NPA-Far South Mindanao Region propaganda statement posted to the Communist Party of the Philippines Website (Jun 2): Fascist violence is pervasive in Far South Mindanao
Ka Marcella Arsenio, Spokesperson
NDFP Far South Mindanao
2 June 2018
The US-Duterte regime’s imposition of martial law in Mindanao makes fascist violence even more pervasive in Far South Mindanao. As civil rights and liberties are being curtailed, the AFP has intensified its increasingly brutal military operations in the past twelve months.
The NDF-FSMR strongly denounces the state’s vicious atrocities committed against an increasing number of civilians in the region and its unbridled violation of the people’s rights.
The number of political killings in Far South Mindanao swells during Duterte’s presidency, drastically increasing after the declaration of martial law. The most heinous and remarkably terroristic exploit of the government forces in the region lately is perhaps the massacre of eight T’boli-Manobo farmers in Sitio Datal Bonglangon, Brgy. Ned, Lake Sebu on December 3, 2017.
From the time when intensified military operations under the Duterte’s regime began in July 2016 and up to the end of December 2017, there were 15 cases of forcible evacuations that affected about 1,215 families consisting of more than 6,000 individuals. They come from 36 communities affected by intensive military offensives and aerial bombardments. Eleven of these cases took place at the period of the imposition of martial law.
Last month, hundreds were also forced to flee their homes in Brgy. Luayon, Makilala in North Cotabato and Brgy. Kematu, T’boli in South Cotabato to evade military reprisals. The AFP carried out air strikes and mortar shelling in the aftermath of armed clashes between military forces and the NPA guerillas in these respective areas that resulted to heavy casualties in the government troops.
Outright attack on civil liberties is prevailing under the US-Duterte regime where the state’s ruthlessness is directed against activists and progressive individuals who resisted the abuses and fought for human rights and social justice.
The farmers and lumads in the countryside are the most vulnerable victims of fascist violence. They are arbitrarily accused as NPA members or supporters and are compelled to surrender. Those who refused to yield are persistently hounded by the military.
Nearly all of the political prisoners in the entire region at the course of the US-Duterte regime are farmers and lumads.
In Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato, assault on activists and progressives is exacerbating as more and more individuals are charged with trumped-up accusations. The cases tripled after the declaration of martial law. Those incriminated include lumad leaders, church people, teachers of Lumad schools and NGO workers who were vocal against DMCI’s landgrabbing and coal mining operations in the area.
Suppressive military operations are more intense and persistent in the areas where agribusiness and large scale mining encroachment is underway. Under the martial law, land struggles against the DMCI and multinationals Dole and Sumifru are suppressed and curbed outright. And clearly, AFP armed occupation of civilian villages in Bong Mal and killings of anti-mining activists are on the brink of recurring as Indophil-SMI gears up for the resumption of its large-scale mining operation next year.
While the martial law is being enforced, state terrorism is becoming even clearer in the suppression of the masses, execution of activists and bombardments of civilian communities. Above all, martial law in Mindanao is meant to protect bourgeois-comprador and foreign interest at the expense of the people’s lives and liberty.
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