From the Website of PRWC CPP-NPA-NDF
Article links: https://www.cpp.ph/oplan-bayanihan-us-imperialist-counter-insurgency-scheme-root-cause-afp-pnp-cafgu-countless-ceasefire-violations-must-end/
Article links: https://www.cpp.ph/oplan-bayanihan-us-imperialist-counter-insurgency-scheme-root-cause-afp-pnp-cafgu-countless-ceasefire-violations-must-end/
The
Father Nilo Valerio Chapter (FNVC), the Christians for National
Liberation (CNL) chapter in Northern Luzon, and the progressive
Christian and Church leaders in Northern Luzon appreciate and
congratulate the Duterte administration for the resumption of the formal
talks in the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic
of the Philippines (GRP/GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the
Philippines (NDFP), being facilitated by the Royal Norwegian Government
in Oslo, Norway, which started last year in August, continued in the
second round of the peace talks in October, and to be followed by a
third round of peace negotiations in Rome, Italy this January 2017.
However,
President Duterte’s declaration for the advancement of an independent
foreign policy, fully liberated from US imperialist directives, remains
on the level of mere rhetoric if the fascist AFP-PNP commanders continue
to implement Oplan Bayanihan and violate unceasingly the unilateral
ceasefire declaration of their own commander-in-chief.
Oplan
Bayanihan and its PDT (Peace and Development Teams) operations had been
and are still being carried out daily with impunity by the AFP, PNP and
CAFGU forces throughout the Northern Luzon provinces. Units
of the revolutionary people’s government from the various guerrilla
fronts all over Northern Luzon report that military tensions are
widespread because the AFP, PNP and CAFGU troopers continue to launch
base-denial operations targeting the territories of the NPA and the
people’s revolutionary government. Combat, intelligence and PDT-civil
military operations are being done daily by the 81st IB and the 24th IB of the 7th ID in Abra and in the three (3) provinces of the Ilocos Region – La Union, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte; and by the 77th IB, 50th IB, 17th IB, 54th IB and the 86th
IB in the Cordillera provinces of Apayao, Kalinga, Mt. Province, Ifugao
and Benguet and in the Cagayan Valley provinces of Cagayan, Isabela,
Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya. Furthermore, the innumerable CAFGU
detachments are widespread and being maintained every day by said PA
battalions in all the Northern Luzon provinces.
According
to the Cordillera People’s Democratic Front (CPDF) spokesperson,
Comrade Simon “Ka Filiw” Naogsan Sr., in his November 14, 2016,
statement, “Since August 20 to date, the CPDF recorded 74 incidents of ceasefire violations committed by units of the 5th IDPA and 7th
IDPA and the PNP PRO-Cordillera, RPSB, PPSC and PNP-SAF deployed in the
Cordillera provinces. These violations take the form of continuing
combat, intelligence, psywar, civil-military operations and CAFGU
recruitment which cover 64 barangays in 17 towns of Abra, Ifugao,
Kalinga, Mt. Province, uptown Ilocos Sur and the tri-boundary of Ifugao,
Benguet and Nueva Vizcaya.”
These
are all in violation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for
Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), one of the
five (5) earlier significant agreements signed by the principals of the
GPH (during the Ramos and Estrada regimes) and the NDFP. Other
violations of the CARHRIHL committed last year, also indicators of the
reactionary GPH armed forces’ insubordination to any declaration of
their own commander-in-chief, include the following: (1) Joaquin
Cadacgan, a farmer of Sitio Se-et, Brgy. Mabaka, Tanudan, Kalinga and
suspected as an NPA was shot to death with no apparent reason by
elements of the 50th
IB last June 9, 2016; (2) Nardy Gunnawa, a hunter from Brgy. Viga,
Tanudan was mercilessly slain by operating troops of the same 50th
IB last July 2 with the preposterous alibi of an encounter with the
NPA; (3) Ariel Diaz, chairperson of the Danggayan Dagiti Mannalon ti
Isabela (DAGAMI) was shot dead in his farm in Villa Pereda, Delfin
Albano, Isabela last September 7 by three armed men, believed to be from
the fascist army; and (4) last September 11, Marcos “Lin-o” Aggalao –
73 years old and a retired NPA red fighter since 2012 due to old age and
severe health reasons – was arrested by joint operatives of the 50th
IB and PNP-SAF at Sitio Kudkudwi, Brgy, Gawaan, Balbalan, Kalinga and
is currently detained at the Provincial Jail in Tabuk City, Kalinga for a
trumped up charge on illegal drugs, which the fascist troops planted
inside his pocket.
Numerous
additional types of the widespread violations by the reactionary
AFP-PNP-CAFGU to the CARHRIHL and to the GPH unilateral ceasefire have
also been reported by NPA commands and the NDFP organs in the various
regions of the country up to Mindanao. Such violations to President
Duterte’s unilateral ceasefire declaration would surely shoot up this
New Year if Oplan Bayanihan is not ended. Now, it is very clear that
despite the Oplan Bayanihan combat, intelligence and PDT operations and
the countless ceasefire violations by the reactionary armed forces all
over the country, there
has been no firefights in the past four months last year mainly because
the NPA forces have strictly avoided armed encounters in accordance and
full respect to the revolutionary movement’s interim unilateral
ceasefire declaration.
Nonetheless,
let us not forget that the present Oplan Bayanihan and other AFP
operational plans in the past Philippine puppet regimes are historically
based on earlier US imperialist counter-insurgency campaigns against
the Filipino people through benevolent assimilation and armed
pacification in order to fully colonize and make the whole Philippines
totally subservient to US imperialism up to the present. In its past
counter-insurgency campaigns against the Filipino people from 1899-1913,
US imperialism formed and trained “native” constabulary units, which
led to the “hamleting of communities”
(i.e., tightly controlled zones serving as concentration camps) and the
massacres of civilians in their thousands as what happened in Samar and
Mindanao (Bud Dajo massacre), and other unreported massacres and
killings by US armed pacification units in other parts of the country
like the massacre of a dozen of Igorots from the Mainit tribe in Mt.
Province, Cordillera. Indeed, such US imperialist COIN campaigns
continued through the reactionary Philippine armed forces in the war
against the Huks after World War II.
The
entire Filipino people have to be reminded of the historical fact that
US imperialism has ensured that the whole fascist AFP-PNP of the
reactionary government by carrying out its COIN campaigns has become the
strong pillar of US military might in the Philippines today. Under the
overt and covert directives of US imperialism, numerous killings of
workers, peasants, indigenous peoples, Church and media people, lawyers,
leaders of sectoral and multi-sectoral people’s organizations and other
violations of the people’s basic rights have been committed by the
fascist AFP-PNP from the Marcos dictatorship up to the present Duterte
regime. The violent dispersals of the rallies of patriotic organizations
led by the indigenous peoples in front of Camp Aguinaldo and of the US
embassy in October 18 and 19 last year are also actual aftermaths of the
fascist AFP-PNP Oplan Bayanihan operations under the covert directives
of US imperialism. These violent dispersals are again direct violations
of the CARHRIHL.
Thus,
if President Duterte, as the GPH commander-in-chief, is really sincere
in his unilateral ceasefire declaration and in pursuing the GHP-NDFP
peace negotiations, he has to end Oplan Bayanihan and compel all
AFP-PNP-CAFGU commands to dismantle their detachments in the far-flung
barangays and territories of the NPA and stay in their headquarters and
barracks away from these areas. If Oplan Bayanihan is not terminated,
more harmful ceasefire violations by the AFP-PNP-CAFGU against the
people’s rights will continue and consequently force the CPP-NPA to
declare the end of its own interim unilateral ceasefire and reject
entering into a bilateral ceasefire agreement with the GPH.
On
the other hand, the CNL is very confident that the NDFP negotiation
panel is willing to sign with the GPH negotiation panel an interim
bilateral ceasefire agreement, only right after President Duterte
fulfills his promise to grant amnesty to political prisoners and release
them all.
Despite
all the above-mentioned violations of the fascist AFP-PNP due to its
implementation of the US imperialist-directed Oplan Bayanihan and also
owing to the AFP-PNP’s non-compliance of their commander-in-chief’s
unilateral ceasefire declaration, the whole Filipino people – most
especially the workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie, national minorities
and other democratic classes and sectors of Philippine society –
continue to aspire for the end of exploitation and oppression throughout
the country. This ever worsening exploitation and oppression,
intensifying yearly and affecting the entire Filipino people, is due to
the basic problems of US imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat
capitalism under the class rule of the big bourgeois compradors and big
landlords, and being secured and preserved by the reactionary and
fascist AFP-PNP. That is why such exploitative and oppressive system of
Philippine society can only be overthrown by waging the National
Democratic Revolution with a socialist perspective through protracted
people’s war. Such causes of the continuing exploitation and oppression
of majority of the Filipino people are, in fact, the obstinate roots of
the on-going armed conflict. This is the very reason that we, in CNL,
absolutely stand up for the armed struggle, that is being waged by the
NPA and the armed Filipino masses, because we deem it as necessary, just
and legitimate for the Filipino people to liberate themselves and
achieve a just and lasting peace.
Nonetheless,
the CNL fully supports the on-going peace negotiations between the GPH
and the NDFP because we believe that the comprehensive agreements to be
reached and signed on social and economic reforms, on political and
constitutional reforms and on the end of hostilities and disposition of
forces would surely uphold and advance the basic rights, interests and
demands of the Filipino people, especially the workers, peasants and
national minorities. Accordingly, the CNL considers such comprehensive
agreements as essential facets of resolving the causes and roots of the
armed conflict.
But,
for the Duterte administration’s declaration to advance a Philippine
independent foreign policy and for the comprehensive agreements to be
attained and signed by the GHP and the NDFP peace negotiation panels,
President Duterte himself and the AFP-PNP commanders loyal to him must
vigilantly guard against the evil hand of US imperialism and its lapdogs
from among the ruling classes of big landlords and big bourgeois
compradors and inside the reactionary AFP-PNP with their intent to sabotage the ongoing peace talks or to oust Duterte.
Obviously, US imperialism has nothing to lose in case the on-going
GPH-NDFP peace negotiations would collapse. The Filipino people know
very well that US imperialism wants the Philippines to continue as the
US “military pivot to Asia”
and to remain semi-colonial and semi-feudal. And as such, economic
backwardness, ever dependent on US imported commodities, investments and
loans, will persist in our country, thus preventing genuine economic
development through national industrialization and land reform.
As proclaimed by NDFP spokesperson Luis Jalandoni, “the NDFP will be a reliable ally to President Duterte”
in advancing the latter’s policy declaration to depart from the US
military and economic dominance in the country and to forge equal and
mutual bilateral relations with other countries. To add more strength to
the Duterte administration’s independent foreign policy declaration,
the Filipino people are aspiring that President Duterte must end Oplan
Bayanihan and compel the AFP-PNP-CAFGU to fully implement the CARHRIHL.
And for the Philippines to be liberated from the economic and military
intervention of US imperialism, the GPH should terminate all unequal
military treaties and agreements like the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT),
the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), the Enhanced Defense Cooperation
Agreement (EDCA), and the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA). The
aforesaid demands are the basic aspirations of the Filipino people. And
if such aspirations are fulfilled, then we, revolutionary Christians,
have to recognize such liberating events as “the
hand of the Almighty who puts down the mighty from their thrones and
raise up the humble, send away the powerful and the rich empty-handed,
and fill the hungry with good things.”
CPP/NPA/NDF Website
OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS PROMOTIONS WEBSITES
PROTECTION AND PROMOTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
