Editorial:
Batter the Arroyo regime with more tactical offensives

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The revolutionary forces and masses nationwide acclaim the NPA's brilliant tactical offensives in Samar and Compostela Valley that have resulted in the confiscation of relatively large numbers of weapons and the annihilation of fascist enemy troops.

The offensives are in accordance with the general revolutionary line and call of the 11th Plenum of the CPP Central Committee to intensify the revolutionary armed struggle based on the expansion and strengthening of the revolutionary mass base and attendant to the advance of the peasant masses' antifeudal struggle in the countryside.

They are a concrete response to the people's seething needs and aspirations in the face of their extreme oppression and hardship at the hands of the reactionary regime. The conduct of these tactical offensives is part of the escalation of various types of people's resistance to the puppet, militarist and corrupt Arroyo regime.

It is likewise necessary to intensify tactical offensives to arm the people's army and further expand it, strengthen it and enhance its capability to meet the ever-growing task of advancing people's war.

These offensives show that the Arroyo regime's much-vaunted militarism and its all-out war against the NPA are a failure. The NPA continues to grow stronger nationwide consequent to the victories of the Second Great Rectification Movement and as proof of the correctness of the line of extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare based on an ever-widening and ever-deepening mass base at the present stage of launching protracted people's war in the Philippines. It enjoys ever-widening mass support and reaps continuous and more numerous victories.

The people's war is advancing more rapidly as a consequence of the puppet mercenary army's extreme isolation from the masses and the reactionary government's severe anxiety, saddled as it is with mounting and utterly irresolvable problems. This has now been exacerbated by the country's more onerous foreign debt obligations and growing military expenditures.

The regime is beside itself thinking of ways to quench the fires of revolutionary armed struggle in various parts of the country with the overextended forces of the AFP. Though huge, the AFP can only concentrate its forces in some guerrilla fronts. Even in the areas it can cover, the AFP cannot maintain its presence everywhere.

Even then, the bulk of Philippine Army, Marine and Special Forces battalions are already deployed in NPA guerrilla fronts. In reality, even in Mindanao, there are more AFP forces in the guerrilla fronts of the NPA than in the areas of the MILF, MNLF, Abu Sayyaf and other Moro forces.

This June, the regime was forced to withdraw some troops deployed against the MILF and redeploy them to the guerrilla fronts in Samar. Two battalions and one Reconnaissance Company were added to Samar after the conduct of two victorious NPA offensives in the island. One of them, the 14th IB, had been transferred to Sulu in 2001 in response to the growing resistance of the Moro people in the area. Arroyo has also ordered the police and the local government to fill the void in areas that the AFP cannot cover.

The additional deployment of AFP troops to a number of guerrilla fronts will surely result in more widespread and graver abuses against the people. Nevertheless, it will provide more targets for NPA tactical offensives.

With no hope for the reactionary military forces to defeat the revolution, the Arroyo regime has no one else to turn to but US imperialism. In colluding with US President George W. Bush, Arroyo has been firmly pushing for US military intervention, using the latter as her foremost boogeyman. She also wants to use it as the main instrument in confronting the country's growing revolutionary forces.

On orders of US imperialism to run roughshod over the peace talks, the regime is stupidly threatening to nullify the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). Actually, the regime has long junked the JASIG. It has directly violated the agreement by colluding with US imperialism in declaring the CPP and the NPA as "terrorist." The filing of fabricated criminal cases against Jose Maria Sison and his continuous harassment are likewise violations of the JASIG.

These measures of the Arroyo regime have rendered ineffective the efforts of House Speaker Jose de Venecia this June 28 to revive the peace talks. To resume the talks, Arroyo must withdraw her campaign in the US and Europe to have the CPP, the NPA and Jose Maria Sison categorized as "terrorist."

To support its "terrorist" declaration, which the CPP and the NPA have strongly objected to and refuted, the Arroyo regime is now weaving a web of lies, which include accusations of NPA involvement in illegal drugs and in maintaining marijuana plantations in guerrilla zones. All of this, however, can be easily belied. The truth of the AFP, PNP and government leaders' leading roles behind the country's illegal drug trade is likewise being exposed.

Arroyo is likewise obstructing the GRP-MILF talks the same way she is impeding peace talks between the GRP and the NDFP. The GRP has declared the MILF as "terrorist" and has issued arrest orders against its leaders to put up huge stumbling blocks to the continuation of the peace talks.

The NPA is in a position to intensify the revolutionary armed struggle. The NPA is constantly aware that when the AFP concentrates its forces in particular areas, it leaves many other areas wide open. Even when enemy forces are concentrated, it is important for the NPA to pinpoint and deliver blows on the enemy's relatively weak points.

The Arroyo regime cannot prevent the escalation of the armed struggle especially now that the regime is mired ever deeper in the crisis of the ruling system. It is bankrupt, steeped in decadence and corruption and is beset with fractiousness. The Arroyo regime is extremely hated by, and isolated from, the people.

On the other hand, the revolutionary movement continues to expand, deepen and strengthen itself nationwide. It is advancing the armed struggle together with the agrarian revolution and mass base building. The various arenas and sections of the revolutionary movement are consciously linked and cooperate with one another, as with the movement in the countryside and in the cities. It is boldly expanding the national united front as the revolution enjoys the deep and broad support of the Filipino people.

07 July 2003
English Edition

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