PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

GMA's pasalubong for Bush, a deranged order to bomb Moros
May 18, 2003

The Communist Party of the Philippine today strongly condemned orders issued by Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday to launch artillery attacks against areas in Mindanao where "terrorist cells" are supposedly "embedded." Arroyo, said the CPP, was obviously referring to the MILF and its mass base.

In a statement, CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal called the orders "a direct attack against Moro communities by a lackey and militarist who now wants to make a fawning pasalubong and ask for more US troops and more aid as she pays court to her master."

"Arroyo is not thinking at all of the welfare of the people," Rosal said further. "With ongoing military operations already wreaking havoc on the rights and lives of the people in Mindanao, her cold-hearted orders can only spell worse fascist violence and greater hardships for Mindanaoans, especially the Moro people."

"Arroyo has become more and more a deranged militarist," Rosal added. But in fact, he said, "it is she and her Armed Forces of the Philippines who are the real terrorists, dropping bombs indiscriminately upon peasant communities, carrying out illegal arrests, strafing houses of civilians and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people."

"Worst than that, Malaca�ang and high-level AFP officials have long been colluding with a CIA-directed clandestine terrorist cell to operate and wreak havoc and intrigue in Mindanao," Rosal said.

Rosal disclosed that "with its orders coming directly from the Pentagon, this terrorist cell has been responsible for the bombings in Davao and Koronadal since March." The bombings, said Rosal, serve as basis for labelling the MILF as "terrorist", ordering the intensification of attacks against Moro communities and justifying the deployment of US combat troops in the Philippines.

Rosal expressed full confidence in the MILF's capability in the face of Arroyo's order. The MILF's series of guerrilla operations prove their capability and the inconsequential effect of Arroyo's order on their forces. He also said the MILF is "fully justified in carrying out defensive actions against the AFP to defend the rights of the Moro people and advance their struggle for self-determination".

He also said that the New People's Army will likewise continue intensifying tactical offensives in Mindanao. Rosal said that the MILF and the NPA "mutually benefit from the blows and accumulated defeats that the AFP has been suffering from both the MILF and the NPA."

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



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