PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

NPA was not at Hacienda Luisita demonstration--Ka Roger
November 19, 2004

CPP spokesman Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal issued this statement to state explicitly that the New People's Army (NPA) did not participate in the November 16 Hacienda Luisita demonstration:

Allow us to state explicitly that Red fighters of the New People's Army (NPA) did not participate in the Hacienda Luisita demonstration of November 16 that was brutally dispersed by troops of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police.

Neither was the NPA responsible for the mobilization of thousands of peasants supporting the workers' strike at the Central Azucarera de Tarlac.

We condemn Malaca�ang and the Cojuangcos for maligning the thousands of peasants who supported the CAT workers' strike. They bare their extreme class hatred and contempt for the peasantry by imputing evil intent on others from the peasantry who gave their ardent support to their struggling class brothers and sisters at the CAT.

The NPA carries out guerrilla warfare in the countryside. NPA Red fighters serve the peasants and unite them in struggling for land reform.

The NPA is careful not to step within the bounds of the people's legal struggle precisely to prevent reactionaries from using this to justify the use of armed means to quell the people's legitimate unarmed struggles.

But the NPA vows to mete punishment on the perpetrators of the Hacienda Luisita Massacre. Within the guerrilla zones, tactical offensives will be carried out to punish the fascist mercenaries who serve the interests of the Cojuangcos and trample on the people's rights and aspirations.