From the Editors
In commemoration of International Human Rights Day, Ang Bayan has come out with this advance release of its November-December 1999 issue. This issue aims to focus attention on children's rights in the context of the raging civil war in the Philippines.
In particular, we aim to belie the Estrada regime's pretensions to being pro-children and thereby junk its propaganda on the New People's Army's (NPA) supposed policy of recruiting child guerrillas in violation of international standards and rules of war.
This vacuous issue is being concocted by Estrada and his fascist commanders in a futile attempt to demolish the ever-expanding support of the Filipino people for the armed struggle and besmirch the rising prestige of the Party and the revolutionary movement in the field of international diplomacy. It is a desperate move to cover up its sins against children, especially its targetting of children in its fascist war in the countryside.
To thoroughly belie the Estrada government's perverted propaganda, we are publishing this statement from the Military Commission of the Party Central Committee (dated August 30) that clarifies a long-standing policy of the Party and the NPA on the minimum age requirement for recruitment into the NPA. Likewise, to reinforce and further elaborate on this policy, the Executive Committee of the Party Central Committee (EC-CC) issued on October 15 a memorandum on the "Minimum Age Requirement for NPA Fighters" that we have also included in this issue. These also serve as reminders to all NPA units.
Due to their intense oppression, thousands of children and youth, especially the sons and daughters of the toiling masses, are enthusiastically lining up to become part of the revolutionary movement. As they suffer oppression, they quickly grasp that it is only the people and the revolutionary movement that can guarantee a bright future for children. They and their oppressed parents are the deep wellsprings of the Party, the people's army and the revolutionary mass organizations.
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