PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

Norberto Gonzales' witch-hunting, the Philippines' New McCarthyism - Ka Roger
April 5, 2004

The Communist Party of the Philippines today said Malaca�ang's National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales is replicating in the Philippines of today the wicked and destructive anticommunist witch-hunt that the infamous Joseph McCarthy launched in the US in the early 1950s.

The CPP was reacting to earlier news reports that Gonzales has accused six progressive party-list organizations as CPP fronts and for diverting congressional funds to the New People's Army.

CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal said that the new McCarthyist witch-hunt and Red scare that clerico-fascist Gonzales is viciously launching now against progressive party-list organizations only reveals his dread of progressives winning a significant number of seats in the coming elections and collectively becoming a major bloc in national politics. These party-lists, including Bayan Muna, Anak ng Bayan, Gabriela and others are now consistently topping poll surveys.

McCarthy, a US Congressman, headed a committee that launced a wicked witch-hunt throughout the US in 1953-54 victimizing hundreds of respectable progressives whom he accused without sufficient bases to be communists. Most of McCarthy's victims have later turned out to be innocent victims of his Red scare and many were posthumously vindicated.

"Arroyo, Gonzales and their ilk are very worried that a significant number of progressive party-list representatives in the Philippine Congress would become a formidable stumbling block against US-dictated economic and military policies," Rosal said.

Rosal charged that Gonzales is acting under Malaca�ang's direction to campaign against progressive party-list groups. "Malaca�ang hopes that such tactics would scare the people from voting for progressive party-lists. Or failing to do so, Malaca�ang hopes to condition the minds of the people for a possible unseating of progressive representatives."

Rosal recalled how six anti-imperialist Democratic Alliance congressmen were unseated way back in 1947, ostensively for electoral violations but actually for the "crime" of constituting a hindrance to the passage of the pro-imperialist Bell Trade Act and Parity Amendment.

Rosal also called Gonzales a fanatical follower of George Bush and his New McCarthyism in the name of "anti-terrorism" in the very same way that Arroyo is.

"Gonzales' pro-US fanaticism and clerico-fascism makes him see 'communists' in anyone who stands for the people, for national sovereignty and against US dictates and intervention," added Rosal.

Rosal categorically denied Gonzales' charge of congressional fund diversion to the NPA. "The NPA has in fact not received funds from congress. It thrives and grows mainly due to the support of the people. In contrast, the AFP and PNP cannot survive without the funds and surplus weapons provided by the US government."

"There is a grave danger in the fact that a fascist zealot like Gonzales doubles as National Security Adviser," Rosal said. He said further that Gonzales only pretends to be a social democrat but is actually nothing but a small-time clerico-fascist, a corrupt bureaucrat and an ardent pro-imperialist who was able to worm his way into Arroyo's inner sanctum through unscrupulous wheeling-and-dealing and is now trying hard to prove he is more militarist than his military predecessors.

Rosal warned that the Red scare Gonzales is venomously spewing could serve as a signal for the military and fascist forces to attack the progressives and their parties as well as innocent people.

He also added that Gonzales' anti-terrorist fanaticism and witch-hunting is also behind the climate of fear and terror that is currently gripping the Moro community in Metro Manila and elsewhere. ###

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



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