Correspondence Reports:
Deceiving the people through �peace zones�

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The regime has once again been dishing out a worn-out scheme to deceive and pacify a people up in arms. The Arroyo regime, in connivance with reactionary institutions and organizations in the Cordillera revived the �peace zones� in Mt. Province in November. It pinpointed seven towns as �peace zones��Sabangan, Bauko, Tadian, Bontoc, Sadanga, Sagada and Besao.

�Peace zones� are supposedly areas where neither the New People�s Army nor the Armed Forces of the Philippines is allowed to enter. The supposed rationale is to maintain peace and continue with the livelihood projects and programs

In actuality, �peace zones� are set up to drive out Red fighters, especially from areas where the ruling classes have large projects like mining, dams, logging and megatourism. Their purpose is to put a stop to or weaken revolutionary work, consciousness-raising and people�s organizing and convert the place into a �free zone� for reactionaries. The AFP is allowed to freely enter and launch military operations, set up detachments and recruit CAFGU elements. The official line is that AFP soldiers are there only for �rest and recreation.� Government agencies and counterrevolutionary and reformist organizations and institutions are likewise allowed to enter and deceive the people. At no time does the Philippine National Police leave the �peace zones.�

The �peace zone� first appeared in the Cordillera during the US-Aquino regime. The Coalition for Peace, a reformist organization of social-democrats, as well as some politicians and conservative church people made a show of interceding in the fighting between the NPA and the AFP. It was first experimented on in Sagada, Mountain Province and in Tabuk, Kalinga.

But not long afterward, the �peace zone� scheme ended up a complete failure. It did not resolve even by an iota, the roots of poverty and exploitation which drive the people to embrace the revolution and defend their lives, land and livelihood. The NPA refused to recognize it. Comrades refused to be deterred and the people in the area continued to support them. Because of that experience, the �peace zone� scheme failed to make headway in other parts of the country.

The �peace zone� scheme is sheer deception perpetrated to make the people passive, pacify them, silence them and prevent them from waging resistance. It peddles the nonsensical idea that violent class struggle may be resolved by banning the NPA, and that the issues under contention in the ongoing civil war may be solved through simple dialogue. The peddlers of this line pretend to be neutral and turn a blind eye to the war that will liberate the exploited and oppressed.

This is also a tactic of the reactionary government to push for local negotiations between the AFP and the NPA. It only shows the reactionary government�s lack of sincerity and decisiveness in its negotiations with the NDFP. It attempts to divide the revolutionary forces because it reckons that it can crush the NPA more easily by conducting several separate peace negotiations.

21 January 2004
English Edition

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