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LUMABAN

Ipagtanggol ang Pilipinas laban sa paghihimasok ng US

in Editorial

Pahayag ng mga kasaping organisasyon ng National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) sa okasyon ng ika-51 Anibersaryo ng pagkakatatag ng NDFP

Ipagtanggol ang kaligtasan ng Pilipinas laban sa tumitinding paghihimasok ng US at pang-uupat ng gera!

Isulong ang digmang bayan para sa ganap na kalayaan mula sa imperyalismo!

Nalalagay sa matinding panganib ngayon ang Pilipinas. Kakaladkarin ng US ang Pilipinas sa inter-impeyalistang gera nito laban sa China sa layong panatiliin ang paghahari ng US sa rehiyon ng Asya.

Ang rehimeng US-Marcos ay walang kahihiyang nagpapakatuta at nagiging sunud-sunuran sa US kahit pa ipapahamak nito ang kaligtasan ng Pilipinas.

Ipinagkakait ng imperyalismong US at tutang si Marcos Jr. ang dignidad, karapatan, at kalayaan ng mga Pilipino. Kaya tayo mismo, tayong mga mamamayan, ang dapat lumaban para kamtin ito! Wala nang iba pang maaaring asahan.

Habang suportado ng US ang gera ng Israel laban sa mga Palestino, at gera sa Ukraine laban sa Russia, nagbabalak itong magbukas ng panibagong larangan ng digmaan sa Asya. Ginagamit ng US ang usapin ng pang-aagaw ng imperyalistang China sa West Philippine Sea para sa paglalagay ng tropa at base militar ng US sa Pilipinas.

Naghihintay lang ang US ng pagkakataon na makipagsalpukan sa China, hindi para ipagtanggol ang Pilipinas, pero para sa sariling interes na mamayaning nag-iisang superpower sa Asya-Pasipiko at sa buong mundo.

Sa tindi ng pang-uupat ng US maaring sumiklab ang inter-imperyalistang gera sa pagitan ng US at China. Kapag nangyari ito ay gagawing teatro ng gera ang Pilipinas.

Nasa interes ng imperyalismong US na wasakin ang mga rebolusyonaryo at anti-imperyalistang pwersa sa Pilipinas sa pangunguna ng Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army at ng National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

Ang mga rebolusyonaryong pwersa sa Pilipinas ay nagsusulong ng matagalang digmang bayan laban sa imperyalismo, pyudalismo, at burukrata kapitalismo. Naninindigan ito na magiging ganap na malaya lamang ang Pilipinas kapag naibagsak ang imperyalismo at papet na estado at mabigyang kapangyarihan ang mamamayan.

Mula sa panahon ng Katipunan hanggang sa isilang ang NPA, nagpakita ang mga Pilipino ng kagitingan sa harap ng dayuhang agresyon. Kung walang sariling hukbo ang mamamayan, wala silang anupaman. Nakaamba ang panganib ng inter-impyeralistang gera at dapat na itong paghandaan.

Isulong ang pambansa-demokratikong rebolusyon!

Palawakin at palaparin at palalimin ang kilusang lihim!

Sumapi at palakasin ang NPA sa buong kapuluan!

 

Pambansang Katipunan ng Magbubukid (PKM)*Artista at Manunulat para sa Sambayanan (ARMAS)* Christians for National Liberation (CNL)*Katipunan ng Gurong Makabayan (KAGUMA)*Liga ng Agham para sa Bayan (LAB)*Lupon ng Manananggol para sa Bayan (LUMABAN)* Makabayang Samahang Pangkalusugan (MASAPA)*

 

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Revolutionary lawyers raise the bar

in Mainstream

All rise!

Everyone rose to the occasion. Although it was far from a courtroom scene, lawyers, law students, and paralegals, true to the nature of their profession, intently and intensely deliberated on the draft constitution of the underground revolutionary organization Lupon ng mga Manananggol ng Bayan or LUMABAN (literally, to fight or to struggle). They hammered out the plan of action to continuously strengthen the organization and to effectively arouse, organize, and mobilize the sector behind the national democratic revolution.

It was LUMABAN’s first congress, which Ka Joben, in his written welcome address, described as having been a long journey.

“We have come a long way, a lot of things have happened in the interim and a great many sacrifices have been waged. With inspiring tactical legal victories and cumulative strategic battles over time and hard and painful lessons as well, it is with heartfelt joy that we have finally gathered here as one united in profession, commitment and vision on a higher level,” Ka Joben said.

Acknowledging the contributions of those who had been directly involved in long process but could no longer be present at the first congress, he explained:

“The deaths from fascist hands of some, or from illness or old age of others, and the peculiar demands of our profession have impacted on the formalization of our anti-fascist and anti-imperialist organization. Many of those involved in the process are either still in the hands of the enemy or have taken on new tasks of equal importance.”

Composed of representatives from eight regions and two major sectors, the two-day founding congress was a mix of young and seasoned lawyers and paralegals. Notably, young lawyers and paralegals constituted almost half of the delegates.

Defending the people’s interests

“All of us in the National Democratic Front of the Philippines rejoice in this major act of consolidation of LUMABAN,” said Luis Jalandoni, leading member of the NDFP National Executive Council, in a video message. LUMABAN has been affiliated with the NDFP since its inception.

Jalandoni recognized LUMABAN’s support to the revolutionary armed struggle and its contributions to the NDFP’s endeavors to ensure the victory of the national democratic revolution. “It ensures that the revolution in the sector is part of the revolutionary movement and program for the establishment of the people’s democratic government,” he said.

His message corroborated Ka Joven’s point that members of the legal profession can use their skills and experience to provide a “counterview of the reactionary justice system to craft, develop, enrich, collate and further implement an alternative revolutionary legal and justice system.”

LUMABAN’s congress statement acknowledged the role of lawyers in the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, and anti-fascist struggle dating back to the Spanish and American colonial regimes.

It cited lawyer and revolutionary leader Apolinario Mabini, known as the “Brain of the Revolution,” who fought against the Spanish and American colonial rules; Epifanio delos Santos, associate editor of La Independencia, a major newspaper during the Philippine Revolution; Natividad Almeda-Lopez, the first female lawyer in the country, who was also one of the first advocates for women’s rights in the country; and, Claro M. Recto, who espoused political and economic sovereignty and fought US neocolonialism. In recent history, lawyers such as Lorenzo “Ka Tanny” Tañada, Jose “Ka Pepe” Diokno, and Romeo T. Capulong were at the forefront of the people’s struggle against the US-Marcos dictatorship.

Indictment of the US-Marcos Jr regime

NDFP Negotiating Panel interim chairperson Julieta de Lima called on members of LUMABAN to “join the entire Filipino people in struggling against the US-Marcos II dictatorship”, which she described as the “partnership of the most corrupt and most brutal political dynasties for perpetuating the reign of greed and terror in our country.”

Concurrent with this, LUMABAN’s three-year program of action calls on the Filipino people to “expose, fight, isolate and overthrow the US-Marcos regime.” Furthermore, it cited the crisis of the semicolonial and semifeudal system as the root of the chronic socio-economic crisis in the country that, for decades, has victimized the Filipino people especially the poor.

Agreeing with that observation, De Lima affirmed the efforts of LUMABAN members to be an “effective force” in the masses’ fight against imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism, and in advancing the national democratic revolution by defending the Filipino people against the “state of the semicolonial and semifeudal system that we seek to replace with a just, patriotic, democratic and prosperous system.”

No objection

By unanimous vote, delegates to the founding congress elected the first officers of LUMABAN.

Elected chairperson was Rosa Kinabukasan. In an interview with Liberation, Kinabukasan acknowledged that establishing an underground organization of lawyers was not an easy task, citing the “inherent weakness of the legal profession—being magnet for all things bourgeois.” From law school, stated the congress statement, “We were introduced to laws of bourgeois origin, to the universal concept of rights and to the misguided idea and ideals of justice.”

Honoring their martyred comrades for defending the rights of the masses, and condemning how the State controls the legal system to serve the interests of the ruling classes, the revolutionary lawyers vowed to remold themselves by rejecting the bourgeois viewpoint and legal training. They pledged to be with the masses in the fight to end the systemic oppression and exploitation.

To paraphrase LUMABAN’s congress statement, the lawyers will not flinch, they will not falter. Whenever called, as revolutionary lawyers they will rise and fight because it is just and necessary. ### (Priscilla Guzman)

 

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Justice is the Heart of the Revolution

in Mainstream 
by Pat Gambao

The reactionary government’s rotten justice system has never been so outrageously unmasked as it is now through the Duterte regime’s blatant travesty.

In Duterte’s controversial “war on drugs”, self-confessed and publicly known drug lords get away unscarred while thousands of petty pushers and users, mostly from the poor communities, are summarily executed. In the plunder cases before the Ombudsman involving pork barrel, the regime’s department of justice is plotting to transform the most guilty scammer into a state witness.
Chief Justice Sereno’s impeachment case exemplifies the crude and desperate way of weeding out perceived obstacles to controlling the judiciary, in Duterte’s bid to monopolize power. Twist the laws, disregard the check-and-balance dictum, and get some stupid, ambitious, hopefuls into the plot.

Vilify, force to resign officials (they succeeded with Comelec Chair Andres Bautista) or file a quo warranto case, for good measure. Many retired military officers complicit in human rights violations, such as enforced disappearances, now occupy high positions in the bureaucracy.

The rotten judicial system

Ka Tato, a lawyer from the Lupon ng mga Manananggol para sa Bayan (Lumaban), an affiliate organization of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), described the government’s dispensation of justice as muddled, snail-paced, and biased towards the authorities. “This is not surprising because the court is among the instruments of coercion of the ruling class aimed to perpetuate the status quo,” he explained.

He cited Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, Jr., charged and tried for the kidnapping and disappearance of UP students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan and peasant Manuel Merino, as “so far the highest-ranking military official to be criminally indicted for human rights violations in recent history.” However, Palparan enjoys the privilege of being detained in the headquarters of the Philippine Army, to which he belonged, rather than in a regular jail.

“Kagyat na panagutin sa iba’t ibang larangan ang mga may pananagutan sa taong-bayan at lansagin ang mga salik na nagbubunsod ng kawalang katarungan.”
Liga ng mga Manananggol para sa Bayan (LUMABAN)

The trial of Palparan and his co-accused, Col. Felipe Anotado, M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario and Staff Sergeant Edgardo Osorio, has dragged on for seven years due to various dilatory tactics of their defense lawyers. The crime happened more than a decade ago, but the trial was concluded on February 15, 2018. How long it will it take for the court to promulgate its ruling?

The revolutionary justice system

“The main difference between the justice system of the revolutionary movement and that of the reactionary government lies in each one’s standpoint and viewpoint,” Ka Tato pointed out. The NDFP program, he said, embodies the people’s fundamental rights and freedom and takes into consideration the following: 1) the relations between the broad masses and the exploiting class; 2) the relations among party members; 3) the relations among the masses; and 4) the interests of the sectors. Following are his elaboration on these points:

The People’s Democratic Revolution seeks the social and national liberation of the masses long locked in the yoke of exploitation. Its judicial system thus takes the side of the exploited at all times against the interests of the exploiters.

Friendly relationships among the toiling masses and the progressive forces are ensured by resolving any dispute among them amicably. The interests of every sector are given prime consideration over the interests of the ruling classes.

The revolutionary movement has developed standards for the legal and judicial system at different levels and degrees. These are still being codified according to issues and sectoral interests towards crafting a comprehensive code. The three points of attention and eight basic rules of the New People’s Army (NPA) remain as the standards for military discipline. There are also rules and guidelines for agrarian reform, children’s rights, relationship between sexes, treatment of prisoners of war (POW), rules on the investigation and prosecution of suspected enemy spies, among others.

The revolutionary forces adhered to human rights and the principles of international humanitarian law in the course of the armed conflict even prior to the signing of the 1998 Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), the first substantive agenda in the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the NDFP. The NDFP also crafted a Unilateral Declaration of Undertaking to Adhere to the Geneva Conventions and Protocol 1.

All these laws, rules and guides are being observed in the guerrilla fronts by the organs of political power, which create committees or entities to implement them. These are aimed to establish order and dispense justice in the interest, protection, and defense of the masses.

Ka Tato cited the following example:

In March 1999 when the NPA released prisoners of war (POW) AFP Brig. Gen. Victor Obillo, Captain Eduardo Montealto, PNP Major Roberto Bernal and AFP Sergeant Alipio Lozada, the NDFP took the high moral ground as basis—humanitarian grounds and grant of clemency on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the NPA. It responded positively to the widespread appeals of well-meaning parties and personages such as Archbishop Fernando R. Capalla, Bishop Wilfredo D. Manlapaz, Msgr. Mario Valle, Atty. Jesus Dureza and Rev. Fr. Pedro Lamata, who composed the Humanitarian Mission; Senator Loren Legarda in a parallel personal initiative; Howard Q. Dee, Chair of the GRP Negotiating Panel; Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines; Mrs. Obillo and Mrs. Montealto.

The NDFP negotiating panel ordered the release of the military officers in accordance with the authority vested on it by the NDFP National Executive Committee and the laws and and processes of the people’s democratic government (PDG), and in compliance with the CARHRIHL and the NDFP Unilateral Declaration of Undertaking to Apply the Geneva Conventions and Protocol 1.

Observing the Guidelines and Procedure for the safe release of POW, the NPA custodial force turned over the captives to their immediate families through the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Humanitarian Mission, Senator Legarda, and in the presence of some government officials, human rights advocates, and church people.
Punishing a ferocious enemy of the people

The execution of Bernabe “Bantito” Abanilla in February 2016 by the Front Operations Command of the NPA in the provinces of Cotabato and Bukidnon was the punishment for his involvement in the killing of Italian priest Fausto “Pops” Tenorio and former student journalist Benjaline Hernandez, as well as many human rights activists and indigenous peoples who resisted militarization in their ancestral domains. Abanilla was a member of the Citizen’s Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) and the “Bagani Force” paramilitary group in Arakan, North Cotabato.

In October 2011, Tentorio was shot several times inside a parish compound in Arakan Valley, Cotabato. Four years later, a Special Investigating Team for Unsolved Cases found circumstantial evidence against the Bagani Group. Meanwhile, eight years after Hernandez was attacked by the CAFGU and military in April 2002, in Sitio Bukatol, Barangay Kinayawan, Arakan, the UN Committee, where a complaint of the killing was filed, found the government guilty for violating Hernandez’s human rights. Despite these findings, Abanilla continued to enjoy a wicked life in liberty until revolutionary justice finally caught up with him.

The revolutionary movement’s people’s court

In the Guide to the Establishment of the People’s Democratic Government, the justice system is envisioned to have a Supreme People’s Court as the highest judicial authority. It may also create special courts if the situation requires. The Hukumang Bayan (people’s court) is created by the people’s government at the provincial, district, municipal and barrio levels. In small and simple cases, the board of judges is composed of three, while in big and complicated cases, especially if death is the imposable penalty, the board is composed of at least nine judges. Judges are chosen based on merit.

The complaints should be detailed and the preliminary investigations thorough before the trial. The people’s court will study the sides of both plaintiff and defendant. Both sides shall be given sufficient time to be heard and can have a lawyer to present witnesses and evidence.

Usually hearings are done in public and any citizen is free to give his/her opinion regarding the case. If necessary, the people’s court will request the help of the concerned organ of the PDG to provide insights on the issues confronting the court.

The decision in every case shall be voted upon by the judges. Each judge shall explain before the board his/her vote. Usually, the decision on the case needs a simple majority vote of the board. However, in the case where death is the sentence, the vote should be a clear 2/3 majority. All the decisions shall be read and explained by the presiding judge.

The decision of the lower people’s court may be appealed to a higher people’s court. However, the people’s court may accept a motion for reconsideration of its decision. In cases where death is the sentence, these will automatically be appealed to the highest political and judicial authority of the region and automatically filed with the People’s Supreme Court or the standing organ responsible for it.

The people’s court on the ground

At this stage of the people’s democratic revolution, people’s courts are established in the guerrilla fronts. They commonly cover petty crimes and domestic concerns. Should the situation permit, hearings are done in public.

Arbitration is done by the NPA with local residents to strike a balance in the evaluation of the case. Members of the people’s court are chosen based on merit. They should be disinterested parties and not related to the defendants. The people’s court is usually composed of nine people. The defense also should undertake careful investigation to ensure that the rights of the defendant are protected. The case undergoes hearings, sentencing, and appeal, as the case may be. The Party section of the NPA is responsible for taking charge of the trial. The Executive Committee of the Regional Committee acts as the review board.

In the case of enemy spies, any tip will be carefully verified before the arrest and trial. Certain political conditions are considered such as the gravity of the offense, the age (minor) and the relationship of the offender with revolutionary forces. Death sentence is the last resort after one is proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

Contrary to the claims of its detractors, the NDFP judicial system is no “kangaroo court” because it follows a judicious procedure: investigation, indictment, hearings, sentencing, pardon, and release.

People in the barrios and even the local barangay councils acknowledge that revolutionary justice system is fair, simple, and swift.

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