The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) salutes the revolutionary masses and the valiant forces of the New People’s Army (NPA) and cadres of the Party in the Mindanao regions and across the entire country for their perseverance and iron-determination to defend the interests of the oppressed and exploited masses, in the face of relentless and brutal attacks of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). They are making great sacrifices in the struggle to fight imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism and for the cause of national democracy and socialism. The Party pays tribute to Jorge Madlos (Ka Oris), Menandro Villanueva (Ka Bok) and all revolutionary heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in fighting the monsters that prey on the people.

The enemy continues to squander billions upon billions of pesos to terrorize the people and their revolutionary forces. The fascist attacks are most vicious in Mindanao, but are also relentless and ruthless in Bicol, Eastern Visayas and Negros, as well as in other regions across the country. The fascists are obsessed with ending the people’s resistance and armed revolution before the end of Rodrigo Duterte’s term through sheer military superiority, firepower and state terrorism.

Even now, it is certain that Duterte’s war against the people will not succeed. It only aggravates the people’s socioeconomic conditions that give rise to armed resistance. It is exhausting limited public funds that should instead be going to public health and education, especially as the country faces the continuing pandemic. It exposes the rotten core of the semicolonial and semifeudal system and heightens the people’s aspiration for national and social liberation.

The fascists brag of having won over a few renegades who have given up their principles and the people’s cause. Although a mere handful, some make so much noise on the behest of the AFP and now serve as paid hacks of the NTF-Elcac using the people’s money. They have betrayed the trust once given them by the peasant masses and minorities. Some of them chose convenience and comfort, overawed by the enemy and bedazzled by its promises for their selfish personal benefit. Some were captured by the enemy but subjected to intense pressure to turn against themselves. A few of them have turned outright traitors and are actively helping the enemy in its brutal campaign of suppression against civilian communities and people’s organizations. They are opportunists and negative examples who are rejected and denounced by the people.

The Party firmly salutes its cadres and leaders and NPA commanders and fighters in Mindanao and across the country who continue to shun personal interests, selflessly make great sacrifices and persevere along the path of serving the Filipino people and waging revolutionary struggle for national and social liberation. They exude revolutionary optimism and militancy even in the face of great adversity and obstacles.

Together with the revolutionary masses, the Party and NPA grieve the deaths of Ka Menandro Villanueva (Ka Bok) and Ka Jorge Madlos (Ka Oris), both important leaders of the Party and NPA in Mindanao and the entire country. They are both victims of the enemy’s fascist crimes and outright contravention of the rules of war and international humanitarian law.

The revolutionary forces draw inspiration from their martyrdom. The movement mourn their deaths, but also know that these losses are not insurmountable and will be overcome. They are ever conscious that when giant trees fall, it provides space and nourishes the ground for new trees to sprout and grow. Thousands of Party cadres and NPA commanders are now picking up their cudgels.

The Party firmly salutes the toiling masses in the Mindanao regions and across the country. In the face of the enemy’s attacks, the people’s determination to support and join the armed resistance has become stronger than ever before. Even in areas under the AFP’s most brutal attacks, the masses continue to build and expand their revolutionary organizations, cherish their people’s army, take part in the armed resistance, and join the Party. The workers, peasants, minority people, the semiproletariat and petty-bourgeois intellectuals in Mindanao and across the country remain unwavering in their determination to unite and fight for their national and democratic aspirations.

In the coming months and years, Party cadres, NPA fighters and the revolutionary masses must steel themselves as they will have to make more difficult sacrifices, shoulder more critical tasks and take on heavier responsibilities.

The NPA must continue to master guerrilla tactics of concentration, dispersal and shifting to maintain initiative at all times and frustrate the enemy’s offensives. It must continue to wage extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare on the basis of an ever expanding and deepening mass base. The NPA must further expand its guerrilla fronts and build new ones to cause the enemy to stretch its forces, overcome its strategy of gradual constriction and take away its ability to mount focused military operations to encircle units of the NPA. The NPA must continue efforts to link together the rough mountainous areas with the highly populated plains, build more guerrilla base areas, and mount tactical offensives on a wide area on a nationwide scale. The NPA must target, especially, the fascist and criminal AFP units whose hands are bloodied by the deaths of the Filipino people’s heroes and martyrs.

The Party and the New People’s Army across the country will continue to strengthen the bonds between the people’s army and the masses. The broad united front must continuously be expanded and strengthened against Duterte’s fascist tyranny.

In the face of the deep socio­economic crisis, hardships and oppression of the people, the revo­lutionary forces are ever deter­mined to arouse, organize and mo­bilize the people in their numbers to wage widespread mass struggles to demand genuine land reform, oppose the expansion of plantations, resist the entry of mining companies, demand fair prices for farm produce, demand higher wages, and just subsidies. They must intensify resistance to fascist attacks against communities, demand a stop to the bombing and shelling of their farms and villages, demand an end to military occupation of communities, demand respect for people’s rights and principles of international humanitarian law. They must hold the Duterte accountable for all his crimes even beyond his term.

The Party fully trusts the revolutionary forces across the entire country will persevere and grow in strength together with all the democratic and patriotic classes. Through untiring efforts to arouse, organize and mobilize the masses, it is certain that we shall frustrate the enemy’s all-out war, relentless attacks and declared aims of crushing the armed revolution. Carry forward the people’s resistance and bring it to ever greater heights.