After due and thorough preliminary investigation, the people's prosecutor found probable cause to recommend the issuance of a warrant of arrest by the people's court against Raymundo for the crime of murder in the death of Ruben Lingkuran, a peasant. Moreover, the people's prosecutor also found a probable cause to directly link Raymundo, as an active and leading member of the Barangay Intelligence Network (BIN), to the death of an NPA fighter, the wounding of four others and the capture of another in an encounter with the 74th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) on 16 May 2002. As an active intelligence agent of the 74th IBPA, Raymundo was also found to have been responsible for several strike operations against NPA units by the AFP, including the failed attack on an NPA unit in October 2002.
No one among the ranks of Akbayan-Peace Foundation, Inc. and the armed group of Pedro Tejeno cried for justice in the killing of Ruben Lingkuran. In fact the offices of Akbayan-Peace Foundation Inc. became one of the hideouts of Raymundo Tejeno in Metro Manila after he killed Lingkuran.
The killing of Felizardo Benitez, a peasant leader in Juanito Uy's hacienda, by Raymundo Carabot Jr. on March 21, 2004 deserves full condemnation. The revolutionary movement is determined to bring Carabot and his accomplices before the bar of revolutionary justice. Felizardo Benitez was a genuine peasant leader. After being lured temporarily by the poison of Akbayan-Peace Foundation, Inc. and the armed group of Pedro Tejeno, Benitez realized that he had been deceived and led his fellow peasants in the hacienda in repudiating these groups of opportunists and bandits. He also exposed the bogus CARP. He even signed a petition with his fellow peasants on March 2, 2004, a few weeks before his death to show where he stood (See Annex A). This expose' by Felizardo Benitez was made even after he and his child were earlier extolled as examples by Akbayan-Peace Foundation, Inc. and the armed group of Pedro Tejeno as alleged victims of so-called violations of their rights by the NPA.
The Maria Theresa De Leon Command makes it known to all that the killing of Felizardo Benitez is now before the judicial system of the revolutionary movement. The movement intends to make sure that everyone responsible for his death will face revolutionary justice. On the other hand, the opportunists Akbayan-Peace Foundation, Inc. and the bandit Pedro Tejeno have turned Benitez's death into a milking cow for their finance generating schemes with local and international funding agencies in utter disrespect for the dead and his family.
The Revolutionary Movement's Policy of Banning the Formation, Maintenance and Employment of Armed Groups
The revolutionary movement has a policy of banning the formation, maintenance and employment of any armed group used for victimizing the peasant masses and opposing the revolutionary movement in the jurisdiction of NPA guerilla fronts. The Maria Theresa De Leon Command has consistently implemented this policy within its operational control. Any armed group formed, maintained and employed by any landlord, bourgeois-comprador and foreign capitalist to harass, terrorize and grab the farmlands of peasants, as well as oppose the revolutionary movement, are considered legitimate targets of military operations by any unit of the Maria Theresa De Leon Command. The record of the Command speaks for itself.
Last December 14, 1997, a unit of the Maria Theresa De Leon Command successfully disarmed the combined armed group of the foreign capitalist James Murray and the 74th IBPA inside the Tumbaga Ranch, Pagsangahan, San Francisco, Quezon. Last July 31, 2001, a unit of the Command successfully dismantled landlord Willy Matias' armed group in Sitio Mangkarang, Barangay Silungin and Sitio Pung-oy, Barangay Casay, both in San Francisco, Quezon. Last December 20, 2001, a unit of the Command successfully disarmed landlord Domingo Reyes' armed group in Barangay Villa Reyes, San Narciso, Quezon. Last July 2003, the Command disarmed the private armed group of Mayor Popoy Emprese in Barangay Binyahan, San Andres, Quezon. These military operations delivered the most telling blows against the armed groups of the biggest landlords in Quezon Province and in far south Bondoc Peninsula.
On the other hand, the AFP and Philippine National Police (PNP) have been in cahoots with the big landlords, bureaucrat-compradors and foreign capitalists in forming, maintaining and employing private armed groups in Far South Quezon. In fact AFP personnel and arms are used to train and arm these paramilitary units to protect the exploitative and oppressive interests of the local ruling classes in Far South Quezon and the whole country. These private armed groupos, in tandem with the AFP and PNP, have for the longest time been used by the landlords, bureaucrat-compradors and foreign capitalists in grabbing the lands of the peasants and suppressing their just and legitimate struggles. This truth is very evident in the current placement of the camps and detachments of the AFP in the areas of the guerilla fronts of the Maria Theresa De Leon Command.
Corollary to the policy of prohibiting the formation, maintenance and employment of any armed group used for victimizing the peasant masses and opposing the revolutionary movement in the territorial jurisdiction of the revolutionary movement, the NPA also targets armed groups that engage in banditry against the masses. The success in the implementation of this policy in the Bondoc Peninsula has reduced suffering in the lives of the masses. For instance, the bandit and cattle-rustling syndicates headed by Sgt. Batibot and the Twelve Pairs Group (Dose Pares) that wreaked havoc on the lives and properties of the peasant masses and people in Bondoc Peninsula, were dismantled and neutralized by units of the New People's Army.
One of the armed groups presently functioning within the area of the Maria Theresa De Leon Command is the armed group formed and led by Pedro Tejeno under the direction of the AFP and the Akbayan-Peace Foundation, Inc. The AFP and these so-called reformers use this armed group to kill and terrorize peasants who resist and expose their opportunist line. They use this group to ensure that the lands in Juanito Uy's hacienda will go only to a few persons close to Pedro Tejeno.
The latest victim of this armed group is Paulo Tejeno, Pedro Tejeno's own 54 year-old brother. Paulo was killed for firmly opposing Pedro Tejeno's landgrabbing and actively defying the policies of Akbayan-Peace Foundation Inc. and KMBP. He was killed on April 25, 2004 by the armed group of Pedro Tejeno composed of the following: Cenon "Mr. Swabe" Tejeno, Hermin "Boyet" Valiente, Eugene "Ogie" Vivar and Jessie Tayaktak. The weapons they used were: a .45 caliber pistol, a shotgun, a .9mm pistol and a Magnum .357 pistol. (See Annex B)
Why is Akbayan-Peace Foundation, Inc. and BDP silent about the murder of Paulo Tejeno? Why is there no cry for justice for his death by these so-called reformers? Is it because his assassins are hiding in the offices of Akbayan-Peace Foundation, Inc. in Metro Manila? Yet these so-called reformers have the gall to campaign for justice before the international community on behalf of Raymundo Tejeno, a known intelligence operative of the AFP.
Take a look also at the case of Ms. Aireen Renon of sitio Baugon, Bgy. San Vicente on January 28, 2004. Acting as guides to the troops of the 416th PNP Mobile Group and the 74th IBPA in their military operations in Bgy. San Vicente, San Narciso, Quezon, Pedro Tejeno and his armed band pointed to Aireen Renon and her mother, leading to their arrest and detention and the sowing of terror among the peasant masses opposed to the bankrupt and opportunist line of Akbayan-Peace Foundation and BDP. This innocent girl was detained on trumped-up charges for almost two weeks before she was freed on bail of forty thousand pesos.
Together with the counterrevolutionary forces of the AFP/PNP and their intelligence agents (especially those with blood debts and who are incorrigible), the private armed groups, like the armed group of Pedro Tejeno of Akbayan-Peace Foundation Inc., are considered legitimate targets of operations by units of the Maria Theresa De Leon Command, unless they voluntarily surrender to the NPA or any organs of political power functioning within its area of operations, Moreover, in any grant of amnesty, the NPA and the organs of political power would have to look into their sincerity and desire to reform, demand that they surrender their arms and leave the armed group of Pedro Tejeno, and require that they ask for forgiveness and pay damages to those they have wronged.
On the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program or CARP
The revolutionary movement, the NPA and the Maria Theresa De Leon Command view Republic Act 6657 otherwise known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) of the reactionary government inutile, phony and deceptive. In its 16 years of implementation, land ownership has remained in the hands of big landlords, foreign agribusiness corporations and bureaucrat-capitalists. Take a look at the thief Danding Cojuangco and a number of others like him who have long been proven to have stolen and grabbed the lands and produce of the peasant masses. Until now they continue to seize lands from the peasants with impunity and to enjoy the fruits of the labor of coconut farmers.
The reconcentration of land ownership in the hands of a few big landlords and foreign agribusiness corporations continues, even of lands that the reactionary government has boasted to have distributed to the peasants masses under CARP. Until now, the peasant masses do not own the lands that they till and continue to suffer from feudal and semi-feudal exploitation.
It is clearly a deception to pass off as genuine the bogus CARP. Akbayan-Peace Foundation, Inc., BDP, and KMBP play a special role in this grand deception by acting as pseudo-land reformers and calling on the peasants to accept CARP. They are the willing tools of the AFP and the ruling Macapagal-Arroyo regime in deceiving the peasant masses. They function as special agents in the psywar tactics of the AFP. And while they praise the bogus CARP, they hide the continuing monopoly and landgrabbing by the big landlords and foreign agribusiness corporations. They even picture the Maria Theresa De Leon Command as opponents of land reform and, by extension, the New People's Army and the entire revolutionary movement. How good these agents are in performing their role for US imperialism, domestic feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, the three evils dominating Philippine society today.
The revolutionary program on land reform being pursued by the revolutionary peasant movement and the New People's Army is the genuine program that is most earnest, most determined and decidedly liberating to the peasant masses from land bondage, poverty, destitution and feudal and semi-feudal exploitation. This is the exact opposite of the series of bogus land reform programs of the successive regimes of the reactionary government of the imperialists and comprador-landlords.
In the pursuit of the two-pronged objectives of agrarian revolution, the revolutionary peasantry becomes conscious of its strength and on this basis pushes forward its struggles to dismantle the feudal and semi-feudal power of the landlord class, bourgeois-comprador and the agribusiness corporations of the imperialists.
At its present level of implementation, the agrarian revolution aims to achieve the following minimum objectives: lowering of land rent, eradicating usury, increasing the wages of farm workers, increasing the price of their farm produce, and lowering the costs of production, as well as increasing the cooperation and production of the peasant masses.
Within the scope of the guerilla front of the Maria Theresa De Leon Command, rent on land planted to coconuts has been lowered from 66-33 percent [landlord-farmer] to 60-40 to 50-50 with the costs for "tapas," "kawit" and "hila"[parts of the process for harvesting coconuts which the landlords still charge to the farmers] already deducted from what would be shared; while the rent on corn lands has been lowered from 66-33 by as much as ten to 15 percent. The wages of farm workers have also been increased, this past year by PhP50 on daily wages. The price for coconuts has been successfully increased from PhP2 a kilo in 2000 to Php9-PhP15 a kilo in 2001 until the present. The peasant masses have successfully responded to the campaign to increase production and the planting of prime food crops (rice, corn and vegetables). These campaigns benefited tens of thousands of farmers in the whole guerilla front. These campaigns will advance into higher levels in the next stages of development of the revolutionary peasant movement consistent with the strength and consolidation of the revolutionary organizations of the peasant masses, the New People's Army and the organs of political power.
The maximum objective of confiscation, nationalization and distribution of land to the peasant masses who are landless or have inadequate land to till shall be implemented on a nationwide scale on the eve of the victory of the national democratic revolution, according to the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
As a legitimate political force waging war against the current oppressive and exploitative semi-colonial and semi-feudal state, the revolutionary movement exercises its political power in guerilla fronts, including the guerilla front in which the Maria Theresa De Leon Command operates. These organs of political power are recognized by the people as well as the local bureaucracy of the reactionary government and the local ruling classes.
Within the framework of the minimum objective of the revolutionary program on agrarian reform, everybody, including the enlightened landlords, is encouraged to support and promote the revolutionary people's government and its policies and directives. The enlightened landlords are encouraged to be open to the demands of the peasant masses and to pay the appropriate revolutionary taxes based on their economic standing to allow them to continue managing their landholdings without apprehension from the revolutionary peasants and the New People's Army. The revolutionary peasant movement, together with the New People's Army, shall target with principal blows and strongest attacks the most despotic landlords who are hostile to the revolution and the peasant movement.
The implementation of the above policies is in accordance with the minimum objectives of the agrarian revolution and the rules for the establishment and operation of a revolutionary people's government. It shall never be tarnished by the agents of psychological warfare of the AFP and the Macapagal-Arroyo regime that sellout the national and democratic interests of the peasant masses, the workers and the Filipino people.
The real traitors and peddlers of the blood and struggle of the peasant masses and the Filipino people are these psychological warfare agents, some of whom are now leading and hiding behind the Akbayan-Peace Foundation Inc. and the armed group of Pedro Tejeno. While they mouth sugar-coated bullets and poison like "land to the peasant masses," they at the same time dance and sing to the tune of anti-peasant and anti-revolutionary campaigns of the AFP-PNP and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who are the primary violators of the provisions of the CARHRIHL.
In the context of the peace negotiations, and as the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP), enter the second agenda on Social and Economic Reforms, we challenge the GRP to approve and implement a genuine land reform program that would liberate the peasant masses from land bondage, feudal and semi-feudal exploitation, misery, destitution and backwardness. We call on the GRP to implement the following:
- a. Immediately confiscate and nationalize landholdings of the big landlords, bourgeois-compradors, bureaucrat-capitalists and foreign monopoly capitalists and distribute these to the peasant masses;
- b. Immediately implement national industrialization. Confiscate the businesses of foreign monopoly capitalists and nationalize vital industries such as oil, communications, mines, telecommunications, transportation, and others;
- c. Hold accountable and bring to the bar of justice the leading landgrabbers and plunderers of the public coffers like Danding Cojuangco, the Marcoses, Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and their cronies who collaborate with them in living off the stolen wealth of the Philippine nation and people.
It is the immediate implementation of the two aforementioned programs on land reform and national industrialization that shall provide lasting benefits to the peasant masses, workers and the Filipino people in their quest for genuine freedom, democracy and progress. It is not the hypocritical programs like CARP that only masks further the exploitation and oppression by the foreign monopoly capitalists, big bourgeois-compradors and big landlords, while burying further the peasant masses, workers and the Filipino nation to an oppressed, hapless, poor and destitute state.
We hope we were able to enlighten you regarding these issues.
Thank you very much and long live!
Related Documents:
Annex 1: VOLUNTARY STATEMENT OF THE PEASANTS/TENANTS OF HACIENDA UY in Barangay San Vicente, San Narciso, Quezon, Disowning the PEACE-BDP-KMBP
Annex 2: STATEMENT OF BOY TEJENO AND DOMENG, SON AND SON-IN-LAW OF PAULO TEJENO, A MURDER VICTIM
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