Category: Philippines

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following May 2 statement from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

NDFP CONDEMNS THE ENHANCED DEFENSE COOPERATION AGREEMENT AS FLAGRANT TRAMPLING ON PHILIPPINE SOVEREIGNTY

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) condemns in the strongest terms possible the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) signed by the Aquino regime and the United States of America as flagrant trampling on Philippine sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Negotiated in secrecy, preventing the Filipino people from knowing its contents until after it was signed during the visit of US imperialist chieftain Barack Obama on April 28, 2014, the EDCA allows US military and civilian personnel and contractors and all kinds of materiel unimpeded entry and use of so-called Agreed Locations rent-free anywhere in the country.

This is a shameless surrender of national sovereignty by the Aquino regime . The EDCA allows an unlimited number of US troops to be stationed, together with their unlimited number of prepositioned war vessels and armaments, in numerous unspecified locations anywhere in the country..

To cite a few provisions of the EDCA to show the indecent extent of privilege given to the US. According to Article IV of EDCA, Equipment, Supplies and Materiel, No. 3: “The prepositioned materiel shall be for the exclusive use of United States forces. United States forces shall have control over the access to and disposition of such prepositioned materiel and shall have the unencumbered right to remove such prepositioned materiel at any time from the territory of the Philippines.”

Furthermore, No. 4 of the same Article 4 stipulates: “United States forces and United States contractors [companies and firms, and their employees, under contract or subcontract to or on behalf of the United States Department of Defense] shall have unimpeded access to Agreed Locations for all matters relating to the prepositioning and storage of defense equipment, supplies, and materiel, including delivery, management, inspection, use, maintenance, and removal of such equipment, supplies and materiel.”

From such provisions in EDCA, it is clear that the US forces can undertake numerous activities which can amount to using the Philippines as a launching pad for US wars of aggression, which the US had carried out in the past against the peoples of Vietnam, Indonesia and other countries.

The NDFP in its program firmly upholds the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Philippines. It is resolutely against the US bases and calls for the abrogation of unequal agreements such as US-RP Military Assistance Agreement, the US-RP Mutual Defense Treaty, the Visiting Forces Agreement and Mutual Logistics Support Agreement. The NDFP program declares that no foreign power shall be allowed to set up military bases on Philippine soil or use Philippine territory as a launching pad for military operations abroad.

The NDFP therefore calls on the Filipino people to launch a powerful campaign to abrogate the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement and related military agreements with the US. The NDFP likewise calls on the peoples in the United States of America to stand up in solidarity with the Filipino people and take effective collective action to stop the escalating US military intervention in the Philippines as they acted in solidarity with the Vietnamese people against the US war of aggression against Vietnam. We also call for effective solidarity from other peoples of the world in our common struggle against US bases and US military intervention in numerous parts of the world.

National Executive Committee
National Democratic Front of the Philippines

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Nov. 26 statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Denounce Aquino regime’s relentless offensives amid disaster, ceasefire declaration

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) denounces the Aquino regime and its armed forces for waging relentless armed offensives and brutal campaigns of suppression in Eastern Visayas, Panay, and Negros, in outright contempt of the broad masses, and in complete disregard for their demand for a temporary cessation of armed hostilities in order to give full attention to relief and rehabilitation work.

“The Aquino regime and its armed forces are treacherously taking advantage of the ceasefire declaration of the CPP in order to wage relentless offensive operations against the New People’s Army and the peasant masses in the revolutionary areas,” said the CPP.

Two days ago, the Central Committee of the CPP announced a one-month extension of the ceasefire declaration issued to the New People’s Army (NPA) commands in Eastern Visayas, Central Visayas, Panay and Negros islands. The extended ceasefire period aims to allow all revolutionary forces to concentrate on the urgent task of rehabilitation, and asserting the people’s economic rights amidst the disaster.

“The Armed Forces of the Philippines’ massive offensive operations are impeding the people and their revolutionary forces from carrying out disaster relief and rehabilitation work, and make the task of resuming economic production more difficult,” said the CPP.

The CPP issued this statement even as the AFP claimed that a firefight ensued after a unit of the NPA supposedly fired shots at soldiers of the 11th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Pitogo, La Libertad town, Negros Oriental last Sunday. The CPP said that in accordance with the ceasefire declaration issued by its leadership, NPA units will fire only as an act of active defense against the offensive units of the AFP.

“Even as the people seek urgent relief from the economic devastation brought about by the supertyphoon, the braggart mouthpieces of the 3rd Infantry Division have publicly declared over the past few days that their forces are not letting up in their military offensives, and are focused on waging war against the NPA. The AFP offensives resulted in an armed encounter in Kabankalan City in Negros Occidental last weekend with a unit of the NPA engaged in rehabilitation efforts,” pointed out the CPP.

“Despite the ceasefire declaration, armed encounters are bound to erupt if the AFP continues to insist on waging offensive operations against the people and their people’s army and militia units, compelling the people’s armed revolutionary forces to defend themselves,” added the CPP.

“The supposed participation of AFP soldiers in disaster relief is being carried out only in urban centers and highways where they are covered by the media. In reality, despite the urgent need to mobilize all possible resources, the bigger part of the AFP’s resources is still currently being geared towards so-called counter-insurgency operations under the brutal Oplan Bayanihan war of suppression against the people,” said the CPP.

“The high-profile disaster relief operations being conducted by the central headquarters of the AFP serve only to camouflage the continuing brutal war being waged by more than 11,000 ground troops of the AFP’s 8th and 3rd Infantry Division in the interior and coastal areas of the islands of Samar, Leyte, Panay and Negros,” pointed out the CPP.

“The people demand urgent economic relief in the face of the grave difficulties resulting from the devastation wrought by the recent supertyphoon,” said the CPP. “By waging relentless offensives and suppression campaigns, the AFP is displaying gross disregard for the people’s welfare.”

“The AFP’s imposition of martial law policies in the countryside and mountainous areas impedes the people’s economic and commercial activities, making efforts at rehabilitation more difficult,” said the CPP. “Thus, the people demand that AFP soldiers withdraw their forces from the interior areas and commit them to their barracks so that the people’s rehabilitation efforts can proceed unencumbered.”

“The AFP knows full well that many of the areas hit by the supertyphoon are within the scope of operations of the New People’s Army, and are under the jurisdiction of the duly-constituted

revolutionary organs of governance,” said the CPP. “Many of these areas have been the least of the Aquino government’s priorities in the past and remain so, as these have yet to be reached by the regime’s slow and highly inefficient disaster relief operations.”

 

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Nov. 23 statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines

Extension of ceasefire in Yolanda – devastated areas

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines hereby announces a one-month extension of the earlier ceasefire declaration issued to commands of the New People’s Army (NPA) and units of the people’s militias operating in the areas devastated by the 8 November super typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan). The ceasefire declaration, which practically commenced on 8 November 2013, and was originally set to expire on 2359 hours of 24 November, will now remain in effect up to 2359 hours of 24 December.

This ceasefire declaration covers the following regional commands of the NPA:

Eastern Visayas Regional Command
Panay Regional Command
Central Visayas Regional Command
Negros Island Command

The ceasefire declaration is being extended by another month in view of the extent and gravity of the devastation of the super typhoon that has been made worse by the gross negligence and inutility of the ruling Aquino regime. This will allow all committees of the people’s democratic government, respective commands of the NPA and units of the people’s militias in the devastated areas to continue with rehabilitation efforts.

Revolutionary forces in the area are currently busy in facilitating the distribution of relief supply from various people’s organizations and media outfits. They are engaged in the reconstruction of homes, as well as in the mobilization of people in efforts to resume production and wage mass struggles. Disaster victims are being organized in order to assert their demand for reforms to address their urgent needs. The demand of the peasant masses for land reform and of the fisherfolk for fisheries reform have become particularly urgent in the devastated areas.

Revolutionary forces in Luzon and Mindanao have carried out efforts to generate funds and supplies for the victims of the recent disaster. They are in close coordination with media and people’s organizations which are busy extending assistance to the devastated areas.

Respective units of the NPA and the people’s militias shall remain in active defense mode within the period of effectivity of this declaration. They shall exert all-out effort to assist the masses but will exercise great caution to remain invisible to the enemy and avoid vulnerabilities. They should maintain a heightened sense of alertness against the hostile acts and encroachments of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in areas within the scope of authority of the people’s democratic government.

This is in view of the fact that despite the widespread sufferings and hardships brought about by the recent disaster, the Aquino regime and the AFP have refused to relent in their offensive military operations and campaigns of suppression being carried out under the Oplan Bayanihan war against the people. The AFP has deployed several specialized units for transportation into Eastern Visayas. This is, however, a token effort considering the fact that it has 10,000 soldiers under the command of the 8th Infantry Division which remain focused on carrying out “counterinsurgency” operations within the region and continue to be on an offensive rampage. The Aquino regime has virtually garrisoned Tacloban City and placed it under military rule.

In Panay and Negros, the 3rd Infantry Division adamantly carries out offensive military operations in complete disregard for the recent devastation. As a result of the relentless offensive operations of the forces of the 3rd ID, two successive armed encounters erupted between a local NPA unit carrying out rehabilitation efforts and a platoon of the 47th IB on offensive operations in Barangay Magbalyo, Kabankalan City last 16 November, resulting in the wounding of an AFP soldier.

While maintaining a high degree of alertness against the offensive operations of the AFP, the NPA and the organized peasant masses must heighten efforts to wage revolutionary mass struggles to advance the democratic cause of the people in the face of the disaster and grave economic hardships.

The CPP leadership rejects the Malacañang proposal for a nationwide ceasefire of indefinite duration. The CPP ceasefire declaration is localized and has a definite period of effectivity with the aim of addressing the urgent need of extending emergency services to the people and carrying out rehabilitation efforts.

A ceasefire of longer duration and nationwide scope can be carried out only on the basis of fundamental socio-economic and political reforms. Otherwise, such a ceasefire will be of no benefit to the people and will only be taken advantage of by the most reactionary and fascist elements to push for the pacification and surrender of the people’s revolutionary forces.

If Malacañang is really serious in its proposal, then it should immediately end its unilateral suspension of peace negotiations and resume talks with the duly authorized panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and forge agreements on the basis, parameters and mechanics of such a ceasefire.

Ceasefire declaration to concentrate on rehabilitation work in Yolanda devastated areas

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Nov. 19 statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)

Condemn destruction of farms, attacks against peasants in Luisita during height of Yolanda tragedy — CPP

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.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Nov. 15 statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines

Indict Aquino for criminal incompetence and demand justice

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.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Nov. 14 Statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Denounce the US military for using tragedy to justify increased warships deployment

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) denounces the US government for using the grave human tragedy wrought by the recent supertyphoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) in order to justify its operations to further increase the presence of its military warships and armed troops in the Philippines.

“The US government is engaged in disaster interventionism, exploiting the supine state of the Philippines after it was struck by super typhoon Yolanda, in order to justify its deployment of armed, nuclear-powered and interventionist military warships and armed troops in the Philippines,” said the CPP.

“The CPP and the Filipino people denounce the Aquino government for shamelessly welcoming the US military troops with open arms.”

Citing news reports, the CPP pointed out that the US has deployed to the Philippines no less than six warships including US flagship aircraft carrier USS George Washington, that has with it at least 80 jet fighters as well as war helicopters and 5,000 naval soldiers. It will be accompanied to the Philippines by the USS Antietam, USS Cowpens, USS Mustin, USS Lasses guided missile cruisers, and the USS Charles Drew supply ship. Meanwhile, the British government is also sending the HMS Daring warship and a Boeing C-17 military transport aircraft.

The CPP further pointed out that aside from the warships that are sailing from Hong Kong and elsewhere, US armed personnel and equipment were already prepositioned in Manila and other parts of the country, indicating the continuing presence of armed US troops in the national capital. There are also news reports indicating that the facilities of the Tacloban airport have been taken over by the US military. The US military has also taken advantage of the disaster in order to gain access to the Mactan airport and seaport which has long been a subject of negotiations for increased US rotational presence in the Philippines.

Over the past three years since declaring its “Asia pivot”, the US government has been increasing its “rotational presence” in various countries in the Asia-Pacific region resulting in the militarization of territorial disputes and diplomatic relations among countries in the region and in outright violation of the territorial sovereignty of the Philippines and other countries.

“The US government is militarizing disaster response in the Philippines, in much the same way that the US militarized disaster response in Haiti in the 2010 earthquake,” said the CPP. The high-handed presence of US armed troops in Haiti has been widely renounced. The US government has since maintained its presence in Haiti.

“The Filipino people seek and welcome international support in the face of the terrible devastation brought about by Yolanda in a wide corridor across the Philippine islands,” said the CPP. “However, though devastated, the Filipino people has preserved their sense of national dignity and will continue to defend their sovereignty against foreign military interventionism.”

“What the disaster victims need urgently are food, water and medical attention, not US warships bringing in emergency rations to justifty their armed presence in Philippine sovereign waters,” pointed out the CPP. “If the US government were really interested in providing assistance to countries who have suffered from calamities, then it should increase its funds to civilian agencies that deal in disaster response and emergency relief, not in fattening its international military forces and taking advantage of the people’s miseries to justify their presence,” added the CPP.