Interview with Ka Roger
Following are excerpts from an email interview conducted in April by Delfin Mallari of the Philippine Daily Inquirer with Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, National Spokesperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Delfin Mallari (DM): What has prodded the revolutionary movement, though it is not directly participating, to provide opportunities for its legal organizations to actively participate in the elections? In the past, you junked elections as a mere instrument of deception by the ruling class, but now you seem to have changed your views. What is behind this?
Ka Roger (KR): As with the past elections, the coming polls are controlled by the ruling classes. The reactionary nature of elections under existing conditions must be exposed. We must dispel any illusion that the polls can solve the country's basic problems.
The Party, the people's army and the underground revolutionary organizations and alliances, and even their cadres and forces whom the state considers illegal and devoid of the right to vote, do not participate in reactionary elections. What the revolutionary forces advocate are genuinely free elections under the democratic people's government.
Nonetheless, legal forms of struggle to fight for the national and democratic interests of the people are not contradictory, though they are secondary to armed methods of struggle. Thus, the Party considers the participation of progressive organizations and candidates in elections as a fine thing.
The few opportunities wherein progressive candidates and organizations, such as Bayan Muna, are able to participate significantly and show good prospects in the elections, result not from concessions granted them by reactionary elections but from the strengthening of the democratic mass movement.
Nevertheless, everyone must understand that even if progressives win positions, reactionaries will not allow the prevailing oppressive system to be replaced by a just and progressive one. In the final analysis, the most that progressive officials can do within the reactionary parliament is to advance the people's interests and expose the corruption of the ruling system and its inutility to address the demands of the oppressed and exploited masses.
DM: The collection of what you have termed as "permit to campaign fees" has once more become prevalent in areas you control. There are some who believe that this is not a just practice of the NPA, especially now that you are supporting some parties and candidates.
Also in this regard, Ka Roger, are there occasions when you allow some candidates to campaign within areas under your control even if they do not seek permission?
KR: The collection of "permit to campaign fees" is a correct exercise of political power and state rights by the revolutionary movement. This is being implemented to defend the integrity of territories controlled by the people's democratic government.
This right is likewise used to bar rabid counterrevolutionaries and antipeople politicians from sowing deception and holding the reins of political power.
All politicians desiring to campaign within territories under the control of the people's democratic government must seek "permits to campaign". But of course, we distinguish between reactionaries and friends. We do not collect "permit to campaign fees" from progressive candidates. This is part of the application of united front policy on issues pertaining to elections.
DM: It is also said that this practice of the NPA seems to push elected officials to steal from the government to recoup what they spent in the elections, including what they paid in "permit to campaign fees". Ka Roger, may I ask you for an explanation on this matter?
KR: The truth is that the amount shelled out by corrupt and reactionary politicians for their "permit to campaign" comprises a very small percentage of their overall election expenditures. In our experience, whether the NPA collects from these corrupt and reactionary politicians or not, they will nonetheless use their positions in the bureaucracy to amass wealth and use their privileges for various gains. Thus, they are ready to spend such large sums and even kill each other, just to attain power.
DM: Groups on the other side, particularly those identified with the late Popoy Lagman, say that with your current participation in the elections, through Bayan Muna, they have once again been proven correct, as they have long been participating in elections. In this sense, they say that you are mere copycats.
KR: The use of, and the weight given by, the Party and the national-democratic revolutionary movement to elections and parliamentary methods of struggle are radically different. Even as the Party recognizes them as secondary forms of struggle, the Party and revolutionary movement strictly consider elections and parliamentary forms of struggle within the framework of protracted people's war and armed struggle as the main form of struggle.
On the other hand, the revisionist renegades like Popoy have swung like pendulums from ultra-Left insurrectionism to Right parliamentarism. They are engaging in wishful thinking if they believe that the reactionary ruling classes will allow state power to be handed over to the exploited and oppressed classes merely through elections.
DM: Although I realize that there is no concrete basis to stop using such a tactic in the struggle, I would still like to know from you as the Party and the army's spokesperson, how you view your experience with the two prisoners of war, Martin and Buan.
KR: The long period in which the NPA held in its custody Chief Inspector Martin and Major Buan shows the NPA's ability to hold prisoners of war for an indefinite period in accordance with international humanitarian law, the rules of war and its own policies on the humane treatment of prisoners. This, despite incessant rescue and regular operations launched by the AFP and PNP against the NPA and its mass base.
The death of PCI Martin and the release of Major Buan demonstrate through the two differing developments that the safe and orderly release of prisoners of war can be effected only through negotiations.
DM: How do you view the recent developments regarding the ongoing peace talks?
KR: The basic changes desired by the Party, NPA and the entire revolutionary movement cannot be achieved without armed struggle and its constitution as the main form of struggle.
The Party, the NPA and the revolutionary movement are serious in entering the peace talks with the objective of drawing attention to the basic problems of the Filipino people, which lie at the root of the current armed conflict. Nonetheless, the maneuvers and dirty tactics of the militarists, which include prematurely raising the issue of a "national ceasefire" are damaging to the spirit and orderly flow of the peace negotiations.
We can expect the peace talks to go through many twists and turns. There also lies the possibility that the talks will be stalled and will fail, especially since the militarists within the Macapagal-Arroyo government are aggressive and dominant. They are the main threats to the peace talks.
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