The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) condemned the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for their bloodthirsty declarations of continuing and intensifying combat operations in the countryside this Christmas. The peasants said that this will intensify human rights violations, particularly against farmers, in the regime’s counter-insurgency campaign.

On December 18, DND Sec. Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. announced that the Marcos regime will not declare a ceasefire for Christmas. A day before that, AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla stated that military operations will continue.

“The non-declaration of human rights violators of a ceasefire emphasizes the AFP’s campaign of terrorism and bloodshed against farmers over the years,” said KMP. The group said that numerous cases of human rights violations in the past years targeted farmers, including KMP leaders.

According to Ang Bayan’s tally, 30 out of 56 victims of killings from December 1, 2023, to December 1, 2024, were farmers. Almost all of these cases were labeled by the military as “encounters” with units of the New People’s Army. In total, no less than 66,701 farmers were victims of human rights violations by the Marcos regime during that time.

“The government’s Christmas gift to the people is not solace but bullets and intimidation of countryside communities. History has proven that those in power only respond with violence to widespread hunger and poverty,” KMP chairperson and Makabayan Coalition senatorial candidate Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos said.

The spokesperson added, “Teodoro said that revolutionary groups are ‘Jurassic,’ but he is truly the one dusty and outdated in maintaining the existing backward social order where farmers are still landless.”

Amid the Marcos regime’s threat to intensify its military operations, the group warns farmers to be cautious and vigilant. The regime aims to completely crush the revolutionary movement in the country by the end of 2024.