The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today denounced the Aquino regime and the Aquino-Cojuangco landlord clan for destroying several hectares of land planted with fruit trees and vegetables in the collective farms being cultivated by peasant masses in Hacienda Luisita.

“The Aquino-Cojuangco clan, through the Tarlac Development Corporation (Tadeco) and Hacienda Luisita Inc., with the support and protection of the police forces of the Aquino regime, had the bungkalan areas destroyed using bulldozers manned by armed guards on 12 November, at the height of the tragedy wrought by supertyphoon Yolanda in the Visayas” said the CPP, citing field reports.

“While all of the Filipino people’s attention was geared towards extending assistance to the victims of the Yolanda tragedy, the Aquino-Cojuangcos were insidiously carrying out their plan to drive away the several hundred peasant workers from the land they have long been cultivating,” said the CPP.

“According to reports of local residents, the Aquino-Cojuangco clan ordered the uprooting of trees and crops in the 880-hectare land within the scope of Barangay Balete and Barangay Cutcut,” said the CPP. Tadeco has also filed trumped-up charges of trespassing against at least 80 peasant workers in the area.

“The day after, at least 60 armed goons of Tadeco demolished the homes and other structures built by the peasant masses in the area, causing injuries to peasant leader Florida Sibayan, her siblings and their 76-year old mother, when they were violently shoved by the armed goons,” pointed out the CPP. “Aquino’s national police force were behind the Tadeco armed goons all the while they were attacking the peasant workers.”

The peasants of Hacienda Luisita have long been asserting ownership of the 4,500-hectare sugar estate. In 2005, members of the Alyansa ng mga Mabubukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala or Peasant Alliance in Hacienda Luisita) started to collectively cultivate several hundred hectares of land to grow fruit trees and vegetables for their own consumption and to supply the market.

Despite successive land reform laws, Hacienda Luisita has largely remained under the control of the Aquino-Cojuangco landlord clan. The current Philippine reactionary president, Benigno Aquino III, is a scion of the Aquino-Cojuangcos.

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The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) calls on the Filipino people, especially the millions of victims of the recent disaster to rise up, protest and indict Benigno Aquino III for the criminal incompetence of his government which has resulted in the deaths of thousands last 8 November when supertyphoon Yolanda barrelled through the Philippines, and caused widespread devastation. The Filipino people demand justice.

They must protest the Aquino regime’s failure to provide and extend emergency relief and services resulting in the grave suffering of hundreds of thousands who continue to seek food, water and emergency supply, a full week hence.

The Aquino regime has been displaying such gross and criminal incompetence in the face of the terrible calamity which has resulted in an unnecessarily large number of deaths and injuries. There was no government presence in Tacloban City more than 48 hours after the supertyphoon struck and completely devastated the city. The local government was completely wiped out. It was apparent that the national government did not bother to look into the situation in the typhoon struck towns despite the fact that communication lines were completely cut off in these areas. It only started to take measures after local and foreign journalists fed images on primetime television of the widespread devastation in Leyte 36 hours after the typhoon.

Chaos began to erupt on the second day of the calamity as a result of the lack of food and water. Instead of rushing in emergency supply, the Aquino government deployed thousands of armed soldiers and police personnel in an effort to quell the mass discontent. Immediately, the Aquino regime’s incompetence reared its ugly head.

Aquino’s security and military officials irresponsibly engaged in spreading false information. A press release of the Armed Forces of the Philippines claimed that a military truck supposedly carrying Red Cross supplies in Sorsogon was ambushed by the New People's Army. They have also circulated rumors that NPA members are involved in the armed looting around Tacloban city and are indiscriminately firing their weapons in Palo, Abucay, and other places, in order to justify the setting up of checkpoints and establishing outright military rule.

Clearly, the AFP is more interested in projecting power and imposing its armed authority rather than ensuring the provision of food, other basic commodities and emergency supply to the people.

Aquino has gone berserk in his blaming spree and PR campaign to downplay the tragedy and devastation. Speaking to international media, Aquino insisted that the number of deaths will not go beyond 2,500 instead of the earlier estimates of 10,000. Aquino will be rebuked a couple of days later, when the United Nations revealed its independent estimate of deaths at 4,460. In an utterly tasteless twist, Aquino’s tourism officials declared that the Philippines “is still fun” to visit even as the entire world continue to watch desperately as the poeple in Tacloban beg for help amidst the grossly incompetent response of the Aquino government.

A week into the tragedy, thousands of people still have no access to emergency medical care. Food and drinking water remain scarce. Government has yet to provide emergency shelter to several thousand homeless people. Despite the outpouring of local and international support for the calamity victims, hundreds of thousands of victims have yet to be reached by emergency supply. The United Nations, international relief workers, and the media are utterly dismayed that the help they have already extended to the Philippines has yet to reach the disaster victims almost a week into the tragedy.

Aquino only declared a “state of national calamity” FOUR days after the widespread devastation. It took him and his officials FIVE days to realize that the transportation of emergency supplies to Tacloban and elsewhere will be the “largest logistical effort” yet to be undertaken by the government. Still, the Aquino regime has failed to effect the massive mobilization of ships and other sea transport despite the fact that the Tacloban port is only a few hours away from the central commercial port of Cebu and less than 24 hours from Metro Manila. Ormoc City, which is one hour away from Tacloban by land, is a mere two hours away from Cebu via high-speed ships. The Aquino regime has also failed to foresee the need to supplement the roll-on-roll-off transport ships in the Matnog port in Sorsogon resulting in a long queue of trucks and other land vehicles carrying emergency food and medical supply and personnel from Metro Manila.

The government’s failed response is so blatant, leading some people to think that Aquino is deliberately displaying incompetence in order to make the US military forces look like the heroes, and thus justify the presence of a giant US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, at least six other warships, nearly 10,000 troops, and Osprey helicopters in various parts of the Philippines, and allow these to take over facilities and the transport and distribution of emergency supply.

Tacloban City, as well as other cities, have become practically uninhabitable, and will remain to be so for the next few weeks or months. Yet government has made no effort to bring people en masse to other places where they can be provided electricity, health care, shelter, food and temporary livelihood.

The Filipino people must take the Aquino regime to account for its failure to carry out emergency evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people who were at the path of the supertyphoon. In its “Typhoon Haiyan Brief Technical Report” issued a day before Typhoon Yolanda made landfall, the Manila Observatory stated that “Massive evacuation of residential areas on low ground within 8 to 16 km of the shoreline may be required.”

Despite such warnings, the Aquino government made no significant effort to mobilize enough resources to carry out such required evacuation. Instead, Aquino found it sufficient to go on primetime television on the eve of Yolanda’s landfall and issue a weather forecast. In comparison, the government of Vietnam mobilized all resources to evacuate 600,000 at least two days before Typhoon Haiyan reached Vietnam’s coasts. The population of Tacloban City, in contrast, is around 200,000.

The Filipino people should rise up in mass protest against the gross incompetence of the Aquino regime. They must cast aside the appeals by Aquino’s loyalists to stop blaming the Aquino government and instead unite. Indeed, they must indict Benigno Aquino III for the deaths of thousands resulting from his personal and his government’s criminal incompetence.

The Filipino people must demand justice for the plight of hundreds of thousands of disaster victims. They must make the Aquino regime pay for the grave tragedy that has befallen them that is a result not so much of the supertyphoon, but of the gross failure of the Aquino regime to carry-out appropriate preventive action and post-calamity emergency relief.

They must also indict Aquino for the failure of his government to secure the people against the destruction of their property. They must demand that the Aquino regime provide immediate emergency relief fund (not loans!) to resume their livelihood, emergency employment and pensions, reparation, and the cancellation of all debts to government agencies.

They must denounce the Aquino regime for allocating a measly P7 billion to the calamity budget, resulting in its inability to build the necessary infrastructure for emergency response. Aquino is content to allocate money from his unprogrammed funds in order to justify bloating the President’s Social Fund and the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

On the other hand, the Aquino regime is not keen on carrying out a massive environmental regeneration program to desilt the rivers and other critical water systems and undertake massive reforestation, and instead is bent on bringing in foreign mining companies to continue plundering the environment.

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippines #NoynoyAquino #TyphoonYolanda #Asia

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) calls on the entire Filipino people, including those overseas, to mobilize and generate the maximum possible emergency funds and supplies for the victims of the recent super typhoon Yoland (international name Haiyan).

An estimated nine million people, or 10% of the entire Filipino population, suffered the wrath of the storm considered to be the strongest in recorded history, which barreled through 36 provinces. Majority of the victims of the storm are small peasants, farm workers, fisherfolk, mountain people, workers and other poor people who are the most vulnerable to the storm.

Wide swathes of land were engulfed by the surging seas resulting in massive destruction of public infrastructure, homes, property and agricultural land. It is feared that the number of deaths may run up to several thousand people.

The revolutionary forces under the CPP commiserate with the entire Filipino people, especially those who lost friends and family members and who are suffering from the grave impact.

The CPP calls on all progressive and democratic forces to immediately organize the collection of funds and supplies for relief and rehabilitation work and ensure their immediate transport of these to the affected areas. Main attention is justifiably centered on extending assistance to Tacloban and the Eastern Visayas provinces. There should also be sufficient attention given to other areas in Central Visayas, Panay, Negros, Masbate, Mindoro and Palawan as well as in Bicol, Southern Tagalog and Eastern and Northern Mindanao.

THe national mobilization of resources is necessary to sufficiently extend assistance to all areas devastated by the storm. There must be appropriate national coordination and cooperation in order to appropriately distribute help and supplies. Priority should be given to those requiring immediate medical attention, the children and the elderly.

The CPP calls for the formation of organizations of disaster victims in order to facilitate the distribution of emergency supplies and prevent the situation from leading to widespread chaos. The people need these organizations of disaster victims in order to extend information about their situation and needs.

The commands of the New People’s Army (NPA) units operating in the devastated areas have immediately changed their mode of operation and have carried out search, rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts.

Within the guerrilla front areas, barrio (village) committees, provisional revolutionary government units, and revolutionary mass organizations have immediately been mobilized to carry out efforts to assist the people and organize rehabilitation efforts to help the people resume production and other aspects of their normal lives.

In line with policy, the concerned NPA commands, including the NPA Mt. Amandewin Command (NPA-Leyte Island), and leading committees of the CPP can issue appropriate ceasefire orders to their respective units, putting NPA units on defensive mode but ever vigilant to enemy offensive operations. These can seek to facilitate the entry of organizations and agencies extending relief and emergency supply and ensure the safety of relief workers. The people should vigorously oppose continued suppression activities being conducted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines under Oplan Bayanihan, especially in areas ravaged by the storm.

The Filipino people are angered over the Aquino regime’s slow and terribly inadequate response to the disaster. They critize Aquino for blaming the people for being unprepared. In the hours immediately after the storm, the Aquino government was practically absent in

Tacloban and other parts of the country. They further criticize Aquino for making use of the disaster to make a pitch for the much-detested President’s Social Fund and Disbursement Acceleration Program when, in fact, it has allotted only a minuscule for calamity response.

On the other hand, the CPP extends the people’s gratitude and commendation to various local and international media agencies which have made use of their resources to provide crucial information service to disaster victims. The Filipino people welcome local and foreign volunteer civilian organizations and agencies whose contributions have been invaluable.

The CPP calls on all international civilian agencies to extend maximum possible support to the victims of the disaster. The CPP denounces the Aquino and US governments for taking advantage of the disaster to again deploy more US warships and armed US soldiers in various areas in violation of Philippine sovereignty. The CPP urges foreign governments who wish to extend aid and direct help to course their assistance through their civilian agencies or organizations.

#Philippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippines #rescueAndRelief #NoynoyAquino #TyphoonYolanda #Asia

NDFP-Mindanao challenges Aquino government to heed mounting calls for junking of the VFA

Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos, Spokesperson

National Democratic Front of the Philippines-Mindanao

13 September 2010

Following the visit of the US nuclear warships which posed greater danger for the country, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in Mindanao reiterates the mounting call from various sectors to junk the US-RP Visiting Forces Agreement and challenges the Aquino government to heed it.

The NDFP-Mindanao urges individual legislators in the Philippine Congress who still maintain a deep sense of nationalism to make that bold step and push for the immediate abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement, heeding strong calls for its rejection in the light of the Joint Resolution 3 filed by Senator Miriam Santiago that Congress can abolish this lopsided and anti-people US-RP relation.

We likewise challenge members of the “civil society” who have professed nationalism to take action, now more than ever, in defense of the Filipino people's sovereign right against intensifying US imperialist interventionism. Nationalist political, religious, and progressive leaders must place themselves at variance with the Aquino government's open policy of allowing the operation in the country of US troops as well as the entry of nuclear vessels, which, even under the scrutiny of the GRP's own laws, is treasonous.

In no time, the unequal treaty will further afflict Philippine soil with its much lopsided provisions, especially now that Mr. Noynoy Aquino is rapidly being unmasked as another puppet of US imperialism, appearing to be no different from his predecessor. After spinning victory and strategically placing him to be their stalwart, Aquino's US imperialist master is now dead set to waylay Philippine sovereignty, and do so with impunity, to protect and preserve their political and economic interests in the Asia-Pacific.

Because of the VFA, presence of US troops in Philippine soil come and go at will, like the 6,000-strong US soldiers recently ferried to the country. The VFA gives consent to stationing more troops in the country, thus advancing further US intervention here and in other neighboring countries. It is public knowledge how these US troops have inflicted damage to hundreds of thousand lives of the Filipino people during the Philippine-American War, and recently creating controversial cases including the rape of a 22-year old Filipina girl, the mysterious death of Filipino interpreter Gregan Cardeno inside a U.S barracks in Marawi City, the murder of Boyongboyong Isnijal in Basilan, and inflicting damage to many civilians as a result of their direct participation in local combat operations, which was recently witnessed in Bukidnon, Compostela Valley and the Bicol Region, and wanton military exercises of U.S soldiers in different parts of Mindanao.

The VFA is an outright affront to our national sovereignty and a violation of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines' own Constitution. The VFA is no less than combat intelligence and surveillance in the local populace vital to the military and economic objectives of US. The humanitarian missions conducted, including the ones which are facilitated by USAID, are merely facades which are actually part of the military and 'communications strategy' of the US to infiltrate deeper.

Despite mounting calls and strong ground for the abrogation of this one-sided and anti-people policy since it came into effect more than a decade ago, the VFA has remained, mocking our national sovereignty and patrimony. Rather than heeding these calls, Aquino has further said that the US troops are here to stay. That Aquino is heading towards the United States for his first diplomatic trip there, Aquino is well-advised to take VFA with him and serve it back to his US imperialist masters.

The VFA has undermined the previous victories of the Filipino people in removing foreign bases in the country. The NDFP-Mindanao calls on all freedom-loving Filipinos, especially those who were once staunch anti-US military bases like Sen. Joker Arroyo, Sen. Miriam Santiago, former Sen. Jovito Salonga, and other political and religious leaders and groups, to oppose policies that promote further US intervention such as the VFA. The Filipino people should fight and defend national sovereignty and patrimony.

The NDFP-Mindanao also calls on the New People's Army to ready themselves to give combat against US soldiers and spies who directly participate in combat operations and espionage in NPA areas in defense of revolutionary forces and of the masses. We likewise call on all the Moro freedom fighters to persevere in their armed struggle for their right to self-determination, and to unite more fervently in the fight against continuing and intensifying US military intervention.

Finally, we call on all American citizens residing in the Philippines and in the United States to manifest their adherence to the respect for the sovereignty of the Filipino nation by helping create a strong lobby for the immediate abrogation of the VFA and for the United States government to pull out its troops from the country. We fear that if the US imperialist power continues to impinge on the Filipino people, this will create the way for open war that will force the revolutionary movement and the Filipino masses to fight back, and its escalation may result in the needless death of more American soldiers, similar to what happened in the Vietnam War and to the current strife in Iraq and Afghanistan.

#Philippines #NationalDemocraticFrontOfThePhilippines #NationalDemocraticFrontMindanao #VisitingForcesAgreement #NoynoyAquino #Asia