From the Website of PRWC CPP-NPA-NDF
Article links: https://prwcinfo.wordpress.com/2021/12/10/to-rebel-against-tyranny-is-a-human-right/
To rebel against tyranny is a human right!
When a tyrannical regime unleashes a three-pronged war meant to license the sellout of the country’s economic and political sovereignty; when we are denied even the most elemental social services such as healthcare and education, especially during a raging public health crisis; when the regime’s fascist armed forces execute or incarcerate thousands of civilians, mothers, elderly, activists or political opponents; when the anti-revolution ruling clique scapegoats the revolutionary movement for the masses’ myriad of miseries in order to pillage public coffers for the perpetuation of its dynasty, the Filipino people have no other recourse but to wield their right to resolutely rebel against the tyrannical regime and the very root of the system that dehumanizes them.
The past year has been witness to a relentless and indiscriminate spree of air strikes and artillery shelling by the Armed Forces of the Philippines in many parts of the country. The disproportionate and gratuitous, not to mention extortionate, shock-and-awe tactic is straight out of the counter-insurgency playbook of Duterte’s US imperialist warhawk master and has been condemned worldwide as utter contravention of the international humanitarian law and war conventions. Just as the US bombarded the civilian populace of Afghanistan, Syria, and the rest of the Middle East, the fascist Duterte regime dropped 500-lb bombs in Dolores, Eastern Samar in August and more recently in Miag-ao, Iloilo City.
It rained missiles and launched bombs in the peasant and Lumad communities of Davao de Oro, Agusan del Sur, North Cotabato, in Davao City and in other parts of Southern Mindanao, leaving terrorized civilians in its wake. This excessive use of military force was in full display when the AFP’s 69 missiles and bombs bombarded the ancestral land and communities of the Manobo Lumad in Talaingod in September until October over a span of only 34 days. The aerial bombings and artillery shelling will surely escalate, along with human rights violations that come with them, as the AFP beefs up its war arsenal with expensive and destructive military hardware.
The AFP and the mythomaniac National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) have made war trophies out of their victims. They brag about the “influx of surrenderees” as crown jewels when in reality, a significant number of these “surrenderees” are unarmed civilians misrepresented as NPA fighters. A few of them were in fact captured Red fighters, and as such should have been conferred the status of prisoner-of-war with its attendant rights under the Geneva conventions. They were instead declared by the AFP as “NPA surrenderees,” in order to milk them for cash bounty, publicity mileage for the “success” of the AFP’s counter-insurgency campaign and justification for the existence and gargantuan budget of the NTF-ELCAC.
These “surrenderees” are held in duress, denied proper legal representation, and kept in military compounds with heavy surveillance and sometimes deprived the right to communicate with their families. Such is the case of Arian Jane Ramos and Jocy Papasin, both pregnant at the time of their capture, who were presented to the media by the spin doctors of the Eastern Mindanao Command as “surrenderees,” pressured to go along with a storyline, thereby obfuscating their rightful status as prisoners of war.
The summary executions, meanwhile, of revolutionaries Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos, Alvin “Ka Joaquin” Luque and Jhon “Ka Parts” Niebres Peñaranda and many others are downright violations of their human rights and acts of cowardice by the AFP. These comrades have no means to defend themselves when they were murdered in cold blood by AFP and PNP troops. Indiscriminate and excessive aerial bombings and artillery shelling, fake “surrenderees” and summary executions of hors de combat revolutionaries must therefore be investigated.
To righteously rebel against an unjust system is the very principle of the national democratic revolution. The people’s war is just, not only because it adheres to international humanitarian laws and rules of engagement in war, but also because it encapsulates the masses’ highest aspirations for a just social system where the downtrodden are not robbed of the fruits of their labor.
We call on our revolutionary forces to continue to lead the struggle for land, jobs and decent wages, adequate health services, free and quality education, food security, and other democratic rights. They must forge unity with the broad democratic front in order to unmask Duterte and his fascist armed forces in the international community and hold them accountable for their innumerable crimes against the people. The need for broader unity has become more pressing as the scions of Duterte and Marcos are hell-bent on ensuring the perpetuation of their corrupt and fascist dynasty.
In the time of Duterte’s tyranny, we are reminded that the realization of the true value of human rights necessitates the concrete unity and conscious action of the Filipino people. Otherwise, these hard-won rights will remain only on paper and become sitting targets of the fascist attacks of Duterte and the next fascist reactionary regime.
CPP/NPA/NDF Website
PROTECTION AND PROMOTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
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