This is why it is important to equate “poor” with “vulnerable.” Why, the most oppressed and exploited are also the most organized and politicized. More than ever, it is crucial for the ruling elite and their imperialist masters to deny that landless peasants, wage workers, informal workers and the unemployed wield the power of conceptual thought within the context of a protracted people’s war for national liberation and socialism.
Since the declaration of a unilateral ceasefire by the Duterte administration, the CPP said that at least 219 barangays nationwide have been subject to counter-insurgency operations. They also assert that Duterte’s real goal is to “use the pandemic as an opportunity to try and crush the ‘insurgency’ before the end of his term in office,” pointing out the focus on military operations instead of social services.
The CPP said its Central Committee has ordered the extension for 15 more days in order to “prioritize the fight against the pandemic and ensure the safety, health and well-being of everyone.”
“The Secretary-General (Guterres) encourages the parties to reach a lasting political solution and end this longstanding conflict.”
The CPP said the purpose of its unilateral ceasefire is to ensure and facilitate necessary, unhampered and immediate medical, health and economic assistance, support and movement of the people brought about by the exigencies of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
“The NDF greets the CPP in its ability to stay strong despite continuing attack and urges the people of the Southern Tagalog region to rise up and join the struggle.”
The CPP and NPA demanded the Duterte regime to abide by the Geneva Conventions and other international protocols and called on all of Duterte’s forces to stop targeting and killing civilians.
“The docking of the USS Montgomery dwarfs China’s trawl ships in the South China Sea, literally and politically. While Chinese ships plunder and roam the Philippine seas, US warships carrying guns, missiles, fighter jets, hundreds of soldiers and nuclear arms, dock directly on Philippine civilian ports and airports, unload and store war materiél on US-controlled facilities, and offloads foreign troops who enjoy protection under the US-RP Visiting Forces Agreement.”
The Romulo Jallores Command of the New People’s Army invited journalists of select local and international media groups to a press conference in a guerilla camp deep in the Bicol Region. By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA / Kodao Productions
In response to ongoing military operations against communists, NPA guerrillas staged tactical offensives in the Bicol region, Kalinga Province in the North, Compostela Valley in Mindanao and Northern Samar in the Visayas, scoring victories that netted them dozens of firearms while inflicting casualties on both AFP and paramilitary forces.
A few weeks ago, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the deployment of more troops to crush the “insurgency,” but the men and women, both old and young, of this armed revolution just laughed.