Oplan Makabayan:
Fascist scheme of the US-Estrada regime

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

In Estrada's rabidly reactionary and narrow-minded view, anything short of a brutal approach to a people waging revolution is called "babying". Thus in September 1998, as soon as he took the reins of power in Malaca�ang, Estrada immediately geared into action the militarist policy and scheme Oplan Makabayan (OPMAK) to wage an all-out military offensive to "crush" the revolutionary movement — even if, for a time, he was obliged to make a show of respecting the then ongoing peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front.

Worse, Estrada's militarism and fascism against the revolutionary movement are an integral part of the reactionary and puppet agenda that wagers on complete servility to US imperialism and foreign monopoly capital and the restoration to power of the Marcoses and the worst of their minions. Obsolete rhetoric that whips up anticommunist hysteria is being reechoed to justify and cover up this brazenly reactionary, puppet and pro-Marcos policy.

Behind this policy is the intense desire to grab a share in the multi-billion peso Marcos loot, monopolize the privileges and benefits of power and protect their faction's hold on power while defending the rotten semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system in the face of grave crisis and the continued restrengthening of the revolutionary movement.

OPMAK

Estrada's Oplan Makabayan (OPMAK) presents a distinctive shift from Ramos' Oplan Kaisaganaan. Although just as reactionary and counter-revolutionary, Oplan Kaisaganaan attempted to expand on political methods of dismantling the revolutionary movement even as it called for unrelenting military offensives against the guerrilla fronts of the New People's Army (NPA). It exploited the grave setbacks suffered by the Party and the movement due to the serious internal deviations and errors perpetrated by revisionists and opportunist renegades, as well as the temporary financial and commercial upswing brought about by the influx of foreign speculative capital into the country.

Ramos imagined that it would not be long before the revolutionary movement would be completely destroyed. The armed revolution was dismissed as a dwindling problem for the police. "Modernization" was put forth as the new priority of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to enable it to cope with "external threats". Ramos and the other reactionaries failed to anticipate either the victory of the Second Great Rectification Movement or the extreme volatility of a financial and commercial upswing based on speculative capital.

Estrada's Oplan Makabayan once again raises "counter-insurgency" as the top priority of the AFP and the Philippine National Police (PNP), sets aside "modernization", brusquely maligned and terminated the peace talks, is quickly expanding the Citizens' Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) anew and has intensified military offensives to "suppress" the revolutionary movement. AFP-PNP and CAFGU forces have been widely deployed in NPA guerrilla fronts. Surveillance, suppression and terrorism against the revolutionary and progressive forces have been intensified in the countryside and cities.

Civilian agencies of the reactionary state, reactionary and pseudo-progressive NGOs (non-governmental organizations) as well as socioeconomic projects are being used in the military, intelligence and psychological operations of OPMAK. A separate AFP machinery for "psychological operations" and news and mass media manipulation has been formed. The machinery for conducting the "legal offensive" including the reactionary courts has also been strengthened to criminalize various forms of revolutionary and progressive resistance, harass and entrap revolutionaries and progressives and cover up fascist abuses of human rights.

As with the Oplan Lambat-Bitag and Oplan Kaisaganaan series, military campaigns and operations against the NPA revolve around the concept of triad operations: civic-military operations or CMO, intelligence and military operations. The overall campaign and operational methodology known as "clear, hold, consolidate and develop" or CHCD remains.

In reaction to the extensive and intensified guerrilla warfare being waged by the NPA, OPMAK puts a lot of stress on the training, formation and utilization of relatively small and special counter-guerrilla units (Scout Rangers and Special Forces). Military operations in the countryside, although not as large-scale nor as prolonged as the brigade-size campaigns that characterized Lambat-Bitag, are intensive and escalating.

Aside from subverting the peace talks, OPMAK, in the short span of its existence, has exacerbated the situation of the people in the countryside and cities. It has led to the more rampant and intense abuse of human rights, especially of the poor in the countryside and cities. Extrajudicial killings, torture, illegal searches and arrests, food blockades, abuses against women and other forms of fascist atrocities have grown in number and have even worsened. Legal progressive organizations and personalities in urban areas are hounded and suppressed.

The intensifying repression and violence against the revolutionary and progressive forces coincide with the intensifying mass media suppression and the US-Estrada regime's efforts to push for greater restrictions on democratic rights. The reactionary, puppet and fascist schemes of the US-Estrada regime, including OPMAK, are rapidly aggravating social conflicts and the political crisis of the semicolonial and semifeudal system. They also rapidly expose and isolate the US-Estrada regime as a regime of the worst minions of the despised Marcos fascist dictatorship.

Intensify guerrilla warfare and the mass movement

There is nothing in Oplan Makabayan's concept and strategy that should surprise the revolutionary movement. The oplan is a summation of obsolete fantasies about destroying the Party's political structure in the countryside and cities and a sterile formula of fascist aggression against the people.

The revolutionary movement gained strength during the US-Marcos dictatorship despite fascist attacks. US imperialism's low intensity conflict strategy was not able to deter its advance. The total war policy and the intensified psychological warfare of the Aquino and Ramos regimes did not hinder the revolutionary movement's ideological, political, organizational and military development.

The Party and the NPA are in a position to further intensify guerrilla warfare. There are 81 guerrilla fronts nationwide with sufficient strength to firmly confront and frustrate OPMAK. They have the capability to launch tactical offensives and advance political campaigns against the oplan's fascist objectives. Above all, the revolutionary forces are armed with knowledge on the specific conditions of their areas of responsibility to overcome the oplan.

The terror that Oplan Makabayan will sow will stoke the fires of the people's burning anger. OPMAK will surely be vanquished and relegated to the dustbins of history.

00 July 1999
English Edition

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