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CPP  celebrtes its 42nd anniversary

CPP Marks 42nd Year with ‘Grandest’ Celebration Ever

Ka Oris, spokesman of the CPP-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines in Mindanao, said President Benigno S. Aquino III’s new counter-insurgency program dubbed “Oplan Bayanihan” will become another “failure” like the Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL) 1 and 2 of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration.

By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA
www.bulatlat.com

EASTERN MINDANAO — The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) held what it called its grandest anniversary celebration ever somewhere in the Caraga region on Dec. 26, marking its 42 years of existence.

Jorge Madlos, also known as Ka Oris, spokesman of the CPP-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines in Mindanao, said that at least 8,000 individuals from four regions in Mindanao attended the event. About 30 large vehicles brought peasants, workers, students, religious, lawyers and the media to the event that threaded through several military and police checkpoints to reach the venue — a mere kilometer away from the provincial highway.

“Checkpoints were setup by the 4th Infantry Division all over the Caraga region in a desperate attempt by the AFP to prevent the people from joining the celebrations of the CPP anniversary,” said Ka Oris.

Listen to Kodao Productions’ audio coverage of the Communist Party of the Philippines’s (CPP) 2010 anniversary celebration and press conference with NDF Mindanao spokesperson Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos. (Photo by Raymund B. Villanueva / Kodao Productions / bulatlat.com)

According to a press release sent by NDF-Mindanao, traffic built up to around two kilometers along the main highway leading to San Agustin town, Surigao del Sur, because of the checkpoints set up by military and police operatives. “The military and police unreasonably blocked the people’s free movement insisting on listing all the license numbers of vehicles, asking for registration papers and checking the license of drivers,” Ka Oris said.

The vehicles were only allowed to proceed when reporters and cameramen from local and international media outfits arrived, said Ka Oris. “The attempts to stop people from joining the celebrations of the CPP violated the spirit and intent of the simultaneous ceasefire which, among others, was meant to allow personnel of both sides to be with their families and friends to hold celebrations during the holidays,” added Ka Oris.

Despite the harassments at the checkpoints, the participants to the celebration were able to proceed to the venue.

The Communist Party of the Philippines held its grandest anniversary celebration ever on December 26. (Photo by Raymund B. Villanueva / Kodao Productions / bulatlat.com)

From about nine in the morning, the crowd freely mingled with at least two full companies of New People’s Army (NPA) fighters and having their pictures taken with the uniformed guerillas armed with high-powered assault and sniper rifles. Children were carried on their parents’ shoulders to get a clear view of the speakers and the performers on the elevated stage while several “kitchen teams” were preparing lunch under tents, evoking a town fiesta atmosphere. Makeshift toilets around the main venue were also constructed in anticipation of the huge crowd even as surrounding houses opened their doors to strangers in search of other toilets.

A pass-in-review by an NPA company -– three platoons of 25 fighters each — at the beginning of the program had the crowd surging forward to be as close to the rebels, some with colorfully painted faces in preparation for their own “cultural performances” later in the program.

In his speech, Ka Oris congratulated the CPP as it established three new guerilla fronts in Mindanao from last year’s 39. He said that each front has platoon or company-sized rebel formations on top of “people’s militias.”

The rebel spokesman also announced that the NPA launched 250 tactical offensives in 2010, seizing about 200 high-powered firearms from government troops and achieving a “casualty ratio” of 10 government soldiers for every rebel killed in action.

Ka Oris criticized President Benigno S. Aquino III’s new counter-insurgency program dubbed “Oplan Bayanihan,” calling it another “impending failure” like the Oplans Bantay Laya (OBL) 1 and 2 of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration.

“Instead of being decimated by OBL 1, the whole revolutionary movement has grown bigger and stronger. OBL 2 failed not only in reducing the revolutionary forces to inconsequentiality but in stopping the continued advance of the people’s war,” he said.

Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan is a rehash of old counter-insurgency programs that seek to deodorize the brutality of the “fascist government” with human-rights rhetoric, psy-war lies, dole-out campaigns, so-called community organizing for peace and development, and other political gimmickry, Ka Oris added.

The NDFP-Mindanao spokesman urged the CPP to “boldly expand and strengthen” itself and the NPA “to annihilate its enemies and seize more weapons.” He also called on the CPP to fulfill the requirements for completing the strategic defensive stage of its Maoist revolution in the next five years to achieve the stage of “strategic stalemate” against the government of the Philippines.

The celebrations included a “peace forum” where Ka Oris explained the NDFP’s “peace Agenda” as he reiterated that the impending formal peace talks between the NDFP and the Philippines in Oslo, Norway, in February follow the Joint Hague Declaration of 1992. Representatives from the religious, peasant, workers, legal, and youth sectors, indigenous peoples, and local government units took turns in expressing support to the formal peace talks. He also answered questions about local peasant struggles against foreign-owned plantations and environment issues.

A pass-in-review by an NPA company -– three platoons of 25 fighters each — at the beginning of the program marking the 42nd anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines. (Photo by Raymund B. Villanueva / Kodao Productions / bulatlat.com / bulatlat.com)

He also drew enthusiastic applause when he said that the NPA was the first to recognize gay rights as human rights, in response to a question posed by a group of gays in the audience.

In the succeeding press conference, he refused to be baited into badmouthing President Aquino, saying “it is bad form to do so when we are about to talk to his government across the negotiating table.”

Ka Oris instead praised the appointment of lawyers Alex Padilla and Pablo Sanidad to the negotiating panel of the GRP in its talks with the NDFP.

The rebel leader also tried to be diplomatic against the Philippine Army’s 401st Infantry Brigade, describing its harassments on civilian participants and the media as “unfriendly,” even as journalists were incensed at being interrogated at checkpoints and military camps causing some of them to miss the start of the celebrations.

“We thank the media on its steadfast defense of the people’s right to be informed to important political events such as these unprecedented celebrations of the CPP’s anniversary in terms of attendance,” he said.

He denied that they invited the media to act as human shield against possible attacks by government troops to disrupt the celebrations.

“Apart from the harassments, we think that it would be bad for the reactionary army to attack this large mass gathering. But should they indeed attack the NPA in this area has decided earlier to just withdraw rather than engage the enemy. This is to spare the civilians from possible harm,” he explained.

“In all my 30 years as a revolutionary guerilla I have never seen an (CPP) anniversary celebration as huge as this. It is 3:30 in the afternoon and, as you can see, the people are still here having a good time,” Ka Oris said.

He said the CPP invites civilians and supporters to guerilla zones during anniversary celebrations not for its sole benefit. “We are doing this because the masses want to celebrate the anniversary of the party and its army that genuinely serve them. They want these celebrations as much as we do, as you can see for yourselves,” he told the members of the media.

After most of the local and national media as well as church and local government representatives have left delegations from five neighboring provinces in Eastern Mindanao tried to outdo each other with their own “cultural performances.” Revolutionary songs performed by children drew the loudest roars of approval from the crowd and the rebels. The humid air was constantly punctured with shouts of “Long live the Communist Party!” during and after each performance.

The celebration was reluctantly ended at about four in the afternoon, after the emcees explained that the 50-square meter stage had to be dismantled and the venue cleaned by the rebels before it got dark.

As a steady stream of trucks, buses and jeepneys turned from the village road to the provincial highway Philippine Army and Philippine National Police personnel tried to take videos of plate numbers and people’s faces. More checkpoints and road blocks were set up on roads leading from one of the biggest gatherings inside a guerilla zone in history. (http://bulatlat.com)

Thousands join celebrations for CPP 42nd founding anniversary

Monday, 27 December 2010

Ka Oris reports on the victories achieved by the revolutionary movement during the past year.By CPP Information Bureau

Several thousand people joined celebrations yesterday of the 42nd founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in a what was described as "one of the biggest celebrations of the revolutionary victories of the Filipino people exhibiting the continuing growth of the revolutionary movement led by the CPP."

At the same time, the CPP denounced the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) "for setting-up checkpoints along the route to the site of the assembly to harass participants and dissuade them from proceeding to the site of the celebrations in violation of the spirit and intent of the 19-day ceasefire."

The whole day celebration was hosted by the National Democratic Front-Mindanao.

According to NDF-Mindanao spokesperson Jorge "Ka Oris" Madlos, a few more thousand people failed to join the celebrations because of the checkpoints setup by the military and police. "Checkpoints were setup by the 4th Infantry Division all over the Caraga region in a desperate attempt by the AFP to prevent the people from joining the celebrations of the CPP anniversary."

At around eight in the morning, traffic built up to around two kilometers along the main highway leading to San Agustin town, Surigao del Sur, as military and police operatives blocked scores of vehicles carrying participants. According to Ka Oris: "The military and police unreasonably blocked the people's free movement insisting on listing all the license numbers of vehicles, asking for registration papers and checking the license of drivers."

The military and police checkpoints only relented when reporters and cameramen from local and international media outfits arrived and witnessed the harassments.

"The attempts to stop people from joining the celebrations of the CPP violated the spirit and intent of the simultaneous ceasefire which, among others, aim at allowing personnel of both sides to be with their families and friends to hold celebrations during the holidays," added Ka Oris.

"Despite the harassments, the celebrations pushed through and was carried out successfully," added Ka Oris. Thousands of peasants and lumad people, fisherfolk, as well as workers and students from town centers joined a company of New People's Army (NPA) Red fighters in a field surrounded by coconut trees and rice paddies. "This shows the deep and widespread support of the people for the Communist Party and the revolutionary movement."

The occasion also served as an opportunity for Red fighters to be joined by their families.

According to the CPP, scores of other smaller assemblies were carried out in guerrilla fronts all over the country, as well as in factories, schools, offices, private homes and communities in cities and town centers.

Reference:
Marco Valbuena
Media Officer
Cellphone Numbers: 09156596802 :: 09282242061
E-mail: cppmedia@gmail.com

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HOW TO ORGANIZE THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN THE PHILIPINES

Guest Lecture to Students on Political Mobilization at the Center for Conflict Studies, University of Utrecht

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philipines
6 December 2010

I have been requested by Prof. Mario A. Fumerton to explain to you how my comrades and I organized the revolutionary movement in the Philippines. How did we recruit the first cadres for the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army? How did we go about raising the consciousness of the workers, peasants, youth and other women in order to recruit and organize them for the revolutionary movement?

What were the challenges that we faced like government repression, lack of resources, lack or low level of political commitment and will from some of the early recruits? And how did the movement overcome these challenges and difficulties, strategically, politically, and socially? How did we and the movement forge the strong relationships and commitments necessary not only for starting a revolutionary movement, but also for sustaining it for as long as the CPP and NPA have now existed?

Common Understanding and Commitment to Serve the People

At the very outset, let me answer the question on why my closest comrades and I who started the revolutionary movement in the Philippines were so determined to wage the revolution. We had a common understanding and commitment to serve the people. We considered the revolutionary cause as just. We assumed as a moral duty for us to continue the revolutionary struggle of previous generations.

We had a strong sense of history about the Filipino people. They won the revolution against Spanish colonialism. But US imperialism intervened and brutally suppressed the revolution. In order to prevail, the US military forces massacred 1.4 million Filipinos. Certainly, it is necessary for the people to continue the revolutionary struggle for national liberation and democracy.

We saw Philippine society as semi-colonial and semi-feudal in character. There is no longer a US colonial administration. But the US continues to rule the Philippines indirectly through puppet politicians and to dominate the economy, politics, culture and the military. The anti-democratic ruling classes of big compradors and landlords are servile to the US and they exploit and oppress the working class and peasantry. Even the urban petty bourgeoisie and middle bourgeoisie suffer a certain measure of exploitation and oppression.

My earliest comrades and I started to do revolutionary work where we could, at the University of the Philippines (UP) in 1959. We formed the Student Cultural Association of the University of the Philippines (SCAUP) as a patriotic and progressive organization in opposition to the UP Student Catholic Action (UPSCA) which was a religio-sectarian and anti-communist organization of the dominant church in the Philippines.

Since the beginning, we in the SCAUP wanted to raise the level of debate in the university from one between the bourgeois liberals and the religio-sectarians on the issue of academic freedom to one between the Left and the Right on social issues concerning the national and social liberation of the Filipino people. We allied ourselves with the bourgeois liberals in upholding academic freedom and the secular character of the university. But we also formed open study circles to advocate national independence and democracy against US domination and the local exploiting classes.

Furthermore, we formed secret study circles on Marxism. These were clandestine because there was the Anti-Subversion Law of 1957 which penalized officers of any communist organization with death. The Congressional Committee on Anti-Filipino Activities (CAFA) used this law in 1961 to witchhunt faculty members and students for publications deemed as Marxist and communist. The SCAUP had done so much political work among the students that it could mobilize 5000 of them to scuttle the congressional CAFA hearings in 1961.

The mass action was a signal event after a decade of anti-communist repression, following the defeat of the communist-led armed movement in the early 1950s. For the first time, university publications which had an anti-imperialist and anti-feudal character were defended by a large protest action. After its success with the anti-CAFA mass protest, the SCAUP decided to encourage students of other universities to organize progressive associations.

My closest comrades and I, who gave up climbing the academic and social ladder of the ruling system, further decided to do volunteer work in the education and research departments of the Workers’ Party in 1962 and a peasant association in 1963. We also decided to join the old merger party of the Communist and Socialist parties which was outlawed and in the underground.

My comrades and I from the student movement developed as cadres by participating in the work of arousing, organizing and mobilizing the workers and peasants. It was also in this way that we could form Kabataang Makabayan (KM, Patriotic Youth) in 1964 by combining the young workers and young peasants with the students and young professionals.

KM described itself as the assistant of the working class in carrying forward the national democratic movement. It gained members rapidly and established chapters on a nationwide scale. It was outstanding in protest actions against the oppressive and exploitative policies of the reactionary government as well as against US impositions on the Philippines and against the US war of aggression in Vietnam and the whole of Indochina.

In 1966 a debate within the old merger party of the Communist and Socialist parties arose on a number of issues: whether or not to follow the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, whether or not previous leaders of the party were to be held accountable for grave errors that caused defeat in the past, and whether or not the chronic crisis of the ruling system was a ground for starting a protracted war for national liberation and democracy.

My comrades and I who were the majority of cadres in the organizations of workers, peasants, youth, cultural workers and professionals, called ourselves the Marxist-Leninist or proletarian revolutionaries and broke away from those we called Lavaite revisionist renegades who followed the Soviet party. The Lava revisionists tried with might and main to cover up the grave errors that caused the defeat of the revolutionary in the past and at he same time wanted to avoid revolutionary armed struggle indefinitely.

We published the rectification documents, Rectify Errors and Rebuild the Party and subsequently the drafts of the Constitution and Program for People’s Democratic Revolution for the purpose of reestablishing the Communist Party of the Philippines under the theoretical guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought on December 26, 1968.

Requirements for the New Democratic Revolution

We accepted the requirements of the new democratic revolution of the Filipino people under the leadership of the working class. We agreed to build the CPP as the advanced detachment of the working class in terms of ideology, politics and organization. We agreed that the Party must wield the revolutionary armed struggle and the united front as weapons to destroy the counterrevolutionary state and install the people’s democratic state.

In building the Party ideologically, we adopted the theory of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought or Maoism. This covers the philosophy of dialectical materialism, political economy ranging from the critique of capitalism to socialist construction, the social science of class struggle and the class dictatorship of the proletariat, Party building and rectification movement, people’s war and the theory of continuing the revolution under proletarian dictatorship through cultural revolution.

We read and studied the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao. We recognized that raising the level of our theoretical knowledge would give us the necessary hindsight, acuity on the current situation and foresight. Our revolutionary commitment was strengthened and enriched for long-term struggle by the comprehensiveness and profundity of the theory. We did our best to grasp materialist dialectics and accordingly to develop our scientific and pro-worker stand, viewpoint and methodology.

We considered theory as the guide to action and as the antidote to subjectivism. Without theory, we would act blindly and fall into the pit of empiricism. But without social practice, the theory would lead us to dogmatism. We followed the teaching of Mao that correct ideas do not fall from the sky but come from social practice consisting of production, class struggle and scientific experiment. Social progress involves the wave-like alternation of rising level of knowledge from social practice and rising level of social practice guided by the rising level of knowledge.

We integrated the theory of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought or Maoism with the history and concrete conditions of the Philippines and with the concrete practice of the Philippine revolution. In this regard, we produced such seminal writings as the rectification document, the founding documents of the Party, Philippine Society and Revolution, Our Urgent Tasks and Specific Characteristics of People’s War in thre Philippines.

We undertook the rectification movement from 1966 onwards against the grave errors of the Lavaite revisionist leadership since 1942. But we recognized the fact that we, the cadres and members of the reestablished party, would also be liable to commit errors and shortcomings. We also recognized the fact that these could be rectified in a periodic or timely manner through criticism and self-criticism and if accumulated or large enough could be rectified through a fullscale rectification campaign within the entire Party.

The last great rectification movement in the Party was done from 1992 to 1998 in order to correct the errors of “Left” and Right opportunism resulting from the subjectivist notion that the Phillippines had ceased to be semifeudal due to the pseudo-development policies of the US-Marcos regime.

As the Party leading the Philippine revolution, we put forward the general political line of carrying out the new democratic revolution through protracted people’s war, corresponding to the rotten semicolonial and semifeudal character of the Philippine society in chronic crisis due to the afflictions of foreign monopoly capitalism, domestic feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.

In terms of class analysis, we asked ourselves who were our friends and who were our enemies in the new democratic revolution. We identified the big compradors and landlords as our enemies and the working class, peasantry, urban petty bourgeois and middle bourgeois as our friends in the revolution.

The working class is the leading class in the revolution because it is the most progressive productive and political force among the exploited classes waging revolution. It is capable of leadership not only in the stage of the new democratic revolution but also in the stage of socialism. The most numerous exploited class is the peasantry. It is the main force of the revolution and its struggle for land is the main content of the democratic revolution.

The urban petty bourgeoisie is still a basic revolutionary force but is no longer the leading force as it was in the old democratic revolution. It has a great influence in society farbeyond its proportion in the population and can help swing the people to the side of the revolution. The middle bourgeoisie is interested in national independence, national industrialization and land reform and can be won over to the national democratic movement.

We had to adopt the mass line. The general line of new democratic revolution responds to the basic demands of the people. But we continued to learn from the masses their conditions, needs and demands through social investigation and return to them what we learn from them when we aroused, organized and mobilized them.

We trusted and relied on the masses. Thus, we could wage revolution self-reliantly, without dependence on any foreign entity. Upon the success of the trade union movement and land reform, the workers and peasants could give bigger voluntary contributions to armed revolutionary movement in terms of cadres, Red fighters and material resources. Upon the growth of the people’s army, the people’s democratic government could enforce its policy, laws and regulations. It could collect taxes on private business enterprises for the purpose of raising adequate resources for our educational, health, cultural and other programs.

We aroused the masses on the general political line and in accordance with their sectoral needs. We organized them into mass formations according to classes, sectors and issues. We mobilized them in campaigns to protest the violation of their rights and to improve their social conditions. We had developed the legal democratic mass movement for nearly a decade from 1959 to 1968 before we launched the revolutionary armed struggle.

We considered the revolutionary armed struggle as the highest form of struggle because it answers the central question of political power. Social revolution can be effected by the toiling masses of workers and peasants and middle social strata only if they have the political power to do so. In this regard, we adopted the strategic line of protracted people’s power, encircling the cities from the countryside and accumulating strength until we have enough strength to seize power in the cities nationwide.

We formed the New People’s Army on March 29, 1969, a few months after the founding of the Party. We linked up with the benign parts of the remnants of the old people’s army and benefited from their modest strength and rich experience in armed struggle. We built the NPA as a combination of proletarian revolutionaries and battle-tested fighters mainly from the peasantry.

We envisioned a probability course of development of the people’s war in three stages: strategic defensive, strategic stalemate and strategic offensive. We looked forward to changing the balance of forces at every stage by launching tactical offensives and gaining armed and political strength in the process.

We as the leading party required the NPA to integrate the revolutionary armed struggle, agrarian revolution and the building of the mass base through the building of mass organizations and the local organs of political power. While we took the strategic position of being on the defensive against the superior military force of the enemy, we carried out guerrilla warfare and launched the tactical offensives we could win on the basis of the ever expanding and ever deepening mass base.

The NPA has been able to preserve itself and grow in strength against the 14-year fascist dictatorship of Marcos and the vicious US-directed campaigns of suppression for more than four decades because the revolutionary cause of the NPA is just and enjoys inexhaustible support from the masses, because it uses flexibility in strategy and in tactics of concentration, shifting and dispersal to attain definite objectives, because it relies mainly on the peasant masses and helps them to carry out land reform and because it builds the mass organizations and local organs of political power as the foundation of the people’s democratic government.

Aside from wielding the people’s army, the Party also wields the united front as weapon of the revolution. The united front encompasses several forms of alliances. First of all is the basic alliance of the working class and peasantry as the foundation of the revolution. Second is the alliance of basic revolutionary forces, including the urban petty bourgeoisie. Third is the alliance of patriotic or positive forces, including the middle bourgeoisie. Fourth is the broadest of alliances which includes reactionaries as temporary and unstable allies for the purpose of isolating and destroying the political power of the enemy, which is the force most reactionary and most servile to the imperialists.

The Party’s policy and tactics of the united front have helped to increase the strength and spread the influence of the Party and the revolutionary mass movement. The alliances have helped to link up the masses led directly by the Party to the masses under the influence of other political forces. In engaging in alliances with reactionary forces against the worst reactionary force at a given time, the Party has to be sharply aware of the need for independence and initiative in order to protect itself from betrayal by reactionary allies.

The basic organizational principle of the Party is democratic centralism. Centralism is based on democracy and democracy is guided by centralism. A higher organ deliberates and makes decisions on the basis of reports and recommendations from lower organs and lower organizations of the Party. There is freedom of debate in the process of deliberations. But after a decision is carried by a majority or unanimous vote, the Party organ and organization concerned must unite behind the decision. There is a balance of responsibility between freedom and the necessity of discipline, especially in revolutionary struggle.

If a decision proves to be wrong, the leading organ concerned is accountable. It engages in criticism and self-criticism. But there can be a timely correction or adjustment of policies and decision if new facts or arguments are presented to debunk the previous assumptions. Party cadres and members are ever willing to correct their organizational errors and shortcomings. They eschew authoritarianism, bureaucratism and sectarianism as well as ultra-democracy and anarchism.

We the Party cadres and members from Kabataang Makabayan take pride in having provided a great help to the Party in making it nationwide in scale during the first ten years of the armed revolution. The KM had the most widespread nationwide organization, surpassing the trade unions and the peasants associations. But of course, the trade unions, the peasant associations and the people’s army have made the Party deeply rooted among the toiling masses.

The Party has drawn its membership from the most advanced activists in the mass organizations and from the rank and file of the New People’s Army. The growth and advance of the revolutionary mass movement and the people’s war have resulted in the growth and advance of the Party.

The waves of fresh recruits to the Party and people’s army from the mass movement surpass by far the number of those who are martyred, those  who opt for legal struggle because of health or family reasons and those few who drop out because of erroneous thinking, wrongdoing, retrogression or treason There is always an accumulation of revolutionaries who have a high level of revolutionary consciousness and are tempered by the revolutionary struggle.

The Party is in the leadership and core of the mass organizations and the people’s army. There is a Party group in every mass organization and every squad of the people’s army. There are Party branches in NPA companies and in the localities and Party committees at every territorial level.

The Party has always been happy to receive teams of cadres from the working class and the educated youth who are willing to learn from the peasant masses and the people’s army, to work in the countryside among the peasant masses or to join the people’s army. The people’s army and the peasant masses always need the range of experience, knowledge and skills that the workers and the educated youth can bring. ###.

Photo story & audio interview featuring the 42nd anniversary of the CPP

Raymund Villanueva's photo & audio story featuring the 42nd anniversary of the CPP. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) held what it called its grandest anniversary celebration ever somewhere in the Caraga region on Dec. 26, marking its 42 years of existence.

Jorge Madlos, also known as Ka Oris, spokesman of the CPP-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines in Mindanao, said that at least 8,000 individuals from four regions in Mindanao attended the event. About 30 large vehicles brought peasants, workers, students, religious, lawyers and the media to the event that threaded through several military and police checkpoints to reach the venue — a mere kilometer away from the provincial highway.

Letter to the Editor(PDI)

Jorge "Ka Oris" Madlos
Spokesperson
National Democratic Front of the Philippines-Mindanao
January 11, 2011

The Editor
The Philippine Daily Inquirer

After reading the Editorial of your Philippine Daily Inquirer issue dated Jan. 9, 2011, I took pain in writing to answer the points raised in your Editorial.

Your editorial accused the NPA of running "around agreements that call for peace" and "treachery" for staging an ambush against an army unit that was conducting offensive military operation against the NPA in Samar two days before our self-declared ceasefire took effect. The NPA in Mindanao was also put in bad light for its ambush against a team of the 3rd Special Forces that conducts military operations in the guise of community organizing for peace and development on 6 Jan. 2011, two days after the expiration of our self-declared ceasefire.

In letter and in spirit, we have not violated our self-declared ceasefire -- there never was treachery on the part of the NPA. First, the two incidents took place well beyond the ceasefire period. Secondly, both the AFP-PNP-CAFGU and the NPA understood the possibility of military incidents between the two warring armed forces after the ceasefire period. In fact, the government forces were still on aggressive offensive operations on the eve of their ceasefire declaration as well as right after their ceasefire expired. All units of the NPA were also advised to stay on alert and defensive mode right before their declared ceasefire commenced as well as after the ceasefire deadline.

To prove their serious interest in the peace process, the NPA strictly adhered to our suspension of offensive military operation for the whole duration of our ceasefire declaration. We have also conducted Peace Forums to explain to different sectors our serious intention to discuss peace with the GRP negotiators. Putting in bad light the legitimate military actions of the NPA is in effect ganging up on the NPA, preventing them to fight as a true People's Army should, even as the AFP-PNP-CAFGU continue to attack the revolutionary forces before, during, and immediately after the ceasefire.

Proof of this is very clear in Mindanao: two prominent leaders of the revolutionary movement were arrested by the military and police operatives during the ceasefire period, one in North Central Mindanao and the other in Davao City. The GRP's alibi was simple: both have pending criminal cases. Isn't it a fact that all revolutionary leaders have pending criminal cases in GRP courts because it is a common dirty tactic of the AFP to treat rebellion cases as common crimes? It is good that we have warned NPA Red fighters and officers not to go down to avoid being arrested and charged as common criminals. But the two arrested leaders were having their medical check-up and other legitimate matters to attend to in the urban centers.

Another glaring proof is the deployment of AFP troops in the NPA areas in the hinterlands during the ceasefire period in the guise of securing the safety of multi-national corporations in Mindanao like the mining companies, large-scale plantations and giant logging companies. We have strict orders to all NPA units never to launch during the same period punitive military actions against these companies that violate the rights of the Lumad, peasants, workers, including the massive destruction of Mindanao's environment.

Another, this paper and all major media network carried the news that the military attempted to block the media and the ten thousand people who wished to attend the 42nd anniversary celebrations of the CPP in Mindanao and the peace forum organized by the NDFP.

There was no report of NPA casualty in these last few days after the ceasefire deadline even if the AFP was actively conducting offensive military operations because the NPA forces are more careful of their security and enjoy mass support. The AFP in Mindanao succeeded in the arrest of prominent revolutionary leaders only during ceasefire what it failed to do so before and after the ceasefire period.

Before the AFP ceasefire began, all the AFP units in Mindanao were ordered to launch Civil Military Operations during the period of ceasefire in traditionally NPA-influenced barrios under the guise of Community Organizing for Peace and Development (or COPD). These operations involved the "invitation" of suspected mass leaders for questioning, some were tortured. This is in clear violation not only of the ceasefire but of the basic human rights of the peasant and Lumad masses in the countryside.

On the arrest of Ka Bart, we were accused of "using as a convenient excuse" the Joint Agreement for Security and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), arguing that we arbitrarily declare who should be protected once such personalities got arrested. As a legitimate party to the peace talks, the NDFP has the right and prerogative to choose its consultants, in the same manner that we respect this same right and prerogative on part of the GRP negotiating panel.

We believe that peace must be based on social justice, in concrete there should be genuine land reform, national industrialization, national sovereignty and genuine democracy. Peace negotiation as an arena for realizing social justice is just one among the different forms of struggle, and should not prevent the people from wielding and strengthening their own army -- the New People's Army. Therefore, NPA launching tactical offensives should not be misconstrued to be a sign of insincerity towards the pursuit for peace, more so that it does not violate our declared ceasefire. No less than the spokesperson of the 4th ID PA announced that the NPA in Mindanao have no violation during the ceasefire period.

After explaining our side, is it just as fair if we request the PDI editorial board to also give some prominent space in your respectable newspaper this explanation? We thank you and more power to the PDI.

For reference, I am enclosing herewith list of AFP ceasefire violations in Mindanao.

(Sgd.) Jorge "Ka Oris" Madlos
Spokesperson
NDFP-Mindanao

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For reference to the Media and the whole public, we are issuing this partial list of AFP ceasefire violations in Mindanao for the period covering Dec. 16 2010 to Jan. 3, 2011:

In Northeastern Mindanao Region

1. December 16, 2010, on ceasefire period up to this writing, AFP troops conducted Community Organizing for Peace and Development (COPD or CMO) in Surigao del Norte.

a. Barrios of Malimono: Brgys Tinago, Bunyasan, Hanagdong, Cansayon, Masgad, and Cantapoy

b. Barrios of Surigao City: Brgys Silop, Mapawa, Trinidad, Mabwa, Mat-I and Anomar

c. Brgy. Ema of Sison

2. November 18 - December 27, 2010, prolonged military operation until the Ceasefire Period in Bislig City, Surigao del Sur. Barrios covered: San Agustin and Sitio Mabog, San Agustin, Sitio Km41 in San Roque.

3. December 23-25, 2010. Random Checkpoints in the municipalities of Lianga, San Agustin and Marihatag in Surigao del Sur. This military checkpoint is aimed to perceive the supposed venue of the 42nd Anniversary celebration of the CPP in Mindanao.

4. December 26, 2010. Checkpoints at the entrances of the venue of the CPP 42nd Anniversary celebration; aiming to stop the people from attending the celebration.

In North Central Mindanao Region

5. December 17, police operatives arrested NDF-North Central Mindanao officer Pedro Codaste and his companions at a checkpoint in Bayugan, Agusan del Sur.

6. December 17 , one platoon of the 58th IB conducted combat patrol at hinterland brgys. of Sangay and Ginabsan all of Buenavista, Agusan del Norte.

7. December 17 -26, one squad from 8 IB, conducted COPD in hinterland Brgy. Sayawan, Municipality of Impasugong, Bukidnon.

8. December 17 - 27, 23rd IB - CAA detachment conducted checkpoint and search all passersby at a hinterland brgy of Gilang-gilang Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon.

9. December 17-31, four platoons of the 8IB conducted combat patrol at hinterland brgy. of Matupi, San Fernando, Bukidnon.

In Southern Mindanao Region

10. January 2, 2011, Edwin Brigano, 53, was arrested around 3 a.m. of Saturday. Brigano was undergoing medical treatment for a serious respiratory illness and hepatitis.

In Far Southern Mindanao Region

11. December 18, 2010, a squad of 73rd IB troopers conducted a military operation in hinterland Brgy. Upper Suyan, Malapatan, Sarangani Province. They entered sitio Dungan Bahay, Brgy. Upper Suyan and ransacked the house of a lumad named Sumil. The soldiers interrogated Sumil and at gunpoint forced him to pinpoint where "Kumander Boyax" was, to which Sumil denied having any knowledge of his whereabouts. The military then confiscated his bolo and threatened to hack him.

12. December 18, 2010, the Alpha Company of the 27th IB and Cafgu elements conducted a military patrol in several barrios of Columbio, Sultan Kudarat specifically in Sitio Dam, Brgy. Maligaya. On December 23 they entered Brgy. Sinapulan and reportedly harassed the residents, many of whom are oppositionists to the mining operations of Xstrata-SMI.

13. December 23-27, 2010, the Bravo Company of the 68th IB under 1Lt. Cebreon including some Cafgu elements conducted a foot patrol in Barangays Batang, Baynosa and in Lanao, Sitio Lambusong, Brgy. Bacong all of Tulunan town, North Cotabato. They also entered Barangays Bella Flores, Malabuan and Guangan, all in Makilala town, North Cotabato. On the evening of December 23 they were seen by several residents on ambush position in Brgy. Baynosa, near the Stanfilco-Dole banana plantation. Later they moved to the hinterland sitios of Brgy. Bacong, Tulunan, North Cotabato.

14. December 30, 2010, about 3 pm until the early morning of December 31, a platoon of 39th IB contingents and Cafgus in full battle gear positioned themselves in Brgy. Macol and Brgy. Sanghay, Malita, Davao del Sur. Their presence was noted by a number of residents who were afraid of what they called "a possible military operation" that could disrupt their New Year's celebration.

Western Mindanao Region -- still no reports
Released by the office of the Spokesperson of the NDFP-Mindanao

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POVERTY BREEDS NEW GENERATION OF NPA
GMANews.TV
By Jim Gomez
Associated Press
GMA News
27 December 2010

MOUNT DIWATA, Philippines — Too poor to afford school beyond fourth grade in the southern Philippines, 19-year-old Johnny Buyo walked away from home six months ago to join the communist rebellion — one of Asia’s longest-running. He was handed a rusty M16 rifle, which he vowed to keep for life.

The teenager recently gathered with an older generation of battle-hardened veterans in their 60s for a celebration marking the 42nd anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines, whose insurgency withstood decades of crackdown by five Philippine presidents.

“It’s scary at first but later, you gain confidence when you think that you’re fighting for the people,” said Buyo, the rifle slung on his tiny frame.

Amid a Christmas cease-fire and looming peace talks with President Benigno Aquino III’s new government, about 80 Maoist guerrillas armed with rifles and grenade launchers marched in a remote rice-farming village in the foothills of Mount Diwata in southern Surigao del Sur province as more than 2,000 villagers, relatives and sympathizers cheered.

Persistent poverty in the Philippines’ southern region fuels popular support for the movement, inspiring new generations to join even as Cold War communist insurgencies fade into memory across much of the rest of the world.

It has been 38 years since Jorge Madlos, then a student activist, quit university and went underground after then-Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972. Now 62, the prominent rebel spokesman — distinguished by his trademark Mao-style cap and goatee — says only one thing can make him leave his comrades.

“Our retirement comes in death,” Madlos said.

At Sunday’s ceremony, smiling guerrillas handed out 2011 calendars, red pins and packs of roasted pork and rice. They belted out nationalist songs on a stage in a rice field festooned with the hammer and sickle communist symbol. Relatives and friends used the occasion for reunions with rebels, including a mother who said she has not seen her son since he joined the guerrillas 10 years ago.

The chaotic scene under a broiling noontime sun both depicted the rebels’ resiliency and constraints.

 

Ang Bayan of January 7, 2011 featuring the 42nd anniversary celebration