1. Ka Roger, why is it wrong to regard the CPP and NPA
   as "terrorists"?



2. How has the revolutionary movement been affected
   by the reported freezing of Ka Joema's assets?
   Is it true that it is losing funds because Ka Joema
   and the NPA have now been labeled "terrorists"?



3. What has the AFP's Oplan Gordian Knot accomplished?
   In your view, is there anything new in the steps being
   undertaken by the government in relation to its declaration
   of all-out war against terrorism?

1. Ka Roger, why is it wrong to regard the CPP and NPA as "terrorists"?

First of all, the meaning of terrorism is harming the people in order to wreak havoc, coerce and intimidate them.

The Communist Party and the revolutionary movement in the Philippines have the New People's Army (NPA) which is a revolutionary army of the people. It was established to confront and destroy the reactionary Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) which are instruments of the ruling class to supress the revolutionary movement and the people who could not be coerced into following the wishes of the reactionaries.

The New People's Army has already been tested by the people in the last three decades as a revolutionary organization, as their very own army, and as their partner in their daily struggles not only in the military aspect, but in their livelihood struggle, in raising their level of education, literacy and culture, in developing other fields, and in self-governance. It is strictly forbidden to harm the people that they serve even in the slightest way. Thus, the NPA cannot become terrorist, especially the CPP that firmly leads and guides it.

The NDFP (National Democratic Front of the Philippines), the alliance of the national-democratic organizations which includes the CPP and NPA, voluntarily declared in Switzerland, and registered the intention that the revolutionary movement will comply with the Geneva Conventions and all international humanitarian laws of the United Nations. The CPP-NPA-NDFP challenges the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) to respect these international humanitarian laws.

It is very clear that the real terrorist in the Philippines is the GRP, the Macapagal-Arroyo regime. What it is maintaining is state terrorism because they are recklessly wreaking havoc on the people, killing civilians whose only "wrongdoing" is supporting the New People's Army or protesting their legitimate grievances. If we only examine what they are doing in Mindoro, for example, there is no doubt that the AFP is unleashing unbridled terrorism against the people.

Meanwhile, on a worldwide scale, the US is truly the biggest terrorist. The US has already killed millions in its insane wars-in dropping the atomic bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, in imposing an embargo on food, medicine and other basic needs of Iraq, in its latest aggression in Afghanistan. And even in the Philippines, over 400,000 civilians were directly killed by the US army during the Filipino-American War. More than a million were killed if we include those who died from hunger and sickness as a result of saturation drives and food blockades.TOP

2. How has the revolutionary movement been affected
by the reported freezing of Ka Joema's assets?
Is it true that it is losing funds because Ka Joema
and the NPA have now been labeled "terrorists"?

The enemy - the reactionary government and its military - is proceeding from the mistaken belief that the revolutionary movement thrives and depends on help from outside the country. We have repudiated that long ago. In reality, one of the fine characteristics of the Philippine revolution under the leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines is its will and capacity to be self-reliant. It does not depend primarily on whatever support comes from outside the country. This characteristic is admired by fellow revolutionaries abroad.

The revolutionary movement primarily depends on livelihood and financial resources from within the country-contributions from the worker and peasant masses, help from allies, revolutionary taxes and its own production. We're not saying we do not need outside help. We are heartened and grateful for any help from the outside, whether material, political or moral. But this is only to supplement our resources, and not as something to be dependent on.

The government is laboring under the illusion that the movement has been greatly affected by the freezing of its supposed bank deposits. The Party, the NDF and the NPA do not have bank deposits overseas. Ka Joema has no money in the bank in The Netherlands, except for the allowances given by the Dutch government for his food, medicine and rental payments as a political refugee.

Therefore, the objective of the enemy to freeze whatever bank deposits Ka Joema and the revolutionary movement have is insane. The enemy has failed in its expectations to cripple the revolutionary movement and bring it to its knees in the peace talks they have been stalling.TOP

3. What has the AFP's Oplan Gordian Knot accomplished?
In your view, is there anything new in the steps being undertaken by the government in relation to its declaration of all-out war against terrorism?

Oplan Gordian Knot is just the new name that [former AFP Chief] Gen. Benjamin Defensor has given to the government's counterrevolutionary campaign-Campaign Plan Bantay Bayan Laya. Supposedly, they will at long last be able to unravel the knot of the revolution that they could not do over a long period. Gen. Defensor boasts that hundreds from the NPA have supposedly surrendered. Meanwhile, the military has made GMA, the chief puppet of the US, believe this, including their fabricated reports about hundreds of encounters supposedly on the initiative of the AFP and the confiscation of many rusting firearms of the NPA. I've been joking that they may find themselves in a bind with this Gordian Knot. Essentially, it is no different from the Oplan Makabayan during Erap's time, that later became Campaign Plan Balangai during the first year of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime.

The only difference lies in its more insidious and more unbridled use of psywar in a greater part of their counterrevolutionary campaign-like spreading spurious stories and fabricated slanders against the revolutionary movement, such as the labeling of the NPA and Ka Joema Sison as "terrorist." In any case, all their lies and slander have not been effective because the people, who have long been with the NPA especially in the countryside, do not believe them. They know that the NPA is a revolutionary army that is there to serve the people unstintingly and to fight for the welfare of the people. They participate in it and provide it with their best sons and daughters to become fighters of the New People's Army.

Oh yes, there is something new, well, old, just as its name suggests, but which they have revived as far back as the time of Campaign Balangai-their back-to-basics orientation. Relentlessly killing civilians-this is what Gen. Dionisio Santiago boasts about-the most brutal way for the military to suppress the people just like what we witnessed during the time of martial law under Marcos. Their most intense effort is in Mindoro.

The AFP is influenced by the back-to-basics doctrine of the US Army which they have been engrossed with since the defeat of the US in Vietnam, but which they have now developed. This back-to-basics orientation is due to the AFP's desperation, as it has failed to stop the growth of the NPA and the expansion of the revolutionary movement.

They take revenge on the mass base of the NPA with the aim of removing the water that the fish swims in. They have this insane belief that whenever they kill or terrorize the civilians, the latter will avoid supporting the revolution. During encounters, they forcibly incriminate the owners of houses that the NPA had stayed in. Or else, they abduct civilians and then they make it appear that they were killed in the crossfire. The worst is what they have been doing to activists and mass leaders of organizations actively fighting for their interests-such as those advocating human rights, the labor movement, those that expose corruption in government-the veterans of the campaign to oust Erap and to install GMA. It is the latter, and not the NPA, that are being targeted.

In Mindoro alone, they have killed no less than 30 activists and mass leaders within two years of their aggression. The victims are always from KARAPATAN, from Bayan Muna (People First); in Mindoro, from the Kalipunan ng mga Mamamayang Mindoreño (Association of Mindoreño People). They kill the mass leaders of the indigenous Mangyan. They have even dismembered the bodies of some victims.

Despite Col. Palparan's very mistaken declaration that 90% of Mindoro has been cleared of the NPA, they continue to target the people, especially the mass leaders. They argue that these people form the support network of the NPA. They are supposedly the base or are also members of the NPA. They say it is necessary to drain the water that the fish swim in. Thus, that is what they are focusing their attention on. This is what they have intensified during GMA's time.

We can therefore see that civilians have become ever more the victims of the all-out war. Regardless of who it has declared war on, the all-out war is really a war of the government against the civilians. But the reactionary government and the AFP are mistaken. Instead of losing support, the NPA is fast reaping more support because more and more people who are fighting openly and legally are being forced or obliged to head for the mountains, to join the NPA and to bear arms.TOP

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