Reply to Akbayan

Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal
Spokesperson
Communist Party of the Philippines
May 04, 2004

At the risk of falling for Akbayan�s bait for a running debate with the Communist Party in order to attract attention, we issue this statement to clarify the issues distorted by Akbayan and reply to its malicious attacks against the Party.

1. On Akbayan�s partnership with the AFP and the fascists

   We would like to clarify at the outset that we have never referred to Akbayan having directly or outrightly collaborated with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and other fascist forces in the killings and spate of violence now being committed against the progressive party-list organizations which Akbayan considers its ideological and political rivals. To claim that Ka Roger or whoever in the CPP said anything about actual collaboration in the killings and violence is a complete lie.

   We stand by our statement, however, that Akbayan is in partnership with the the AFP and the fascists.

   Its political attacks against both the revolutionary movement and progressive parties smacks of Redbaiting that is perfect agreement and consonance with the mad rantings of US intelligence agent and national security adviser Norberto Gonzales and AFP psywar departments. In fact Akbayan�s Joel Rocamora has been issuing out statements with exactly the same lies and ultra-reactionary diatribes spewed out by Gonzales and the AFP against the CPP-NPA and the progressive organizations.

   It is in this manner that there is a partnership among them. Indeed, is there even a slight difference at all between the mad rantings of Gonzales and the AFP and those of Akbayan against the CPP-NPA and against progressive parties and organizations?

   Akbayan knows, however, that their political attacks against both the revolutionary movement and progressive parties are grist for the fascist mills and stirs up their salivas of the vicious dogs-of-war who only need such cues to violently attack the progressives if they cannot get hold of revolutionaries.

   It is therefore not surprising at all that Akbayan�s pseudo-reformism has become for the AFP and other fascist forces a most agreeable tool in their �counter-insurgency� campaigns and attacks against progressive parties and organizations.

   The AFP, in fact, finds Akbayan most useful in one of the AFP�s two-pronged attack against the popular Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and other progressive parties. Specifically, the AFP is now campaigning for Akbayan in the bailiwicks of the progressive parties to lure votes away from these progressive parties. These serve to complement the AFP's direct violent assaults and harassment against these progressive parties.

2. On Rosales�s claim of the CPP-NPA�s threat to her life

   Rosales and Akbayan are trying to attract attention all the more by claiming that there is a threat on Rosales� life. She wants to make it appear that the CPP-NPA is a ruthless killer that uses force to silence even its non-military ideological and political adversaries and that she is an innocent victim of such thirst for blood by the CPP.

   It is an utterly cheap gimmick for Rosales to have an "Akbayan Partido ng AFP� poster pasted outside her own house just to grab media attention and appeal to public sympathy for the underdog.

   It is totally unfair, unjust and an outright lie for Rosales to say that �for Ka Roger and the commissars in Utrecht, all critics are counterrevolutionaries, who deserve to be exterminated.�

   The CPP stands by its view that Akbayan is a pseudo-reformist group, which if one scratches a little will show its reactionary interior. Indeed, this is clearly manifested in Akbayan�s virulent attacks against the CPP-NPA, including its going all-out on an absurd campaign for the reactionary state to outlaw the legitimate policies of the CPP-led revolutionary government in protecting and advancing the interests of the mass base in revolutionary areas.

   Nevertheless, our debate with Rosales and Akbayan should remain at the open political level. We state clearly that they are not military targets for as long as they do not directly involve themselves in actual acts of violence against the revolutionary forces and masses, and against the progressives who are now the immediate object of vicious fascist attacks.

   Rosales and Akbayan can campaign freely in revolutionary areas anytime and benefit from the protection of the NPA. They can be given permits to campaign but they have to respect and follow the policies and laws of the revolutionary government, not bring the AFP-PNP or any armed group with them and not insist on invoking the laws of the reactionary government. All they have to do is to seek the permission of and coordinate their activities with the revolutionary authorities.

We implore Rosales and Akbayan, however, to be fair and truthful, not to indulge in cheap gimmickry just to attract attention, and not call us liars for the words she herself has put in our mouths.

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