filipino people’s struggle for genuine national freedom. The Party took up the cudgels left by the Katipunan, as well as by previous generations of revolutionary fighters. It has been waging a people’s war since 1969 and will continue to do so as long as it takes to free the country from the clutches of US imperialism.

Today let us set our sights on waging even greater resistance in order to free the country from the clutches of the US imperialist ogre and attain the Filipino people’s aspirations for national freedom and democracy. Let us commit ourselves to the struggle, however difficult and arduous, as this is the only path towards a bright and prosperous future.

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

Members of Wyeth Philippines Progressive Workers’ Union (WPPWU) and their supporters mounted a series of mass protests and other activities to demand the reinstatement of 140 workers who were illegally dismissed by Wyeth-Nestlé Philippines on May 18, 2023 and five other workers who were fired earlier, reported Ang Bayan, official organ of the Communist Party of the Philippines, on June 7, 2023.

The WPPWU fought back with more than 20 picket protests to defend the company jobs of workers and defend the union’s previous gains.

Ang Bayan said that the WPPWU protested on May 30 in front of the Nestlé Cabuyao Factory then headed to Calamba, Laguna for the third hearing of the National Conciliation and Mediation Board of Calabarzon on the “notice of strike” filed by the union. Youth groups, church people, other unions and workers, federations, union centers, migrants and artists joined the mass action to demand the reinstatement of the dismissed workers.

Nestlé is notorious worldwide for violations labor rights. In fact, Nestlé has already killed two union leaders in the country and many others in South America.

The Makabayan Bloc in the Philippine Congress filed House Resolution 1067 on May 31 which called for an investigation into the unfair “cost cutting and restructuring strategy”; used by Nestlé to justify mass layoffs.

Other Nestlé unions in the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Lipa gave support and solidarity to the WPPWU. On May 26, these unions wrote to Nestlé demanding the reinstatement of their fellow workers. They urged the company management in Canlubang, Laguna, to implement their touted policy of open communication and dialogue to safeguard the rights of their workers.

Bong Labog, Chairperson of the labor federation Kilusang Mayo Uno (May First Movement) said, “We are aware of Nestlé’s reputation as a violator of labor laws, of not honoring agreements and CBAs, of violently breaking strikes, and of killing labor leaders. It earns billions every year, but greed emboldens them to jeopardize the lives of hundreds of workers and their families.”

#Philippines #Labor #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

American soldiers, together with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), are rushing to build its military bases in Barangay Bobon, Burgos, Ilocos Norte. This location is not among those announced by the Marcos government where the US will build facilities under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).

The U.S. claimed 30 hectares of land to position 40 howitzer cannons. There are buildings that American soldiers themselves admit are used for monitoring China’s military movement. The U.S. is also building a seawall as wide as a road to fortify their base. It is 800 meters long, 15 meters wide, and a foundation four meters high and eight meters deep.

American soldiers behave like rulers over the place. Along with Filipino soldiers, they conducted a 7-day simulation and live-fire exercises in the area from March 16 to 26. Small fisherfolks could not fish during these days. They expressed fear of a clash erupting between U.S. and China forces.

“Our situation is precarious,” said one fisherman. “What if we are at sea and then their rockets suddenly start firing?” The “seawall” is also a problem as it blocks their path to the sea.

During military drills in San Joaquin, Sarrat, US forces involved some civilians. “(During training), we carried American soldiers who pretended to be war casualties,” said a resident who was made to take part in the training. “This mean during a real war, we will be made to carry American war casualties. Damn, they were heavy!”

Residents witnessed the blatant arrogance of American soldiers. They brag among residents that the facilities they constructed in the military camp serve to surveil the movement of Chinese troops and their rockets. They use their computers to show people their missile network focused on China. Clearly, Ilocos Norte is part of the US’s “First Island Chain” strategy against China.

At the same time, the puppet Armed Forces of the Philippines has intensified its presence in the province. Accompanying the U.S. Marines company in Barangay Bobon is the 4th Marine Brigade Landing Battalion (MBLB). This battalion first arrived in Currimao, Ilocos Norte as a Balikatan participant in June 2022.

According to residents, Filipino and American forces regularly reconnoiter the highway from Tarrag and Balaoi in Pagudpud to Claveria, Cagayan using two six-by-six trucks. Cabungan South in Laoag and Laoag Airport each has a squad of US Marines.

There are also U.S. Marines forces in Currimao, where the Balikatan was previously held. US Marines cunningly established their presence in Sarat town using the pretext of building a health center. All of these villages and towns are on the coast facing the South China Sea.

Whatever charm the American troops adorn themselves with, residents in the affected barangays know the country will be more vulnerable to the horrors of the impending imperialist war.

“Whatever claims of development these American troops bring do not matter if it means the country will face more difficult conditions in the event of a war.” This is the response of residents to the alleged mission of “community development” flaunted by American troops.

In fact, the local people were elated after learning that part of the Balikatan Exercises that were scheduled in Ilocos Norte on April 24 was cancelled.

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

To: Communist Party of the Philippines

From: Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Dear Comrades,

The cowardly murders of Benito Tiamzon, the chairman of the CPP Executive Committee, and Wilma Austria-Tiamzon, General Secretary, by U.S.-commanded troops of the Armed forces of the Philippines (AFP), are towering crimes that will never be forgiven of forgotten. Nor will the cruel murders of the Catbalogan 10. Their revolutionary spirits and contributions to the worldwide struggle for national liberation and socialism will live forever.

Freedom Road Socialist Organization sends it condolences to it the CP and friends and family of the murdered comrades. The loss of those of those build the fight for a new world and serve the people is, as the Chairman Mao Zedong stated, “weightier than Mount Tai.”

Each and every one of the murdered comrades is a hero. Communists everywhere should learn from their example.

U.S. imperialism is responsible for this horrific crime. And we are certain the rule of the U.S puppet Marcos regime will not last long! Time is on the side of the oppressed. The many will defeat the few. The perpetrators of this crime will face a day of reckoning – sooner rather than later.

With solidarity,

Mick Kelly, for the Standing Committee of the Central Committee, FRSO

#UnitedStates #Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following April 20 statement from Communist Party of the Philippines.

The entire leadership and membership of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemns in the strongest terms the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for the brutal torture and cowardly killing of Party leaders Benito Tiamzon (Ka Laan) and Wilma Austria-Tiamzon (Ka Bagong-tao), together with eight other revolutionaries after they were captured in Samar province on August 21, 2022.

At the time of their murder, Ka Benito, 71, was the Chairman of the CPP Executive Committee, while Ka Wilma, 70, was the CPP’s Secretary General. They were travelling with Ka Divino (Joel Arceo), a subregional secretary in Eastern Visayas, along with Ka Yen, Ka Jaja, Ka Matt, Ka Ash, Ka Delfin, Ka Lupe, Ka Butig (Catbalogan 10), who all belonged to the guerrilla force of the central headquarters.

In a report, the Political Bureau said the Tiamzons were travelling on two separate vans along the national highway eastwards towards Catbalogan City. They were flagged down between 12:00 noon and 1:00 in the afternoon, after which all communications with the group were lost. They were unarmed.

It explained that it took several weeks to establish the veracity of the reports which the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) released around that time. It also had to conduct months of investigation to piece together the details of the capture and subsequent massacre of the Tiamzons.

According to the information gathered by the Central Committee, the Tiamzons suffered severe beating in the hands of their captors. Internal reports cited witnesses who saw how the faces and bodies of the victims were smashed, apparently beaten with hard objects.

The CPP PolitBureau disputed the report of the AFP suggesting that the Tiamzons were killed after their supposed boat exploded while engaging in a firefight with forces of the Joint Task Force Storm, the 8th Infantry Division and the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Trident—a unit trained and commanded by the US military—during the early morning hours of August 22, 2022 off the coast of Catbalogan.

The claimed mid-sea firefight and explosion were all a drama hatched by the AFP and its US military advisers, to hide all evidence of the ignominy of their fascist crime. In truth, the already lifeless bodies of the Tiamzons and their group were dumped on a motorboat filled with explosives, and tugged from Catbalogan midway towards Taranganan island before it was detonated. Only eight bodies were subsequently retrieved by the military.

The murder of the Tiamzons follow the pattern of the wilful killings perpetrated by the AFP against captured revolutionaries. The same cruel and cowardly methods were used in the killing of Jorge Madlos (Ka Oris), Menardo Villanueva (Ka Bok), Antonio Cabantan (Ka Manlimbasog), Julius Giron (Ka Nars) and a number of others.

The Party demands justice for the August 21 massacre of the Tiamzons et al. Their capture, torture and killing were directed by the top officers of the AFP. The CPP holds the following directly responsible for the dastardly crime:

Ferdinand Marcos Jr, commander-in-chief of the AFP, Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Bacarro, then chief-of-staff of the AFP, Lt. Gen. Edgardo de Leon, then head of the JTF-Storm and the 8th Infantry Division, and Brig. Gen. Marceliano Teofilo, head of the Intelligence Service ng AFP, as well as the US military advisers behind the Task Force Trident.

The CPP demands justice for the Tiamzons and the Catbalogan 10, and calls for their indictment in all relevant courts.

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines.

The leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today, March 28, issued a statement on the occasion of 54th anniversary of the New People’s Army (NPA) tomorrow, March 29. The CPP exhorted the NPA’s commanders and Red fighters to “stir up and spread the flames of the people’s war for national freedom and democracy.”

The Central Committee of the CPP cited “intensified imperialist oppression against the Filipino people” and emphasized the need to “attain freedom from US control and domination and carry out land reform and national industrialization” which it said, “are the key steps to turn (the Filipino people’s) lives around.”

It denounced the neoliberal economic measures being carried out by the Marcos regime which cause the broad masses of the Filipino toiling people to suffer from “dispossession of their livelihood by real estate companies, plantation, mining companies, infrastructure, as well as land reclamation projects.”

The Party said there is a “clear link” between “fascist suppression and the antipeople neoliberal economic policies and programs” of the Marcos regime. It lambasted the US government for being responsible for the “widespread campaign of terrorism and fascist monstrosities” under the Marcos regime.

It denounced the plan of the US to construct more military bases in the Philippines to use the country “as part of its war theater preparations against China.”

The CPP said “the broad masses of the Filipino people are suffering from increasingly intolerable forms of oppression and exploitation… they are ever determined to wage resistance in order to free the country from clutches of US imperialism and the subservient ruling classes, and attain genuine national freedom and democracy.”

The message traced the growth of the NPA over the past 54 years of waging revolutionary armed struggle saying “it has frustrated the enemy’s campaigns of encirclement and suppression one after another” from the first Marcos regime to the current second Marcos regime. The Party said the NPA has “steadily advanced and surmounted every disadvantage and setback.”

“The preservation and nationwide growth of the NPA through more than five decades of fighting clearly proves the correctness of the strategy and tactics set forth by the Party for waging protracted people’s war in the Philippines,” said the CPP Central Committee.”

“The key has always been for NPA units to constantly expand and deepen its links with the broad masses of peasants,” said the CPP.

The CPP said “there are clear prospects for a new period of revolutionary surge in the Philippines.” It said it is certain that NPA will win more achievements and victories “in the coming period of revolutionary surge.”

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following February 8 statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines.

We mark today the 84th birth anniversary of Prof. Jose Maria Sison, founding chair of the Communist Party of the Philippines, fully conscious of the continuing profound significance of Ka Joma’s work in the unremitting struggle of the Filipino people for national democracy and socialism, which form part of the international anti-imperialist resistance of all oppressed and exploited peoples.

In celebrating his revolutionary life and work, let us reaffirm our adherence to the universal correctness of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and its application to the concrete conditions of the Philippines as practiced and taught by Ka Joma, and as embodied in the principles, policies and program of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Let us also look forward to the 130th birth anniversary of Chairman Mao Zedong later this year and Ka Joma’s 85th birth anniversary next year by studying with all energy the classic writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Ho as well as those of Ka Joma, and using them as guide as we carry forward with all vigor the national democratic revolution.

As founding chair and guide of the CPP, Ka Joma incisively analyzed the semicolonial and semifeudal conditions in the country and pointed to the necessity of carrying out a people’s democratic revolution by waging protracted people’s war along the strategy of encircling the cities from the countryside.

Wielding both the New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front as sword and shield respectively, the Party has achieved myriad revolutionary successes over more than five decades. The victories accumulated in waging resistance and building revolutionary power are testament to the correctness and lasting validity of Ka Joma’s teachings and to the indefatigable determination of the Party’s cadres to carry forward the tasks of the Philippine revolution.

Inspired by Ka Joma’s boundless revolutionary optimism, the Party and all patriotic and democratic forces are determined to bring the national democratic revolution to final victory, no matter the sacrifice and however long it takes. The liberation of the Filipino people from imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism hinges on winning the revolution.

The passing away of Ka Joma on December 16, 2022 was a profound loss to the Party. Still, his revolutionary spirit and the treasure trove of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist writings which he bequeathed continue to unite the Party and imbue it with strength. His death has inspired a revolutionary education movement among Party cadres and activists to study his teachings in order to raise their knowledge of revolutionary theory and history, and to sum-up and guide their revolutionary practice in the field of revolutionary armed struggle and mass movement in the cities and countryside.

This study movement is characterized by a review of the basic principles of the Party as laid out by Ka Joma in the first and second great rectification movements. Party cadres are also carrying out further research and social investigation to enrich and deepen understanding of the semicolonial and semifeudal conditions of the people.

Through this study movement, leading committees of the Party have taken initiative in self-criticism efforts to identify, root out, repudiate and rectify errors of subjectivism which have impeded the growth of the revolutionary movement and weakened it in some parts. The level of revolutionary energy and enthusiasm is steadily rising, and with it, the Filipino people’s determination to carry forward the revolution.

In the field of armed struggle, Party cadres in the New People’s Army are exerting efforts to surmount the problem of self-constriction in order to consistently expand and deepen the mass base and take the initiative in mounting annihilative tactical offensives combined with widespread attritive tactical offensives. In the field of the mass movement in both the cities and countryside, revolutionary forces are overcoming problems of reformism, legalism and conservatism in order to expand the people’s organized strength, lead their democratic struggles, raise their struggles against imperialist neoliberal policies and military intervention, and link and extend support to the armed struggle.

A vigorous study movement of Ka Joma’s teachings is bound to take root among the Filipino youth and students, ensuring the emergence of a new generation of revolutionaries and communists who will lead the Party and carry forward the revolution into the future. The campaign to promote Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and a culture of revolutionary collectivism and selfless service to the people, especially among young intellectuals, direct challenges the culture of social apathy, individualism, self-centeredness, hedonism and other rotten anti-social traits being promoted by imperialism and the ruling classes in media and social media.

During Ka Joma’s lifetime, the reactionary ruling classes did all they can to suppress and silence him. With his death, the reactionaries are now forever haunted by his red specter. Mortally fearful of the national democratic revolution, the Philippine reactionary government, representing the interests of the imperialists, the big bourgeois compradors and big landlords, continues to employ to brutal state terrorism and fascist suppression in a futile effort to stop the forward march of the Filipino people and their revolution. They have resorted to placing entire villages under military rule, dropping half-ton bombs from the air, extrajudicial killings, torture, abducting pregnant women and children, fake surrenders, and endlessly spinning lies. Their repeated declaration of having defeated the revolutionary movement is set to explode in their face as the Party, the NPA and the NDF gain strength and carry the revolution to greater heights.

The viciousness with which the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) wages its counter-revolution, however, succeeds only in further exposing the rottenness of the ruling system. Fascist violence is inciting the broad masses of the people to fight back. It shows them that there is no path to attain their aspiration for justice and freedom other than the revolutionary mass movement and armed struggle.

Amid aggravation of the crisis of overproduction of the global capitalist system, the leading imperialists powers are resorting to wars and pushing the entire world towards the brink of widespread death and destruction. The conditions of great disorder and turbulence being generated by the global capitalist system is compelling the proletariat to rise up and lead the oppressed and exploited classes to wage revolution.

Guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and the teachings of Ka Joma, the Communist Party of the Philippines vows to persevere in leading the Filipino people along the path of the national democratic revolution. Together with rising anti-imperialist and antifascist struggles around the world, the Party is determined to contribute to the resurgence of socialist and new democratic revolutions worldwide and help forge a new period in the world history of the proletariat.

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

New York, NY – Charges against the Makibeki NYC 3 have or will be dismissed, defeating legal attacks that came after the protests against the president of the Philippines this past fall.

That’s when pro-democracy organizers held a week of demonstrations against Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., who was visiting the United Nations. Marcos’ father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., declared martial law in the Philippines 50 years ago, and reigned over a 20-year dictatorship. Now his son, Marcos Jr., is presiding over a period of rampant human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrests and detention of political prisoners, including human rights defenders, peasants, indigenous leaders and workers.

The protests on September 23 included a sit-in at the entrance of the Asia Society auditorium, which had invited Marcos Jr. to speak. The eleven activists involved in the sit-in chanted, “Never forget, never again, never again to martial law,” and held a banner that read “Hold Marcos-Duterte accountable – no to fascist dynasties.” The event’s private security guards responded by violently removing the demonstrators, dragging them across the floor of the building, throwing them into an elevator, pulling on their hair, clothes, and limbs, and damaging their clothes.

As the Marcos motorcade left the event, several activists engaged the motorcade and continued chanting “The blood debts of the fascist regime must be paid!” As the vehicles drove away, a security agent tackled one of the organizers and had them arrested for allegedly throwing “a red substance” onto the Marcos motorcade. The crowd verbally confronted the security agents who responded by dragging two more of the activists from the crowd and arresting them. The three arrested activists have become known as the Makibeki NYC 3.

The abuse of the Makibeki NYC 3 did not end with their arrests, however, and all three of them were constantly misgendered and harassed by NYPD officers during their 24-hour detention. After the Makibeki NYC 3’s release from jail, the pro-democracy forces involved in organizing the week of direct actions continued to demand that all charges be dropped.

Bernadette Elorin of BAYAN USA stated, “Activism is not a crime. Exerting our democratic rights to genuine change should not be punished.”

In the aftermath of the arrests of the Makibeki NYC3, a broad coalition of activists and organizations joined together in order to demand that all the charges be dropped. Thanks to the power of organizing, the court has agreed to dismiss the charges against all members of the Makibeki NYC 3. The charges against one of the activists were dismissed on January 3 and their case was sealed, while the charges against the other two are set for dismissal on April 28.

#NewYorkNY #New #Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

There is no bounds to the cruelty of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in its terrorist black operations.

On January 13, 2021, more than two years ago, armed soldiers belonging to the 79th Infantry Battalion conducting combat operations in Hacienda Ambulong, Barangay San Fernando, Talisay City, raided the home of Edwin and Marlyn Madin at 2 a.m. and snatched then 2-month old Baby Marx Cairo Salino from their care. The soldiers also took the baby’s garments and personal belongings of the baby’s guardians.

In its press statement, the AFP declared that they “recovered” an “NPA child” during the combat operation, as if the infant was a war trophy. Spewing wicked lies, the AFP claimed Baby Marx was “abandoned” by his parents. Baby Marx has since been in the custody of the Escalante City social work department, on orders of the military.

Baby Marx is a hostage being kept by the AFP to force his parents to surrender. His parents, Ka Peeta and Ka Jandy, both Red fighters of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Negros, have declared that they will fight for Baby Marx’s rights, and do not have plans to surrender to the AFP nor bring harm to the people. They are determined to continue fighting for the cause of national freedom and social justice.

Baby Marx is a victim of the black operations of the armed agents of the terrorist state. By keeping him away from his family, the AFP is in outright violation of international humanitarian law, especially of its provisions granting special protection for infants, children, and pregnant women. Keeping Baby Marx a hostage constitutes a war crime.

For two years now, Baby Marx’s grandparents have been going through the bureaucratic processes in order to bring him home. Despite having complete papers and documentation, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)  refuses to give them custody of Baby Marx, saying they still have to wait for the decision of “top officers” of the AFP and DSWD. Baby Marx’s grandparents themselves were subjected to state surveillance and harassment forcing them to leave their home and go into hiding.

The CPP supports the demand of the Salino family for the immediate and safe return of Baby Marx to their familial care. We condemn the AFP for targeting infants and children, as well as pregnant women, in its black operations.

In addition to Baby Marx and his family, thousands across the country have fallen victim to the dirty tactics, war crimes of the AFP. Children and infants are not being spared. Military abuses and violations of civil and political rights continue to run rampant under the Marcos regime. Many of these cases have gone unreported especially in the rural areas, where entire peasant villages are placed under the brutal control of the AFP.

These dirty tactics of the AFP form part of its futile effort to crush the people’s resistance. In resorting to such cruel methods, the AFP is succeeding only in exposing its rottenness and inciting the people to fight back and join the armed revolution.

#Philippines #NewPeoplesArmy #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines.

The Communist Party of the Philippines extends its revolutionary greetings to the Filipino people, their heroic Red fighters, and all their revolutionary forces as we enter the new year 2023. Let us aim high and make big revolutionary strides this coming year.

The Party is filled with optimism that it can achieve its goals of consolidating its ranks and leading the comprehensive advance of the revolution. The Party and all revolutionary forces owe it to the Filipino people who are determined to resist foreign domination and intervention, and worsening forms of oppression and exploitation under the US-Marcos regime.

The Filipino people and their revolutionary forces led by the Party are all tempered in difficult resistance over the past year and more amid unprecedented US-instigated state terrorist attacks under Marcos. Their determination to fight back is like steel. Their revolutionary will is unbendable.

We will forever honor the great heroes who we lost during the past year. They served the Party and the revolution to the fullest. They are giant trees who once provided shade and comfort to the forest. Where they once stood, the sun now shines through, providing warmth to a thousand new trees, nurtured by soil made rich by past legacies. The forest of the revolution is teeming with life and energy.

The Party is determined to lead the Filipino people all over the country. In the cities and countryside, the oppressed and exploited masses are waiting to get organized under the flag of the Party. They are ready to rise up and march as one. Turn the factories, workplaces, campuses, offices, hospitals, churches, communities into centers of revolution. Let the people’s march reverberate and shake the foundations of the heavens of the exploiters and oppressors.

Marcos, Duterte and all the terrible fascists will tremble before the masses. Awaken, the masses fear no bombs nor bullets. United, they are invincible. Determined, no obstacle can stop their march. With the New People’s Army, they will carry forward the people’s war to unprecedented heights.

Onwards to greater achievements in 2023!

Long live the Filipino people!

Long live the Communist Party of the Philippines!

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

To: Communist Party of the Philippines

From: Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Dear Comrades,

It is with great sorrow that we learned of the passing of Comrade Jose Ma. Sison. The Freedom Road Socialist Organization extends our sincere condolences to Ka Joma’s many comrades, friends, Ka Julieta de Lima and his entire family. He will be missed wherever working and oppressed people are striving for their emancipation. We mourn the departure of a true titan in the world communist movement.

As a founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army, Comrade Sison made tremendous contributions to the people’s democratic revolution in the Philippines and helped bring closer the day when the burdens of imperialism, semi feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism are lifted off the backs of the Filipino people.

Ka Joma was an outstanding proletarian revolutionary whose life and work stands as example to communists everywhere. Enduring hardship and torture at the hands of the enemy, he embodied what it means to serve the people. He indeed feared neither hardship nor death.

Comrade Jose Ma. Sison made numerous contributions to Marxism – Leninism, thus enriching the content of scientific socialism. A relentless opponent of revisionism and opportunism, Comrade Sison’s thinking – his contributions to revolutionary theory – have an application internationally and deserve study by all serious communists.

Ka Joma was a true working-class internationalist, who took seriously the dictum “workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite.” As the leader of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, he spearheaded the building of international solidarity in practice.

The people of the Philippines and the people of the U.S. have a common enemy in the monopoly capitalists that rule Wall Street’s American empire. Comrade Sison stood in the front lines of those fighting to bring the empire down.

The leadership and members of FRSO appreciate the keen interest Ka Joma took in the development of a revolutionary movement in the United States, and warm friendship that he extended to our organization. When the U.S. government launched an attack on antiwar and international solidarity activists, and attempted to imprison key leaders of FRSO, he was among the first to speak out against the repression. His efforts helped to forge an unbreakable bond between the revolutionary movement in the U.S. and the revolutionary movement in the Philippines. We will miss him.

Freedom Road Socialist Organization shares the grief of the Communist Party of the Philippines, and we extend our solidarity at this difficult movement. We are also committed to learning from the life and work of Comrade Sison.

The contributions of Comrade Jose Ma. Sison will live forever!

With communist greetings,

Freedom Road Socialist Organization

#UnitedStates #Philippines #JoseMariaSison #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) extends its solidarity to all political prisoners, their families, friends and supporters in line with the International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War. The Filipino people, in particular, demand the release of all political prisoners who continue to languish in jail under the Marcos regime.

The number of political prisoners Philippines continues to rise. Over the past six month, at least 25 have been arrested, adding to the total of 828 political prisoners who are unjustly incarcerated in different parts of the country. According to reports of human rights organizations, 96 of them are sickly, 77 are elderly, and 164 are women. Most of them come from poor peasants and workers.

Through fabricated warrants of arrests and charges, scores of activists and peasant masses are thrown in jail in line with the regime’s intensified crackdown against political dissent with the National Task Force-Elcac at the helm. It aims to silence all forces opposed to corruption, puppetry, brutality and oppression perpetrated by the Marcos regime.

Political prisoners are made to suffer long years of detention by invariably using planted evidence and charging them with common crimes. Many are charged with illegal possession of explosives to deny them bail. In prisons, they suffer from oppressive conditions in overpopulated detention facilities.

We salute all political prisoners in the country who remain steadfast and work to advance the democratic and patriotic aspirations of the people.

The Party calls on all democratic forces to forge broader unity in demanding the release of all political prisoners especially the sick and elderly. They must help strengthen the resolve and determination of political prisoners. The Filipino people must firmly demand: Release all political prisoners!

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

In their recent in-person meeting, President Joe Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping that he doesn't want a new Cold War with China. But actions speak louder than words: a week later, Vice President Kamala Harris headed to the Republic of the Philippines to stoke conflict with China over the South China Sea.

The visit by Harris came two months after Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. As speaker of the House of Representatives, Pelosi is second in line to the president. Her visit was a major violation of the U.S. “One China” policy. It was also a declaration of U.S. war preparations.

Taiwan is a part of China, has been for 500 years, and the entire world, including the U.S. government, recognizes this. Yet with U.S. military backing, Taiwanese separatists have come to power and now the U.S. is arming them and threatening to go to war with China.

Vice President Harris made a special point to visit the Philippine Province of Palawan, 200 miles from the Spratly Islands. In the past decade or so, the U.S. has been stoking conflict between China and its neighbors in Southeast Asia and the Philippines who have territorial claims over part of the string of atolls.

The U.S. Navy has carried out what they call “freedom of navigation” exercises around the islands. Imagine if China sent a guided missile destroyer into the territorial waters of the U.S. to defend their right to sail anywhere in the world.

The U.S. military maintains naval facilities, which are being expanded, on the Palawan archipelago. For Harris to visit Palawan is a provocation against China.

Pledging to “defend” the Philippines if it comes under attack drove home the point: the U.S. is preparing to launch a war against China. Should that happen, the Philippines will be used as it has been in every U.S. war in Asia. 7000 miles from the continental United States, the Philippines will again be the forward base for imperialist aggression.

Filipinos from the national democratic movement rallied against Harris outside the U.S. embassy in Manila. Lisa Masa of the International League for People’s Struggles denounced U.S. warmongering. In addition, the U.S. is continuing to support the illegitimate and corrupt government of Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. in its vicious repression of the Filipino people as they struggle for their democratic rights.

U.S. imperialism is threatened by China because the U.S. empire is maintained in part by the U.S. domination of the world economy. The U.S. needs that position to continue to reap super profits from across the globe. As the great Black revolutionary Malcom X said, “You show me a capitalist, I’ll show you a bloodsucker.”

U.S. threats against China need to stop, as do U.S. war preparations.

U.S. out of the Philippines!

Hands off the Peoples Republic of China!

#UnitedStates #Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #KamalaHarris #Asia

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Social media giant Twitter, unceremoniously suspended today the various accounts of Filipino revolutionary organizations and individuals, including my account, that of the Philippine Revolution Web Central (PRWC), as well as other representatives of the CPP and the New People’s Army in various parts of the country. In total, at least 14 accounts were taken down.

This is the second round of attacks by Twitter against the CPP in the span of two months. The suspension of the accounts was done simultaneously this morning (Philippine time) in what is clearly a coordinated crackdown on online democratic and anti-imperialist dissent.

Twitter targeted accounts of individuals who have exposed the ills of Philippine society. They have served as voice for the victims of state abuse, who otherwise have no other means of sharing their stories to the world. They have drawn public attention to gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law perpetrated by the Philippine military and police. They have exposed misinformation being spread by state agencies on media and social media.

We hold the Marcos government and its cabal of national security and military officers responsible for colluding with Twitter to silence the Philippine revolutionary forces. This act of censorship reminds us of how his tyrant father closed all newspapers under martial law and allowed only those which promoted his dictatorship. We see this attempt to silence the CPP as part of a broader campaign to clamp down on other democratic forces in the Philippines.

The crackdown against these Twitter accounts is outright censorship against those who espouse the cause of anti-imperialism, national freedom and democracy. The Party maintains that it has the inherent right to condemn all forms of oppression and exploitation against the people, expose US intervention in the Philippines and foreign plunder of the country’s resources, denounce the Philippine government for its subservience to the imperialist US and China, and expose those who partner with the US military and foreign multinational corporations as traitors to the Filipino people’s aspiration for national freedom.

Contrary to the image of a democratic platform that it tries to project, Twitter is acting like a Bureau of Truth imposing rules on what views or opinion can be allowed and not allowed. It is using the US’ “terrorist” card to label revolutionaries and anti-imperialist forces in a vain attempt to justify their undemocratic acts.

Of course, this comes as no surprise, considering that Twitter (like Facebook and other big online companies) is a private company owned by multibillionaires, which works closely with the US government and its intelligence agencies. These social media companies use their monopoly dominance to manipulate public opinion in their favor and silence those who dissent, either through algorithm or outright censorship.

The obstinate efforts of the fascists over the past few years to deny the revolutionary forces of all possible online platform—from the repeated DDoS attacks against the CPP’s website, to the recent NTC ban and the earlier Facebook crackdown—is testimony to the success and effectivity of the Filipino revolutionary forces in exposing the national subservience, fascist crimes and corruption of the reactionary system and rousing the people to wage armed struggle and all forms of resistance.

We enjoin everyone to continue visiting the Philippine Revolution Web Central https://cpp.ph and the website of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines https://ndfp.org to read the views of the CPP and NPA and information about the revolutionary movement.

At the same time, the Party will continue to try using Twitter and other social media platforms despite their attempts to clamp down against online revolutionary dissent, even as we continue to explore other means of linking up with the online community.

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Condemn U.S. intervention over re-inclusion of CPP and NPA in US-FTO

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemns the U.S. government for political and military intervention in the country’s national affairs over the recent re-inclusion of the CPP and the New People’s Army (NPA) in the list of so-called “foreign terrorist organizations” maintained by the U.S. State Department.

The re-inclusion of the CPP and NPA, as well as other Moro and domestic Islamic groups, was made in a July 6 resolution signed by US state secretary Anthony Blinken and published yesterday in the US federal register.

We denounce the US for the “terrorist-labelling” of the CPP and NPA. This is baseless and merely serves its war-craving. Far from being “terrorists,” the CPP and NPA are revolutionary organizations that advance the cause of democracy and national freedom, and work to lead the Filipino people in the struggle for liberation from the clutches of U.S. imperialism.

The U.S. government has included the CPP and NPA in its so-called FTO list to pressure the Philippine government against conducting peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). In October 2017, then US president Trump personally delivered the message to former president Duterte, who weeks later issued a proclamation terminating the NDFP-GRP peace negotiations and declaring the CPP and NPA as terrorists. On the advice of the U.S., officials of the newly installed Marcos regime have already declared it will not resume the NDFP-GRP peace negotiations.

The U.S. opposes the NDFP-GRP peace negotiations because it wants the armed suppression of the patriotic and democratic forces that oppose US intervention and domination. The U.S. government is also pushing for the so-called “localized peace talks” to carry out a widespread war of pacification to allow the unimpeded entry of American multinational corporations which are aiming to control around 300,000 hectares of plantation land and mining areas in Mindanao.

The U.S. imperialists also want a perpetual war in the Philippines to ensure a steady market for U.S. bombs, jet fighters, artillery, rifles and bullets. To unload itself of surplus military supplies, the U.S. has been pushing the Philippine military and government to carry out a costly and brutal aerial bombardment campaign in counterguerrilla operations.

The U.S. inclusion of the CPP and NPA in its FTO list is being used to justify the deployment of US military forces in the Philippines.

Since 2017, an undetermined number of American soldiers are operating in the Philippines under the Operation Pacific Eagle-Philippines (OPEP). Many of these are based in U.S. facilities inside Camp Navarro in Zamboanga, as well as other military camps across the country. They are protected and given extra-territorial rights under the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) and other unequal military agreements.

US military forces advise, train and join the AFP in conducting counterguerrilla operations, including the operation of surveillance drones in the country. The U.S. is known for conducting its own aerial surveillance within the country’s sovereign airspace.

The U.S. “FTO” list is being used to justify the extension of military aid to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The US feeds the corrupt generals of the AFP and security establishment with millions of pesos of kickbacks from the so-called “modernization” program.

Experts have denounced the U.S. “foreign terrorist organizations” list as arbitrary and without legal basis under international law. While the US labels revolutionary organizations such as the CPP/NPA as “terrorists”, it does not apply the same label to fascist groups such as the notorious Azov Battalion in Ukraine, which the U.S., in fact, helps arm and train.

The CPP demands the US government to stop its political and military intervention in the country. The Party denounces the Philippine government for allowing the US to trample on the country’s sovereignty and for bowing to US dictates.

We urge the American people to demand the U.S. government to stop interfering in the internal affairs of the Philippines and to stop supplying bombs, jet fighters, and other weapons being used by the Philippine military and police against the Filipino people under the Marcos regime. Human rights abuses perpetrated by the AFP and PNP in the course of US-supported counterguerrilla operations run rampant.

The American people can demand the revocation of the so-called FTO list which is being used as an instrument of intervention in the Philippines and across the world.

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #NewPeoplesArmyNPA #Asia