NDF/NDF-SMR: CASER benefits the masses

NDF-Southern Mindanao Region press statement posted to the National Democratic Front Website (Jul 23): CASER benefits the masses

National Democratic Front of the Philippines
Southern Mindanao Region
Press Statement
July 23, 2018

Revolutionary forces in Southern Mindanao scoffs at the ridiculous lie of 10th Infantry Division mouthpiece Capt. Jerry Lamosao that the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER) only favors the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army. We challenge Capt. Lamosao and the 10th ID to carefully study the document to discover that it is in truth the welfare of the toiling masses, especially the workers, peasants and Lumad, that is being guaranteed in the CASER.

Capt. Lamosao’s unoriginal and plainly idiotic attack against CASER, and by extension of the GRP-NDFP negotiations, seems premised on the US-Duterte regime’s “accomplishments” in alleviating the hardships of the basic masses and addressing the root causes of the armed conflict. Of this much-ballyhooed “accomplishments,” Capt. Lamosao actually refers to Duterte’s anti-poor TRAIN Law and crackdown on unemployed Filipinos, endemic contractualization against workers, subservience to imperialist powers in railroading charter change, the much-despised martial law in Mindanao and Oplan Kapayapaan in the entire country that have victimized civilians in the millions, and many other economic, political and social crimes.

Furthermore, Capt. Lamosao’s insistence that it is the reactionary local government officials who are abreast of the issues in their respective areas is not so much a vote of confidence than a baiting ploy to sniff out local politicians who are supportive or sympathetic to the revolutionary cause.

In their own fascist way, the AFP in the region interprets the peace process in the same manner as its troops conduct their insidious civil-military operations in the form of “peace and development teams” or “community organizing for peace and development” in communities in the countryside. These euphemistic PDTs or COPDs are but psy-war operations that terorrize the masses in order to turn them against each other, force them to become guides in AFP combat operations, turn communities into virtual military garrisons, orchestrate fake surrenders of civilians and vilify the revolutionary movement.

Around the region, presently deployed AFP troops already numbering to 17 battalions and their paramilitaries wage an all-out psy-war and killing offensive in Lumad and peasant communities, especially in areas earmarked for Duterte’s foreign agri-corporation and mining expansion projects such as Paquibato and Calinan in Davao City, Talaingod, Monkayo, Compostela, New Corella and others. To the fascists’ comeuppance, however, the masses and NPA units in these areas are proving to be more resilient and up to the challenge of taking the initiative in guerilla warfare.

It is well within the US counter-insurgency playbook that the US-Duterte regime employs to undermine the merits and advances in the negotiations. Despite being an outright lie, the smear campaign against CASER and the entire peace process serves their interest of making the ill-advised localized peace talks appear more palatable to the public without having to actually present a feasible alternative to resolve the civil war. Because in the end, all the US-Duterte regime and the AFP actually have up their sleeve are blood on their hands.

RUBI DEL MUNDO
Spokesperson
NDFP-SMR

https://www.ndfp.org/caser-benefits-the-masses/