Condemn US-Arroyo Regime’s peddlers of lies, fight its false propaganda!

By JORGE "Ka Oris" MADLOS
Spokesperson, NDFP – Mindanao

The reactionary and counter-revolutionary propaganda factory of the US-Arroyo regime led by the AFP, continue to churn out and plague the media and the public with illogical falsehoods to attack the legitimate left, which endanger the very lives of many activists and critics of this corrupt government.

The black propaganda employed by the likes of Ret. Gen. Jovito Palparan, Jun Alcover and Brig. Gen. Eduardo del Rosario lumps together the legal progressive movement in urban areas and the armed revolution led by the CPP-NPA-NDF in the countryside. It aims to vilify, as part of its modus operandi, certain individuals in the progressive movement whom they capriciously judge as "supporters or leaders of the revolution" and make them targets of political assassinations.

As a result, since the Arroyo regime set into motion the AFP's Oplan Bantay Laya, there had already been more than a thousand activists and critics of this government, including media workers, lawyers, public servants, and the religious, victimized by the spate of state-sponsored murders.

The Arroyo government, the AFP and its propaganda mill, which constantly pursue the propaganda line that the legal left and armed revolutionaries are one and the same, are therefore party to the mass murder of activists, critics and innocent civilians.

Palparan, who also now operates in Davao City together with Alcover and Gen. del Rosario, is known as the very architect of these extra-judicial killings, thus earning the title "the Butcher of Mindoro."

AFP spin-doctors continue to use the communist bogey in a manner similar to how it was done during the McCarthy era in the US to demonize and to isolate individuals who seek genuine change to the rotten system the Arroyo regime desperately defends. This is precisely why "lumping the progressive legal movement with the armed revolutionary struggle" works to achieve the US-Arroyo's goal of eliminating its critics.

The National Democratic Front in Mindanao (NDF-Mindanao) would like to debunk this dangerous line once and for all:

1. Certain legitimate organizations like Bayan, Bayan Muna, Gabriela and other progressive organization on one hand, and the armed revolutionary movement, led by the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People's Army, and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) on the other hand, may both hold many similar standpoints as regards changing the current rotten Philippine social system and pursue similar socio-economic issues, but they GREATLY DIFFER as to how these are carried out: clearly, the CPP-NPA-NDF is ARMED, while the progressive organizations is NOT.
2. Thus, for this regime and the AFP to vent out its brazenly violent rage against unarmed organizations like those of Bayan and Bayan Muna, including its media critics, using this deadly assumption as a pretext, is not only a mark of utter desperation, but a flagrant display of cowardice. These murders show that the US-Arroyo regime and its fascist arm, the AFP, have low regard for human life and dignity and would forsake justice to ensure its grip on power.
3. The mass murder of more than a thousand defenseless activists and dissenters is one of the gravest acts ever done against humanity in Philippine history, akin to that of the Marcos witch-hunt during the Martial Law era and, even, of Hitler's holocaust.
4. What are the AFP, Palparan, Alcover and their vile kind truly interested in? Are they interested in fighting communism, which it says is the cause of the nation's misery, poverty and backwardness, or are they simply out to mark their targets and eliminate those who consistently work to expose the rottenness of this government and system? Communism in itself nor the struggle for it cannot be the cause of misery, poverty, and the backwardness. What dictates hikes in the prices of petroleum? What causes the rise in the prices of basic commodities? What keeps the wages of workers at levels of extreme poverty? Why is the level of hunger in the country constantly escalating? Why is illiteracy still rampant? Why is there poor health care in the country? For sure, answers to these questions on the sorry condition of the nation have nothing to do with "communism" at all, because the communist struggle, which is a long and arduous one, labors to end these woes that plague the people, not condone them.
5. But, these issues have everything to do with powerful capitalists, landlords and bureaucrats who control the system in the interest of accumulating huge profits and property, at the expense of the toiling masses.
6. It is a historical and social truth that individuals who see the imperative of an armed revolution to fight against an oppressive system can opt to wage this form of struggle, as it is of those who wage it within legal parameters. There are those who seek refuge in the revolution, as did, Alvin Luque and many others, because fabricated cases were filed against them, endangering their lives and constricting the space for their involvement in open legitimate struggle. There are certain individuals from the church sector and legal left like the late Fr. Frank Navarro who opted to join the armed revolution because the democratic space upon which they can move and effectively assert their cause was completely taken away from them.
7. The vilification campaign launched by Arroyo and the AFP is meant to end freedoms that run contrary to its interest as rulers and exploiters of the people. It comes as no surprise also to see how they condemn and hail dirty words against some military, police and CAFGU members who decide to seek refuge or join the New People's Army.

We challenge the likes of Palparan, Alcover, del Rosario and other hacks of the US-Arroyo regime to take a clear stand against oil price hikes, to call for a substantial increase in the salaries and wages of workers, to fight for land for landless peasants, to fight against hunger, poverty, illiteracy, poor social service and other social ills! Their obvious silence on these matters make them the most rabid mouthpieces of the exploiting class. They are, in fact, paid hacks of the US-Arroyo regime!

The hounds of the US-Arroyo regime bark and howl all over the place condemning "communism" and marking activists as targets for extra-judicial killings, but they remain silent on the brutality of the Ampatuan warlords and the inhumanity of the Maguindanao massacre. This comes as no surprise since Palparan, Alcover, and del Rosario are themselves the very agents of OBL 2 in identifying targets and implementing extra-judicial killings. It's a simple case of honor among murderers!

The National Democratic Front in Mindanao calls upon the people to remain highly critical and resist the lies being churned out and peddled by the propaganda mongrels of the Arroyo regime and the AFP!