Political assassinations will not terrorize the people to submission

Communist Party of the Philippines
March 23, 2005

The CPP condemns the series of political assassinations perpetrated by the Arroyo regime and its fascist minions in the Armed Forces of the Philippines and other reactionary and counterrevolutionary armed groups.

These political assassinations form part of the Arroyo regime's retinue of dirty tactics. They specifically target high-profile mass leaders and activists, with the devious objective of sowing mass terror.

The Arroyo regime seeks to cow the mass-based forces that stand against the government's moves to increase and impose new taxes, allow the wholesale entry and plunder of foreign mining companies, permit incessant oil price increases and invite the escalation of US military intervention.

The escalation of state terrorism against the people underscores the correctness and urgency of people's struggles against the regime's policies of liberalization, privatization and deregulation and against its blind worship of US imperialism's "anti-terrorist" doctrine.

The Arroyo regime, however, is sure to fail in its campaign of terrorizing the people into submission with its campaign of political assassination and suppression. The people were not cowed by martial law, nor will their determination to fight the terrorist, puppet and extremely corrupt Arroyo regime be dampened by the heightening fascist attacks against the people's democratic and patriotic mass movement.

To justify these political assassinations, the fascist representatives of the Arroyo regime have persistently carried out a campaign to slander these organizations as communist fronts, labelling them "agitators" and "financiers" of the New People's Army. These statements serve as a virtual go-signal to the AFP's forces, as well as to its paramilitary units, to undertake military action against unarmed activists who wage people's struggles in the legal arena.

The Filipino people are determined to frustrate the Arroyo regime's fascist objective of pushing the democratic and patriotic forces out of the legal arena of struggle. It is therefore just and urgent for them to build a united front to oppose the Arroyo regime's campaign of suppression and political assassination.

Their struggle to oppose the Arroyo regime's moves to impose open fascist rule is tightly bound to their struggle to fight and overthrow the puppet, terrorist and corrupt regime.

The escalation of the regime's fascist attacks against the people favors the growth of revolutionary armed struggle as it demonstrates in clear fashion the need to take up arms.

The CPP calls on the New People's Army (NPA) to further step up its recruitment. Moreover, it calls on the NPA to intensify its tactical offensives against the Arroyo regime's armed forces to seize more weapons from the enemy and arm the fast growing number of NPA Red fighters.

The NPA is specifically directed by the CPP to launch attacks against enemy units responsible for the series of killings and campaigns of suppression, including the perpetrators of the Hacienda Luisita massacre.

Such offensives will mete deserving punishment on the people's oppressors and diminish these enemy forces' capability to wreak havoc on the people's just and legitimate struggles.

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