CPP/IB: On the red-tagging senate hearing

Propaganda statement posted to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Website (Nov 23, 2020): On the red-tagging senate hearing

INFORMATION BUREAU

COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES
NOVEMBER 25, 2020

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today lambasted the Duterte regime and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) for using the senate hearing on red-tagging as a platform to justify and escalate its anti-communist witchunting and crackdown against political parties under the Makabayan bloc and other democratic mass organizations. The second hearing was held yesterday after progressive lawmakers opted to skip the first hearing on November 3 and requested for a separate hearing without the presence of the military.

In a Twitter post CPP information officer Marco L. Valbuena commented: “This is not a hearing on red-tagging. This is a red-tagging hearing.” He said that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Department of National Defense (DND) merely used the hearings to intimidate and threaten activists whom they baselessly accuse as recruiters of the New People’s Army (NPA).

“Intolerant of dissent, the regime only aims to silence first the Left, then all the rest left standing.” Valbuena stressed that this is perilous as a wide array of forces are in danger of being lumped as “terrorists” under Duterte’s terror law.a

He said “Duterte’s thick-skulled military officials will have none of ‘Hindi ako NPA’ (I am not an NPA) denials.” He explained that Duterte’s fascist security officials are beyond convincing that the legal democratic movement and activists can have ideals shared by the CPP without them being branded as “fronts.”

He also criticized AFP “intelligence” for failing to understand that the CPP can share the same ideals and aspirations with so many different forces in the Philippines. “The AFP/DND fascists cannot accept the fact that many non-communist Filipinos, some senators included, agree with the CPP on lots of points, including defense of human rights, wage increases, land reform, ending China occupation of Philippine territories, abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement and other unequal treaties with US, among many others.”

“The CPP is not the sole purveyor of these issues, and belittling human rights, people’s organizations and even religious institutions as mere “fronts” is denying their historical role in fighting for social justice and democracy within the stifling confines of the reactionary law,” Valbuena added.

Valbuena emphasized that the CPP is a revolutionary organization which struggles for national freedom and democracy as immediate aims, and socialism and communism as future goals. He noted that the CPP opposes and condemns terrorism, especially state terrorism perpetrated by the Duterte fascist regime.

https://cpp.ph/statements/on-the-red-tagging-senate-hearing/