GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO HERSELF IS THE BRAINS BEHIND THE WIDESPREAD MILITARY TERROR IN SOUTHERN TAGALOG AND THE ENTIRE COUNTRY

Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal
Spokesperson
Communist Party of the Philippines
December 04, 2001

The Communist Party of the Philippines and the entire revolutionary movement vehemently condemns Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for implementing and sowing widespread military terror in Southern Tagalog and the entire country.

The massacres in Casunugan San Isidro, San Jose, Antipolo City and in Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija and the murder of Felipe Lapa, president of the workers' union in Milagros Farms, Nagcarlan, Laguna by elements of Task Force Banahaw (TFB) are but the latest in a series of killings by the mercenary and terrorist AFP and PNP.

Ka Felipe was an active, loyal and assiduous labor leader of Milagros Farms. Because of his active unionism and the assistance he extended to other sectors, he was singled out for harassment by elements of the dreaded TFB, their "ex-NPA" henchmen and other bad elements used by the TFB to pressure and terrorize the people of Laguna. These elements have also been appropriating the name of the NPA in their extortion activities. There had been several attempts on Ka Felipe's life in the past. On October 25, Macapagal-Arroyo's butchers and terrorists succeeded in ending the life of another exemplary labor leader and genuine revolutionary.

Macapagal-Arroyo had just taken power when she secretly ordered (through Gen. Angelo Reyes) the continuation of large-scale military offensives in the NPA's guerrilla fronts to gain points for the government before it resumes peace talks with the NDFP. The puppet regime has continued with the Estrada regime's counterrevolutinary Campaign Plan Makabayan/Balangai despite its grandiose pronouncements of replacing Estrada's all-out war with all-out peace.

During Macapagal-Arroyo's visit to Mindoro on October 1, she outrightly endorsed the AFP and PNP's large-scale military operations in the two Mindoro provinces and in the entire Southern Tagalog region.

She beefed up the five AFP and PNP battalions in Mindoro Oriental. Thus, there are now six battalions in the province aside from a Philippine Navy task force, Naval Task Force 31 (NTF31) which has been placed under the operational command of the 204th Bde (the AFP command in Mindoro and Romblon). As further reinforcement, Macapagal-Arroyo has also ordered the deployment of the Army Engineering Battalion to Abra de Ilog, Mindoro Occidental.

It therefore comes as no surprise that killings and other forms of military terror have now become so rampant in Mindoro Oriental, under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's direct sponsorship. There have been more than 95 cases of human rights violations perpetrated in Southern Tagalog in the first nine months of Macapagal-Arroyo's term. Among the victims are hundreds of internal refugees, most of them Mangyan tribespeople.

Through the AFP and PNP and paramilitary forces, the Macapagal- Arroyo regime implements a systematic policy of sowing terrorism through Campaign Plan Balangai. The latter has the so-called "Back to Basics" orientation, the counterrevolutionary US doctrine that calls for the use of purely militarist and the most brutal means of suppressing the revolutionary forces and civilians who are allied with or support them.

Due to such an orientation, Macapagal-Arroyo's AFP and PNP units make sure to purposely inflict civilian casualties. In the absence of armed encounters, the AFP and PNP perpetrate abductions and arrests. The hapless civilian victims are summarily executed, permanently hidden or are riddled with bullets and made to appear as casualties of armed encounters between the AFP/PNP and NPA units.

This terrorism aims to sow fear among the people in the countryside to stop them from supporting the NPA.

As with the deposed Estrada, Macapagal-Arroyo has clearly manifested her avid endorsement of military terror in the countryside as well as her unabashed puppetry in her "all-out support" for the US- led war of aggression in Afghanistan.

In the face of all this, the democratic and progressive forces must collectively oppose and resist the military terror endorsed by Macapagal-Arroyo herself. The forces that led in seating Macapagal- Arroyo must now unite once more and act to confront her and make her accountable for her evil deeds against the people.###

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