By CPP Information Bureau
Other versions: Batas militar sa Maguindanao: Panibagong pihit sa laro ni Arroyo–PKP (Pilipino)
The Communist Party of the Philippines said today that "Arroyo's Proclamation 1959, which placed most of Maguindanao under martial law, is just another turn in Arroyo's continuing power play.
"Malacañang continues to plot and improvise more schemes to perpetuate itself in power in the face of the setbacks it has been encountering with its original plan," said the CPP. "Initially, Malacañang's knee-jerk response to the Ampatuan massacre was to protect and save an ally to which the Arroyo regime is greatly indebted for having played a major role in ensuring a lead of one million votes for Arroyo in the 2004 presidential elections and delivering a 12-0 win for Malacañang's 'Team Unity' in the 2007 senatorial elections. The Ampatuan clan has also been fending off the Moro Islamic Liberation Front forces from their bailiwicks in Maguindanao.
However, evidence has been building up undeniably pointing to the guilt of the Ampatuans. Numerous witnesses have given undeniable testimonies and too many guns and ammunition have been discovered in and near the Ampatuan mansions. Public denunciations nationwide and abroad against the massacre have grown too much to ignore or belittle, said the CPP.
"All this," the CPP added, "is further isolating the Arroyo regime and pulling down further the electoral chances of its Lakas-Kampi-CMD national slate. Malacañang's only choice now is to save its own skin and make the most out of the situation to plot more dirty, insidious and violent schemes to ensure the perpetuation of its hold on power."
"Arroyo justifies her martial law proclamation by positing a self-contradictory claim," said the CPP. She says that the presence of 'heavily armed groups in the province of Maguindanao that have established positions to resist government troops' constitutes rebellion. But she was referring to the areas controlled by traditional feudal warlord politicos, where rebellion is not at all present. On the other hand, she excluded the areas being held by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, where the real rebellion is based, the CPP elaborated.
"Arroyo declared martial law in Maguindanao to make it easier for her regime to do what it can there without legal encumbrances, including the ease of ensuring at the very least that the province and region's total delivery of 'command' votes for Arroyo's candidates will continue," the CPP elaborated further.
"Worse, there are more sinister aftermaths to Arroyo's declaration of martial law in Maguidanao," warned the CPP. "It may serve as a trial balloon and precursor to the duplication or expansion of such a move in other places and at the national scale. More 'bombings' and other forms of justifications for a wider scope of martial law can take place in other areas, as have suddenly taken place in Jolo. The 'no election-and-transition rule' scenario is becoming more and more a reality," the CPP warned.
