The revolutionary forces hold the US-Duterte fascist regime fully responsible for the brazen murder of NDFP peace consultant Randy Felix Malayao last January 30. Malayao’s murder follows public pronouncements by Duterte himself just a month ago endorsing mass killings and ordering his death squads to carry out the liquidation of revolutionary forces and supporters of the Party and revolutionary movement.

Malayao’s murder signals the escalation of state terrorism and armed suppression against activists who are at the forefront of the broad united opposition against Duterte’s tyranny. Malayao is the first high-profile national personality killed by state security forces after many years. The killing of Malayao may well be the signal-fire for Duterte’s death squads to carry out similar barefaced acts of murder against mass leaders and activists as well as all other opposition forces.

Frustrated over its continuing failure to defeat the revolutionary armed movement, the Duterte regime has vented its fascist ire against the legal democratic forces employing assassination squads and flouting laws and legal processes to clamp down on mass organizations and progressive institutions. State agents carry out armed suppression against peasants and workers, as well as teachers, students, lawyers, journalists and other sectors, especially those actively asserting their democratic rights and interests, and critical of Duterte’s tyranny.

It is becoming apparent that Duterte is intent on his declaration to carry out the “Suharto-style” of mass killing where at least one million accused of being members and supporters of the Communist Party of Indonesia were summarily executed in 1965-66 under the orders of then Gen. Suharto who would later establish a 30-year bloody military dictatorship.

In his drive to establish him­self a fascist dictator and perpetuate the bureaucrat capitalist rule of his family and clique, Duterte is increasingly obsessed with crushing the national democratic forces as one of the key elements to his tyrannical scheme. There is a rising number of cases of extrajudicial killings, massacres, abductions, surveillance, torture, arbitrary arrests, slapping of trumped up charges, prolonged detention, forcing people to “surrender,” illegalization and closure of community schools and other gross abuses.

Under Oplan Kapayapaan and the 2018 National Internal Security Plan, the rights of several tens of thousands of people are being trampled upon by Duterte’s fascist onslaught. This is on top of the tens of thousands killed by state forces and state-sponsored death squads in Duterte’s so-called “drug war” to control the illegal drug trade, as well as the hundreds of thousands of Moro people whose rights are being trampled under Duterte’s war to control the resources of the Bangsamoro people.

As Duterte intensifies the campaign of killings and all-out suppression, the demand for justice resounds across the country and across various democratic sectors. The broad masses demand: Justice for Malayao! Justice for peasants being killed across the country and those massacred in Sagay, Lake Sebu and elsewhere! Justice for workers attacked for asserting their right to organize and strike! Justice for the hundreds of political prisoners! Justice for the scores of children arbitrarily detained in the guise of “state protection!” Justice for teachers and others unjustly being put under state surveillance and intimidation! Justice for journalists and lawyers who are being Red-tagged and threatened with harm! Justice for the thousands unjustly killed under Duterte’s drug war! Justice for the hundreds of thousands of victims of Duterte’s unjust destruction of Marawi City! Justice for all women victimized by Duterte’s relentless and unrepentant misogyny! Justice for the religious who are under constant attack by Duterte’s bigotry and instigation to violence! Justice for the Filipino people victimized by Duterte’s tyranny and terrorism!

In the struggle for justice, the Filipino people must intensify their political mass struggles to widely expose, denounce and resist the Duterte regime’s fascist attacks. They must be bold, aggressive and always on the offensive in order to make the regime answer for every single act of military and police abuse of power. They must carry out street actions in order to wield the collective power of the masses. At the same time, they must persist in legal struggles in order to assert their rights under international humanitarian law as well as under the reactionary constitution.

The clamor for justice unites the Filipino people in the face of Duterte’s reign of terror. It must be echoed in the factories, school campuses, offices, churches, communities and so on. It strengthens and broadens their united front against Duterte’s tyranny and fascism. It emboldens them to resist even in the face of murder, intimidation and threats.

At the same time, the broad masses must be roused and mobilized to transform their social discontent into struggles to advance their economic rights and the cause of social justice. They must persevere in their demand for wage and salary increases, jobs, land for the tillers, housing for the homeless, and so on. The people must be roused to denounce the regime for its imposition of onerous taxes and failure to control rising prices of food and other basic commodities. They must expose the falsity of the regime’s so-called “welfare programs,” denounce the utter lack of social services and condemn the corruption and plunder of state resources by the few big bureaucrat capitalists and big bourgeois compradors.

In the face of the Duterte regime’s increasingly relentless attacks, the broad mass organizations must fight wisely to elude and frustrate the campaign of arrests and killings and be ready to apply the necessary tactics, including building a deep and wide underground network, counter-intelligence, unmasking of secret state operatives in social media and so on. Targets of liquidation can always go to the countryside where they can be provided safe haven in the revolutionary base areas or join the New People’s Army.
Duterte’s brutality against the people must be exposed for serving both his pursuit of absolute power and the aim of defending the interests of the big land­­lords and big bourgeois compradors. The people keenly understand that their demand for justice is linked to the struggle to put an end to the US-supported Duterte regime and ultimately to the revolutionary overthrow of the ruling oppressive and exploitative system.