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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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Imperialist U.S. Heightens Intervention, Dirty War in the Philippines

in Countercurrent

In a recent collated report, the Philippine Revolution Web Central traced a disturbing modus operandi of the Armed Forces of the Philippines—that of conducting summary execution of captured combatants or hors de combat of the New People’s Army (NPA), in violation of international war protocols. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has been killing in brutal rubouts senior or veteran revolutionaries aged 60 and up, captured Red fighters, unarmed peace consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), and abducted civilians who were suspected to have connections with the revolutionary movement.

The AFP and its paramilitary groups have strafed and bombed civilian communities, hamletted if not encamped in civilian communities, threatened residents by their presence, corrupted minors and women, forcibly held “meetings” and ordered people to present themselves to the military to “clear” their names and be “informed” on the activities of the revolutionaries. While doing these, the AFP attached fabricated stories of armed encounters or “pursuit operations,” fake surrender, and various labels slandering the revolutionaries to spread disinformation.

Although the reactionary government through the AFP and the national police are the main implementers of various “counterinsurgency” Oplans, the justification and guide on “counterinsurgency” and “anti-terrorism”, the supplies of arms, equipment, and intelligence, the myriad of cooperation and trainings for “interoperability” of US and Philippine troops are all from the imperialist US. That a foreign power is directly arming and instigating the local reactionary government of a sovereign country to shoot, kill, and maim the Filipino people is actually done openly. And they euphemistically call the master-puppet setup as a “treaty partnership,” or a relationship of “treaty allies.”

History shows the U.S. imperialist through military aid and cooperation has been directly behind every thieving regime of puppet Philippine presidents, dictators and tyrants. They waged war on Philippine soil and repressed civilian dissent to defend their narrow interests—a resource-rich, strategically located neocolony.

Given the bloody history of US imperialist’s “pacification” campaign at the turn of 20th century, followed by the deceitful neocolonial control they have imposed since 1946 to placate the patriotic Filipinos, the war against today’s progressive and revolutionary Filipinos is not a throwback but an increasingly more insidious, brutal continuation of imperialist US’ bloody subjugation of peoples in these shores.

Their latest crimes and attacks on the people and their revolutionary vanguards wreaked losses to the Filipino people. Every revolutionary and supporters killed, every community bombed and threatened, represent more room for the narrow alliance of big landlords, bourgeois compradors, and monopoly corporations to continue plundering the riches of not only the Philippines but also of the neighboring countries which the imperialist US seeks to control by forward deployment in “treaty allies” such as the Philippines.

US imperialist most eager to crush national liberation movements like in Ph

Imperialist US is most interested to crush the Philippine national democratic revolution with a socialist perspective because its very existence is another threat to imperialism. When the national democratic revolution gains victory, the US imperialist risks losing a neocolony and social base of local oligarchs and puppet government, thus depriving them of a geopolitically strategic military outpost, a parrot in regional formations as ASEAN, a dumping ground for surplus products and capital, source of cheap labor and resources.

The national democratic revolution is an assertion of the Filipino people’s right to self-determination against the domination of US imperialism and towards genuine national independence.

Since 1968, the CPP-led national democratic revolution has been a threat to the US imperialist’s global cultural offensive. Because here is a self-reliant army of revolutionaries belying all the imperialists’ cunning and unfounded claims for people to rely only on individual superheroes and myths, serve only themselves and not the masses, and believe that the good old Uncle Sam’s imperialism is the end of history.

With the experiences and lessons gained by the CPP, the NPA, and the NDFP in mass work, learning from and working with the masses to change their situation, using the Marxist, Leninist and Maoist theories in revolution on the concrete conditions in the Philippines, using it to guide the Filipino revolutionaries’ war of national liberation, they are already helping other revolutionaries and liberation movements all over the world.

The imperialist US itches to shut down sources of revolutionary counter-cultures and messaging that threatens its full-spectrum dominance in economic, military, political, and cultural spheres around the world.

US “war on terror” and terrorist tagging

As Juliet de Lima, interim peace panel head for NDFP, noted in a speech on imperialist cultural offensive, since the US launched its “war on terror,” all sort of “terrorists” have appeared all over the globe. They are none other than enemies of imperialism who opposed the US push for neoliberalism (monopolies) and globalization (monopoly profit-taking). The US has arrogated to itself the self-serving task to launch war against “terrorists” wherever they are. Since then their troops and their cultural offensives have invaded countries, overthrown governments, and killed people whom they accuse of breeding, supporting or fronting for “terrorists.”

In the Philippines, then US puppet administration Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo swiftly embraced the “war on terror” through Oplan Bantay Laya I and II. The US-Arroyo regime’s bloodbath against the people—personified by the likes of notorious butcher general Jovito Palparan—justified its reign of terror by blurring the distinction between unarmed legal democratic activists and armed revolutionaries. Everyone became a target.

The US-led war against the Philippine liberation movement was continued by the next US puppet regimes. After so many years, under the cover of COVID19 pandemic, the US-Duterte regime finally managed to upgrade the fangs of the Anti-Terror Act. That was amid a harrowing war on drugs that killed tens of thousands of victims among the poor; war against the Bangsa Moro that became an excuse for pounding Marawi and imposing the first martial law after Marcos Sr; and amid a “counterinsurgency” war against revolutionaries in the countryside.

Duterte failed in his ambitions to be the first US puppet president who can sign a peace accord with the CPP, where he aimed to follow the US guide to disarm and force the revolutionaries to capitulate. He then unleashed an all-out war (not that they stopped during peace talks), but with additional vigor at being brutal and deceitful. By the time he exited Malacanang, Duterte can lay claim to the notoriety of forcing the terrorist-labeling on revolutionaries in the most abrasive, shameless and big-budgeted way through the NTF-ELCAC and so-called whole-of-nation approach.

Now his successor Marcos Jr and daughter Sara Duterte are continuing the US-instigated “counterinsurgency” war against Filipinos, following the same track that failed.

The official website of US Defence Department in September 2022 did not even hide it, saying “The United States and the Philippines have a robust (underscoring ours) counterterrorism program. The United States has counterinsurgency efforts in Mindanao, the country’s largest island, since 2000.”

Current US President Joe Biden said in Fact Sheet: Indo-Pacific Strategy of the United States that they are extending and modernizing their “defense presence” and enhancing their capabilities (in the Philippines) to defend their interest and to deter aggression against U.S. territory and against their allies and partners (underscoring ours).

IBON Foundation cited the Philippines as the biggest recipient of US military aid among Southeast Asian countries, with an average of U$ 54 million annually since 2019, mostly military equipment.

The military equipment will make the AFP “more capacitated,” the Philippine News Agency quoted Gen. Cirilito Sobejana when he received the equipment from US. Every year, the US forces and reactionary Philippine troops conduct 300 military exercises, thus helping them gain interoperability, make the local reactionary troops “capacitated” to use surplus US equipment, among others.

All these US imperialist contributions strengthen the local reactionary troops and embolden the puppet government, at the expense of the people and their human rights.

The long-term effects of the intensifying US-instigated “counterinsurgency” war include not just the growing list of gross abuses and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law with utter impunity. It also includes the obstacles generated by relentless cultural offensives against the revolutionaries raised by the psywar guide of US imperialists’ war on terror: the distribution for example of fake news to deceive the masses and mislabel the revolutionaries and liberation fighters as “terrorist.”

The masses know the opposite is true and that in words and deeds the US imperialism is the real terrorist. The progressives and revolutionary forces are challenged to develop unity, cooperation, and coordination of all peoples in the Philippines and abroad, to raise the level of struggle against imperialism and reaction, in particular against imperialist plunder and war led by US and applied hook line and sinker by the puppet government currently led by Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (Pinky Ang) ###

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Cherish the People’s Army, Revolutionary Martyrs

in Cherish/Mainstream/Publication

Here is a gathering of some unforgettable names. They are among our cherished crop of revolutionaries. They are our beloved comrades who marched before us. They bequeathed us an abundance of examples, lessons, and stories in waging armed struggle to advance the national democratic revolution with socialist perspective.

We are proud and humbled to present this compilation. Proud because we gathered tributes to some of our most remembered Red fighters; humbled because this compilation gives a mere sketch of their revolutionary contributions.They represent far more stories to share and, also, with them should have been more revolutionaries to honor but they are not yet included here.   REVOLUTIONARIES-Download Print-ready copy

 

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Learning is a Collective Process

in Mainstream

A not so typical classroom is found usually deep in the forest. It is a regular feature whenever the red fighters are encamped. At the center of the “classroom,” nestled among trees, is a canvas or black tarpaulin or manila paper that serves as “blackboard.” Around it, members of the people’s army gather—sitting on rocks or on the ground—as they intently listen on their facilitator. At times, the seriousness is interrupted by laughter when they fumble in identifying letters or numbers.

With pens and paper, the Red fighters learn the alphabet—the vowels and consonants—as they read and write the lesson for the day. A member of the red army who had gone to school usually acts as facilitator as he/she also learns how to adapt to the students’ needs and to fashion creatively the teaching method to ease the learning process. Teaching literacy and numeracy has to be woven into the daily lives and experiences of the members of the people’s army. It makes learning easier and retention of lessons faster.

Thus, even as the sound of A-BA-KA-DA reverberates in the forests, it is not the usual “A is for apple” but “A is for Ambus (ambush), B is for baseng masa (mass base), K is for kasama (comrade), and D is for digmang bayan (people’s war).

These classrooms, like the NPA units, are mobile, too. Wherever and whenever the situation allows, the Red fighters always find time to study—literacy, numeracy, and theoretical studies. Learning is a collective practice, too. Tutorials are practiced among students, with the more advance learner assisting those who have difficulties with their lessons. The more determined students, and those who want to keep pace with their classmates, continue to study in the evenings, making do with whatever light is available or allowed in camp sites.

Making up for government neglect in education

Majority of the Red fighters came from the peasantry; many of them have not gone to school or had stopped schooling at an early age. Despite the free tuition in public schools, children stop going to school because their families cannot afford the cost of transportation, the expenses for school projects, and a host of other expenses, even snacks. Other families who survive on a daily basis need their children to lend a hand in household or farm chores, or to do odd jobs as in the case of urban poor dwellers. Illiteracy has been a cause of discrimination as well as exploitation especially for peasants and indigenous peoples when they trade with other sections of the population.

Hence, literacy and numeracy become part of the daily lives of the people’s army. It strengthens the Red fighters’ confidence when they know how to read and write. It also facilitates their study and grasp of Marxism, Leninism, and Maoism. This improves the knowledge and skills they impart to the masses.

In some guerrilla zones in Mindanao, for example, Red fighters were also taught basic science before they attend the Basic Party Course. These basic science concepts aid the members of the people’s army in understanding the core concepts of dialectical and historical materialism.

The revolutionary movement’s education program

Literacy and Numeracy is only among the many courses offered by the Party to its members, the Red army, and the masses.

As part of its cultural revolution, and guided by nationalist, scientific, and mass-based principles, the Party consolidates its membership and the masses through its education program. The various courses also prepare the NPA and the masses in establishing and administrating the revolutionary organizations and the organs of political power in the countryside.

The three-level education in the Party—basic, intermediate, and advance—aims to deepen the members’ understanding of Marxism, Leninism, and Maoism, and how they are applied to Philippine society and revolution.

Activists also learn from various courses on national democracy through the Pambansang Demokratikong Paaralan (PADEPA) or the national democratic school. Subjects on Philippine society, the national democratic revolution, revolutionary perspective and attitude, special courses on women, indigenous peoples, peasants, and workers, and analyses on various national issues such as the peace negotiations are among those taught in the PADEPA.

Special courses and skills training on various fields are also available—military, health and medicine (including surgery), math and science, arts and literature, leadership and management, national and international laws and protocols, philosophy, etc.—given for free in the people’s army and the Party.

These courses, along with revolutionary practice, steel the members of the revolutionary movement, strengthen their will to fight and win the national democratic revolution.

Meet the Graduates

(Adapted from “Mandirigmang mag-aaral, gerilyang paaralan” Bigwas, February 2022 issue, official publication of West-Central Luzon)

Ka Dyun, a red fighter from the Aeta indigenous group

One of his teachers called him bobo (stupid) because he was unable to read a word written on the board. He was shut in a room until he filled the board with that one word, which surprisingly he couldn’t remember anymore. Ka Dyun was traumatized by the experience, he lost his confidence that he decided to leave school at an early age. He only finished grade one. Little did he know that when he joined the red army he would attend school again, this time, in the pulang paaralan (red school.)

Ka Dyun was motivated by his desire not just to serve the people, but to serve them the best he could. He learned how to read and write to gain confidence and to hone himself as a capable and skilful Red fighter. With the help of his comrades in the people’s army, he diligently studied writing and reading during classes and in the evenings, when their schedule allowed.

Bit by bit, he learned to write his name, then the letters of the alphabet; write and read words related to their situation and surrounding until he was able to construct and read sentences.

The daily accounting of his platoon’s supplies and resources was his practical exam in addition, subtraction and multiplication. How to determine the rate of exploitation of traders and landlords among the peasants and indigenous peoples where they operate became a higher learning in arithmetic.

Slowly but progressively, he and his collective succeeded in Ka Dyun’s schooling. Ka Dyun was especially grateful to Ka Islaw, a martyred comrade who used his drawing skills to facilitate Ka Dyun’s learning. To Ka Dyun, Ka Islaw’s inspiration will continue to propel him to learn and hone his skills and become a well-rounded revolutionary for the victory of the revolution and the masses.

Ka Baytan, Ayta from Zambales

It took him and his brother two hours to reach their school, alternately crossing river tributaries and lahar several times. At school, Ka Baytan and all the other pupils were cramped in two small rooms. One room is shared by those in Grades 1 to 3; the other room for pupils in Grades 4 to 6.

In a room, a teacher segregates the pupils by row per grade level but they are either seated side-by-side or back-to-back; each grade level doing their own activity simultaneously. One grade level may be reading, the other writing, and the other reciting. This is what the Department of Education calls the “multi-grade system” which is implemented in far-flung communities because of lack of teachers and school facilities. The set-up discouraged Ka Baytan to continue studying such that when he reached Grade 3 he stopped.

Because a Red fighter is also a cultural worker, Ka Baytan’s interest in music and learning to read and write converged. He did not only sing during cultural activities but copying lyrics of revolutionary songs to his notebook taught him writing and eventually reading.

His interest in studying was definitely revived when he joined the people’s army. For one, he had 10 Red fighters who alternately taught him to read, write, and count. He was also encouraged to continue learning because he realized that his lack of education from the bourgeois school system did not hinder him to learn Marxism-Leninism, and Maoism.

When he finished the Basic Party course, Ka Baytan was in high spirits, having experienced for the first time to graduate. “Dito lang ako sa hukbo nakaranas na grumadweyt”, he said during the graduation rites held by his unit of the people’s army. (Iliya Makalipay) ###

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