NDF: The US-Aquino III regime launches a most brutal campaign against the people and the revolutionary forces in the last stretch of OPB

National Democratic Front propaganda statement (Mar 8): The US-Aquino III regime launches a most brutal campaign against the people and the revolutionary forces in the last stretch of OPB

Only three months remain for the US-Aquino III regime to finally realize its dream of crushing the revolutionary movement, including the Moro armed resistance, in the country. It has gone berserk in desperately launching, in the latter part of Oplan Bayanihan (OPB), intensified and sustained brutal military campaigns in NPA areas in Eastern Mindanao and in Moro areas in Central and Western Mindanao. Benigno Aquino III displays, just before he steps down, his unequivocal loyalty in protecting the interests of big landlords, big bourgeois comprador and their US imperialist master.

The primary focus is Mindanao, where 68 battalions or 60% of AFP troops are spread across the island. Thirty-four (34) battalions are deployed in 19 provinces against the NPA, while 34 are also deployed in 12 provinces against the Moro. These do not yet include PNP and paramilitary forces. The public is not made fully aware of the raging brutal OPB campaign in Mindanao because of the election circus.

The most militarized is the province of Maguindanao, where 8 AFP battalions are concentrated, while the others are spread in 11 other provinces where there is considerable Moro populace. BIFF forces, which have been launching counter-offensives against attacking AFP and PNP troops, are mainly based in Maguindanao. It can be recalled that the bloody US military-backed SAF assault on January 25, 2015, that cost the lives of 44 SAF troopers, occurred here. After this incident, the AFP augmented its troops in Maguindanao, especially in BIFF-BIFM areas. Since then, the AFP has been launching brutal and sustained military operations, employing massive ground troops and indiscriminate cannon-fire and aerial bombings, including the participation of US advisers and the use of US drones and war materiel. This resulted in the evacuation of more than 120,000 Moro from Maguindanao alone in the first half of 2015.

The MILF-BIAF is also based in Maguindanao, which also explains the reason for the huge concentration of AFP troops in the area to pre-empt if ever they return to armed struggle, especially since the BBL failed to pass in both houses of Congress.

Moreover, under the behest of the US ‘war on terror’ campaign, the US-Aquino III regime intensifies its campaign against so-called ‘terrorist’ groups in the provinces of Basilan and Sulu, again resulting to the forced evacuation of thousands in said islands. And recently, the situation has aggravated with AFP offensives in Butig and Malimbong in Lanao del Sur, forcing around 20,000 individuals to evacuate. The regime’s brutality with impunity against the Moro people is either not fully disclosed to the public or reaches them distorted.

The deception through BBL and the intensification of the ruthless campaign of the OPB against the Moro people show the regime’s utter anti-Moro and chauvinist character, deliberately and cunningly denying the Bangsamoro of its genuine right to self-determination. Therefore, it is only but right for Aquino III to take with him, when he steps down, his legacy of failure to suppress the Moro people’s armed resistance.

On the other hand, the counter-revolutionary fascist campaign of the OPB against the forces of the CPP, NPA, NDF and the people has intensified as it entered its last stretch under the current regime. In Mindanao, the AFP recently augmented to NPA areas no less than 3 battalions drawn from Luzon and the Visayas. Eastern Mindanao, particularly in Davao and Caraga, serves as the focus of this attack.

The US-Aquino III regime’s OPB ruthlessly employed psywar and combat operations, such as the deceptive ‘Peace’ Caravans in Mindanao headed by OPPAP’s Sec. Deles; the so-called COPD or PDT; the murder of Lumad leaders and the massacre of civilians, i.e. the Han-yan and Pangantucan massacres; extra-judicial killings; the burning of houses and school facilities, such as the razing of the whole community in Panucmoan, Lianga and, recently, the burning of the student dormitory in the Haran Compound in Davao City; and, the enforced evacuation of tens of thousands.

The AFP’s combat operations are combined with indiscriminate shelling and aerial bombings. To avoid criminal liability, the AFP utilizes paramilitary groups, such as the Alamara, Magahat, Bulif, etc., to perpetrate despicable criminal acts with impunity against the masses. Serious threats that endanger the security of members of the mass media, church and local government are facilitated and broadcast with the help of the government’s Philippine Information Agency.

Evacuees in the provinces of Davao, Caraga and Bukinon are, up until now, unable to return to their respective communities and ancestral lands because the regime intentionally refuses to arrest the criminals, disarm and disband the paramilitary groups and put a stop to the military harassment against Lumad communities and schools. This only points to Malacanang’s devious aim to have the area cleared of its people to allow the entry of imperialist mining and agribusiness corporations.

These atrocities are made in the name of Benigno Aquino III’s illusion to crush the revolutionary movement within his term. This was also the dream of previous regimes from the time of Marcos, Cory, Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo, but all of them failed, and Benigno Aquino III too shall fail. All the previous AFP Chiefs of Staff also wished to defeat the revolution but only to retire utterly frustrated. The current AFP Chief General Irriberi is due for retirement by April 2016, and with only three months left to Aquino III’s term, Irriberi will be unable to do anything decisive to crush the revolutionary movement except to inflict more terrorism and human rights abuses against the people of Mindanao.

In a face-saving effort, the US-Aquino regime declared 60 provinces nationwide as ‘conflict manageable and ready for development’, with only 12 provinces left, mostly from Eastern Mindanao, to be declared as such. In effect, this is an admission that they have failed to crush the NPA nationwide and instead put up an alibi that even if the NPA still operates in a province, the economic interests of the local ruling classes and that of the imperialists, such as mining, plantations, dirty coal energy and others, can proceed unhampered at the expense of the Lumad, Moro, peasants and workers, the nation’s resources and the environment.

Apart of course from the time constraint, what really prevents them from completing their impossible mission of defeating the revolutionary movement is that the NPA, together with the people of Mindanao, has courageously and heroically resisted these brutal attacks of OPB. After 30 years since the so-called ‘peaceful revolution’ of EDSA I, from Benigno Aquino III’s mother to his current reign, the condition of the Filipino people remain basically unchanged, thus the situation continues to be fertile for true revolutionary transformation.#

(sgd)
Ka Oris
Spokesperson
NDFP-Mindanao

http://www.ndfp.org/us-aquino-iii-regime-launches-brutal-campaign-people-revolutionary-forces-last-stretch-opb/