ROSA GUIDON
SPOKESPERSON
NDF-ILOCOS
December 23, 2021
In a press release last December 16, the 702nd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army, reaffirmed that the Ilocos Region will soon be declared “insurgency-free,” after a year of zero violent incidents involving the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
Brig. Gen. Krishnamurti Mortela, commander of the 702nd Infantry Brigade announced that Ilocos Region is now qualified to advance into the “last stage” according to their classification of areas freed from insurgency. Brig. Gen. Mortela mentioned that in the past 10 years, Ilocos Region has already gone through the first and second stages of liberating areas from insurgency, wherein its strength had dissipated remarkably. He declared that they had done the third stage this year, and the region is now in full control of the government and that “peace had relatively prevailed.”
Since last year, the 702nd Brigade and Region I Task Force ELCAC had been announcing that Ilocos had been freed of insurgency, on the premise that all destructive energy and mining ventures of the capitalist companies the people have been strongly opposing can now be resumed. Among these are the Gregorio del Pilar Dam Project in Ilocos Sur and the mining of Cordillera Exploration Inc. – Nickel Asia in Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte.
Because of the active opposition of the masses, including the offensives of the NPA in Ilocos to thwart these projects, the AFP considered that “communist insurgency” in the region is a force to reckon with that should be crushed, to pave the way for the implementation of these businesses. This only reveals that the 702nd Brigade and all AFP units assigned in the region are paid guards of these capitalist companies, for them to freely plunder the ancestral domain of the national minority and sources of living of the Ilocano people.
For a brief lull of armed clashes in the region for the whole of 2021, did the Ilocano people really live in peace as what Brig. Gen. Mortela states, at the height of the crisis caused by the pandemic? How could the people live in peace this year when they are laden with worries on the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the region, on the overcrowded hospitals, on the lacking and exhausted doctors, nurses and health workers and debilitating health services? How could the farmers, fishermen and workers of Ilocos live in peace when they are driven deeper to poverty due to militarist lockdowns, closure of establishments and losses of jobs and living, series of widespread disasters of ASF, flood, drought, typhoons, unhampered oil price increases that inflict heavier costs of production of the farmers and fisherfolk? What peace does Mortela refer to when at the height of distress, they are moreover perturbed by different forms of harassments and pressures of the AFP-PNP and ELCAC, of red-tagging, forced surrenders, pernicious RCSDTs stationed on communities and terrorizing Focused Military Operations? This is what the 702nd Bde points to in citing that the government is now in control of the region – that their suppression to the people expressing their demands and dissent to the burdens enforced upon them will get tougher ever more.
Gen. Mortela nevertheless tells the truth in citing that no violent activities by the CPP-NPA occurred in Ilocos on the duration of the year 2021, because it never perpetrates violence against the people. But the general only dulls his analysis if he claims that the guerilla fronts in the region are now shattered, only because of a year of absence of battles, and that the reactionary government now holds control. It is also foolhardy to gauge the strength and weakness of the people’s war only by a momentary respite of clashes in a tactical period.Because the AFP is educated on the counter-insurgency doctrine of the imperialist US, it does not meticulously study the science of people’s war launched by the Filipino people. The revolutionary war being waged by the Filipino people is guided by the strategy of protracted war based on the deepening and expanding revolutionary base. The People’s Army doesn’t collide head-on with hard and fortified fraction of the enemy, rather letting it knock the air, while hitting its vulnerable parts piece by piece and finally throwing the deadly blow when worn out. The people’s war advances wave upon wave, like low tides moving on and withdrawing while gaining strength to surge into high tides.
The CPP-NPA-NDF carries out the three integral components of the people’s democratic revolution. It establishes, expands and consolidates revolutionary bases and builds organs of democratic political power, launches agrarian revolution to resolve the land problem, usury and several forms of feudal and semifeudal exploitation of peasants until genuine land reform is achieved. If firefights did not happen in a year, or if the AFP did not sense the presence of the CPP-NPA-NDF in Ilocos in a year, is because they failed to surveil it. And that is because it is well embedded on the broad, dense and deep mass bases, focusing on agrarian revolution especially on helping the peasant masses in enhancing production to overcome the crisis brought about by the pandemic. Throughout 2021, the CPP-NPA-NDF in Ilocos are actively participating on the committees of revolutionary mass organizations and democratic people’s governments in the localities, in rendering necessary medical services and administering health and education programs to reinforce the capacity of the people to surmount the effects of the pandemic and other disasters. Through these endeavours, the Party’s influence and leadership to the masses broaden and grow stronger, more and more enlist to the New People’s Army and People’s Militia, and more chapters of the revolutionary organizations of peasants, fisherfolk, workers, national minority, youth and women and middle forces in the region are organized into the NDF. It is here where the people sow the seeds of their their democratic government, in place of the current reactionary government.
The AFP only repeats its announcement that the “communist insurgency has ended” in their counter-insurgency Oplans which just switch into different names. In time of the Oplan Makabayan of the US-Estrada regime for example, the Northern Luzon Command of the AFP designated the Ilocos Region as a laboratory for the US’ counter-insurgency plan, alarmed by the armed struggle and revolutionary mass movement gaining strength in the region. RSOTs were deployed in communities of Ilocos on the early part of 2000, until “communist insurgency” was declared ended in the region, after it went through the three stages of liberating areas from insurgency. On the contrary, the revolutionary armed struggle and the democratic mass struggles in Ilocos only grew stronger, and US-Arroyo regime had to employ the deadlier Oplan Bantay Laya, followed by the Oplan Bayanihan of the US-Aquino II regime. And now, under the Oplan Kapanatagan of the US-Duterte regime, they have yet to finish the insurgency in the country. In the end, even if the AFP sets deadlines in crushing it over and over again, it fails over and over again. The US-Marcos dictatorship attempted to nip the bud of the revolution here in Ilocos, yet only bloomed and flourished.
Why is it that despite repeated resolutions and deadlines set by the AFP and the ruling regimes in quelling the people’s democratic revolution, they always fail? To where the strategy and tactics of the Filipino people’s war based that ensures its advancement and victory? It is the semicolonial and semifeudal character of the Philippine society, that serves as the breeding ground for the expansion and intensification of the armed struggle and democratic mass movement. While the crisis and poverty brought about by the lingering land monopoly, the unlimited plunder of the Philippines’ resources and wealth by the monopoly capitalists and their utter contempt on the country’s sovereignty, the ever-rotting system of governance due to persisting bureaucratic corruption and enrichment of those in power along with the aggregating fascist repression on the people’s resistance, the revolutionary struggle will intensify and advance all through victory.
Here in Ilocos, the basic problem of landlessness, usury, exploitation of traders, backward agrarian system, foreign domination on the fishing territories, ancestral landgrabbing and disrespect on the self-determination of the national minority, the state neglect to basic services and the persisting militarization in the region remain as the fertile ground for the advancement of the people’s war. These can’t be solved by the whole of nation approach and counter-insurgency campaign of the NTF-ELCAC and the Duterte regime, by relentless military operations, by fraudulent and forced surrender campaigns, by red-tagging and by deceitful and dole-out Barangay Development projects, but by genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization that can only be achieved through the people’s democratic revolution.
National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. is also right when he ensures that extortion by the CPP-NPA will not happen come election time, because it never extorts, but only imposes just revolutionary taxes on insatiable capitalists, despotic landlords and corrupt politicians.
And on the 53rd anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the revolutionary forces and masses of Ilocos will celebrate along with the Filipino revolutionary forces and masses for its victories. We will celebrate our triumphs that despite the repeated vows of the AFP and the Duterte regime that they would annihilate it, the Party and the revolution it leads continue to expand and grow stronger. We will honor the people’s martyrs and draw significant lessons from our losses and fleeting defeats from the ruthless war of repression of the enemy. In guerilla fronts and revolutionary bases in Ilocos, flags will be hoisted, guns and fists will be raised. Party cadres and members, Red fighters and revolutionary masses will once again pledge allegiance to the Party and in serving the people, overcome adversities and reaffirm our resolve to advance the people’s democratic revolution until victory.
Finally, the 702nd Brigade will fail and the people’s war in Ilocos will advance.
Long live the Filipino people’s war!
Long live the 53rd year of the victory of the Communist Party of the Philippines!
https://prwcinfo.wordpress.com/2021/12/23/the-afp-will-fail-and-the-peoples-war-in-ilocos-will-advance/
December 23, 2021
In a press release last December 16, the 702nd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army, reaffirmed that the Ilocos Region will soon be declared “insurgency-free,” after a year of zero violent incidents involving the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
Brig. Gen. Krishnamurti Mortela, commander of the 702nd Infantry Brigade announced that Ilocos Region is now qualified to advance into the “last stage” according to their classification of areas freed from insurgency. Brig. Gen. Mortela mentioned that in the past 10 years, Ilocos Region has already gone through the first and second stages of liberating areas from insurgency, wherein its strength had dissipated remarkably. He declared that they had done the third stage this year, and the region is now in full control of the government and that “peace had relatively prevailed.”
Since last year, the 702nd Brigade and Region I Task Force ELCAC had been announcing that Ilocos had been freed of insurgency, on the premise that all destructive energy and mining ventures of the capitalist companies the people have been strongly opposing can now be resumed. Among these are the Gregorio del Pilar Dam Project in Ilocos Sur and the mining of Cordillera Exploration Inc. – Nickel Asia in Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte.
Because of the active opposition of the masses, including the offensives of the NPA in Ilocos to thwart these projects, the AFP considered that “communist insurgency” in the region is a force to reckon with that should be crushed, to pave the way for the implementation of these businesses. This only reveals that the 702nd Brigade and all AFP units assigned in the region are paid guards of these capitalist companies, for them to freely plunder the ancestral domain of the national minority and sources of living of the Ilocano people.
For a brief lull of armed clashes in the region for the whole of 2021, did the Ilocano people really live in peace as what Brig. Gen. Mortela states, at the height of the crisis caused by the pandemic? How could the people live in peace this year when they are laden with worries on the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the region, on the overcrowded hospitals, on the lacking and exhausted doctors, nurses and health workers and debilitating health services? How could the farmers, fishermen and workers of Ilocos live in peace when they are driven deeper to poverty due to militarist lockdowns, closure of establishments and losses of jobs and living, series of widespread disasters of ASF, flood, drought, typhoons, unhampered oil price increases that inflict heavier costs of production of the farmers and fisherfolk? What peace does Mortela refer to when at the height of distress, they are moreover perturbed by different forms of harassments and pressures of the AFP-PNP and ELCAC, of red-tagging, forced surrenders, pernicious RCSDTs stationed on communities and terrorizing Focused Military Operations? This is what the 702nd Bde points to in citing that the government is now in control of the region – that their suppression to the people expressing their demands and dissent to the burdens enforced upon them will get tougher ever more.
Gen. Mortela nevertheless tells the truth in citing that no violent activities by the CPP-NPA occurred in Ilocos on the duration of the year 2021, because it never perpetrates violence against the people. But the general only dulls his analysis if he claims that the guerilla fronts in the region are now shattered, only because of a year of absence of battles, and that the reactionary government now holds control. It is also foolhardy to gauge the strength and weakness of the people’s war only by a momentary respite of clashes in a tactical period.Because the AFP is educated on the counter-insurgency doctrine of the imperialist US, it does not meticulously study the science of people’s war launched by the Filipino people. The revolutionary war being waged by the Filipino people is guided by the strategy of protracted war based on the deepening and expanding revolutionary base. The People’s Army doesn’t collide head-on with hard and fortified fraction of the enemy, rather letting it knock the air, while hitting its vulnerable parts piece by piece and finally throwing the deadly blow when worn out. The people’s war advances wave upon wave, like low tides moving on and withdrawing while gaining strength to surge into high tides.
The CPP-NPA-NDF carries out the three integral components of the people’s democratic revolution. It establishes, expands and consolidates revolutionary bases and builds organs of democratic political power, launches agrarian revolution to resolve the land problem, usury and several forms of feudal and semifeudal exploitation of peasants until genuine land reform is achieved. If firefights did not happen in a year, or if the AFP did not sense the presence of the CPP-NPA-NDF in Ilocos in a year, is because they failed to surveil it. And that is because it is well embedded on the broad, dense and deep mass bases, focusing on agrarian revolution especially on helping the peasant masses in enhancing production to overcome the crisis brought about by the pandemic. Throughout 2021, the CPP-NPA-NDF in Ilocos are actively participating on the committees of revolutionary mass organizations and democratic people’s governments in the localities, in rendering necessary medical services and administering health and education programs to reinforce the capacity of the people to surmount the effects of the pandemic and other disasters. Through these endeavours, the Party’s influence and leadership to the masses broaden and grow stronger, more and more enlist to the New People’s Army and People’s Militia, and more chapters of the revolutionary organizations of peasants, fisherfolk, workers, national minority, youth and women and middle forces in the region are organized into the NDF. It is here where the people sow the seeds of their their democratic government, in place of the current reactionary government.
The AFP only repeats its announcement that the “communist insurgency has ended” in their counter-insurgency Oplans which just switch into different names. In time of the Oplan Makabayan of the US-Estrada regime for example, the Northern Luzon Command of the AFP designated the Ilocos Region as a laboratory for the US’ counter-insurgency plan, alarmed by the armed struggle and revolutionary mass movement gaining strength in the region. RSOTs were deployed in communities of Ilocos on the early part of 2000, until “communist insurgency” was declared ended in the region, after it went through the three stages of liberating areas from insurgency. On the contrary, the revolutionary armed struggle and the democratic mass struggles in Ilocos only grew stronger, and US-Arroyo regime had to employ the deadlier Oplan Bantay Laya, followed by the Oplan Bayanihan of the US-Aquino II regime. And now, under the Oplan Kapanatagan of the US-Duterte regime, they have yet to finish the insurgency in the country. In the end, even if the AFP sets deadlines in crushing it over and over again, it fails over and over again. The US-Marcos dictatorship attempted to nip the bud of the revolution here in Ilocos, yet only bloomed and flourished.
Why is it that despite repeated resolutions and deadlines set by the AFP and the ruling regimes in quelling the people’s democratic revolution, they always fail? To where the strategy and tactics of the Filipino people’s war based that ensures its advancement and victory? It is the semicolonial and semifeudal character of the Philippine society, that serves as the breeding ground for the expansion and intensification of the armed struggle and democratic mass movement. While the crisis and poverty brought about by the lingering land monopoly, the unlimited plunder of the Philippines’ resources and wealth by the monopoly capitalists and their utter contempt on the country’s sovereignty, the ever-rotting system of governance due to persisting bureaucratic corruption and enrichment of those in power along with the aggregating fascist repression on the people’s resistance, the revolutionary struggle will intensify and advance all through victory.
Here in Ilocos, the basic problem of landlessness, usury, exploitation of traders, backward agrarian system, foreign domination on the fishing territories, ancestral landgrabbing and disrespect on the self-determination of the national minority, the state neglect to basic services and the persisting militarization in the region remain as the fertile ground for the advancement of the people’s war. These can’t be solved by the whole of nation approach and counter-insurgency campaign of the NTF-ELCAC and the Duterte regime, by relentless military operations, by fraudulent and forced surrender campaigns, by red-tagging and by deceitful and dole-out Barangay Development projects, but by genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization that can only be achieved through the people’s democratic revolution.
National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. is also right when he ensures that extortion by the CPP-NPA will not happen come election time, because it never extorts, but only imposes just revolutionary taxes on insatiable capitalists, despotic landlords and corrupt politicians.
And on the 53rd anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the revolutionary forces and masses of Ilocos will celebrate along with the Filipino revolutionary forces and masses for its victories. We will celebrate our triumphs that despite the repeated vows of the AFP and the Duterte regime that they would annihilate it, the Party and the revolution it leads continue to expand and grow stronger. We will honor the people’s martyrs and draw significant lessons from our losses and fleeting defeats from the ruthless war of repression of the enemy. In guerilla fronts and revolutionary bases in Ilocos, flags will be hoisted, guns and fists will be raised. Party cadres and members, Red fighters and revolutionary masses will once again pledge allegiance to the Party and in serving the people, overcome adversities and reaffirm our resolve to advance the people’s democratic revolution until victory.
Finally, the 702nd Brigade will fail and the people’s war in Ilocos will advance.
Long live the Filipino people’s war!
Long live the 53rd year of the victory of the Communist Party of the Philippines!
https://prwcinfo.wordpress.com/2021/12/23/the-afp-will-fail-and-the-peoples-war-in-ilocos-will-advance/
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