PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

US military involvement in AFP counter-guerilla operations in Bicol
February 16, 2003

The recent inspection tour by a US military official of AFP operations in so-called hot spots in the Bicol region may already be the prelude to increasing direct US military and "diplomatic" intervention and collusion with the AFP and local authorities against the revolutionary movement in the Philippines.

This is according to Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, spokesman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, in a statement released today.

Rosal said US Army Maj. Jeffrey D. Antonio toured AFP commands and areas of "counter-insurgency operations" in Bacon and Donsol in Sorsogon province and in the towns of Libon, Camalig, Polangui, Oas, and Ligao in Albay for more than a week starting February 3.

The Philippine Army's 203rd Brigade and the Orcullo Brigades of the new "all-Bikolano" 901st and 902nd Infantry Brigades served as "escorts" and conducted intensive clearing operations in Sorsogon, Albay and as far as the interior of Camarines Sur to secure the inspection tour of the American military official.

Rosal said "Major Antonio conducted the investigation to determine the conditions and manner of setting up a joint civilian-military-diplomatic counter-guerrila program in the country with the Bicol region as the pilot area." He added that the "so-called US-RP Humanitarian Assistance Program, which the US will be setting up in various places in the Bicol region will serve as a front for direct US involvement in the local counter-revolutionary war. US military officers like Major Antonio will be serving as 'counter-insurgency' advisers."

Rosal added that this is not the first time that American military officials and advisers have been directly involved in counter-revolutionary operations against the NPA. He revealed that US military officials were also seen overseeing AFP operations in Mindoro two years ago right before the most massive and intensive, longest-running and most brutal military operations ever by the AFP and PNP took place in the island. Since the start of Balikatan last year, US military officials have been serving as advisers and "trainors" to AFP units fighting the Abu Sayyaf in Mindanao and have also been engaged in some combat operations against the Abu Sayyaf.

"We see a pattern here. Where American military advisers step in, the AFP's counterrevolutionary war become more relentless and fierce. First it was in Mindoro with the use of Col. Palparan's notorious 204th Brigade. Now it is Bicol with the use of the new Orcullo Brigades. Violations of human rights and humanitarian rules of war are on the rise in the Bicol region," Rosal elaborated.

In a related development, two days after the departure of the US military official, the 1st Regional Area Coordinating Center for KALAHI (Kapit Bisig Laban Sa Kahirapan), was launched. KALAHI is the government's new five-year "anti-poverty" program based on the National Internal Security Plan of the Malacanang Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security. Rosal said that the "anti-poverty" aspect is only lip-service and that the main purpose and entire content of the program is to coordinate and combine the military, police and bureaucratic machinery as well as propaganda and diplomatic initiatives for a comprehensive "counter-insurgency" program. "Diplomatic initiatives," according to Rosal "is the euphemism for such US military intervention projects as the so-called US-RP Humanitarian Assistance Program that they are now setting up in the Bicol region."

"It is now becoming clear that the inclusion of the CPP and NPA in the US' list of 'terrorist organizations' is simply a way to prepare the basis for its military intervention in the Philippines," Rosal added.

"US imperialism's hunger for war extends beyond the Middle East. Even while it stubbornly insists on launching a war of aggression against Iraq, American military troops are carrying out clandestine military operations in the Philippines in the name of 'joint exercises' and in connivance with the puppet Macapagal-Arroyo regime," Rosal added.

"We will make sure, however, that once the US forces carry out fullscale military intervention in the Philippines, they will suffer the same fate that they suffered in Vietnam," Rosal concluded.###

Reference:
Anne Buenaventura
Media Officer
Cellphone Number: +63910-240-3553



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