Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines – Mindanao.

The New People’s Army must redouble its effort to fulfil the required steps to advance the people’s war towards a higher stage, bringing the Filipino people ever closer to its socialist future

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines in Mindanao (NDFP-Mindanao), resonating the collective voice of its allied revolutionary organizations in the island, unites with the Filipino people in celebrating with utmost pride the 49th anniversary of the New People’s Army (NPA), which was founded on the 29th of March 1969.

On this occasion, we salute and applaud all Red commanders, fighters, political officers and members of the People’s Militia, local guerrilla and self-defense units who have rendered invaluable service to the masses of peasants, workers and the national minorities. They have effectively carried out their revolutionary tasks of defending the people’s welfare by delivering decisive blows against the fascist forces of the US-Duterte regime. They have taken significant strides to bring the people’s war to a new and higher level with the end in view of ushering in the victory of the national democratic revolution towards the country’s socialist future.

We also take this opportunity to express our profound gratitude to the masses, the weavers of the fabric of history, who have offered their good sons and daughters to take conscious and active part in the undertakings of the true army of the people, the NPA. We thank all our allies as well, who, throughout these years, despite the all-out vain effort by the ruling classes and its reactionary government to malign and crush the revolutionary movement, have not wavered in their support.

We render our highest red salute to all revolutionary martyrs who have lain down their lives for the people and for the victory of the people’s democratic revolution.

The NPA has remained true to its revolutionary tasks and responsibilities and has reaped numerous victories against enemy forces because of the absolute guidance of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its re-establishment this year. The founding of the NPA in 1969 was a bi-product of the re-birth of the CPP, which launched the First Rectification Movement in 1968 that repudiated the ideological, political and organizational errors of the old party under the revisionist leadership of the Lava-Taruc-Sumulong clique.

From a handful of comrades and fighters armed with a few rifles and hand guns in the 2nd district of Tarlac, the NPA began to expand, spanning the entire archipelago – from Luzon to Visayas to Mindanao. Correctly guided by the CPP through the 2nd rectification movement, the NPA was able to repudiate the right and left opportunist errors of the early 80’s and reaffirmed the basic principles under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.

The Party currently mobilizes the entire structure of the NPA in an all-round way to overcome its conservative tendencies, and to fulfil the requirements necessary in pushing towards a more advanced phase of the people’s war.

The people suffer from worse forms of exploitation and oppression under the US-Duterte regime

The US-Duterte regime further deepens the semi-feudal and semi-colonial crisis by completing the implementation of neoliberal policies imposed by US imperialism. Duterte’s grand plan for the economy is to inundate the country with an infrastructure frenzy (Build, Build, Build) of roads, railways, bridges and other structures, whose actual implementation will be fueled by gigantic loans from China, Russia and the US. This will bury the country in insurmountable debt, which only serves to eternally trap us within the stranglehold of servility to US imperialist dictates.

Duterte will also open the country for the entry of more imperialist mining firms and capitalist plantations, which will further denude Mindanao’s remaining forest cover and rapidly deplete its mineral resources. Under Duterte’s “environmental policies,” stringent restrictions will be relaxed as more incentives and protection will be given to these imperialist companies, for them to continue ravaging the environment and rake in super profits from exploiting Mindanao workers and syphoning out non-renewable raw materials, to the detriment of future generations.

The country’s economy is made afloat by OFW remittances, but the level of remittances has gone down. The Duterte regime in the meantime continues with the policy of exporting human labor abroad even as overseas Filipino workers are being subjected to maltreatment and other despicable forms oppression in other countries, similar to what Joanna Demafeliz and Josie Lloren suffered in Kuwait that led to their tragic deaths.

The state of unemployment in the country is at its worst in years at 9%, or between 70,000 to 1.4 million out of work. This will further debilitate the labor sector unless thorough-going national industrialization is implemented. Labor policies imposed by the Duterte regime continue to deprive Filipino workers of job security, totally reneging on its promise to eradicate contractualization. More and more Filipino workers, especially those in Mindanao, are losing their trust of Duterte and are readying themselves to strongly oppose his anti-labor policies.

The US-Duterte regime seethes with fascism as it continues to employ militarism and other draconian measures to suppress any and all forms of opposition and dissent. Duterte seeks to wipe-out the NPA by end of 2018 through his AFP’s bloody Oplan Kapayapaan (OpKap), which employs a smattering of vile military and psywar tactics rehashed from the failed internal security plans of previous regimes.

In his desperation, he has issued Proclamation 347 that tags both the CPP and the NPA as “terrorists.” He has gone to lengths of almost sociopathic proportions as to offer “P25,000-P100,000 for every NPA fighter killed,” or exclaim the even more despicable “shoot a captured woman NPA in her private parts.”

Under the direction of the US-Duterte regime, the AFP/PNP has resorted to the psywar tactic of subterfuge, perfidy and black propaganda. AFP psywar experts employ orchestrating the murder of civilians, make it appear like it was executed by “terrorists,” and impute the crime on the NPA. Then, through their trolls, they poison both social and mainstream media with such fake news. For instance, AFP-sponsored bandit groups beheaded a CAA member in San Miguel, Surigao del Sur, and in another incident, state agents murdered Datu Tiambong, a Mamanwa local chieftain, in Alegria, Surigao del Norte, both treacherous acts aimed at maligning the credibility of the NPA.

This also holds true with “fake surrenders,” with which the AFP uses, but in vain, to paint a portrait of a “weakening NPA.” But, the masses in Mindanao are well aware of the real nature of their own army, a people’s army that adheres to a strict code of discipline and fundamental rules that hold paramount the well-being of the masses and, without second thought, defend them whenever under attack.

OpKap has resulted in some of the gravest manifestations of human rights abuses in Mindanao since the US-Marcos dictatorship, which, from March 2017 to March 2018, has already victimized hundreds of thousands in the island. In particular, extra-judicial killings have snuffed out 127 mass leaders and activists in Mindanao.

Some of the more grisly crimes of the AFP in the past couple of years include: the torture and frustrated murder by setting on fire two young activists on December 6, 2017 by elements of the 71st IBPA in Maco, Compostela Valley; the massacre of eight Lumad villagers in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato on December 3, 2017 by elements of the 33rd and 27th IB; the murder of 19-year old Lumad student Obillo Bay-ao by CAFGU elements on September 5, 2017 in Talaingod, Davao del Norte; and the shooting of a pregnant woman by elements of the 8th IBPA in Bukidnon on July 2016.

The AFP also deploys its attack helicopters, fighter jets and combat-capable drones to conduct bomb runs as well as its 105 mm cannons to launch artillery attacks on areas near or on hinterland Lumad and peasant villages. For instance, the nearly five hour aerial bombing and artillery attack on May 25, 2017 against several barangays in President Roxas, North Cotabato and Damulog, Bukidnon combined with ground operations of the 39th and 72nd IBPA; almost incessant bombings and shelling on areas in close proximity to Lumad schools and communities in the hinterlands of Lianga, Surigao del Sur and Gigaquit, Surigao del Norte; and, the attack of drones with combat capabilities on farms and hinterland communities of peasants and Lumad in several towns in Surigao del Norte.

Drones are being used by AFP units to assist them to either survey the area for their targets or to launch via remote control “rockets” to decimate whatever they consider their “enemy target,” which include civilian communities.

The extension of the implementation of martial law in Mindanao has left leaders and members of open and legitimate mass organizations to brutal attacks by the reactionary state, which employs the filing of trumped up charges, warrantless arrests, imprisonment and torture, surveillance and profiling of targeted individuals, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and other means of psywar and intimidation. The AFP also uses its “recruitment” activities in schools and colleges as a cover to conduct surveillance on students whom they suspect to be “recruiting for the NPA.”

The Duterte regime recently filed a case against more or less 600 individuals whom it claims to be members of the CPP, NPA and NDFP and aims to officially declare the CPP and the NPA as “terrorists.” This is a virtual hit list of the AFP’s targets for arrest, persecution or political assassinations, as many of the names, more than half of which are from Mindanao, include those from legal organizations, human rights workers and activists, prominent individuals and leaves space for those whom they wish to add later. This is also farcical because it also include names of people who are long dead and even some are elements who are now in cahoots with the AFP.

The regime’s Oplan Tokhang/Double barrel has not only been used to capture and kill small-time drug users and peddlers but also to arrest and even murder political activists. Duterte recently revealed his “true colors” when drug charges against drug lords Peter Lim and Peter Co and self-confessed drug kingpin Kerwin Espinosa were dropped by the courts on mere technicality. These big time drug dealers are in fact close buddies of Duterte.

After the five-month brutal siege of Marawi City, no clear and significant rehabilitation effort that serves the needs of the Bangsamoro who evacuated from the city is underway; Bangsamoro civilian leaders/representatives of the people who were deprived of their homes and livelihood have not been consulted by the Task Force Bangon Marawi. Marawi residents now reside in make-shift tents located in the outskirts of the city.

The US-Duterte regime remains unrelenting in its war against the Bangsamoro and continues to intensify it even after the Marawi seige and as it extends martial law in the island. On one hand, it engages in direct attacks against the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF); continuing its bombing/shelling on Moro communities such as the S.K. Pendatun incident, which has resulted in the evacuation of a number of Moro communities.

While on the other, it continues to contain the MILF and the BIAF by dangling the enactment of the BBL into law, as well as the federal form of government as an assurance that the Bangsamaoro will have a “share” in the state’s power. However, the enactment of the BBL into law remains far from being realized and creates a more volatile condition for the rekindling of an even bigger Moro armed resistance against the reactionary government.

The intensified war against the Bangsamoro is part of the Asia-pivot design of US imperialism to buttress its hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region, where China is also increasing its hold. The US Armed Forces has launched Operation Pacific Eagle–Philippines, an all-out US counter-insurgency operation in the country which replaces Operation Enduring Freedom. This gives full license to US military forces to directly operate against “terrorists,” establish new military bases with more than 6,000 heactares of land in Marawi City granted to them as military reservation, and use all their deadly hi-tech weaponry against the people of Mindanao. This will also serve as a launch pad for its war against China and North Korea, and establish its claim over the South China Sea.

The NPA in Mindanao continues to surge in an all-round way

Despite the all-out attacks of the US-Duterte regime, the NPA is making headway in 46 guerrilla fronts in Mindanao, where its units are operating in more than 2,500 barrios in over 200 municipalities in 20 provinces in the island. In these areas, hundreds of thousands are directly organized, while tens of thousands are covered by the people’s revolutionary government at the barrio level, and a few at municipal levels.

In the first quarter of the year alone, the combined strength of all NPA units in the five regions of Mindanao have launched a relatively significant number of tactical offensives against enemy troops, which have been inflicted with more casualties.

NPA units are hard at work cooperating alongside revolutionary masses in launching agrarian revolution. Thousands have benefitted from its minimum program of agrarian reform, which include reduction in the rent of land, farm animals and tools and in the levels of usury, while striving to increase wage rates of farm workers, as well as the level of productivity in the base areas. NPA units also provide social services, such as medical services, and conduct revolutionary cultural campaigns which help raise the level of consciousness among the organized masses.

Under the absolute leadership of the CPP, the NPA is imbued with Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as its ideological guide. Contrary to the claim that it has veered away from its principles, the NPA is strict in the implementation of its basic education, which is a collection of basic courses under the Pambansang Demokratikong Paaralan (PADEPA). It has made sure that members of the NPA who qualify for Party membership undergo the Basic Party Course (BPC) and the Intermediate Party Course (IC), and for cadres, the Advanced Party Course (AC).

NPA units regularly take stock of statements and articles featured in Ang Bayan, the official national publication of the CPP. At the same time, Red fighters are encouraged to read articles that feature burning issues of the day and, if they are able, to read revolutionary classics to help them strengthen their resolve and sharpen their analytical skills, especially in the midst of ever changing social conditions.

Red fighters are steeled and guided by its 3 Main Rules of Discipline and 8 Points of Attention enshrined in the Basic Rules of the New People’s Army in all their political and military undertakings. For instance, the NPA has displayed utmost discipline in the proper handling of prisoners of war and hors d’combat, taking into account the strict adherence to the CARHRIHL, Protocols, the Geneva Conventions and other international laws that govern civil wars.

NPA platoons and companies in Mindanao are now spread all over their base areas, helping the masses to defend themselves from impending attacks of enemy forces, recovering those relatively disrupted by enemy troops and re-invigorating revolutionary mass organizations into launching agrarian revolution campaigns and participating in meaningful activities that help advance the people’s war.

Further strengthen our efforts to reap more victories

Thus, on the occasion of the 49th anniversary of the founding of the New People’s Army, the NDFP–Mindanao resoundingly applauds the accumulated victories in the past year, and calls upon all Red fighter units to redouble efforts in launching more and more tactical offensives against operating enemy troops, utilizing a wide array of tactics and technics in order to achieve our strategic revolutionary goals.

The NPA must also make it a point to pay more attention in the intensification agrarian revolution campaigns, mobilizing the masses in their hundreds of thousands in order to bring about significant victories, both in the minimum and even in the maximum program.

We encourage NPA units in Mindanao to mark their every political and military undertaking this year as a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the re-establishment of the Communist Party of the Philippines. We must take this opportunity to sum-up, learn from past mistakes, and aim ever higher to fulfil the requirements to help usher the people’s war towards the strategic stalemate phase and bring the nation ever closer to its glorious socialist future.

Long live the New People’s Army, the real people’s army! Long live the Communist Party of the Philippines! Long live the People’s Democratic Revolution with a Socialist Perspective!

#MindanaoPhilippines #Mindanao #Philippines #NewPeoplesArmy #Asia

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following march 8 statement from Rubi del Mundo, Spokesperson, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), Southern Mindanao

8 March 2018 The National Democratic Front of the Philippines in Southern Mindanao and all revolutionary forces in the region celebrate the International Women’s Day with women of all classes and sectors around the nation and across the globe. We especially congratulate all women revolutionaries who are serving the interest of the Filipino people by arousing, organizing and mobilizing other women in the line of the national democratic revolution. We are likewise inspired by the examples of the great women who have been martyred in our struggle against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.

Women’s struggle for emancipation have come a long way since the historic Petrograd mobilization of 1917 where tens of thousands of women marched in the streets, demanding “Bread and Peace” against the Russian Tsar’s war and campaign of suppression. Barely two years in power, GRP Pres. Rodrigo Duterte is reeling back more than a century of social progress with his regressive views on the value of women and their struggle for emancipation. From sexist jokes and misogynistic threats to government and social policies, Duterte has proven himself the enemy not only of women but of the entire Filipino people.

Today, Filipino women are rising up to the call of undertaking militant action against the US-Duterte’s despotic regime and wars against the Filipino people. In Southern Mindanao, thousands of women are becoming invaluable mobilizers for armed struggle, agrarian revolution and base building. Significantly, despite Duterte’s sexist threats, more and more women are joining the ranks of the New People’s Army in the region. Most of them opt to become medical officers while others are commanders or political instructors of NPA units. Even more encouraging is the marked involvement of women in the establishment of organs of political power where many of them are becoming leading members of barrio and municipal revolutionary councils. All of leading Party units across the region also have many women cadres in their ranks.

In the face of the US-Duterte regime’s outright subservience to the interests of imperialists and oligarchs, thousands more women are participating in mass actions against feudal exploitation, imperialist mining and agri-plantations in the guerilla bases. In towns and cities, women comprise more than half of the forces who are militantly confronting Duterte’s refusal to end contractualization among workers, his regime’s sell-out of the country’s economic sovereignty, his anti-poor TRAIN Law, and other issues.

Under the semi-colonial and semi-feudal system which the US-Duterte regime now resolutely consolidates through dictatorship and fascism, Filipino women of the exploited class find their rightful place in their struggle for emancipation. In the revolutionary movement, under the guidance of the Communist Party of the Philippines, women know that in order to emancipate themselves, they must immerse their struggle in the national democratic revolution.

Long live all toiling and revolutionary women! Long live the national democratic revolution!

#MindanaoPhilippines #Mindanao #Philippines #InternationalWomensDay #NPA #Asia

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Feb. 18 statement from the New People’s Army, Regional Operations Command, Southern Mindanao Region.

The Regional Operations Command of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Southern Mindanao commends the 1stPulang Bagani Battalion for carrying out revolutionary justice and inflicting heavy casualties against AFP (Armed Forces of Philippines) troops following three coordinated tactical offensives in Paquibato and Calinan Districts, Davao City on February 16. At least 12 AFP soldiers were killed while more than 20 more were wounded. In unrestrained fury over the toll, AFP troops manning the checkpoints after the successful NPA attacks retaliated by taking aside two civilians and summarily killing both of them.

A company of Red fighters attacked the detachment of the 72IBin Sitio Binaton, Brgy. Malabog in Paquibato District at around 5:30 in the morning. The military action was in response to the masses’ demand to punish the mercenary enemy troops, especially in perpetuating and protecting the illegal drug trade in the district and in neighboring areas. In exchange for monthly payola, the detachment ensured unhindered traffic of drugs between the city’s districts and provided security for notorious drug operator Neptali AlfredoPondoc, who was executed by the NPA on January 23. A Red fighter was martyred in the engagement. One enemy was killed while several others were wounded.

At around 4:00 in the afternoon, the 5-truck reinforcement of the 3IB was hit in Brgy. Lamanan in Calinan District. Three of the five KM450 trucks were blasted and upturned when several command-detonated explosives were triggered by Red fighters, killing at least 7 and severely wounding more than 10 enemy troops. Thirty minutes later, another 3IB reinforcement onboard 2 military truckswasagain blocked down by command-detonated explosives in Brgy. Lacson, Calinan District, killing 2 and wounding 17 AFP troopers.

While cordoning off the highway to the clash sites, AFP soldier stook aside for no reason civilian commuters Roel Satingasin of Brgy. Tamugan and Ariel Gelbero of Brgy. Lamanan and summarily killed both of them in Calinan. AFP troops, by their very disposition, are incapable of resisting the fascist nature sto take it out on hapless civilians when they suffer heavy casualties in the battle field. The NPA assures the families that revolutionary justice will be meted out against the perpetrators of the heinous crime.

The tactical offensives were carried out by the NPA as fitting punishment for the AFP’s numerous human rights violations of extra-judicial killings, illegal arrests, harassments and artillery bombardments that resulted to thousands of displaced Lumads and peasants during and after their so-called unilateral ceasefire. The heavy casualties inflicted against these fascist troops serve as revolutionary justice long demanded by the masses who continue to fall victim to state-sponsored terrorism.

Despite their supposed millions in intelligence resources, the top honchos at the 10ID are beside themselves in rage that a series of tactical offensives have been successfully carried out by the NPA in broad daylight in Davao City. They are fuming at the mouth that the all-out war they so bullheadedly declared has completely backfired and is costing them men and means in the face of coordinated NPA offensives not only in the region but across the country.

RIGOBERTO F. SANCHEZ Spokesperson Regional Operations Command NPA-Southern Mindanao

#Philippines #NPA #Mindanao #NewPeoplesArmy #Asia

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Feb. 19 statement from Ka Teresa, Spokesperson, Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan – Southern Mindanao.

MAKIBAKA, the underground revolutionary organization of women, in Southern Mindanao condemns in the highest terms Rodrigo Duterte’s marching order for AFP soldiers to shoot women members of the NPA in the vagina since taking up arms renders their reproductive organs “useless.” In playing on the AFP’s (Armed Forces of the Philippines) fascist tradition of rape and male chauvinism, Duterte ignorantly assumes that he can rally his troops to commit the most heinous war crimes with impunity in his anti-people Oplan Kapayapaan.

We commend all women, organizations, civil libertarians, even women members of the AFP, who have taken offense at Duterte’s primitive and misogynistic views on human rights, especially of women, which stand on the wrong side of history and make a mockery of centuries of hard-won struggle by women not only in the country but around the world.

Malacañang can no longer sweep Duterte’s comments under the rug like it did in the past. Duterte’s recent order is yet another attack against all women, much like his promise to his fascist soldiers for the latter’s choice of bedding starlets as prize or immunity lest they rape women in their anti-terror rampage. It can never be downplayed “in context” like his detestable joke of wanting to be the first to rape an Australian religious missionary. His downright sexist treatment of women media practitioners will no longer be lumped up with his general distaste for the Philippine media who struggle to exercise freedom of speech against his tyrannical rule.

Duterte is a misogynistic tyrant not only in words but in deed. Every single day, his newly-minted TRAIN Law beats down mothers of the working class who carry the burden of making ends meet in the face of rising prices of commodities and dwindling value of already barely livable wages. In farms, corporate plantations and haciendas nationwide, women alongside men work like slaves because Duterte favors foreign investments over the institution of genuine land reform. In factories and semi-processing plants in urban centers, women alongside men continue to be victimized by corporate greed with Duterte’s adamant neoliberal policies on job contractualization.

Like any dictator, Duterte detests women and wants them to kowtow to the patriarchal authorities of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial society that condemn women as docile, unthinking secondary citizens. He wants women to never question, raise doubt or protest the inequalities that he himself is perpetrating against the masses of peasants, workers and Lumad. He demands subservience, and where there is none, he either unravels his dirty mouth to ridicule women or raises his iron-clad fist to stifle dissent, be it against the legal democratic movement or the underground movement.

But in truth, Duterte is deathly afraid of women, especially strong-willed women who see him for the mysogynistic tyrant that he is. He is most afraid of women who choose the hard road of arm struggle against the exploitative reactionary government which he now desperately endeavors to keep together with fascism and dictatorship. He knows that when the masses rise up to topple him, more than half of those will be mothers, daughters and women of all sectors.

We likewise challenge presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, as a woman and a human being, to make a stand against her father’s egregious anti-women tirades. For the sake of the sector she belongs to and human rights in general, she must denounce this retrograde order that objectifies women and uses our reproductive organ as an instrument of subordination and derision.

MAKIBAKA calls on all women to wage all forms of resistance in the national democratic struggle to bring down the US-Duterte regime, the number one enemy of all Filipino women today. We call on more women to join the ranks of men and march with the New People’s Army which imbibes the long and heroic tradition of revolutionary women who fight against the roots of our patriarchal bondage—imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.

#Mindanao #Philippines #WomensMovement #PeoplesStruggles #makibaka #NationalDemocraticFrontMindanao #Antifascism #RodrigoDuterte #Asia