Bush and his cohorts are the real terrorists

Luis Jalandoni
Chief International Representative
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
November 10, 2002

[On Sunday, November 10, some 5,000 people marched through Brussels with the slogans "Stop the war against Iraq", "No sanctions against Iraq" and "Free Palestine". The rally was organized by the Coordination Stop the United States of Aggression (StopUSA). Louie Jalandoni, the international representative of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, addressed the rally, linking the struggle against US imperialist wars to the fight to get Prof. Jose Maria Sison off the US and EU lists of 'terrorists'.]

Comrades and Friends,

Warmest greetings from the revolutionary forces of the Filipino people! The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) joins you in denouncing the Bush War directed against Iraq and other nations and peoples who oppose US domination. We salute the heroic Palestinian people and express our firm solidarity for their struggle against the US-backed Sharon regime.

The Number One terrorist force in the entire history of the Filipino people is US imperialism. The US pretended to protect the newly established Philippine Republic founded by the Filipino revolutionary forces in 1898. These revolutionary forces had just overthrown three centuries of Spanish colonial rule. The US waged a war of conquest from 1899 to 1916. It sent 126,000 troops to subjugate the Filipino people. 1.4 million Filipinos died. This was the first and very grievous act of state terrorism committed by US imperialism against the Filipino people.

The US colonized the Philippines and has subjected the Filipino people to more than a century of exploitation and oppression, another form of state terrorism. It established its military bases. Even after granting nominal independence in 1946, it used these military bases as launching pads of aggression against Vietnam, Korea and Indonesia. It supported the fascist Marcos dictatorship from 1972 to 1986 that caused the death and forcible displacement of hundreds of thousands.

In 1991 a powerful mass movement supported a Senate vote that kicked out the US military bases. But since then, the US has schemed to reestablish its military presence in the Philippines. In 1999 it signed a Visiting Forces Agreement with the puppet Estrada regime. Now under the most subservient Macapagal-Arroyo government, it is preparing a Mutual Logistics Support Agreement that will provide it with basing facilities. Under the pretext of fighting global terrorism, it is sending thousands of US troops in an unending series of joint war exercises.

The revolutionary movement of the Filipino people led by the Communist Party of the Philippines since 1968 has grown through 33 years of revolutionary struggle. Its New People's Army is now active in 128 guerrilla fronts throughout the country. The CPP and NPA and 15 other allied organizations in the NDFP have revolutionary mass organizations and organs of political power in these areas. They conduct programs of land reform, health, basic education and literacy, culture, and self-defense. They are a liberation movement that is a firm anti-imperialist force.

Hence, it is not surprising that the US declared the CPP, NPA and Prof. Jose Maria Sison, the Chief Political Consultant of the NDFP in peace negotiations as terrorist last August. The Dutch government followed suit and on 28 October this year the European Union declared the NPA and Prof. Sison as terrorists. Prof. Sison is a recognized political refugee in the Netherlands, confirmed as a refugee by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Dutch Council of State and Amnesty International.

The US and the puppet Philippine government want to pressure the NDFP to sign an agreement of capitulation. Failing to do this, they have launched an all-out war against the revolutionary forces and threaten the extradition of Prof. Sison to the US. The US wants to reestablish its military presence in the Philippines to ensure its geopolitical interests in East Asia. It also wants to take hold of the oil, gold, deuterium and other minerals in southern Philippines.

We are determined to carry forward our struggle for national and social liberation even as we support the just struggles of other peoples. We call for solidarity in our fight against the threat of extradition of Prof. Sison and for our political and legal struggle to erase the names of Prof. Sison, the NPA and the CPP from the lists of terrorists.

With the struggling peoples all over the world, we declare:

"Fighting for liberation is not terrorism! It is the right of every people to fight for self-determination against imperialist exploitation and oppression."

The peoples of the world know who are the real terrorists. Bush, Sharon, Pinochet, Marcos, Suharto and other such terrorists will not escape the judgment of the world's peoples.

Long live the anti-imperialist solidarity of the world's peoples!

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