Southern Tagalog's response to Oplan Makabayan:
Launch tactical offensives, advance the mass movement

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

Starting mid-1998, fascist military and police forces have been massively deployed in Southern Tagalog. Aside from the 4th Special Forces, the 3rd Scout Ranger Battalion has also been assigned to the region. The battalions under the 2nd Infantry Division have likewise been deployed to Southern Tagalog full force, in addition to the entire First Marine Brigade that is currently enforcing Oplan Galugad in Palawan. Organic forces of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Mobile Group have remained intact.

Aside from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) regular troops, Citizens' Armed Forces Geographical Units (CAFGU) and the Civilian Volunteers Organization are being formed and expanded. In accordance with the US-Estrada regime's current counterrevolutionary scheme Oplan Makabayan, the Department of National Defense has raised the 1999 budget allocation for the CAFGU to P870 million (from P512 million in 1998).

Moreover, the AFP and PNP have expanded and strengthened their informer networks in barrios, communities, factories, schools and other population centers. Overlapping AFP and PNP intelligence units in the region are building their respective network of informers at various levels.

Under Oplan Makabayan, the intensification of counterrrevolution in Southern Tagalog has been identified as the number one priority. The region is considered to have special significance because it is adjacent to the national capital and is an ideal place for the revolutionary movement to launch its national propaganda. The region has also had a leading role in advancing guerrilla warfare and the mass movement.

The revolutionary movement in Southern Tagalog is aware of the implications of OPMAK's concentrated attack in the region. It will resolutely resist the enemy's counterrevolutionary scheme by intensifying tactical offensives and the mass movement along the line of waging extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare based on ever-expanding and ever-deepening mass support.

The New People's Army (NPA) and the revolutionary masses suffered several hardships in the conduct of revolutionary work because of the oplan, which was begun in 1998. Violations of the people's human rights have intensified. The latest incident involves the abduction of three farmers from Maragondon, Cavite on July 14. The victims have yet to be surfaced by the military. Noel Barrientos and Ruel Landicho, members of the Kalipunan ng Makabayang Mindore�o, were also illegally arrested on July 23 in Oriental Mindoro.

Tactical offensives and the mass movement have in fact intensified in the region despite the onslaught of the AFP and PNP s military offensives in guerrilla zones and fronts and against progressive forces in the urban areas of Southern Tagalog.

Since 1998, more than 30 tactical offensives have been launched in the entire region, including sparrow operations, ambushes, raids and sniping. Among them are the tactical offensives launched this July in Romblon and Marinduque, the first military actions of the NPA in the two provinces. Confiscated in these offensives were 35 firearms of various caliber. Twenty-three enemy targets composed of AFP, PNP and CAFGU forces as well as armed goons of landlords and other bad elements were killed and 10 were wounded.

Antifeudal struggles are also advancing, especially in the provinces of Quezon, Laguna and Occidental Mindoro. People's protests against quarrying and mining are widespread. Different forms of protests and mass struggles are being militantly advanced against rapidly worsening fascist abuses and other human rights violations.

Moreover, the resurgence of the NPA's tactical offensives in other regions, especially in Southern and Northeastern Mindanao and in Central Visayas has divided the attention and forces of the AFP. Just recently, the AFP high command was compelled to shift forces in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao as it scrambled to put a lid on the intensification of the NPA's guerrilla warfare and the outburst of mass protests and struggles. The outbreak of large-scale fighting between the AFP and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front also remains imminent.

The revolutionary movement in Southern Tagalog firmly believes that Oplan Makabayan will suffer ignominious defeat and reap the profound hatred of the people. The movement in the region abides by the long revolutionary tradition of the people of Southern Tagalog; on the consolidation of the Party and the movement under the Second Great Rectification Movement; on the everexpanding and ever-strengthening support of the people who could no longer endure their extreme exploitation and oppression at the hands of the reactionary ruling class; and on the continued all-out and steadfast advance of the armed revolution in different parts of the archipelago.

00 July 1999
English Edition

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