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Pure Joy with the Masses

in Mainstream

The start of the “ber” months signals the most celebrated holiday of the year in the Philippines. Jose Mari Chan’s song, “Christmas in Our Hearts” fills the airwaves. It is the season of hope in everyone’s heart, a season to rejoice. In the cities, malls and parks compete for the highest Christmas tree built. Dancing lights dazzle as people rush to buy gifts and noche buena items to feast on.

But it’s a different story in the countryside. Ka Ponsoy, a member of the NPA, in his account in Mga Kwentong Kasama, described what it’s like in the countryside and in the guerrilla zones:

Only a few communities celebrate Christmas as festive as in the cities. Some hang lanterns and Christmas lights where electric power is available, still full of hope. They also prepare special meals for the children who will come home for the holidays. However, to most people in the barrios, Christmas is just another day as their stomachs grumble no matter how arduous they toil the whole year round. Worst, typhoons usually lash in the last quarter of the year or some other unforeseen bane comes, depriving the farmers and fisherfolk their source of livelihood.

In the guerrilla zone, Ka Ponsoy found no difference. Sometimes they do cook for the occasion or the masses bring them some food. But most of the time, like most of the masses, they just sleep on Christmas’ eve.

A different kind of Christmas

During Ka Ponsoy’s first year in the people’s army, he would miss the “joyous” Christmas he was used to when he was still a civilian. But he would soon find out that December is not entirely cold and gloomy in a guerrilla zone. There was another reason to celebrate. Comrades and the masses are full of excitement over the most awaited day of the year—the commemoration of the founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The celebration is remarkable not because of its pomp. In fact, most of the time, it stands out in its simplicity. There are even occasions when the only food is camote (sweet potato) and balinghoy (cassava). Although when situation allows, allies from the town or city centers would send lechon or ham.

Through all these, there is no comparison to the warmth and happiness one will experience in the guerrilla zone. The smiles are real, the laughter profound even amid constant threat of military attacks. Everyone knows that the celebration is a testimony of another year of success and yearning. Another year to frustrate the enemies as the masses secure themselves, their dreams, and their future. This gives Ka Ponsoy a queasy twinge in his heart. They also pledged, that no matter what, they will continue the fight. This is the most exhilarating and memorable experience for Ka Ponsoy. Everyone is confident to face the new year with heaps of challenges to surmount, obstacles to surpass and problems to overcome. Since the anniversary celebration is the culmination of a year-long struggle, all are excited.

Preparing for D-day 

Should the loads of work allow, preparation for the anniversary celebration starts around October or November. Discussions on the composition of the steering committee and the plans for the program commence. What will be the cultural presentations and who will perform? Who are the speakers, including those representing the different organizations? Likewise, who will participate in the military drill?

By December, actual preparations begin. Rehearsals for the cultural presentations and the drill are done. Technical requirements are ensured—flags, the stage, mural or backdrop, sound system, food, invitations. The masses are never left out in the invitation. No matter how simple the celebration is, be it in the dense forest or in a dilapidated structure in the coconut grove, whether there is special food, sound system, mural on stage or none, inviting the masses should not be missed out. Otherwise, they will feel offended and will nag the program organizers to no end.

On the Actual Day 

The early hours of the actual day are already filled with excitement. During the opening salvo, all are jittery as the drill with the accompaniment of the song Internationale pushed on. The speakers and the cultural performers are all agog in the last minute of their practice.

The excitement of the masses are double than that of the comrades. They make sure to come early to the venue. At times, some even spend the night at the NPA camp so they won’t be late for the activities. They come in their best dress, no matter how simple. Even when it rains, and the path becomes muddy and the trek difficult, they would come. They even bring food to share.

During the program speakers are nervous, despite their having delivered the messages for the Party, the New People’s Army (NPA) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) so many times before a huge crowd and the media. However, upon gaining composure, the intensity of the emotion and agitation they impart is inspiring and inciting. The speakers from the different organizations could not be outdone. In some occasions, comrades seize the opportunity to gather the masses for short discussions on the stand and principles of the revolutionary movement.

The performers in the program are a mix of people from the army, the masses, the elderly, and the children and youth. The lack of gracefulness does not hinder the performances of revolutionary dance. Off key and out of synch singing are not an issue as they render their songs with revolutionary spirit. Volunteers, or those not in the program, are given the chance to speak or perform. Cultural performances to celebrate the Party anniversary live up to what the Great Leader Mao Zedong had said: An army without culture is a dull-witted army, and a dull-witted army cannot defeat the enemy.

It is a delight that the celebration for this occasion is neither bound by time nor form. Even in militarized areas, comrades find unique ways to celebrate: a simple greeting to one another as they walk along, a warm smile or an embrace for the masses they meet.

Realization

In the cities, Jose Mari Chan’s song goes on:

“Let’s light our Christmas trees

For a bright tomorrow

Where nations are at peace”

But how could there be peace, in a screwed up world with its rotten system, where the oppressors and exploiters rule and tyranny and greed persist? The oppressed and exploited will rise. To rebel is right and just.

Through time, Ka Ponsoy came to understand there is no need for a lot of things—fiesta food, Christmas decors, money—to be happy. It is a different joy to know that comrades and the masses are united by one goal: to serve the people. Nothing compares to the jubilation seeing comrades and the masses who had been with through numerous tribulations and life’s storms, alive and smiling. Hope springs eternal where everyone loves the Party and the revolution.

Although at times, Ka Ponsoy still misses the Christmas he used to know, he will never exchange the happiness and the liberating spirit that he feels with every anniversary celebration of the Party, as well as those of the NPA and the NDFP, and other events and celebrations in the revolutionary movement. ### (Pat Gambao, adapted from “Mga Kwentong Kasama“, published by the Gintong Silahis Platung Pangkultura BHB-Bikol, 2022).

 

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Rachelle Mae Palang, Press Freedom Fighter and Health Worker

in Cherish/Mainstream

If Rachelle Mae Palang’s name is familiar, it is because the Southeast Negros command of the New People’s Army (NPA) was named after her. Rachelle Mae died at age 22, on September 18, 2008, in the hands of the fascist troops while on a medical mission. Naming the Southeast Negros Command of the NPA after her memorialized her life—a patriotic youth, another best of the best who chose to serve the poorest of the poor.

She was an outstanding nursing student, a leader, and a campus journalist. These gave her a keen grasp of issues and awakened her to the ills of society. As an avid advocate of press freedom, she assiduously fought against violations of the rights of people to information and free expression as well as campus repression.

After obtaining her degree in nursing and passing the licensure exam, she immediately volunteered to go to the hinterlands of Negros to serve the peasant communities where health care system has long been neglected by the government. She dreamt to be a doctor after passing the national medical admission test so she could better serve the downtrodden and disadvantaged. However, that dream perished with her untimely death.

Rachelle as press freedom fighter 

Mae Mae, as she was fondly called by her closest friends at the Veluz College in Cebu City, was endeared to many for her bubbly, zany demeanor as well as her generosity to help. She stood out as a conscientious and indefatigable student leader. She fought not only for press freedom but also for the students’ democratic rights and welfare.

While Editor-in-Chief of the Vital Signs, the official publication of Veluz College, she was elected Vice President for the Visayas of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) and served for three years. During her term, she helped reopen campus publications and establish student papers in colleges and universities that had none.

Having campus papers is a democratic right of the students. Mae Mae was aware that campus press is an important platform for students to express their ideas, develop critical thinking skills, and in presenting the people’s point of view on various issues and concerns.

Even after her term with the CEGP, Mae Mae continued to contribute to the organization by documenting cases of press freedom violations in Visayas.

Healthcare for the people 

After passing the nurses board, Rachelle opted to go to the countryside to serve the most oppressed and neglected sector of the country—the peasants and farm workers. She refused to go abroad, the goal of many of those who chose the nursing profession. During her brief but meaningful medical mission, she discovered the integrative work of the people’s army among the peasantry. The red army—while persevering to satisfy the basic demand of the poor peasants and farm workers for their rights to the land they till, achieving minimum and maximum gains—also provided health care for the masses through education, planting and production of herbal medicines, improvised medical kits, and other alternative treatment.

The martyrdom 

Barely had Ka Hannah finished her medical mission when a composite unit of the 79th Infantry Battalion and elements of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) chanced upon them at the border of Dauin and Zamboanguita Villages, in Negros Oriental. Ka Hannah and her companions where on a break from a meeting. That was September 2008 when Ka Hannah was killed along with Federico “Ka Val” Villalongha and Gerry “Ka Regan” Cabungcag. The Mt. Talinis Front Command of the NPA belied the claim of the Philippine Army that there was an armed encounter.

Unarmed, Ka Hannah was shot point blank, her face hardly recognizable, while signs of torture were evident all over her body, a violation of the rules of engagement under the International Humanitarian Law.

Ka Hannah’s martyrdom, as well as those of the other patriotic youth before her who had aspired to change the world, is a constant inspiration. Their bold and selfless sacrifice is a challenge to the youth to take the noble path to national and social liberation. (Patrocinio del Rosario) ###

 

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Happiness is in the Revolution

in Mainstream

 

In truth, it was never what she expected.

After five years in the New People’s Army (NPA), Ka Nina, who was a youth activist, admitted a lot of her earlier perception of what a Red fighter is had changed.

For one, she thought Red fighters don’t know how to laugh, “Akala ko laging seryoso. Laging politika ang inilalabas ng bibig. Di marunong tumawa. Kaya laking gulat ko pagpasok ko dito sa sonang gerilya dito sa aming rehiyon (in Bicol) napakakwela pala ng mga kasama (I thought they were always serious, unsmiling, and talking only about politics. So I was surprised they were a cheery bunch when I came to the guerrilla zone here in Bicol),” she commented. They laugh at the littlest of things—when a dog that passes by, while practicing new songs, the pronouncements of Pres. Duterte. It must be “because we know we always face a life and death situation. That brings us closer and builds our rapport and camaraderie,” Ka Nina explained.

Ka Nina’s life in the NPA was far from the image she once held about the red fighters. Even as an activist she had no idea what kind of life they lived. Curiously, Ka Nina found her way into a guerrilla zone. And she stayed on. “Perhaps it was also because as a student activist, I saw the brutality of the state—in rallies, in picket lines,” she added.

Life with the masses

Half a decade in the people’s army, Ka Nina’s integration with the masses sustained her even as she misses her family and friends. “Mayaman kasi sa mass work ang Hukbo. ‘Yun ang isa sa pinakamahalagang salik kung paano namin napapangibabawan yung mga sakrispisyo, mga hirap, mga pisikal na pagod,” she narrated. Sharing stories with the masses erases their tiredness. “Kahit na wala ka pang kain buong araw. (Even if we haven’t eaten the whole day).”

We do a great deal of mass work. That must be one factor why we are able to overcome sacrifices, hardships and physical difficulties.

She was bursting with stories on her life with the masses. Asked to give a highlight, she begged, “pwede pong dalawa? (May I share two?).”

The first story she loved to tell and retell was when she was still new in the NPA. “Nag-ikot kami sa bahaging coastal area. Tapos yung masa doon talagang hirap sila sa pananim. Sabi nila, wala daw tumutubo doon sa lupa nila. Hirap din sila sa tubig tapos wala rin silang mga ipantatanim (As we went around the coastal community we saw the difficulties of the masses to grow plants. Nothing grows on the land. They have no fresh water and they don’t have anything to plant),” she related. Through the efforts of the comrades and the organized masses, they were able to solicit cassava cuttings and distributed these to the community members for planting. “They were so euphoric. They hugged us. That was great. It was satisfying to have done something for the masses,” Ka Nina exclaimed as she relived the moment.

The second story was when their unit had an encounter with the military. Two comrades fell, recalled Ka Nina. The masses went with them to retrieve the remains of the comrades. “It was a long walk, it was raining, and worse, we had to pass through enemy lines.” When the community members got to the place, they immediately tended to the remains of the comrades, like their own. “Bagamat malungkot ang pangalawang halimbawa na binigay ko, isa po ‘yun sa pinakamatingkad na karanasan ko kung gaano kamahal ng mga masa ang mga kasama, (The story may be sad but I just wanted to show how the masses love the comrades),” Ka Nina noted.

Collective life

Like the masses, Ka Nina’s collective carried her through hard times. “When you feel weary and weak because you miss your family, the collective is there to guide you, help you, listen to how you feel.” She said all their concerns are discussed in the collective. “Lahat ng bagay dito sa Hukbo—problema mo sa pagkain, sa pagdumi, kalungkutan— napag-uusapan, nabubutbot po yung mga ganun tapos nagagawan ng solusyon. (We discuss everything in the collective—food, poop, loneliness. We dissect and find solution to everything).”

It has also never been a problem that she is a woman. “Totoo na may pantay na pagtingin sa kababaihan dito sa loob ng rebong kilusan.

It is true. Women in the revolutionary movement are treated equally and fairly.

In her five years with the NPA, or even when she was still an activist, she claimed she has not experienced discrimination.

She admitted though that this is not true for all the masses they meet and so they have to reorient the masses on this. The same goes for the new recruits in the NPA. But the new recruits, Ka Nina said, immediately get it, citing “We are together 24/7, death is always upon us, we could encounter the enemy anytime” as possible reasons.

“Ang sabi nga ng mga kasama dapat laging maging handa, babae ka man o lalaki kasi di namimili ang punglo. Babae ka o lalaki, tatamaan ka niyan. Sa pagpapaputok ng baril, di mo kailangan macho ka o sobrang lakas mo. Babae ka o lalaki, o anuman ang kasarian mo, ang kailangan mo ay ang kapasyahang iputok ang baril. Kalabitin ang gatilyo. (A comrade said we should be prepared, always. It doesn’t matter if you are male or female because bullets don’t discriminate. One need not be macho or tough. Whether you are male, female, or whatever is the gender preference, the most important is the will to fire the gun., to pull the trigger.)”

A new generation of cadres

As the CPP and the NPA celebrate its 50th year, Ka Nina recognized the contributions of the revolutionary movement to Philippine society—from understanding its nature to instituting meaningful changes while advancing the people’s war. “In the last five decades we have proven we can rise above all challenges because what we are fighting for is just and right.”

She sees a bright future ahead with the kind of unity among the people’s army, the masses, and the Party members. There was obviously pride and elation as Ka Nina takes part in the celebration, “Masarap sa pakiramdam kasi umabot yung henerasyon namin sa ika-50 anibersaryo. Napakasarap sa pakiramdam. (I feel joyful because our generation is part of the 50th anniversary.)”

As the conversation closed, Ka Nina cracked her third highlight without a prompt: “Tapos, yung simple po na pagtawag nila lagi sa amin na kasama o Kas, o anak, ganyan po ang tawag nila sa amin. Samantalang dun sa kabila ay kaaway. Ang sarap sa pakiramdam. Talagang tama ‘tong ipinaglalaban natin.

When the masses call us comrade, or Kas [short for kasama, also comrade], or my child while they call the reactionaries as the enemy, that makes us feel good. We know that what we are fighting for is right.

ServeThePeople

PagAsaNgBayan

JoinTheNPA

*Quote from Benito Tiamzon on his June 2014 interview

VISIT and FOLLOW
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DUTERTE REGIME: A propaganda war with dire consequences

in Countercurrent
by Erika Hernandez

Neophyte Senator Ronaldo “Bato” dela Rosa, the controversial Philippine National Police chief of the Duterte government, recently led a public inquiry in the Senate and instantly spurred controversy and criticisms. He attempted to link progressive youth organizations with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA).

He presented two witnesses who claimed they were “students by day and NPA by night”—a giveaway phrase as to where it came from: the military. That he sought to turn a public inquiry, purportedly in aid of legislation, into a witch hunt immediately became obvious.

The frontman in President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs” also presented parents of youth activists, who apparently had been goaded to vilify leaders of Anakbayan and Kabataan Partylist as “kidnappers who brainwash their members.” Bato’s witch hunt came with memes on social media showing NPA martyrs from the youth sector and victims of state-perpetrated enforced disappearances with a theme, “Sayang ang buhay ng kabataan (Youth lives just wasted).”

Military officers, who had been invited as resource persons, called for a review of an agreement between a youth leader and then defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile, prohibiting the presence of state security forces in the universities and colleges. They gave lame excuses, such as to prevent “front organizations” from recruiting students to join the NPA; avert the proliferation of drugs in schools; and give the military an equal opportunity to explain government programs.

Following the Senate inquiry, members of the PNP attempted to conduct “mandatory” drug testing on students at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP). Courageous PUP scholars who knew their rights valiantly resisted, driving away the cops from the university premises.

Bato couldn’t wait to use the Senate as platform for pushing the propaganda line against the CPP-NPA of the Duterte regime in its bid to defeat the revolutionary movement before the end of its term.

By striving to directly link the progressive youth organizations with the CPP-NPA and the armed struggle against the reactionary state, the fascist regime aims to justify its red-tagging, harassment, abductions, and killings of youth leaders and activists. The regime blurs—if not totally removes—the distinction between the armed revolutionary movement and the legal, above-ground democratic mass movement fighting for the people’s legitimate demands. It regards the open democratic mass movement as the propaganda component of the armed revolutionary movement.

Thus in the following weeks, the Duterte regime’s red-tagging spree, branding almost all legal organizations as “fronts” of the CPP-NPA, was raised a notch higher. Duterte’s rabid pro-US defense chief urged the illegalization of these organizations by reviving the Anti-Subversion Act of 1957 (the cold war-era legislation that illegalized the CPP; it was repealed under the Ramos government in 1992 as it entered into peace negotiations with the NDFP).

Myth-making through red tags and incessant lies

Red tagging and vilification of people’s organizations is a key facet of the “strategic communication” thrust under the “whole of nation approach (WNA)” of the Duterte regime’s counterinsurgency program. Under this overarching WNA concept—applied unsuccessfully by the US in its unending wars of intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001 and 2002—the regime seeks to “create a movement of and crusade against communist ideology starting with the youth.” It also aims to “assess and conduct counter measures on the current tri-media and social media being infiltrated and targeted by the “CNN [CPP-NPA-NDFP)” through inter-agency collaboration to counter and contain the spread of extremism and revolution.”

What the regime is trying to portray is a supposed state inter-agency collaboration with civil society collaboration against the Left revolutionary movement. While Bato exploits the Senate as platform, Congress is poised to enact repressive measures such as the revival of the Anti-Subversion Law, amendments to the Human Security Act of 2007 (the anti-terrorism law), mandatory military training in schools, among others. The Anti-Subversion Law and Human Security Act amendments portray critics and activists as “terrorists,” to justify unrelenting unarmed and armed attacks against them.

Red-tagging and vilification have preceded many cases of extrajudicial killing, torture, arrest and detention and other human rights abuses against farmers, workers, environmentalists, Church people, lawyers, human rights defenders and other sectors.

The Duterte regime’s propaganda machinery involves both the military and civilian bureaucracy, with the former taking the lead role. The composition of the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), formed through Executive Order No. 70 and headed by President Duterte, shows how civilian agencies are being mobilized for counterinsurgency operations.

The NTF has been busy in its efforts to red tag and vilify the legal and progressive mass organizations critical of the Duterte regime and its continuing subservience to US imperialism and obeisance to China as the rising imperialist power.

One of the most glaring incidents of red-tagging happened during the May 2019 elections. PNP men and women in uniform were caught on camera in the act of distributing a PNP newsletter linking Makabayan Coalition-affiliated partylist groups to the underground revolutionary movement.

In other areas such as Panay, Negros, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, leaflets containing a list of persons alleged to be communists were distributed by state agents. In the list are human rights activists, lawyers, members of the religious, journalists, and academics.

Brig. Gen. Antonio Parlade, AFP deputy chief of staff for civil-military operations, is one of the most vociferous in publicly labeling human rights organizations and sectoral groups as “CPP-NPA fronts” and in peddling the lie that these organizations are involved in “terroristic” activities.

The regime also takes advantage of social media to vilify its the most vocal critics. The Philippine News Agency (PNA) and the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) makes use of fake photos, fake statements, and incredible claims against leaders of the people’s organizations.

The regime has spent tremendous amounts of taxpayers’ money in disseminating its propaganda against the progressive movement to the international community. The NTF-ELCAC went as far as dispatching a team that visited officials of European Union (EU) member states to red-tag Karapatan, Ibon International, Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, Gabriela, among others. The task force urged these EU countries to cut funding for organizations serving the most neglected rural communities in the Philippines.

The NTF-ELCAC sent a delegation to the United Nations Working Group on Involuntary Disappearances in Bosnia-Herzegovina and egregiously urged that body to delist 625 cases of enforced disappearances in the Philippines, mostly attributed to state security forces. NTF members also furiously lobbied against the passage of a resolution filed by Iceland in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), urging the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to look into the spate of extrajudicial killings and make a written comprehensive report on the human rights situation in the Philippines. Their lobbying failed; the UNHRC adopted the resolution.

Even the academe, hospitals and other civilian agencies are not spared from the witch hunt. Policemen did rounds in schools, government hospitals and other offices, profiling the members and officers of employees’ unions.

The AFP and PNP have been spreading outright lies. They claim to have succeeded in ending the “insurgency” in some provinces—claims that have repeatedly been belied since the Ramos government first declared, in 1994, that it had strategically defeated the NPA (which it admitted to be untrue several months later). They present to the media fake surrenderers, mostly farmers they either coerced, deceived, or bribed—through the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP)—into admitting they were NPA members. They churn out these falsehoods to conjure the illusion that they are winning against the revolutionaries.

But when their most heinous crimes are exposed, they readily put the blame on the CPP- NPA. This has been shown in the case of the extrajudicial killings in Negros Oriental. Braving threats and the pain of repeatedly recalling the tragic massacres, families of the victims have testified how their loved ones were killed in cold blood during the joint AFP-PNP’s Oplan Sauron operations.

When members and other paid elements of the AFP and the PNP get killed in legitimate armed encounters, they try hide their defeats, or worse, misrepresent these incidents as violations by the NPA of international humanitarian law.

Criminalizing dissent: the biggest lie

Through the Inter-Agency Committee on Legal Action (IACLA), the AFP and the PNP jointly try to use the judiciary as a weapon against critics of Duterte and his corrupt and bungling regime. The following are just some examples showing how this administration is criminalizing dissent: the perjury charges filed by Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, the president’s national security adviser, against Karapatan, the RMP, and Gabriela; the sedition and cyberlibel cases filed against Vice President Leni Robredo, political opposition candidates in the May senatorial elections, and some Catholic bishops; and, the kidnapping charges against youth leaders and former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares.

A similar ridiculous and malicious kidnapping and child abuse charges were earlier filed against Bayan Muna President Satur Ocampo and Representative France Castro of Act-Teachers partylist in late 2018, when they helped rescue Lumad students who had been forced out of their school that was shut down by the military.

A number of activists, service providers of progressive NGOs and organizers or campaigners of legal progressive organizations, have also been arrested based on patently made-up accusations including illegal possession of firearms and explosives. In most cases the arresting teams have planted the “evidence” in the activists’ bags they seized, in vehicles or residences as in the case of labor organizer Maoj Maga, long-time peace advocate and NDFP peace consultant Rey Claro Casambre, and NDFP peace consultants Vicente Ladlad, Adel Silva, and recently Esterlita Suaybaguio.

Professional “witnesses” or “surrenderers” dragooned as witnesses are used from one case to another to churn out false testimonies, almost always bordering on the ridiculous. The use of arrest warrants against “John Doe” and “Jane Doe” have become the norm to justify the illegal arrests of any targeted person.

The “multiple murder” case involving, as supposedly prime evidence, “travelling skeletons”—first allegedly dug up from a mass grave in Baybay, Leyte then years later supposedly dugged up again in Inopacan, Leyte—has been discredited and should have been laid to rest long ago.

But, no! The biggest legal fiction of Gloria Arroyo’s Inter-Agency Legal Action Group (IALAG)—the filing of trumped-up murder charges in 2007 against Ocampo (then Bayan Muna congressman) and several others was questioned before the Supreme Court, which granted Ocampo bail. However, the case awaited action by the highest tribunal for seven years. Only in 2014 did the SC, mostly with new justices sitting, referred the case for trial to a regional trial court. Then after hearings held over about five years, the prosecutors recently asked the court to issue warrants of arrest against 38 of the co-accused, including NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison. The court issued the warrants.

In another case, the Court of Appeals recently junked both the petition for writ of amparo and writ of habeas data filed by the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) and a similar petition filed by Karapatan, RMP and Gabriela (the NUPL is the groups’ legal counsel). The parallel rulings indicate the sway of military influence on the judiciary. The rulings, issued by different CA divisions, practically denied the human rights defenders the legal remedies sought for their protection against political persecution and threats to their personal security and their lives.

Silencing the media

As part of its “strategic communication” strategy, the Duterte regime has been discrediting the journalism profession in an apparent bid to drown out the truth in media reporting and spread more lies. By calling journalists as bayaran, “press-titute”, and other derogatory labels, Duterte wants the Filipino people to doubt and reject the media’s role as watchdogs in society.

  1. The Duterte regime is trying to intimidate the more critical journalists using some of these methods: Producing fabricated matrices that link to a conjured ouster plot against Duterte the media organizations—the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), the Vera Files, and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ)—and individual journalists such as Inday Espina-Varona and Danilo Arao.
  2. Threatening non-renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise, a virtual Damocles sword on the broadcasting giant.
  3. Filing a string of charges against online news site Rappler and twice trying to detain its CEO.
  4. Conducting “background checks” on journalists. Members of the Philippine National Police Press Corps have reported police visits and interrogations.
  5. Visiting media outfits in the pretext of “getting fair stories” regarding the bloody war on drugs, such as in the case of two media outfits in the Visayas. Some journalists have been included in the drug watch list even though there is no evidence on the alleged use or trade in illegal drugs.
  6. Red-tagging of the NUJP, the largest organization of journalists in the country, for being vocal in its defense of press freedom. Individual members of the NUJP have also been red-tagged.
  7. Utilizing trolls to harass critical journalists. Some of these include, among others, death threats and threats of raping women journalists.
  8. Launching systematic cyber attacks against alternative media websites Bulatlat, Kodao, Altermidya, Pinoy Weekly and NUJP. The cyber attacks have also targeted the websites of Bayan, Karapatan, Bayan Muna, Gabriela Women’s Party, Ibon and scores of other organizations, including the CPP’s Philippine Revolution Web Central (PRWC). Sweden-based Qurium Media Foundation’s forensic report on the cyber attacks revealed that the attacks were launched on websites which are based in the Philippines.

The escalation of cyber attacks and vilification of media outfits, critical think tanks, progressive service-oriented NGOs and people’s organizations are also part of the Duterte regime’s “strategic communication” plan. The AFP first announced its creation of a cyber workforce in 2017. Since then until 2019, the AFP, the PNP and the Philippine Coast Guard have yearly held a Cybersecurity Summit.

Early this year, the Duterte regime launched a national cybersecurity plan. It created a cybersecurity management system “to monitor cyber threats,” headed by the Integrated Computer Systems (ICS) and the Israeli surveillance company Verint, with an initial licensing period of three years. Verint is a billion-dollar company with a global interception and surveillance empires.

The Duterte regime’s dirty propaganda tactics are coupled with heightening repression.

Labeling activists interchangeably as “terrorists,” “suspected drug addicts,” “kidnappers,” and the like aims to demonize and criminalize dissent and justify their killing and other human rights violations against them.

All these latest misuse of new technology to spread lies, combined with the age-old armed repression, are like carpetbombs seeking to harm not only the armed revolutionaries. Mostly targeted are citizens critical of the regime, the activists, the Church, the media and any other supporter of human rights and the struggle for genuine democracy.

The intended victims of this campaign are unarmed, visible and easy targets. The Duterte regime is fighting a truly dirty war. But the more it lies and kills even non-combatants, the more it reveals the bankruptcy of any promised good inuring to the people that it trots out to justify this dirty and costly war.

As such, the Duterte regime and its dirty war will not likely last long. With every attack it reveals its true face, the face of a rotting government that is puppet to foreign interests and seeking to maintain a crumbling status quo. It only highlights the correctness of waging and advancing the now 50-year national democratic revolution.

To break the cycle of lies and killings being perpetrated by this fascist regime, the people here and abroad should harness the courage and will power to expose and denounce its lies, and call for ever-broadening people’s resistance.###

#DuterTerorista
#FightTyranny
#DefendPressFreedom
#MakibakaWagMatakot

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