Joma pits NPA vs. Rody

From the Manila Standard (Mar 25, 2019): Joma pits NPA vs. Rody

Vows to deal ‘lethal blows’ to government

The New People’s Army will deliver more “lethal blows” to the Duterte administration’s weak points in the countryside, the founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, Jose Ma. Sison, said Saturday night.

“I have learned… that the best way to frustrate Duterte’s scheme of fascist dictatorship, to puncture its arrogance and debunk the fake surrenders and fake encounters staged by the regime and its armed running dogs, is for the NPA to deliver more lethal blows on weak points of the enemy forces in the countryside,” Sison said.

He also promised “head blows” to the regime’s “most brutal, corrupt and drug-trading officials” in the cities.

Sison mocked President Rodrigo Duterte, saying he has unwittingly become “the best recruiter and the best transport and supply officer of the NPA.”

“As the best recruiter of the NPA, Duterte has driven so many people to join the NPA by running a tyrannical, treasonous, mass murdering, plundering, and inflation-generating regime. The people have no choice but to fight such an evil regime,” Sison said.

“By terminating the peace negotiations, he compels the armed revolutionary movement to concentrate on intensifying the people’s war and cast away any illusion that this regime of terror and greed can negotiate social, economic and political reforms to address the roots of the armed conflict in order to achieve a just and lasting peace,” he added.

He also dismissed the administration’s localized peace efforts as “make-believe peace and development activities” and said the armed forces were “rendered blind and deaf by the lack of popular support wherever they dare to move against the guerrilla fronts.”

“When they advance in superior force, the NPA retreats and gives the enemy an illusion of winning. But when they camp and take over rough terrain, their strength is thinned out and they leave gaps between units and make small detachments and patrol teams, which are easy targets for the counteroffensives of the NPA,” he said.

This, he said, was why the administration’s efforts to destroy the NPA have “utterly failed.”

Contrary to government claims, he said, the NPA has become stronger in Mindanao, while rebel activities intensified in Luzon and the Visayas.

“It is impossible for the reactionary military, police, and paramilitary forces to defeat the NPA through sheer military operations and puerile psywar,” he said.

“The NPA already has nationwide strength and is deeply rooted among the toiling masses. It occupies almost all the strategic areas favorable for guerrilla warfare in the stage of strategic defensive and for the prospective regular mobile warfare in the strategic stalemate,” the top communist leader said.

Sison said the CPP has “wisely changed the NPA force structure,” with 40 percent of its units concentrated for tactical offensives and 60 percent dispersed units for mass work in each of the 110 guerrilla fronts.

“By seizing more arms from the enemy forces, the NPA is increasing its ability to hit the weak points of the enemy at will all over the archipelago,” he said.

On Saturday afternoon, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo mocked Sison, who has been in self-exile in the Netherlands for three decades, as an armchair revolutionary.

“If as Mr. Sison says the President sounds like a broken record, the cantankerous steak chieftain of the National Democratic Front is like an echo with his repeated criticisms of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and this administration to stay politically relevant in the Philippines while maintaining and lapping up his lavish lifestyle in Europe,” he said.

“Unlike Mr. Sison who has prolonged the peace process, so he can milk the situation and continue freeloading in the Netherlands as well as enjoying the donations and grants by socialist organizations to his group, the President has tread the path that his predecessors did not dare take to achieve genuine peace,” he added.

Panelo, however, reminded the CPP that the Duterte administration still seeks peace.

“We are just trying a different tact by localizing the peace talks as the concerns of rebel groups vary from one locality to another especially so that Mr. Sison appears not to have control over the communist forces on the ground,” he said.

“It is thus vital to explain to the people where the President is coming from and why he officially announced the permanent termination of talks between the government and the CCP, notwithstanding the issuance of Proclamation No. 360,” he added.

In November 2017, peace talks between the government and communist rebels bogged down after Duterte walked away from the negotiating table, repeatedly blaming the rebels for violations of the unilateral ceasefire.

Duterte then had imposed a number of conditions for a revival of the talks, but Sison rejected them, labeling the government’s push for peace as a “cheap trick” which has failed many times.

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