PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

CPP releases "10-point call to action" to AFP, PNP
November 14, 2004

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today released a "10-point call to action" to the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police urging them to advance their interests and those of the Filipino people.

In a video-taped address entitled "10-Point Call to Action for Armed Personnel of the Reactionary State to Advance their Welfare and the People's Interests", CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal urged the formation of clandestine and legal organizations to unite soldiers, police personnel and junior officers on the basis of common grievances against their oppression by top generals. It urged them to act and defend their democratic rights and welfare, expose corruption and carry out peaceful collective action within and outside military camps and police precincts.

Rosal explained that the call to action was meant to serve as guiding principles for military and police personnel in planning out what measures they could take to defend their democratic rights, link their grievances with those of the Filipino people against the rotten government and unite with them in the struggle against corruption, militarism and foreign intervention.

Rosal said that it was but just for military and police personnel to air and demand redress for their grievances, but admonished them to be "creative" in carrying out protest actions since the expression of grievances within the AFP and PNP would be violently suppressed.

The 10-point call to action, said Rosal, is also meant to guide the revolutionary forces on how to conduct organizing work within the AFP and PNP.

Even as he urged military and police junior officers and the rank-and-file to take action, however, Rosal explained to them that it was impossible to eradicate corruption because it was systemic both in the AFP and civilian bureaucracy and not simply the result of the misdeeds of a few individuals.

Rosal thus urged soldiers and police personnel to deepen their understanding of the AFP and PNP's situation and their history as instruments to suppress the struggles of the Filipino people. He explained that despite being part of the principal instruments that defend the rotten and oppressive system, the vast majority of AFP and PNP personnel are also oppressed and burdened by this system.

The call to action lays out specific measures that soldiers and police personnelcould take to advance their cause and those of the people.

One is the call to disobey illegal and antipeople orders that violate provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) signed by the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front (NDF) in 1998. In particular, Rosal urged soldiers and police personnel to daringly expose and oppose human rights violations.

Rosal likewise urged the AFP and PNP rank-and-file and junior officers to avoid being caught in combat situations that would pit them against the NPA. In cases when this is unavoidable, however, Rosal urged them to immediately call for a ceasefire and surrender their firearms, reminding them that it was not worth it to lay down their lives defending a rotten organization and a rotten system.

Rosal's ultimate call was for soldiers and police personnel to join the revolutionary movement. In the final analysis, he explained, their problems were linked to those of the Filipino people and could only be resolved completely through revolutionary change.

Short of this, said Rosal, soldiers and police personnel could choose to leave the AFP or PNP and become civilians, the latter being a better option than to continue serving a rotten military and police force. Recognizing that most soldiers and police personnel stayed on in the AFP and PNP because they needed jobs, Rosal said that those living within guerrilla zones could always ask for assistance from revolutionary organizations in finding alternative sources of income.

Those who choose to stay within the AFP and PNP, said Rosal, could still be of service to the Filipino people by forging clandestine links with the revolutionary movement and advancing the Lt. Crispin Tagamolila Movement within the military and police. Lieutenant Tagamolila was a Philippine Military Academy graduate who defected to the NPA in 1970.

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



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