The Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan (MAKIBAKA), the mass organization of revolutionary women under the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), condemned the Arroyo regime and the Armed Forces of the Philippines for killing Rebelyn Pitao, daughter of New People’s Army’s Lencio Pitao, whose nom de guerre is Commander Parago.
In a statement sent through email, Sylvia Madiaga, spokesperson of MAKIBAKA-NDFP, said, “The sexual violation and killing of Rebelyn exemplifies the mercilessness of the current regime, which is desperate in achieving its delusion of squashing the revolutionary movement in 2010… In its growing paranoia over its imminent defeat, the reactionary government spares no one; not innocent civilians, not defenseless women and children.”
The group said further, “The Arroyo regime chose to overlook the historical fact that threatening a dissatisfied people – men and women alike – with the barrel of the gun of political repression would make them not to think twice about arming themselves to defend their families.”
The MAKIBAKA said the torture and killing of Rebelyn ‘ignites revolutionary fury’ especially among women.
The group also blamed US imperialism for the plunder of the country’s resources and the exploitation of Filipino men and women. “The quelling of the people’s unrest and the continuing attempts to destroy the revolutionary movement are being done according to the US government’s ‘war on terror’ blue print,” it said.
Marking its 37th anniversary, the MAKIBAKA saluted the ‘courageous and determined Filipinas who have taken the revolutionary path to liberate the Filipino people from the shackles of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.’
Madiaga said, “The crisis that besets Filipinos for generations can only be resolved with the downfall of US puppet regimes and the installation of a national democratic government that will ensure the fulfillment of the aspirations of the people for genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization.”
She added that Filipino women will continue to be at the forefront of the revolution until final victory. “Resolving the structural inequity in the country would provide the economic and political conditions for the eventual emancipation of women,” the group asserted. (Bulatlat.com)
