The Macapagal-Arroyo regime spews out lies like Goebbels did

Negotiating Panel
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
December 13, 2004

Vainly believing that by spewing out and repeating even the most outrageous lies it can deceive the people, the Macapagal-Arroyo regime has declared the New People's Army as the worst human rights violator and accused it of illegal logging and causing the death of many hundreds. The same tactic was used by Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda chief, who claimed that by continuously repeating lies, the lies would ultimately be accepted as truth.

But the people cannot be deceived by the regime's lies. The experience of the people in the countrysides and in the cities proves that it is the regime's military and police that kill, maim and injure the people, destroy their properties, and violate their basic human and democratic rights in order to serve the interests of the foreign mining companies, the logging companies, the rest of the big comprador bourgeoisie, big landlords and bureaucrat capitalists.

The brutal massacre at Hacienda Luisita on November 16, 2004 and the summary execution of the key witness of the massacre, Marcelino Beltran, on December 8, 2004 are stark examples of such atrocities against the people. The Arroyo regime, including the President herself as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Secretary of Labor Patricia Sto. Tomas, the Cojuangcos and Aquinos, the military and police officers who carried out the massacre, these are the worst human rights violators. The killers of the regime, such as General Jovito Palparan, are the big violators of human rights. No amount of spewing out lies that the NPA are the worst human rights violators can erase the truth of the bitter experience of the people.

The records prove that the Macapagal-Arroyo regime, as did its predecessors, approved and allowed foreign and local logging firms to denude our forests as to cause the massive floods and landslides that have resulted in so many deaths. This is true not only in the areas of the latest catastrophe. It is true of so many other areas in our country. This regime and the cronies whose logging concessions it has approved are criminally liable for all the death and destruction they cause.

On the other hand, it is also the experience of the people in the rural areas, wherever the New People's Army is active, that the NPA and other revolutionary forces protect the people against logging companies, foreign mining companies and other destroyers of the environment.

On a related matter, President Macapagal-Arroyo has hailed the recent Supreme Court reversal of its earlier decision to declare unconstitutional the Mining Act of 1995. This means that Financial and Technical Assistance agreements (FTAAs) allowing foreign mining companies to plunder up to 100,000 hectares of land are to be promoted, causing not only the displacement of numerous indigenous people but further destruction of the environment and even more disastrous floods and landslides. This regime is surrendering our country's economic sovereignty, promoting the unbridled plunder of our country and in effect agreeing to the death and destruction that results from these.

It is indeed a deceitful and murderous regime. It must be militantly opposed and isolated.

Luis G. Jalandoni
Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

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