The National Democratic Front (NDF)-Eastern Visayas mocked the 8th Infantry Division’s recent proclamation declaring Northern Samar insurgency-free and categorizing it under a Stable Internal Peace and Security Condition (SIPSC).

NDF-Eastern Visayas spokesperson Celine Manlimbasog called the declaration “recycled hogwash” in a statement released July 7. The military previously declared the province free from the revolutionary movement’s influence in 2015, and again in 2016. Despite these claims, hundreds of Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) troops continue to scour the province’s villages.

“The military itself proves that these declarations are arbitrary, hollow, and have no concrete basis,” Manlimbasog said.

She noted that such proclamations increase as Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) approaches. Marcos declared that there were “no more guerrilla groups” during his fourth SONA last year.

“SIPSC declarations serve no one but the ruling class,” Manlimbasog said. “It seeks to encourage local and foreign capitalists to plunder the area’s natural resources at the expense of the environment and the livelihood of local residents.”

These destructive projects in the region include the San Isidro Wind Project; an offshore wind farm in the towns of Bobon, Mondragon, San Roque, Pambujan, Laoang and Catarman; and a tidal wave energy plant slated in Capul Island. The Samar Unity Roads project will also traverse three towns, hastening the environmental plunder and destruction of the Samar Island Natural Park, the largest contiguous old growth forest in the country. In the town of Bobon, officials allocated 5,000 hectares of agricultural land for a coconut industrial park for the export of cheap raw materials.

“SIPSC is only peace for the capitalists and plunderers,” Manlimbasog said. “To the downtrodden, hungry, and oppressed masses, it is nothing but fake peace.”

This is why Samareños continue to support the New People’s Army, she said.

“(T)hey will rather wage people’s war to attain true peace and development, no matter how difficult and long, than to put their faith in a government that every day fails them,” she said.