CENTRAL COMMITTEE
COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES
August 24, 1971

The Communist Party of the Philippines on its own behalf and also on behalf of the New People’s Army which it leads expresses the strongest indignation over the Plaza Miranda massacre of August 21st which resulted in the death and injury of so many people, including the top leadership of the Liberal Party.

The dastardly act is directed not only against the Liberal Party but also against all opposition and the entire Filipino people. The terrorist character and mad scheming of the U.S.-Marcos clique are amply proven not only by the latest massacre and previous massacres but also by the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus on a nationwide scale and without any basis. Beyond doubt the Marcos fascist puppet clique is bent on monopolizing political power through militarist, anti-communist and anti-democratic methods.

The U.S.-Marcos clique has steadily taken the path of military dictatorship against the broad masses of the people. We are witness today to the imposition of an undisguised militarist rule. The U.S.-Marcos regime is employing every method it can borrow from the black book of Hitler in order to create anti-communist hysteria, silence every kind of opposition and monopolize political power at gunpoint. The University of the Philippines only recently was turned into a “guinea pig” for sinister efforts of C.I.A. psywar experts to turn the tide of the new democratic cultural revolution and strike movement in urban areas throughout the country.

The U.S.-Marcos clique has become so mad and desperate that it would commit any scheme under the “anti-Maoist” line to perpetuate its ill-gotten power and wealth and preserve the interests of its foreign and feudal masters. Only recently Marcos himself raised “communism” as the-main issue against his political enemies and accused them specifically of cooperating with “Maoists”. All of a sudden, he reverses himself by calling the criminal attackers of the Liberal Party as “Maoists”. It is absolutely stupid and callous for the U.S.-Marcos clique to blame the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army for every evil that its own minions perpetrate. That the blame for the Plaza Miranda massacre should be made to fall on the Party and the people’s army long before the actual, solution of the case (a solution that will not come because of U.S.-Marcos authorship of the crime) only betrays the
criminal responsibility of the U.S.-Marcos clique itself.

The U.S.-Marcos clique without much ado condemns Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought in the proclamation suspending the writ of habeas corpus. In this regard, we invite all to study the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Tsetung to find out for themselves whether these great communist leaders allow terrorist bombing or not: We Filipino Communists are bound by Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and we always rely on the awakening and mobilization of the masses in their millions.

In pursuing its “anti-Maoist” line, the U.S.-Marcos cligue has gone so far as to cooperate with and coddle the bogus communist party of the Lava revisionist fascists. Both counter-revolutionaries have cooperated in fascist crimes such as those perpetrated in Central Luzon and lately in the Greater Manila area. They have joined up in establishing BSDUs in certain aréas and in perpetrating acts of bloody intrigue in several instances.

The Communist Party of the Philippines, together with the New People’s Army, has consistently refused to be drawn in by such enemy provocations as kidnapping, assassination, harassment and bloody disruption of rallies in urban areas. That is because we wish to give full play to the new democratic cultural revolution and strike movement. It is in the countryside that we are engaged in armed struggle which is of the strategic defensive and on the tactical offensive. In waging armed struggle, we have always avoided inflicting harm on innocent people.

The U.S.-Marcos clique continues to overstep. The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus on a nationwide scale and without limit is in so many respects worse than all massacres it has covertly and overtly perpetrated. This means mass arrests, pogroms and the systematic suppression of democratic rights. In its sick thinking, the U.S.-Marcos clique imagines that it can nip the revolutionary mass movement “in the bud”. But thanks to the U.S.-Marcos clique itself, the level of revolutionary consciousness and strength among the people has risen even higher for effective resistance.

There is nothing to fear from the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus or the imposition of martial law. The situation which the U.S.-Marcos clique has created in Greater Manila and throughout the country is no different from the situation in Tarlac, Pampanga, Isabela and many other areas where the Party, the people’s army and the revolutionary masses themselves create their own freedom of action by uniting together and taking the initiative into their hands in fighting the enemy.

We unite with all patriotic and progressive forces that are willing to purge the country of the fascist tyranny and puppetry of the Marcos ruling clique. By isolating and destroying the Marcos fascist puppet clique, we advance the revolutionary mass movement against U.S. imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.

Long live the Filipino people!

Long live the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army!

Long live the Philippine revolution!

Long live the national united front!

Long live the spirit of the martyrs for the people’s democratic cause!

People’s war is the answer to martial law!