The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) is not amused by Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s joke that his junta would be complete with the appointment of another retired military official in his Cabinet.
Duterte’s joke must be severely criticized. It smacks of contempt of the hardships, oppression and military abuses which the Filipino people were subjected to under the 1972-86 military dictatorship of Marcos and his military and police clique, as well as under the successive AFP oplan wars of suppression from Oplan Lambat Bitag up to the current Oplan Kapayapaan, the CPP said.
Duterte’s appointment of Palparan-trained Gen. Eduardo Año, current Chief-of-Staff of the AFP and former Philippine Army commander, last May 15 as secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government is a shameless act against the thousands of victims of his reign of terror. By heading the DILG, he is set to further enrich himself through bureaucrat capitalist corruption, as he has done in the military, CPP added.
Año is notorious for his dirty methods of suppression, such as his involvement in the abduction and disappearance of Jonas Burgos in 2007, and the illegal arrests and killings of Lumads in Paquibato and other places in Mindanao when he headed the 10th ID in 2014-15.
Two days prior, Duterte appointed former AFP chief-of-staff Gen. Roy Cimatu to the DENR to replace Gina Lopez. Cimatu is one of the principal implementers of the Arroyo regime’s violent Oplan Bantay Laya, especially extra-judicial killings of anti-mining activists. He initiated the formation of the “investment defense force”, special AFP units funded by mining companies.
There are now no less than 27 former military officials occupying key positions, which comprise the biggest clique within the Duterte regime. They bear the fascist mili-tary orientation and are pro-US zealots who follow US imperialist direction. These past several months, former military officials like Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon have been the most virulent against the peace negotiations.
This prompted Jose Maria Sison, NDFP chief political consultant, to declare that the said junta can be a threat at the expense of the peace negotiations, the people and Mr. Duterte himself. He must remember that Gen. Fidel V. Ramos turned against his second cousin Marcos. And Gen. Angelo Reyes also turned against his compadre, Joseph Estrada.
The dominance of the military clique, combined with Duterte’s authoritarian rhetoric, raises the level of impunity of military forces in the conduct of their campaigns of suppression, and a new wave of attacks against activists, advocates of the interests of the toiling masses and defenders of the country’s environment and patrimony.
There will be worsening all-out campaign of aerial bombings and shelling of rural communities where people have actively struggled for genuine land reform and resisted landgrabbing by big landlords, mining companies and big plantations.
The pro-US clique will ensure imperialist policies against Duterte’s independent foreign policy declarations, to the extent of removing him from power if the US decides that he poses a threat to their control.
The number of appointed former military and police officers in the Duterte government are almost as many as the six appointed to the Ramos cabinet (Barbers, Abat, Aguirre, Yan, Alunan, Enrile) and four to the Arroyo cabinet (Ermita, Ebdane, Reyes, Mendoza). One hundred former military officers were in the Ramos government and 51 in Arroyo’s.
[Ang Bayan is the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Ang Bayan is published in Pilipino, Bisaya, Hiligaynon, Waray and English. Download Ang Bayan from the Philippine Revolution Web Central at www.philippinerevolution.info. Ang Bayan is published fortnightly by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines.]
https://www.philippinerevolution.info/ang_bayan/2017may21-junta-joke-not-funnycpp/
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