By CPP Information Bureau
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today dismissed the 18-day ceasefire announced yesterday by the Aquino regime as a sham, given “the continuing military operations under the Oplan Bayanihan war of suppression. Aquino’s ceasefire declaration will come to nothing because the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) persists on committing abuses and violating human rights as they conduct their so-called civil-military and intelligence-gathering operations within civilian communities.”
The CPP reiterated that for the people, there is no sense in the AFP’s declaration of a ceasefire if military units continue to set up camps and detachments within schools and civilian communities, taunt and force the people to follow the AFP’s guardia-civil policies, harass and prevent them from working in their fields and earning their keep.”
“For the Filipino people, especially the peasants and minority people in rural communities, a ceasefire declaration by the Aquino government can only be substantial if all military units are ordered to:
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Withdraw their armed troops stationed within communities
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Dismantle military detachments which have been set up inside or beside school grounds, churches, barangay halls and residential areas
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Put a stop to illegal searches and violations of people’s domiciles.
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End the imposition of curfews and lift all restrictions against the people’s right to travel.
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End the imposition of food and economic blockades and lift all restrictions on economic activities, including the right of people to work in their fields.
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Put a stop to the harassment and persecution of local activists and mass leaders, including the practice of requiring people to report daily to military camps.
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Pay for all damage to crops and private property.
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Put a stop to extrajudicial killings, abductions and illegal arrests.
The CPP condemned the duplicity of the Aquino regime and the AFP for declaring a ceasefire while issuing orders to its ground units to continue conducting terror activities in the guise of ‘securing the population’, psychological warfare, reconnaissance and intelligence operations.
“In an internal memorandum of the AFP dated December 10, 2010 seized by the New People’s Army in Mindanao, the General Headquarters of the AFP instructed all its ground units to continue all its operations under Oplan Bayanihan, practically reducing the 19-day ceasefire declaration last year to empty talk.”
In the aforesaid memo, the AFP General Headquarters instructed its units to continue with the following so-called defensive measures:
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security patrols within the essential protective radius of all military camps, detachments, vital installation and civilian communities.
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routine security to ensure peaceful and unhampered social, political and economic activity of the people and the delivery of government service.
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augmentation of troops in connection with law enforcement function in support of the PNP and other law enforcement agencies’ disaster operations and administrative matters such as troops rotation, relief in replacement of units and others.
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civilian-military operations (CMO) related activities.
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normal information collection and documentation efforts.
“Such continuing operations of the AFP under Oplan Bayanihan reduces its unilateral ceasefire declaration into empty phrasemongering,” said the CPP. “The people are provided no respite from the abuses and violations of human rights.”
