Reds Warn US: ‘You Are Fair Game’

SURIGAO DEL SUR -­ For the first time in 15 years, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines-Mindanao ((NDFP-Mindanao) held a press conference last Dec. 26 in the mountains of this province, promising to intensify what is reputed to be Southeast Asia’s longest-running communist revolution, and warning the United States (U.S.) that its troops are “fair game” to the New People’s Army once they enter guerilla territories.

By Carlos H. Conde 
Bulatlat.com

NDFP-Mindanao spokesman Ka Oris (wearing a buri hat) talks to reporters  
Photo by Daisy C. Gonzales

The press conference was held during an NPA front’s celebration of the 34th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and presided by Ka Oris, NDF-Mindanao spokesman. Close to 20 journalists from Davao City, General Santos City and Butuan City were invited.

In a prepared speech read before an estimated 100 NPA cadres and supporters, Ka Oris said in Cebuano that the “ferocity” of the attacks against revolutionary forces “won’t diminish the determination of the party, the NPA and the united front. Let us prove to the world that our enemy is nothing but a paper tiger. Courageously, let us fight the US-GMA regime by sticking to the correct line and comprehensive advance the national-democratic revolution to a higher level.”  

Fair game

In a statement released to journalists after the program, Ka Oris warned that the NPA “will defend our territories from any incursions of US military elements deployed during future (US-RP military) exercises.”

The NPA, Ka Oris said, “will not hesitate to engage US troops in combat if and when they enter our territories.” He cited the U.S. government’s “intervention” into Philippine affairs in the form of support for President Arroyo, the holding of the Balikatan exercises in the country, which the NDF described as an “affront” to the nation’s sovereignty.

Ka Oris said that the U.S.’s presence in the country, as well as the rest of Southeast Asia, is “geared toward the consolidation of U.S. hegemony in Southeast Asia.” The U.S., he said, is “interested in nothing except in strengthening its imperialist foothold in Southeast Asia and other parts of the world. This is the context of its presence here in the Philippines and the region.”

"All these have made US military elements, once they step into NPA territory, fair game to the revolutionary forces, whose duty is to protect and defend the Filipino masses from the abuses of U.S. imperialist power and its puppet regime in Malacañang.”  

Terrorists

Meanwhile, Ka Oris said the Arroyo administration, like the U.S., is behaving no differently from terrorists, their use of the US-led “war against terror” to “harass” and “intimidate” legal militant organizations as well as members of the media who dared to write or talk about “people’s issues.”

He said the Arroyo administration “went a step farther” in the fight against terrorism “by also declaring war against the progressive sector that has been opposing her anti-people actions and policies. She has called them terrorists.”

“Arroyo opened the floodgates to more human rights abuses that are reminiscent of the worst of previous regimes, most notoriously the Marcos and Aquino regimes. This is a testament to the regime’s failure to respect even its own constitution,” Ka Oris said.

Ka Oris cited the campaign by the military to “demonize such groups as Karapatan, Bayan and Bayan Muna. The regime use a group of fanatics called the National Alliance for Democracy (NAD) to hopefully fan an anti-communist hysteria. Legal organizations are being branded as front organizations for the Communist Party of the Philippines, are being labeled as supporters of the Abu Sayyaf and Osama bin Laden, thus setting them up for persecution and abuse.”

He cited the ransacking of the offices of militant and progressive groups in Davao City, Butuan City, and Agusan del Norte as acts of intimidation and harassment. He said the military also stepped up its surveillance of personalities and groups identified with the Left.

Ka Oris further said the military “has filed trumped-up charges against legal mass leaders,” apparently referring to Bayan-Davao’s Alvin Luque, who is facing a rebellion charges. “These are nothing but harassment and intimidation,” Ka Oris said.

The NDF leader also held the Arroyo administration responsible for the attacks against journalists, particularly those known to espouse people’s issues such as human rights and good governance.  

Renewed strength

Ka Oris revealed that there are now 120 NPA guerrilla fronts in the whole country, 35 of these are in the 19 of Mindanao’s 24 provinces. This means about 60 percent of Mindanao’s towns have NPA presence.

He also said that in Mindanao alone, the NPA conducted 100 “successful” tactical offensives in the last two years even as it intensified the implementation of “revolutionary justice” against local “despots,” such as former Talaingod mayor Jose Libayao and Mayor Victor Elipe of Taganaan, Surigao del Norte, who was killed only recently. Bulatlat.com

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