On the alleged marijuana trade in the Cordillera

The pathetic war mongers of US imperialism are at it again. Without a shred of evidence, the US State Department is maligning the New People's Army with its wild claim that the NPA is "maintaining or protecting marijuana plantations" in the Cordillera.

The NPA vehemently denies this malicious allegation. From its inception, the NPA has upheld a strict policy against the manufacture and use of narcotic drugs, not even as a source of finance.

By claiming that the NPA is involved in illegal drug trade, the US is setting up the stage for greater military intervention in the Philippines. This is a typical psywar tactic of the US military-industrial complex. It is no different from the lie spread by George W. Bush that Saddam Hussein was harboring weapons of mass destruction as an excuse for the US to wage a war of aggression against Iraq. The whole world knows that the US imperialist's actual motive, of course, was none other than Iraqi oil.

The fact is, corrupt military and police generals are the godfathers of illegal drug trade in the Philippines. Shabu markets are openly set up even in the national capital region right beside police stations or the mayor's office, such as the one in Pasig City. Despite the police rigmarole of raiding drug dens, the masterminds go scot free. Evidences are blatantly and conveniently destroyed so as to erase connections to the godfathers. Notorious drug suspects are known to have simply walked out of detention from PNP headquarters in Camp Crame. "Captured" drug dealers easily buy back their freedom from corrupt cops and judges.

The multi-billion drug trade in the Philippines is glaring proof that the military and police are not only tolerating but are actually abetting it, intentionally or otherwise. This is in sharp contrast with the NPA's guerrilla fronts and revolutionary mass bases where there are no marijuana plantations or illegal drug traffic. In fact, the NPA has been continuously waging a vigorous educational campaign in its expansion areas among yet unorganized peasant masses who are driven by desperation to plant marijuana as a lucrative alternative to the miserly prices they get for their traditional agricultural products.

No less than the director general of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Dionisio Santiago has even admitted that "it would be difficult to prove reports that rebel forces are profiting from illegal drugs."

Let us give credit where credit is due. Narcopolitics is an indictment of the present crumbling semicolonial and semifeudal system in the Philippines, not of the thriving revolutionary movement. It is not the NPA that is involved in illegal drugs to finance its activities, but the reactionary politicians in power in cahoots with drug lords and gambling lords who are the primary sources of funds especially during elections. We challenge the military and police to visit our revolutionary base areas and look for marijuana if they can. #

Below is an earlier statement for your reference:

The AFP and PNP are the biggest drug syndicates

July 9, 2003

The war against illegal drugs will fail because the AFP and PNP are the biggest drug syndicates in the country. Marijuana plantations in the Benguet were initiated by Gen. Reynaldo Acop and carried on by his successors, while those in Kalinga are maintained by the CPLA which is now integrated into the AFP. These are open secrets which can be verified by interviewing the masses in these areas.

The Chadli Molintas Command (NPA Ilocos-Cordillera) strongly condemns the orchestrated smear campaign of the AFP-PNP and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo depicting the NPA as marijuana cultivators. The vile campaign is a crude attempt to divert public attention from the AFP-PNP's own irredeemable reputation as the number one drug syndicate. It is also GMA's way of backtracking and saving face on her earlier antagonistic posturing against drug dealers within the military establishment and to appease the ruffled feathers of her drug lord generals.

Right from the horse's mouth, the Presidential Task Force on Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence has found out last year that 2,423 police and military forces are members of syndicates, 1,842 of them are in active service. They form the backbone of 507 syndicates with 6,020 members operating nationwide. It is not surprising then that 12% of police personnel are drug addicts. Military officials rake in P50 billion annually by reselling seized drugs and collecting protection money.

Along with jueteng, illegal drug trade is one of the main sources of unexplained wealth among AFP and PNP generals. They make a hypocritical show of capturing drug rings while the ringleaders, who are in positions of power or have powerful connections, remain untouchable. They make a show of uprooting marijuana in some remote mountain area where there is no NPA, just to earn medals and promotions and to hide their own complicity.

The NPA is a highly disciplined army. It is guided by revolutionary proletarian ethics. It deplores and denounces bourgeois decadence including drug abuse, gambling, prostitution, and other anti-social activities which are endemic to corrupt social systems such as capitalism, and also to semi-colonial and semi-feudal societies like the Philippines.

In areas where the NPA has established Red political power, there is no marijuana planting or drug abuse. The NPA does not cultivate marijuana. It cultivates revolutionary consciousness and the militant assertion of democratic rights among the people. The NPA does not need and will never resort to marijuana cultivation or illegal drug trade to generate funds. The voluntary and enthusiastic support of the masses amply serves all the needs of the NPA.

In areas where the NPA encounters peasants who cultivate marijuana, a vigorous educational campaign is waged to discourage the practice. The peasants are taught that revolution, not marijuana planting, is the solution to poverty and oppression. Revolutionary land reform and various socio-economic programs are carried out so that the peasants are provided with alternative sources of livelihood.

This is in stark contrast to areas which the NPA has not yet reached, or where the AFP and PNP are in control � not only in the countryside but especially in the cities. There, crime and bourgeois decadence are rampant. Feudal and semi-feudal exploitation are at their worst. The peasants are pushed towards becoming semi-proletarians � landless and unemployed. Such conditions of dire poverty are fertile grounds for the peasants to resort to marijuana cultivation.

The war against illegal drug trade and gambling cannot be won when it is waged by those who abet, condone, and perpetuate these very same activities. In much the same way, the war against poverty and terrorism cannot be won when it is waged by the ruling classes who are the real perpetrators of poverty and terrorism. #


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