Sunday, July 5, 2020

AFP-CRS: ELCAC Projects

Posted to the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Civil Relations Service (AFP-CRS) Facebook Page (Jul 5, 2020): ELCAC Projects

ELCAC PROJECTS.The projects consisted of the rehabilitation of 5.92-kilometer Poblacion-Baking-Dagum road; construction of 4.74-kilometer Dagum-Matalang road; and the construction of 4-kilometer Dagum-Tiwales road.

The project is implemented in partnership with the and the office of Zamboanga del Sur First District.

#AFPyoucanTRUST | www.afpcrs.com

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[The Civil Relations Service (CRS) is the unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that engages the public through its public information and community relations programs “to create a favorable atmosphere between the community and the AFP. The CRS is the equivalent of the Psychological Operations and Civil Affairs units of the US Army.]

AFP-CRS: Support to Peace Process

Posted to the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Civil Relations Service (AFP-CRS) Facebook Page (Jul 5, 2020): Support to Peace Process

SUPPORT TO PEACE PROCESS. Department of Agriculture turns over P7.47-M agri-machineries to develop the agricultural sector in conflict-affected areas on June 25, 2020 in Impasugong, Bukidnon.

#AFPyoucanTRUST | www.afpcrs.com



[The Civil Relations Service (CRS) is the unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that engages the public through its public information and community relations programs “to create a favorable atmosphere between the community and the AFP. The CRS is the equivalent of the Psychological Operations and Civil Affairs units of the US Army.]

AFP-CRS: Government Integration Program

Posted to the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Civil Relations Service (AFP-CRS) Facebook Page (Jul 5, 2020): Government Integration Program

GOVERNMENT INTEGRATION PROGRAM. The DILG-administered E-CLIP provides each qualified rebel who surrendered immediate financial assistance of P15,000, livelihood assistance of P50,000, and reintegration assistance of P21,000. Firearms remuneration is also given for each surrendered firearm.

#AFPyoucanTRUST | www.afpcrs.com

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https://www.facebook.com/CivilRelationsServiceAFP/photos/a.182240175128048/3423793734305993/?type=3&theater

[The Civil Relations Service (CRS) is the unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that engages the public through its public information and community relations programs “to create a favorable atmosphere between the community and the AFP. The CRS is the equivalent of the Psychological Operations and Civil Affairs units of the US Army.]

https://www.facebook.com/CivilRelationsServiceAFP/

AFP-CRS: Government aid given to former rebel leader of Cordillera

Posted to the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Civil Relations Service (AFP-CRS) Facebook Page (Jul 5, 2020): Government aid given to former rebel leader of Cordillera

E-CLIP AID. Anne Margarette Tauli, a former ranking official of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front, receives from Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong the government’s cash aid under the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program. Tauli voluntarily surrendered after she sought the help of National Security Adviser Secretary Hermogenes Esperon.

#AFPyoucanTRUST | www.afpcrs.com

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[The Civil Relations Service (CRS) is the unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that engages the public through its public information and community relations programs “to create a favorable atmosphere between the community and the AFP. The CRS is the equivalent of the Psychological Operations and Civil Affairs units of the US Army.]

AFP-CRS: Father.Brother.Son (and) Patriot

Posted to the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Civil Relations Service (AFP-CRS) Facebook Page (Jul 5, 2020): Father.Brother.Son (and) Patriot

SHOT DEAD. An Army front-liner was shot dead in Barangay Luz, Guihulngan City by NPA members on Wednesday afternoon (July 1, 2020). Corporal Mark Anthony Quiocson of the Community Support Program of the 62nd Infantry Unifier Battalion was onboard his motorcycle when ambushed at Sitio Compound, Barangay Luz in Guihulngan City.

#WeValueYourSacrifice
#SupportOurTroops
#AFPyoucanTRUST
www.afpcrs.com

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https://www.facebook.com/CivilRelationsServiceAFP/photos/a.182240175128048/3424116747607025/?type=3&theater

[The Civil Relations Service (CRS) is the unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that engages the public through its public information and community relations programs “to create a favorable atmosphere between the community and the AFP. The CRS is the equivalent of the Psychological Operations and Civil Affairs units of the US Army.]

https://www.facebook.com/CivilRelationsServiceAFP/

AFP-CRS: Terrorist NPA ambush government troops en route to quarantine control point

Posted to the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Civil Relations Service (AFP-CRS) Facebook Page (Jul 5, 2020): Terrorist NPA ambush government troops en route to quarantine control point

AMBUSH. An anti-personnel landmine (APC) exploded and a shot was fired as two military vehicles were ambushed by suspected members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) - New People’s Army (NPA) Terrorists (CNTs) in Barangay Igbucagay, Hamtic town, Antique.

#AFPyoucanTRUST l www.afpcrs.com

Image may contain: 1 person, text


[The Civil Relations Service (CRS) is the unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that engages the public through its public information and community relations programs “to create a favorable atmosphere between the community and the AFP. The CRS is the equivalent of the Psychological Operations and Civil Affairs units of the US Army.]

3 alleged NPA rebels killed in Masbate clash

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Jul 5, 2020): 3 alleged NPA rebels killed in Masbate clash (By: Ma. April Mier-Manjares)

Three unidentified men believed to be members of the New People’s Army (NPA) were killed in an encounter with police in Mobo town in Masbate province Sunday morning.

Masbate police said in a report that while authorities were about to serve arrest warrants against
Alex Macadat, Norman Rapera, Rico Nuñez, Joseph Lalaguna and an unnamed person (John Doe), who were all members of the NPA, they were fired upon by unidentified persons, prompting the team to retaliate in Barangay (village) Bagacay at around 4 a.m.

Recovered were two caliber .45 pistols, a M16 rifle, assorted magazines and ammunition and a sack of improvised explosive devices.



Checkpoints were established for the possible apprehension of the fleeing suspects.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1302162/3-alleged-npa-rebels-killed-in-masbate-clash

‘Ka Juaning,’ NPA cofounder, dies at 89

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Jul 5, 2020): ‘Ka Juaning,’ NPA cofounder, dies at 89

CAPAS, Tarlac, Philippines — Juanito “Ka Juaning” Rivera, cofounder of the communist New People’s Army (NPA), on Sunday died of a mild stroke and other ailments. He was 89.

Rivera had been suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, and died at his home in Barangay Sta. Rita here at 7 a.m., according to his brother, Jack.

From a barrio captain organizing fellow peasants against the hacienda system in Capas town in the 1960s, Rivera went underground and joined the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan, the armed group of the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) in November 1968.
Politburo member


He and some of his fellow cadres eventually split from the PKP to form the NPA that was to become the armed group of the then newly formed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) under Jose Maria Sison.


For 23 years, Rivera spent his life underground being a member of the politburo (political bureau) of the CPP and its executive committee and as a guerrilla.

He was among those who planned the procurement of arms through the MV Andrea and the MV Karagatan.

Released from prison in 1991, Rivera returned home and retired from the movement. He became a consultant of then Tarlac Gov. Jose Yap in the peace talks between the government and the communist-led National Democratic Front, as well as in agricultural programs of the Tarlac provincial government.

“I have no regrets of the long years spent with the underground as we gained something for the masses,” Rivera said in a 2002 interview with the Inquirer. He was then referring to the breakup of the hacienda and “kasama” system not only in Central Luzon but in other parts of the country.

According to him, he bore no illusion that the mission he set out to achieve when he joined the underground movement in 1968 would bear fruit in his lifetime.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1302279/ka-juaning-npa-cofounder-dies-at-89

Insurgents lay down arms during ECG

Posted to the Manila Bulletin (Jul 4, 2020): Insurgents lay down arms during ECG (By Joel dela Torre, People's Journal)

MANY rebels and militia ng bayan came down from the mountains during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECG) and their papers are now being processed for the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)'s Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (ECLIP).

ECLIP is a program that gives qualified rebel returnees immediate financial assistance.

According to Secretary Eduardo Ano, the surrenderers could have realized that what they are fighting for is now a lost cause.

"Nung panahon ng ECG madami sa mga nasa bundok ay nagsibabaan dahil napag-isip-isip nila na wala nang kahihinatnan ang kanilang patay na adhikain," he said.

For the past three years, the DILG has already provided a total of P304.43 million in financial and other assistance to over 4,000 former rebels.

ECLIP provides each qualified surrenderer with immediate financial assistance of P15,000, livelihood assistance of P50,000 and reintegration assistance of P21,000.

Remuneration is also given for each surrendered firearms.

“Kahit sa gitna ng pandemya, hindi tumigil ang pamahalaan sa pagyakag sa ating mga kapatid na naligaw ng landas na talikuran na ang kanilang maling ideolohiya at magbagong-buhay. Patunay lamang ito ng tunay na pagmamalasakit at busilak na pagnanais ng pamahalaan na magkaroon ng kapayapaan,” the DILG chief said.

At the same time, Ano called on those still in the mountains to think again and join the mainstream society.

“Panahon na para bumaba na kayo at makipagtulungan kayo sa pamahalaan. Nakahanda kayong tulungan ng DILG,” he said.

Of the P304.43 million in total assistance, P58.845 million was in the form of immediate assistance to 3,923 former rebels (FRs).

A total of P121.250 million represents livelihood assistance to 2,426 FRs while P57.217million wasfirearms remuneration for 858 FRs, and P67.116million was given as reintegration assistance to 3,196 FRs.

Of the 4,190 ECLIP beneficiaries as of May 31, 2020, 2,646 were regular members of the New People’s Army (NPA) while 1,544 were militia ng bayan.

The militia ng bayan are auxiliary members of the Communist Party of the Philippines who assist the NPA in planting bombs or ambushing government forces.

According to Ano, the government efforts to assist former rebels are heavily concentrated in Mindanao because the bulk of the NPA forces are in these areas.

Among those areas are Davao Region with 1,035 beneficiaries; Northern Mindanao with 498 beneficiaries, Caraga with 496 beneficiaries; SOCSKSARGEN with 370 beneficiaries; and Zamboanga Peninsula with 159 beneficiaries.

Among the rebel surrenderers assisted by the Department through the ECLIP are Alyas “Cardo,” a 49-year-old resident of Tubungan who was a high-ranking officer of NPA’s Southern Front, Komiteng Rehiyon-Panay and Fausto Musngi Daprosa, an NPA member of Siay, Zamboanga Sibugay.

https://journal.com.ph/news/nation/insurgents-lay-down-arms-during-ecg

Slain intelligence officer remembered as ‘quiet, very efficient’ by PMA mistahs

From the Manila Bulletin (Jul 4, 2020): Slain intelligence officer remembered as ‘quiet, very efficient’ by PMA mistahs (By Keith Bacongco)

DAVAO CITY – His “mistahs (batchmates)” in the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) “Mandala” Class of 2006 remembered the late Major Marvin Indammog as a silent, but a “very efficient officer”.


An aunt of Maj. Marvin Indammog sits beside his coffin inside their home in Tabuk City, Kalinga. (Photo courtesy of Mandala Class 2006 / MANILA BULLETIN)

Cavalier Mac Donald Ramos, his company mate at the Delta Company during their days as PMA cadets, recalled that Indammog was a quiet and unassuming man.

“One who would rather bear his pain in silence and not bother or inconvenience anyone else,” said Ramos in his prepared eulogy, which was obtained by Manila Bulletin.

Like the other members of Mandala class, Ramos admitted that he was enraged by the killing of Indammog, especially because it involved “supposed colleagues and partners in bringing peace to our country, no less”.

“Marvin, bok, mistah, companymate, I bid you farewell. You will be sorely missed, you have done your duty, you have made the ultimate sacrifice. You have completed your mission,” the emotional mistah said as he delivered his eulogy, which was also livestreamed on Facebook on July 2 in Fort Bonifacio, Metro Manila.

The remains of Indammog has been brought to his hometown in Kalinga on Friday, July 3.

Another mistah, who was also an intelligence officer like Indammog, said he was a discreet and a very efficient officer.

“The unit in Sulu accomplished so much under his watch,” said the Army officer, who asked anonymity because of the nature of his job.

The officer, who, like Indammog, hails from Northern Luzon and was once assigned in Northern Mindanao, also said the Army officer’s death dealt a big blow to the intelligence community, adding that he was perhaps one of the best among the young breed of intelligence operatives.

And it was this intelligence acumen that brought Indammog to Basilan and Sulu for many years, according to him.

Indammog, 39, along with Captain Irwin Managuelod, 33; Sergeant Jaime Velasco, 38; and Corporal Abdal Asula, 33, were slain in what the police first described as a “misencounter” in downtown Jolo last June 29. The Philippine National Police (PNP) has since changed its assessment, and said the four Army men’s slay was a result of a “shooting incident”.

Indammog was the commanding officer of the Army’s Ninth Intelligence Security Unity (ISU), and he and his men were tracking two suicide bombers under Abu Sayyaf leader Mundi Sawadjaan when the police flagged them down at a checkpoint. They were instructed by the police to proceed to a Jolo police station.

However, based on other reports, the soldiers parked some 50 meters away from the checkpoint to supposedly talk to the police officers. Police report further claimed that the soldiers started to level their weapons at them, prompting them to defend themselves.

But an enraged Army Chief Lt. Gen Gilbert Gapay said it was a rubout and not a shootout.

https://mb.com.ph/2020/07/04/slain-intelligence-officer-remembered-as-quiet-very-efficient-by-pma-mistahs/

NDF/Sison: On the relations of the Philippines with US and Chinese imperialism

Jose Maria Sison propaganda statement posted to the National Democratic Front Philippines (NDFP or NDF) Website (Jul 5, 2020): On the relations of the Philippines with US and Chinese imperialism





Prof. Jose Maria Sison

Let me discuss the relations of the Philippines with US imperialism and then with Chinese imperialism. In the concluding part of my presentation, I shall consider the sharpening inter-imperialist contradictions between the US and China and look at the dangers and opportunities that arise from these contradictions.

1. Relations between the Philippines and US imperialism

US imperialism has the monstrous record of successfully waging a war of conquest against the Philippine republic and the Filipino people from 1899 onwards. In the process, it killed at least 1.5 million Filipinos. As a result, it has been able to dominate the Philippines in an all-round way economically, politically, militarily and culturally in violation of national sovereignty and democratic rights of the Filipino people.

With the exception of the Japanese Occupation during World War II from 1942 to 1945, the US was able to impose its colonial rule on the Filipino people from 1902 to 1946 and then granted a bogus kind of independence to the Philippines on July 4, 1946; and thereby shifted from colonial to semicolonial or neocolonial rule over the Philippines, with the Filipino puppet politicians allowed to run all levels of the counterrevolutionary state of the local exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords.

This false kind of independence was preconditioned by the US-RP Treaty of General Relations in 1946, which retained the US military bases on Philippine territory, the property rights of US corporations and US control of foreign trade and diplomatic relations. To this day, the US has been able to dominate the Philippines by using a series of treaties, agreements and arrangements to bind the country and the people against their own sovereign rights and interests.

For this purpose, the US has been able to use the collaboration of the comprador big bourgeoisie, the landlord class and the bureaucrat capitalists. To adjust the Philippines to the requirements of foreign monopoly capitalism, the US has brought about a semifeudal economy run by the city-based comprador big bourgeoisie and the rural-based landlord class and by training political puppets mainly from these exploiting classes and the middle social strata to do the bidding of the US and become bureaucrat capitalists.

After using such legal devices as the Parity Amendment in the 1935 Constitution, the Bell Trade Act of 1946, the Quirino-Foster Agreement of 1950 and the Laurel-Langley Agreement of 1955 to ensure US economic dominance over the Philippines, the US has taken cover under multilateral foreign investment laws and treaties and all kinds of economic, trade and financial agreements under the auspices of the IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organization and the Asian Development Bank.

To this day, the US remains the No. 1 foreign investor in the Philippines and the No. 1 largest export market. It also accounts for 43 per cent of hot money inflow. US corporations are dominant, with the assistance of the comprador big bourgeoisie of Spanish, Chinese and Filipino ancestry which acts as the chief trading and financial agents in a semifeudal economy characterized by the exchange of raw materials and some semimanufactures from the Philippines and capital goods and consumer goods from abroad. Japan is the No. 2 largest foreign investor in the Philippines but is the No. 1 provider of so-called official development assistance (ODA). Yet the largest part of this ODA is tied aid and spent on Japanese materials, equipment and contractors.

China, even including Hong Kong, is only the distant No. 3 largest foreign investor in the country in relation to the US and Japan. It has become the No. 1 trading partner of the Philippines, especially since 2013. It steadily came to this position after it started to dump cheap Chinese consumer goods and after it became the global manufacturing base for semiconductors and other products after the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Most imports from China are not even Chinese but from US, Japanese and other foreign transnational corporations located there to take advantage of its cheap labor. China also enjoys certain advantages in trading due to the collaboration of Chinese and Filipino-Chinese big compradors.

The US-RP Military Bases Agreement of 1947 was not renewed in 1991 as a result of the demand of the broad masses of the Filipino people who were indignant over the fact that the Marcos fascist dictatorship had used economic and military relations with the US in order to maintain autocratic rule. But the US-RP Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951 has continued to bind the Philippines and its military forces to the aggressive policies of US imperialism. The US-RP Military Assistance Agreement of 1947 has also persisted to allow the US to control the security policy, military planning, indoctrination of military officers, intelligence exchange and armaments of the counterrevolutionary semicolonial state.

Soon enough the US imperialists were able to obtain the series of military agreements to authorize and facilitate the deployment US forces and de facto military bases. The agreements include the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA, 1999), Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (the latest MLSA, 2002), the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA, 2014) and so many operational and supply agreements. US imperialism is the biggest terrorist in the entire history of mankind, responsible for the mass killing of 25 to 30 million people since after World War II. Especially since after September 11, 2001, it has used the term “terrorism” as a pejorative expression against the anti-imperialist and democratic forces and as pretext for unleashing wars of aggression and staging false flag operations by CIA-trained mercenaries posing as Islamic jihadists.

Quite recently on January 11 the Duterte regime made the threat to abrogate the VFA to create the impression that he was favoring China, drawing away from the US and forging an independent foreign policy. It did not take long before Duterte exposed his incorrigible puppetry to US imperialism and his shallow deceptive character by backing out of his false threat after just a few months on June 2. All the while other military agreements aside from the VFA have remained valid and in effect and the regime has continued to receive US military assistance and collaborate with US military forces under Operation Pacific Eagle-Philippines.

Since the moment he set out to take the presidency, Duterte has always been surrounded by bureaucrats and generals who are rabid agents of US imperialism. As president, he has done nothing to undo the all-round US dominance over the Philippines. In fact, he has promised Trump to terminate the peace negotiations with the NDFP, wipe out the revolutionary movement of the people by all means and deliver charter change allowing US corporations the unlimited right to own Philippine land, exploit natural resources and operate public utilities and all kinds of businesses.

Thus, Trump has practically given Duterte the license to form a civilian-military junta called the National Task Force-ELCAC to further militarize his regime, escalate state terrorism in the name of anti-communism and prepare the ground for a full-scale fascist dictatorship. He has already used the COVID-19 pandemic to form the Inter-Agency Task Force to carry out the lockdowns as dress rehearsal for military and police control of population and resources under a projected fascist dictatorship and to railroad a bill of state terrorism that negates democratic rights and makes superfluous the declaration of martial law.

The US does not just use economic and military means to dominate the Philippines. It has also used cultural, educational and other propaganda means to dominate the Philippines. To combat the demand of the youth and the national democratic movement for a national, scientific and mass cultural and educational system, the US uses various ways to control the educational and cultural policy of the Philippine reactionary state and thus perpetuate their influence over the politicians, bureaucracy and professionals and, in effect, among the masses.

As university activists, you are aware of how the US uses its own official agencies and multilateral agencies, private philanthropic foundations, business corporations, the mass media, social media, publications and films and certain subjects and textbooks in the curricula to propagate colonial mentality and influence the thinking of faculty members and students, the entire intelligentsia and broad masses of the people to follow the US imperialist line on historic and current issues.

2. Relations of the Philippines with China

The Philippines established diplomatic and trade relations with the People’s Republic of China in 1975. The Marcos fascist dictatorship felt confident to establish such relations because the US and China had been on a path of rapprochement since the Nixon visit to China in 1972. It became easier for Sino-Philippine relations to develop after the Dengist coup in 1976 and China’s adoption of capitalist reforms and opening up for integration in the world capitalist system in 1978.

The US established diplomatic relations with China in 1979 and proceeded to concede to it low-tech consumer manufacturing for export to the US by way of weaning China from socialism while continuing to press for more capitalist reforms in favor of foreign monopoly firms. The course of capitalist development in China was increasingly characterized by rampant corruption and inflation, which ultimately resulted in massive protests and their violent suppression in Beijing and many other Chinese cities in 1989.

In the aftermath of such mass protests, the Deng ruling clique begged for more economic, trade and technological concessions from the US and promised to adopt further capitalist reforms, especially the reduction of state-owned enterprises, increase of joint private-state sector enterprises and further loosening of the foreign investment law. The US played hard to please but made enough concessions in investments and technology transfer to help China stabilize its economy in its rapid conversion to capitalism, advance significantly from cheap consumer manufacturing and register high growth rates.

The rapid growth rate of China, especially its expanding production of cheap consumer goods for export to the US market, had an adverse impact on the so-called tiger economies of East Asia and triggered the Asian financial crisis of 1997. When this crisis occurred, China further expanded its production of cheap consumer goods and became the final platform for assembling semimanufactures from the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries.

The US was pleased to have China as its main partner in carrying out the imperialist policy of neoliberal globalization and to have China’s high growth rate cushion the falling global growth rate. During the financial crash of 2008 and consequent Great Recession until recently, China was celebrated as the ever-rising star of the world capitalist economy. It has raised its own level of scientific and technological development, with the help of technology transfer from the US and elsewhere through foreign direct investments, direct purchases of dual-purpose equipment and academic exchanges in science and technology.

By the time China joined the WTO in 2001, the US under Bush junior was pleased with the apparent extent of liberalization of the Chinese economy and the surges of foreign investments there. The Bush regime preoccupied itself with drumming up its so-called war on terror after 9-11, with unleashing wars of aggression in Iraq and elsewhere and with trying in vain to buoy up the US economy through “military Keynesianism”, making more and bigger purchase orders from the military-industrial complex.

Obama played the house boy loyal to the interests of US imperialism and continued to pursue wars of aggression. But it was during his regime that US strategy planners began to pay attention to the gravity of the US economic crisis as well as the world capitalist system in the wake of the financial crash of 2008, the high cost of overseas military bases and the wars of aggression away from the Asia-Pacific region and the galloping growth of the public debt burden.

The Obama regime noticed the economic and military rise of China and its growing geopolitical potential and ambitions. Thus, by 2012 it called for a strategic pivot to East Asia and stronger economic and security cooperation among the US, Japan and Australia to hold the line in the Pacific. The US was facing up to the challenge of China as it harped on owning 90 per cent of the South China Sea and demanding the return of the Daoyu islands from Japan. It was also around this time that China started to tout its Belt and Road Initiative to reverse Western dominance in maritime trade since the 16th century while consolidating its growing ties with countries across a vast swath of the Asian mainland reminiscent of the ancient Silk Road.

China began to build artificial islands in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea and claim even the Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal) in violation of Philippine sovereign rights and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Philippines was therefore compelled to file a case against China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration on January 22, 2013. It won the case on June 12, 2016.

But the incoming Duterte regime declared that it would lay aside the judgment. He expected his ruling clique to benefit from Chinese loans for infrastructure projects as well as from lucrative connections with Chinese big compradors on both sides of the South China Sea and with criminal syndicates in drug smuggling and casino operations. The Duterte ruling family and its cronies are known to have been stashing away their ill-gotten wealth in China. They are thus tied to China and have to play an ambiguous role whenever issues arise publicly against Chinese policies and actions detrimental to the Philippines.

Under the Duterte regime, China has been able to build and militarize seven artificial islands in the Philippine EEZ in the West Philippine Sea. It has brought Philippine soil from Zambales and northeastern Mindanao in connection with the frequent smuggling out of mineral ores for China and likewise to serve as landfill for its artificial islands. It has also consolidated its control over the national power grid and built cell towers of China Telecom inside AFP military camps in contradiction with EDCA even as China has not delivered on most of its promises of loans for infrastructure projects. But it would be even worse if it fulfilled these promises because the loans carry high interest and require overpriced Chinese contractors, labor and supplies.

In the meantime, the Philippines under the Duterte regime has isolated itself from nearly all other members of the ASEAN, especially Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, in standing up against the aggressive claims and acts of China in their respective EEZs and extended continental shelves. The Duterte regime also runs counter to the position of the US that China must not claim ownership over the high seas, violate the freedom of navigation and take any aggressive action against the ASEAN states.

The position of the Trump regime on China’s unlawful claims over the whole of the South China Sea and on keeping free and open the Indo-Pacific maritime route is related to a whole framework of protectionist and punitive measures against China for using state planning and the still dominant state-owned enterprises (supposedly only 3 per cent of Chinese corporations but in fact in control of the most strategic 30 per cent of the Chinese economy) to achieve strategic economic and military goals. The US has vigorously accused China of using state power to manipulate its economic, trade and financial policies in violation of global market rules and stealing technology from the US and becoming the chief economic competitor and political rival of the US.

3. Dangers and Opportunities from the Inter-Imperialist Contradictions

From time to time, there are naval and air military shows of strength in the South China Sea by China and by the US independently or together with allies. Sometimes, there are expressions of fear by political analysts that war might break out. Frequently, the tyrant Duterte practically gives China the license to occupy the maritime features of the West Philippine Sea by gratuitously saying that he cannot do anything to stop China because he does not have the capability to wage war against China which would wipe out his troops in case of any armed conflict.

There is no immediate danger of direct all-out war breaking out between the US and China because the latter is obsessed with gaining more time for its “peaceful economic rise” and because each of these two imperialist powers has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the other. There is a balance of terror between them, resulting in mutual deterrence. The two imperialist powers are still subject to certain decision-making processes domestically. And under current circumstances in the world, the people have the high potential to counter and defeat a government that is poised to launch a nuclear war and cause a catastrophe of global scope.

For some years to come, the crisis of the world capitalist system, including inter-imperialist rivalries, will worsen but the imperialist powers will avoid a direct war between any of them. As much as possible, they would rather shift the burden of crisis to the underdeveloped countries and launch wars of aggression against them or mire them in regional and local proxy wars. That has been the case for 75 years already since after the end of World II. The nuclear stalemate arose during the Cold War when the Soviet Union developed its own nuclear weapons and delivery system.

Major economists and international institutions, including the IMF, World Bank and OECD, have come to the conclusion that the global economy is now afflicted by a crisis far worse than the still unsolved Great Recession that began in 2008 and even worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s that generated the inter-imperialist contradictions leading to World War II. COVID-19 has aggravated the crisis but the root cause is the ever worsening crisis of overproduction, the bankruptcy of the imperialist policy of neoliberal globalization and the sharpening struggle for a redivision of the world among the imperialist powers.

The inter-imperialist contradictions between the US and China and their respective alliances with other imperialist powers will escalate and will expose the weaknesses of both sides. At the same time, the anti-imperialist and democratic struggles of the proletariat and peoples of the world will intensify and generate the conditions favorable for the resurgence of the world proletarian revolution.

The strategic decline of the US will continue. Meanwhile, the efforts of the US to contain and cut down the economic and military rise of China will have adverse effects on both China and the US. The trade war between the two imperialist powers does not solve but aggravates the crisis of overproduction and sharpens the struggle for a redivision of the world among the imperialist powers. But for some more years to come, the imperialist powers can still find ways of cutting down each other through calibrated adversarial means, including covert cyber or biotech operations and regime-change strategies but short of a direct all-out conventional or nuclear war.

The inter-imperialist contradictions generate dangers and opportunities. Under current circumstances, the worst kind of danger for a country like the Philippines is to become a complete captive and pawn of any imperialist power, whether the US or China, or to become a confused victim of these two imperialist powers. But on the contrary, the Philippines under a patriotic leadership can take advantage of the opportunities generated by the inter-imperialist contradictions and avail of the ASEAN to counter the most outrageous impositions of any imperialist power.

With regard to problems posed by China’s claim of ownership of nearly all of the South China Sea, the ASEAN countries can agree with nearly all countries of the world that the right of free navigation in the high seas must be respected and be so exercised by countries critical of China’s expansionist ambitions as to help prevent China from violating said right and from crossing over from its own EEZ and ECS to take over those that belong to the Philippines and other ASEAN states.

In the face of the traitorous character of the Duterte regime, the Filipino people and their patriotic and progressive forces must do everything in their power to oust it as soon as possible and intensify the demand for China to respect the 2016 judgment of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in favor of the Philippines in accordance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, as well as encourage the other ASEAN countries to assert their own sovereign and maritime rights against the expansionist policy and actions of China and avail of the legal precedent set by the 2016 judgment of the Permanent Arbitration Court in favor of the Philippines. The ASEAN countries can take all possible legal and political initiatives to invoke said judgment as precedent and discourage China from violating their rights.

The Philippines and other ASEAN countries can present their respective complaints against China and demand compensation for damages before the appropriate agencies of the UN and file cases in the appropriate courts that can make the assets of China in certain countries answerable for Chinese obligations and liabilities. The point is to require China to withdraw from the artificial islands it has built, militarized and occupied in the West Philippine Sea and to pay for the damages that it has done to the marine environment in the same manner as the US was previously compelled to pay USD 2 million for the damage done to Tubbataha Reef by the US warship USS Guardian.

The Duterte regime has played up fear of China’s military might in making the Philippines desist from exploring and exploiting the hydrocarbon (oil and gas) resources in its own exclusive economic zone. And the traitor, coward and crook Duterte has even gone so far as to offer to China joint ownership of the resources under the guise of joint exploration and exploitation of said resources. He is in fact giving away to China full control of the technology, personnel, the accounting of costs and production and the siphoning of the resources to China.

The utter stupidity of the tyrant Duterte is best demonstrated by his obfuscation of the fact that the Philippines can get the best possible technology and the best possible terms from one of the three companies (Norway’s Equinor, previously known as Statoil) Royal Dutch Shell and the US Chevron) that are acknowledged as the best in undersea exploration and exploitation of oil and gas resources. If for instance, the Philippines can get the best possible terms from the Norwegian oil company, China will not dare to make war on the investments of a company belonging to a NATO member-state.

The Duterte regime has utterly failed to assert the sovereign rights of the Philippines over its own exclusive economic zone. The marine resources there have an estimated value of USD 1.5 trillion and the oil and gas resources an estimated value of at least USD 26 trillion. These are more than enough to industrialize the underdeveloped Philippine economy, engage the revolutionary forces of the people in a just peace agreement, overcome imperialist dominance and bring about a higher quality of life for the Filipino people. Instead, the regime has bowed to the aggressive claims of China and has reduced the Philippines to begging for loans at the most onerous terms for infrastructure projects that are overpriced and undertaken by Chinese companies and their own Chinese employees.

Yet the Duterte regime has the temerity to occasionally claim that its subservience to China is veering away from the US and developing an independent foreign policy. There can be no bigger lie. The regime has a two-faced character. It has not done anything to cut down the all-round dominance of the US over the Philippines. It has backed out of its false threat to abrogate the VFA and it is still hell-bent on fulfilling Duterte’s 2017 promise to Trump to wipe out the revolutionary movement of the Filipino people and change the constitution to allow US and other foreign corporation to own up to 100 per cent of land, natural resources, public utilities and other business enterprises in the Philippines.

The Duterte regime cannot be trusted to act in the interest of the Philippines and the Filipino people. In fact, it is the fervent desire of the Filipino people to oust this traitorous, tyrannical, murderous and corrupt regime and obtain justice against its so many grievous crimes. The rights of the Filipino people can best be protected by a government that arises from the revolutionary struggle for national and social liberation against imperialist domination and the local exploiting classes of big compradors, landlords and bureaucrat capitalists. ###


https://ndfp.org/on-the-relations-of-the-philippines-with-us-and-chinese-imperialism/

NDF/Sison: On the land problem, peasant class and agrarian revolution

Jose Maria Sison propaganda interview/special course posted to the National Democratic Front Philippines (NDFP or NDF) Website (Jul 5, 2020): On the land problem, peasant class and agrarian revolution



By Jose Maria Sison, Founding Chairman, Kabataang Makabayan
in Special Course on the Peasant Movement, National Democratic Online School, Mga Serye with Tito Jo


1. Who are the farmers and what is their significance in the Philippine society?
JMS: In English, one can play loose with synonymous terms like peasant, farmer or planter for someone who tills the land or in Tagalog, magsasaka, magbubukid or magbubungkal, in the same manner as you may alternately use the word worker, laborer or wage-earner for someone who sells his labor power and gets wages.

But from the time of Marx to the present in class analysis, in the English language, the word peasant is used instead of farmer. The word peasant has the nuance of being serf in medieval or feudal times or being in the main landless and poor tillers of the land. The word farmer carries the nuance of being the owner of the land he tills or farms. Even landlords and farm capitalists sometimes call themselves farmers or planters but never do they call themselves peasant.

We notice that the Philippine reactionary government uses the word farmer to conjure the illusion that its bogus land reform program is a success and that the predominantly poor peasants, among the peasants of various social strata, have disappeared and have become owner-cultivators or owner-farmers. There is a deliberate attempt to diminish drastically or even make the peasant class disappear not only linguistically but also statistically.

In an earlier study session, I have pointed out that the Philippine reactionary government has reduced the peasantry to only 22.9 per cent of the labor force of 45 million being in agriculture and the rest are in the service sector at 58 per cent and in industry at 19.1 per cent. With 77.1 per cent considered as working class, that makes the peasant class quite a small minority. The truth is that the industrial proletariat is far smaller than the peasant class but the reactionary economists and statisticians detach the traditional seasonal farm workers and odd jobbers from their peasant base.

The understatement of the size of the peasantry and the undervaluation of the share of agriculture at only 7.4 per cent of GDP are calculated to conjure the illusion that the Philippines has become a newly-industrializing economy and that the diminution of the peasantry has drastically reduced the ground for maneuver in the protracted people’s war in the new democratic revolution. We cannot rely on the false categories and false estimates of the reactionary government. Original social research must be done to establish the facts.

The Philippine reactionary government takes advantage of the fact that the neoliberal policy has bloated the service sector with extreme and unsustainable debt financing for private construction and the importation of consumer goods and equipment that does not produce capital goods and dishonestly counts as employed in the service sector the great mass of odd jobbers from the surplus rural population in the so-called informal economy. And practically those recognized as peasants are merely the family heads as if they were workers individually registered and employed by nonagricultural enterprises, like the diminished number of regulars and the far greater number of casuals or 5-month or seasonal contractuals.

The peasant class, mainly the poor and middle peasants, is highly significant in Philippine society because it comprises the biggest socio-economic class and provides the food for itself and for the whole country and certain products for local processing and for export. It is the largest bloc of the most exploited and oppressed people and it is still the base of most of the urban and rural oddjobbers and unemployed who have increased in number due to the lack of of industrial development and the dwindling of regular year-round employment in every sector of the economy. The peasant class is so important because it is the main force of the people’s democratic revolution through people’s war in the countryside until the revolutionary forces become strong enough to seize political power in the cities.

2. Can you discuss the different strata within the peasantry? There are farmers who have managed to own a few hectares of land and who have a more comfortable life than the poor farmers. How did these different strata emerge?

JMS: There are three strata of the peasant class: the poor, middle and rich peasants. The poor peasants do not own land or have inadequate land and have to become tenants of the landlords and augment their income by being farm workers seasonally for the upper strata of the peasantry and for the plantations or do odd jobs in the urban areas. The middle peasants in the main own and till enough land for their own subsistence, although the lower middle peasants also serve as farm workers for others or do urban odd jobs. The rich peasants own more than enough land for their subsistence but they still till the land and hire farm workers as well as use their surplus income to engage in trading or small-scale enterprise or buy additional land.

The fact that the poor peasants are the majority of the peasants indicates that they have originated from the feudal system and that they continue to exist because of the persistence of feudal and semifeudal relations of production and conditions in the countryside. Even when the landed estates of landlords families become fragmented from generation to another, the landlord class persists because some of the heirs expand their inherited shares and new landlords keep on arising and expanding their estates through purchase and the alienation of land from the public domain. The middle and rich peasants exist for various reasons but are generally manifestations of the transition from feudal to semifeudal conditions or the combination of both. The rich peasants are sometimes called the rural bourgeoisie for owning property and using its surplus income to hire farm workers and engage in some small enterprise and side occupation or in money-lending.

3. One of the main problems that the peasants face is the problem of land ownership. They don’t own the land that they till. What is the origin of this land problem and how bad is It?

JMS: Even before the coming of Spanish colonialism, aside from communal land ownership, there was already private ownership of land by the ruling families in the Islamic sultanates in southwestern Mindanao and in the patriarchal slave system in other parts of the archipelago. The aliping sagigilid and aliping mamamahay were put to work on the land by their owners. There were those who acted as tenants as well as those who worked on certain lands for the benefit of landlords in exchange for rations or crop share.

But the Spanish colonialists were the ones who systematically imposed feudalism on the widest scale. It started with the encomienda system, which was a grant of extensive lands to the Spanish conquerors and bureaucrats for the purpose of tribute collection. The churches also accumulated land where they were established. But the largest church lands owned by the Spanish religious orders arose in connection with the production of export crops, such as tobacco, hemp, sugar, indigo and so on. At the same time, the domestic ruling class of landowning families called the principalia increased their landholdings as domestic and foreign trade expanded from the late 18th to the 19 the century.

The system of haciendas was established during the Spanish colonial period. The land reform undertaken by the US colonial regime against friar estates was just enough to promote a semifeudal economy and allow the peasants to move freely. Although the land reform was carried out with the avowed purpose of distributing land to the tenants, who could not afford the redistribution price, the land ownership shifted only to the landlords and certain corporations. And the money paid to the religious corporations was invested in the the big comprador Bank of the Philippine Islands.

4. What forms of exploitation and oppression do the farmers experience through this land problem?

JMS: The main form of exploitation in the feudal system is the exaction of rent by the landlords from the tenants and making the latter perform menial service to landlord families and unpaid labor on certain occasions, such as church and community festivities. Because the arable lands are already designated or titled as private property of the church or certain families, the impoverished landless peasants have to become tenants or farm workers on the land of the landlords and the rich peasants.

During the Spanish colonial period, the religious corporations and the landlords were notorious for abusing their political power by grabbing the land even of the freemen or freeholders of land. The colonial state also required the peasant masses to render polo y servicio (corvee labor in public works) or else pay fines. And the triumvirate of the parish priest, gobernadorcillo and the chief of civil guards made sure that the landless peasants could not escape from their service of forced labor.

5. Who are the main feudal landlords and how did these feudal landlords accumulate and monopolize these lands?

JMS: First, among the native population, the religious corporations and native landlords had political power and could arbitrarily grab land from the powerless peasants. Second, the landlords bought more land at dirt cheap prices with the rent paid by tenants. Third, they engaged in merchant-usury operations by which the indebted peasants lost their land. The feudal forms of exploitation have extended to current times.

The gobernadorcillos always came from the landowning families (principalia). They could arbitrarily claim, title and put under tax declaration any large area of land legally considered as royal or public domain. This practice of landgrabbing has continued until now under various guises, such as pasture leases preparatory to privatization, logging concessions, forest management agreements and so on.

6. The agriculture in the Philippines is still backward. Why are the landlords and the government not interested in developing tools and machinery to improve the way of farming? And how does this affect the farmers?

JMS: So long as there is no genuine land reform or agrarian revolution and no national industrialization, the landlords will continue to exist, keep on accumulating land with the rent paid to them and retain the backward technological level of agriculture. There is no other way for most landlords to do but keep on collecting rent and practising usury and using their income to accumulate land. They have no interest in raising the technological level of agriculture because the landless peasants abound as cheap source of labor power.

However, the biggest landlords engage in export-crop production in plantations and become big comprador bourgeois by performing the role of trading and financial agents of foreign monopoly capitalism. They own haciendas as well as export-import companies and commercial banks like the Ayalas and Cojuangcos. Take notice of the fact that the biggest comprador bourgeois are also the biggest landlords or have huge interests in haciendas. The late Danding Cojuangco owned the big comprador San Miguel Corporation and also several haciendas in different parts of the country.

They adopt some amount of mechanization but they do not go so far as to use harvester combines because there is an abundance of the traditional seasonal farm workers, they thus save on capital outlays by using the extremely cheap labor power of the farm workers and they are also afraid that social discontent would burst out if these farm workers are displaced by machines without any industrialization to absorb the displaced. During the time of Marcos, the crony Benedicto wanted the sugar landlords to buy harvester combines to replace the farm workers but they thought it was cheaper to hire farm workers and wiser to avert intensified social conflict.

7.How do landlords, big business owners and imperialist agri-corporations team up to further profit from the exploitation and oppression of the peasants and farm workers?

JMS: The teaming up of the landlords, the big compradors or big business owners and the imperialist agricorporations is most amply manifested in the operation of haciendas by the landlords for the production of export crops for sale to the imperialist agri-corporations. The landlords get their profits from the exploitation of the peasants and farm workers. They have big comprador export-import trading firms to realize profits from trade with the foreign agricorporations. With their foreign exchange income from the sale of export crops, they import to the Philippines foreign manufactures for profitable sales to domestic wholesalers. They also own the big comprador banks for making the letters of credit in export-import transactions and thereby earning interest.

8. What ways do the landlords use to maintain their monopoly of land?

JMS: In the history and current circumstances of the Philippines, the landlords acquire and maintain their monopoly of land by having political power in localities and at higher levels of the reactionary government. First, they can gain control over vast tracts of land from the public domain under various legal pretexts and then acquire private ownership of the land under the pretext of having developed them. Second, they have devised inheritance laws so that land ownership is passed on from generation to another within the same family and through inter-marriages of cousins and with other landlord families. This is what you may call upper-class or aristocratic prostitution, based on considerations of wealth rather than love. Third, the income drawn by the landlords from land is used to acquire more land.

9. How do imperialists benefit from feudal exploitation of the farmers and what is its role in preserving feudalism?

JMS: The imperialists benefit from the feudal exploitation of peasants and farm workers by buying the cheap export crops from the landlords and selling the manufactures to the big comprador-landlord trading firms. Aside from collaborating economically, the imperialists and landlords also do so politically and militarily. The imperialists provide military support to the big comprador-landlord-bureaucrat-capitalist state and the landlords rule the localities and provide the political base for said state. The imperialists are the sources of the weapons used by the reactionary state in the futile campaigns to destroy the revolutionary movement and preserve the feudal and semifeudal system of exploitation.

10. What kind of policies and attitude does the government have in resolving the land problem?

JMS: The reactionary state or government is the class rule of the big compradors, landlords and bureaucrat capitalists. They are fundamentally against genuine land reform aimed at solving the land problem. They keep on carrying out one bogus land reform program after the other. But because the land expropriated from certain landlords is overpriced, the poor peasants cannot afford to pay for the exorbitant redistribution price of the land. The land usually ends up in the hands of landlords and other entities who acquire the land for real estate development and other nonagricultural purposes.

11. The Republic of the Philippines has created policies and institutions that they say will help the farmers. For example, the CARP and CARPER, DENR, DAR. Do these policies and institutions really help farmers?

JMS: These policies and institutions do not carry out or promote genuine land reform and rural development for the benefit of the peasant masses. They benefit the landlords, big compradors and bureaucrat capitalists.

Follow up Q: Does this mean the government of the republic of the Philippines is part of the problem of the farmers that further oppresses and exploits them?

JMS: The reactionary government belongs to the landlords and other exploiting classes and is therefore a big problem to the peasant masses because it is the instrument of the landlord class for ensuring their oppression and exploitation.

12. How is the struggle of fisher folks related to the struggle of the farmers?

JMS: The struggle of fisher folks is related to the struggle of the peasants. The fisher folks are subject to exploitation and oppression by owners of fishpens who play a role similar to that of the landlords and by owners of large fishing boats or trawlers who act like hacienda owners and farm capitalists. Sometimes, peasants also augment their income as fisher folks in rivers, lakes and marine coasts and suffer the same exploitation and oppression suffered by fisherfolks.

13. Can you discuss how the a. military b. Church c. justice system d. reactionary associations contribute to the exploitation of the peasant class?

JMS: a. The military and the police are bound by the state to protect the landlords against the peasant masses demanding genuine land reform or fighting for agrarian revolution. They target the peasant leaders and mass activists in counterrevolutionary campaigns of suppression.

b. The dominant church is an institution that owns land and is socially close to the landlords who are its big donors . Many of the church leaders are conservative and support the landlords even as quite of them have social conscience, belong to the Christians for National Liberation and support the peasant masses because these are poor people who deserve social justice.

c. The justice system is based on laws designed to serve the interests of the big comprador-landlord state and the exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords against the toiling masses of workers and peasants.

d. Reactionary associations are instruments of the landlord class and other exploiting classes to control and influence the exploited classes in favor of the exploiting classes. They uphold the privilege of the landlord class to exploit the peasant masses.

14. The Farmers in Hacienda Luisita for example have exhausted all their means to fight for their lands, They have filed cases in the Supreme Court, Conducted mass protest, joined dialogue even with the late Danding Cojuangco, and have also suffered a terrible massacre called Hacienda Luisita Massacre. Despite this, almost all of them still do not have their own land. These struggles are experienced not just by the Hacienda Luisita Farmers but also Farmers all over the country. What choice do you think they have left and how can we, regular citizens, help them with their struggle?

JMS: The farmers in Hacienda Luisita must continue to fight for their rights and interests legally and politically. I would not be surprised if some of them join the armed revolutionary movement in order to be able to undertake effective actions against those who frustrate or violate their rights. The revolutionary movement has supported the struggle of the peasants and farm workers in Hacienda Luisita and elsewhere. We can and should support their struggle by exercising our freedom of speech and assembly. We should do the same in favor of the poor peasants and farm workers all over the country.

15. What is the solution to the land problem?

JMS: The revolutionary movement offers the best and most effective solution to the land problem in the Philippines. The Communist Party of the Philippines declares in its Program for a People’s Democratic Revolution that the main content of the democratic revolution is to satisfy the peasant hunger for land through agrarian revolution. It provides two stages in the agrarian revolution.

The first stage is to carry out the minimum land reform program where the revolutionary movement has just started to take roots among the peasant masses. It means reducing the land rent, eliminating usury and reducing interest rates, raising farm wages, setting fair prices for farm products at the farm gate and raising production in agriculture and sideline occupations. However, whenever already possible, the land grabbed by landlords and corporations can be taken back and returned immediately to the peasants and indigenous communities. The land of despotic landlords can also be confiscated and distributed free to the peasants.

The second stage is to carry out the maximum land reform program where the revolutionary forces, especially the people’s army and the organized masses through their local organs of political power, have the capability to do so on a wide scale. It means realizing the agrarian revolution. It consists of confiscating the land, distributing it free to the peasant masses, setting fair prices for the agricultural products at the farm gate and raising production in agriculture and sideline occupations through rudimentary cooperation among the households in a community. The reaction of the landlord is expected to rise. And the peasant masses are ready to fight and win. The people’s court is ready to try despotic landlords and mete out severe punishment to those with blood debts.

16. How do we unify the different strata under the peasant class?
JMS: There is a general revolutionary class line for the anti-feudal united front to unify the peasant class. It is for the working class and the CPP to rely mainly on the poor peasants and farm workers who need the agrarian revolution most, win over the middle peasants and neutralize the rich peasants in order to isolate and destroy the power of the landlord class, especially the despotic ones who use violence against the peasant masses.

Care is taken not to offend but not to kowtow to the rich peasants. They are allowed to keep their extra land and income above subsistence if they comply with fair requirements of the revolutionary movement. A distinction is also made between despotic landlords who commit crimes against the people and enlightened landlords who comply with the policy of land reform or agrarian revolution of the revolutionary movement.

17. What is the agrarian revolution and how is it being waged?

JMS: At the moment, the first stage of the agrarian revolution is being carried out in most areas of the revolutionary movement. But land grabbed by landlords and corporations from the indigenous communities and the poor peasants are returned to them as soon as possible. And the land of despotic landlords is confiscated from them and distributed free to the poor peasants. It is in the second stage of the agrarian revolution when the land is confiscated from all landlords and is distributed free to the poor peasants and the lower middle peasants. The agrarian revolution is made possible by the people’s war along the line of the people’s democratic revolution.

In peace negotiations with the reactionary government, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines has offered a program of genuine land reform and national industrialization as substantive socio-economic basis for a just peace agreement. The program can be financed by the trillions of US dollars worth of gas and oil that can be extracted from the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea. But the Duterte regime has refused the offer of the NDFP and has decided to terminate the peace negotiations. It thinks that it can destroy the revolutionary movement in order to satisfy US imperialism and at the same time enrich the Duterte dynasty and its Davao-based Chinese cronies by selling out to Chinese imperialism the sovereign rights of the Filipino people in the West Philippine Sea.###

https://ndfp.org/on-the-land-problem-peasant-class-and-agrarian-revolution/

Kalinaw News: Soldier’s slay gunmen in Basilan surrendered

Posted to Kalinaw News (Jul 5, 2020): Soldier’s slay gunmen in Basilan surrendered  (By 11th Infantry Division)



ISABELA CITY, Basilan – Suspects in the killing of a soldier and three others surrender to the military afternoon of July 5, 2020.

Four suspects who allegedly killed Private First Class Mark Anthony L. Monte, two Civilian Active Auxiliary (CAA) of Bohe Lebbung Patrol Base and one civilian surrendered to the 4th Special Forces Battalion after relentless pursuit operation of the combined forces from the 18th Infantry Battalion, 4th Special Forces Battalion, and the local PNP. The suspected gunmen turned themselves in to the Barangay Chairman of Bohe Lebbung and asked assistance to surrender.

The alleged gunmen were identified as Karim Manisan, 31 years old; Saham Mohammad, 45 years old; Lito Manisan, 45 years old; and Ayatula Mohammad, 40 years old, who are all residents of Barangay Bohe Lebbung, Tipo-Tipo, Basilan Province.

Four high-powered firearms were also surrendered by the above-mentioned suspects. These include two (2) M16A1 rifle, one (1) M14 US rifle, and one (1) M1 US carbine with several magazines and ammunitions.

According to the suspects, they are aware of the charges filed against them and they are ready to face the consequences of their actions. The suspects were then turned over to the local PNP for further investigation and proper custody. It can be recalled last Friday evening, July 3, a shooting incident transpired at Barangay Bohe Lebbung in Tipo-Tipo Municipality which resulted to the death of PFC Monte, two CAA and one civilian. Other two CAA and two civilians were also wounded.

The combined military forces are still pursuing the other suspected gunmen who are still at large, and vows to ensure that justice will be accorded to the victims.



[Kalinaw News is the official online source of information on the pursuit for peace in the Philippines This website is a property of the Civil-Military Operations Regiment, Philippine Army located at Lawton Avenue, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City. Contact us: kalinawnews@cmoregiment.com]

https://www.kalinawnews.com/soldiers-slay-gunmen-in-basilan-surrendered/

Kalinaw News: A wasted life of an activist-turned-NPA

Posted to Kalinaw News (Jul 5, 2020): A wasted life of an activist-turned-NPA (By 3rd Infantry Division)



CAMP MONTECLARO, Miagao, Iloilo – “To live peacefully is to live happily but to live with misery leads to jeopardy“

The life of a campus student activist was wasted, after joining the senseless armed struggle, fighting a battle that he should not be and dying in a place that meant nothing to him.

The recent encounter that transpired in Sitio Lay, Brgy. Dalije, Miagao, Iloilo last June 29, 2020 between the operating troops of 61IB and members of CPP-NPA Terrorist resulted to the loss of life of a one NPA member named Malvin Christian V Cruz also known as Alyas LEAN/LUCAS who was the TM Leader of Squad 3, Suyak Platoon, Southern Front, Komiteng Rehiyon-Panay and was killed in action (KIA) by operating troops of 61IB Philippine Army while conducting a combat operation in the mountainous part of the said barangay. This, after the 61IB troops received information from concerned citizens that the NPA terrorists have been recruiting minors in San Joaquin and Miagao, all of Iloilo and following to the discovery of the troops about their hideouts, that will be used as staging area for their terroristic attacks against government forces and innocent civilians through the conduct of ambuscades and liquidations.

The NPA members were believed to be under the Suyak (SDG) Platoon, Southern Front, Komiteng Rehiyon-Panay led by Joven CERALVO. Alyas LEAN/LUCAS body was found dead in the encounter site along with his M16 rifle after receiving fatal gunshot wound and being left by his comrades.

Alyas LEAN/LUCAS, a 21-year old campus activist that turned to rebel was studying Bachelor of Science in Statistics Circa at the University of the Philippines Visayas –Miagao Campus in the inclusive years of 2015-2016. The said student activist has been an active member of the League of the Filipino Students (LFS) in the UPV Miagao Campus and also a member of IBON Foundation, a Non-Government Organization (NGO). He was recruited and eventually joined the NPA at the age of 17 yrs old.

Alyas LEAN/LUCAS, being an active member of LFS, used to join rallies and campaigns against the government to address educational issues and school repression. He is from Brgy. San Nicolas, Oton, Iloilo and spent his elementary education at Iloilo Central Elementary School (ICES) and secondary education at Oton National High School at Oton, Iloilo.


The student activist died after choosing to live in misery hiding and enduring hardships in mountains after abandoning his own freedom and family. This is also a clear evidence that the Communist NPA Terrorist (CNTs) continue recruiting minors and youth from target universities being the vulnerable sectors in our society.

LTC Joel Benedict Batara, Commanding Officer of 61IB, 3ID has expressed his sincere condolences to the bereaved family and warned the remaining NPA members to surrender and be instruments of peace and development. He also reminded all parents to watch over their children from the deceptive recruitment schemes of the communist terrorists





[Kalinaw News is the official online source of information on the pursuit for peace in the Philippines This website is a property of the Civil-Military Operations Regiment, Philippine Army located at Lawton Avenue, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City. Contact us: kalinawnews@cmoregiment.com]

https://www.kalinawnews.com/a-wasted-life-of-an-activist-turned-npa/

Four intel soldiers frequently spotted near Sulu police office prior to killings

Posted to the Mindanao Examiner (Jul 5, 2020): Four intel soldiers frequently spotted near Sulu police office prior to killings

FOUR UNDERCOVER soldiers killed by cops in the southern Philippine province of Sulu had been frequently spotted near the police anti-narcotics office in the capital town of Jolo.



President Rodrigo Duterte speaks to military commanders at the Edwin Andrews Air Base in Zamboanga City on July 3, 2020. (Robinson Niñal, Jr)

This was bared by Brigadier General Manuel Abu in an exclusive report by UNTV on July 3 – the same day President Rodrigo Duterte flew to Zamboanga City and spoke with military commanders in an effort to defuse a brewing tension between policemen and soldiers following the killing of 4 army intelligence officers on June 29. The interview can be accessed on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okEV_PL_SMM&feature=youtu.be

Duterte, who looked pale and haggard, arrived Friday night at the Edwin Andrews Air Base, and appealed to the military to stay calm as he ordered an investigation into the killings.

According to the army, the soldiers, all clad in civilian clothes, were driving a car on a covert mission to capture 2 suicide bombers, when policemen intercepted them in Jolo town and ordered the agents to come with them to the police headquarters so they can verify their identities.

But the police said cops opened fire on the soldiers after they sped off and allegedly tried to shoot the lawmen, an allegation strongly denied by the military.

“Malalim kasi ang istorya, itong mga pulis ko dito noong Marso 14, may napatay na involved sa drugs yun DEU natin. It so happen na yun driver noong apat is a relative nitong napatay,” said Abu.

UNTV reported that members of the police Drug Enforcement Unit and municipal police mounted an anti-narcotic operation on March 14 and killed suspected drug pushers Albasir Bakil Jinul and a man known only by his alias Kayam.



It said Abu Jinul was a relative of Corporal Abdal Asula, one of the four army soldiers killed in Jolo. The others were Major Marvin Indammog, Captain Irwin Managuelod, and Sergeant Jaime Velasco – all assigned with the Intelligence Service Unit.

However, in was unclear on the UNTV report if the slaying of Jinul was connected to the killings of the soldiers. Police initially said the killing of the soldiers was a mis-encounter, but later corrected this report and said it was a “shooting” incident.

Abu said the car used by the soldiers had been spotted the past days prior to the shooting incident near the DEU office in Jolo and this prompted the police to surveil the vehicle. “Tawag nung isang taga-DEU na yun sighted na sasakyan noong isang araw ay nakita na naman doon sa tapat niya, eh yun tinambayan dati doon ng mga yun ay DEU personnel din, so natawagan na,” he told UNTV.

Because of this, he said a team of policemen and DEU personnel arrived on a patrol car and inspected the car and its passengers, who turned out to be armed and identified themselves as soldiers. But the soldiers failed to show any identification cards.

“So sabi ng pulis para hindi na lang sila magtalo doon sa daan, doon na lang sila mag-usap sa istasyon para under investigation talaga. Pagdating sa may police station imbes na tumigil sila, nauuna yun sasakyan ng army, eh tumakbo, hinabol ng pulis na nakasakay ng mobile, mobile naman ang dala ng pulis, eh sila naka-sibilyan,” Abu said.

The UNTV also showed video clips of the soldiers’ car speeding past the police station with the patrol car eventually giving a chase. It showed armed policemen on foot heading to the car that stopped nearby. The next video showed the soldiers lay dead on the street.

Another clip showed the arrival of armed soldiers in civilian clothes and one of them picked up an automatic rifle near one of the slain soldiers. While another soldier opened the car’s door and inspected the vehicle.

Abu said: “Baka pakasuhan ko pa sila ng obstruction of justice eh kasi pagka-ganyan na nay namatay na hindi dapat guluhin yun encounter site, ginulo nila.”

Colonel Ramon Zagala, an army spokesman, admitted what the soldiers did was wrong.
“Chineck nila yun pulse kung may buhay and secured the vehicle, so from take down team to rescue, to recovery at makikita mo rin sa video na parang may bumubukas ng pinto, at yun bumubukas ng pinto ay brother ng isa namin operative kasi alam niya na yun brother niya ang driver, so out of his instinct, sini-secure niya ang gamit ng brother niya,” he said.

The Western Mindanao Command said the killings were not connected to illegal drugs and the National Bureau of Investigation is now handling the case. “Wala tayong makitang any, parang na-involved yun ating mga kasudaluhan, pero anyway lahat naman yan ay kino-consider ng NBI at wala tayong itatago,” said Major Arvin Encinas, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command.

Impartial probe

Duterte promised for an impartial investigation, assuring justice for the slain soldiers.

“Pumunta ako dito hihingi ako ng tulong ninyo. I am pleading. Nakikiusap ako. Nihangyo ko ninyo na tabangan ko ninyo pagpakalma to keep the waters in the meantime calm and we wait for the result of the investigation. I am giving you my word of honor that the investigation will proceed to find out the truth unfettered, unbridled by anybody except ‘yung sa trabaho. Walang makialam at ‘yung totoo lang. Iyon ang maasahan ninyo. At kung sino man ang may kasalanan, then he has to pay for it.”

“What I’m saying is we’re trying to figure out how we can in the meantime do something to give you the assurance that justice will be done. So I’m giving it to you, I said, as a word of honor of a President na I will find out the truth from the investigators and I hope that it would satisfy all,” he told the military.

Duterte said he was saddened by the incident and started reminding soldiers all the benefits and increase in salaries he gave them and ensured the welfare of the police and the military has always been his top priority since becoming president in 2016. (Zamboanga Post)

http://mindanaoexaminernewspaper.blogspot.com/2020/07/four-intel-soldiers-frequently-spotted.html

Army conducts ELCAC info awareness campaign in Basey

From the Philippine Information Agency (Jul 5, 2020): Army conducts ELCAC info awareness campaign in Basey (By PIA 8 and 63IB, 8ID)

BASEY, Samar, July 4 (PIA) -- As part of the ongoing mission to end local communist armed conflict (ELCAC) in order to achieve peace and development in this part of the country, the 63rd Infantry Battalion and the 83rd CMO Company kicked off a series of information campaign using loudspeaker operation and leaflets distribution to residents of the different barangays of Basey, Samar.

The team of Sgt Adelfo Douglas J. Dulfo (Inf) PA of the 63IB and SSg Jerry A Reli (Inf) PA of the 83rd CMO Coy on June 28-30, 2020 visited the sitios of Wespal and Rawis of Barangay Guirang where they disclosed the NPA's system of infiltration to the barangay affecting its farmers, youth and women sector.



The team also visited barangays Inuntan, Burgos, Cancaiyas, Bulao and Cogon in coordination with the Punong Barangays and informed the residents about the NPA's deceptive system.

The team also informed the locals on the protocols and health procedures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Ltc Edgar Allan Orbito, the Battalion Commander of 63IB said the information awareness activity will continue in support to EO 70 which created the Task Force to Eliminate Local Communist Armed Conflict, maintaining peace, safety and human security for the Municipality. (PIA 8 with 63IB, 8ID)

https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1046712

AFP’s 7th CRG launches ‘Raise to One Million Gardens’ in NCR

From the Philippine Information Agency (Jul 5, 2020): AFP’s 7th CRG launches ‘Raise to One Million Gardens’ in NCR (By Jimmyley E. Guzman)


Photos courtesy of CRSAFP.
PASIG CITY, July 6 (PIA) – The 7th Civil Relations Group, Civil Relations Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (7CRG, CRSAFP) recently launched the ‘Raise to One Million Gardens in NCR.’

AFP’s Deputy Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Antonio Ramon A. Lim also officiated the oath taking of the set of officers for the Pilot Community Garden at Pook Arboretum, Barangay UP Campus, Diliman, Quezon City.

According to Major Celeste Frank L. Sayson PA, Commander of the 7CRG, the "Raise to One Million Gardens in NCR" is also an integral part of the "Kapwa Ko, Sagot Ko" campaign of CRSAFP promotes and supports food production in Metro Manila especially those affected by the community quarantine.

He added that aside from easing the people's boredom, the AFP teaches the people to be more productive and profitable through urban farming.



"We believe that raising gardens to one million in the National Capital Region is possible following the principle of multi-level marketing. It is essential for people to witness the yielding of vegetables and fruits in the respective partner gardens as well as the community and home gardens in the urban settings," Sayson said.

According to the AFP, the project aims to target around 3.5 million beneficiaries here in Metro Manila who are expected to have vegetable foods in their homes in the next 12 months.

The participants to the “Raise to One Million Gardens in NCR” are likewise being encouraged to plant more vegetables, fruit bearing plants and herbal or medicinal plants.

The project is supported by the Department of Agriculture through the Bureau of Plant Industry. (CRS/AFP/PIA-NCR)

Slay of ex-rebel by ‘NPA’ hitmen in Surigao Sur condemned

From the Philippine News Agency (Jul 5, 2020): Slay of ex-rebel by ‘NPA’ hitmen in Surigao Sur condemned (By Alexander Lopez)  July 5, 2020, 1:46 pm



Top officials of the Police Regional Office in Caraga Region (PRO-13) condemned the communist New People’s Army (NPA) for the alleged killing of a former rebel in Surigao del Sur.

PRO-13 Public Information Officer Maj. Renel E. Serrano, in a statement Sunday, said Jojo S. Sabelino, 30, was gunned down by two suspected NPA members in his residence in Barangay Buenavista, Tandag City on Friday (July 3).

Serrano said the victim succumbed to gunshot wounds in different parts of his body.

Police personnel in Tandag City, he said, are now working to arrest the perpetrators who immediately fled after the incident.

PRO-13 director, Brig. Gen. Joselito T. Esquivel Jr., condemned the NPA for killing their former comrade.

“We mourn the loss of a former rebel who returned to the fold of the law and chose to live a peaceful life,” Esquivel said.

He also described the incident as a “demonic act” that manifested clear evidence of the NPA’s disrespect to the peoples’ right to life.

“What they have done is contrary to their claim as pro-people and pro-life,” Esquivel said.

He added that several people witnessed the killing based on the investigation conducted by the police personnel in Tandag City.

The witnesses, Esquivel added, identified a male and female suspects who they earlier noticed roaming around the vicinity of the residence of the victim before the shooting took place.

He said the witnesses particularly identified the female suspect as an NPA member.

Esquivel assured the family of the victims of justice as the police work for the arrest of his killers.

In a separate interview Sunday, Col. James T. Goforth, director of Surigao del Sur Police Provincial Office (SDSPPO), also condemned the killing of Sabelino.

“The person is already living peacefully with his family and in their community but the communist NPA rebels mercilessly killed the victim,” Goforth said.

Goforth said the SDSPPO will work with the police personnel in Tandag City to go after the perpetrators to render justice to the family of the victim.

He also asked for the cooperation of the residents in the area to support the efforts of the police to bring to justice the perpetrators of the crime.

The CPP-NPA is listed as terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1107995