Raise our revolutionary unity ever greater for the people's war

Fr. Santiago "Sanny" Salas
Spokesperson in Eastern Visayas
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
April 24, 2003

The NDFP in Eastern Visayas greets all the allied organizations, the revolutionary mass activists, and all the friends and allies of the revolutionary movement on the 30th founding anniversary today of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. Our common unity to struggle towards a free, just and democratic country gains greater meaning in the face of the smoldering social crisis and the challenges to the revolutionary movement. Let us raise our revolutionary unity ever greater for the people's war to punish and defeat the puppet Arroyo regime and US imperialism that dominate, exploit and suppress the people through imperialist-dictated "globalization" and "anti-terrorism".

The NDFP stands as the organized expression of the people's revolutionary unity and represents the Filipino people in formally dealing with the reactionary government and with other states, organizations and movements abroad. Embodying the nationalist and democratic interests of the people, it embraces in its fold the millions of peasants, workers, women, youth and students, church people, government workers, professionals and national minorities. All the 14 allied organizations of the NDFP are active and are firmly united through consultation, consensus and coordination. Their memberships encompass and link up the countryside and the cities and towns to advance the revolutionary armed struggle.

Confronted with grave social decay and the reoccupation of the motherland by US imperialist troops, there is no other way out for the people except the patriotic path of waging armed struggle for national and social liberation. In Eastern Visayas and elsewhere in the country, the people are fiercely fighting the continuing decline in the standard of living and social services in consonance with rising landlessness and unemployment. The crisis is so intolerable that even its own civil service is standing up against the Arroyo regime s railroading of liberalization, deregulation and privatization. The people are fast realizing the bankruptcy, immorality and puppetry of the regime in globalizing or selling out the national patrimony and sovereignty.

While robbing the people with one hand, the Arroyo regime wields on the other hand the bludgeon of political repression. Fascism is on the rise because it is the worldwide trend set forth by US imperialism in the guise of "anti-terrorism" and followed by the Arroyo regime. The people loathe the reactionary armed forces and police for committing massive human rights violations in the counterrevolutionary war in the countryside and persecuting the legal militant organizations in the cities. There is a virtual martial rule in fascist measures that abridge civil liberties, the smearing of the CPP-NPA as "terrorist", and the replacing of peace talks with the untrammelled war of the AFP against the revolutionary movement and in Mindanao. The Arroyo regime in fact wishes to revise the constitution to make it wholly fascist, antinational and anti-people. On top of these, US imperialism and the Arroyo regime are manipulating the eventual intervention of US troops against the revolutionary movement and the Bangsamoro armed struggle for self-determination. The bombings in Davao are timed to coincide with the increasing presence and wider latitude of the US military in the Balikatan series.

All the momentous issues and events surrounding the people at present comprise a call to arms. The only resolution to the outrage of the people over the deteriorating state of affairs is in the surging forward of the revolutionary movement. The founding of the NDFP thirty years ago during the Marcos dictatorship was amidst much the same conditions as today. It is now far bigger, stronger and capable of helping advance the revolutionary armed struggle to a new and higher level.

The revolutionary movement and the people are thus in a formidable position to oust or weaken the puppet Arroyo regime. Let us swell the ranks of the revolutionary fold in the countryside and in the cities and towns in mutual support of the armed struggle. Let us do our best efforts to strengthen the New People's Army and the building of democratic power in the countryside. Let us be prepared in turning the people's war into a war for national liberation in the very real possibility of a US war of aggression. Let us further our alliance work and win over the many on fundamental and tactical issues. Let us take advantage of the splits among the reactionaries, isolate and defeat the die-hards, and gain moral and material support for the armed struggle.

On its 30th anniversary, the NDFP calls on the people of Eastern Visayas to dare to struggle and win a bright and new future. The people united can never be defeated!

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