AFP soldiers encouraged to join revolutionary movement
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) is encouraging an even greater number of officers and soldiers of the reactionary government to join the revolutionary movement. In a four-page open letter dated September 4, CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal urged government troops to join the revolutionary movement or help it by spiriting away firearms from military armories and providing valuable information, aside from fulfilling other revolutionary tasks.
Ka Roger once again announced the establishment of the Lt. Crispin Tagamolila Movement (LCTM) within the AFP. The LCTM was named after a Philippine Military Academy graduate who joined the NPA in 1971 and was martyred in an encounter in Isabela in 1973. Ka Roger said that joining the LCTM was equivalent to taking a stand against the Arroyo regime's puppetry, corruption and all-out terrorist war.
Ka Roger wrote directly to junior officers and ordinary soldiers and elements of the AFP, PNP and CAFGU who, he said, likewise come from the poor, oppressed and exploited masses and are likewise oppressed by high-ranking officers within the military organization.
Ka Roger suggested various means for soldiers to help the revolutionary movement.
The first is to form secret study groups to study their grievances and link them to the basic problems of the Filipino people.
Ka Roger also suggested that the soldiers launch open struggles to assert their legitimate rights and welfare. "They may also put out open letters, form unions and use other possible democratic venues to assert their interests."
Ka Roger likewise invited the officers and rank-and-file to diligently study the program of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) because of its superiority to the Magdalo Group's National Recovery Program in terms of its "comprehensiveness, relevance and depth in addressing the fundamental problems of the Filipino people."
Ka Roger also told the junior officers and rank-and-file that they may avoid encounters with the NPA. If these cannot be avoided, he said, they may immediately declare a ceasefire and yield their arms to the NPA. "Dying for a rotten organization and a rotten system is just not worth it," says Ka Roger.
Ka Roger reminded them that the revolutionary movement ensures the rights of soldiers who have surrendered and humanely treats captured soldiers in accordance with international rules of war and humanitarian law.
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