The reactionary mid-term election campaign is now underway with big warlords and political dynasties locking each other’s horns, trampling on the people’s welfare with their armed goons, police and military forces, as they fight for the spoils of the bureaucrat capitalist regime.

In the face of the reactionary election campaign, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) directs the New People’s Army (NPA) to ensure protection of the people’s rights and interests. Commands of the NPA at different levels across various regions must strictly enforce standing policies of the people’s democratic government in relation to the conduct of the reactionary elections within their areas of operation.

All candidates vying for seats in the reactionary government are to be reminded of these policies to ensure that the people’s welfare will be strictly enforced by the NPA within its revolutionary areas of operation. These candidates and their supporters will be allowed to conduct their election campaigns in accordance with established guidelines.

Among others, politicians are prohibited from bringing armed goons and police and military escorts that usually serve to intimidate the people. Other forms of coercion, use of armed violence will not be tolerated, especially by bureaucrat capitalists who use public funds against the people. The NPA has standing orders to seize the weapons of candidates and their armed goons.

The NPA is directed to target AFP and PNP units, as well as armed goons of reactionary politicians, who will use the election campaign in the guerrilla zones as cover for conducting surveillance operations against the Party, the NPA, the people’s democratic government and the revolutionary masses.

Before conducting their campaigns in the revolutionary areas, politicians are required to inform and coordinate with local NPA units. This coordination is crucial to avoid any incidents, including confrontations between armed goons of rival politicians.

We strongly condemn the scheme of the AFP to use the upcoming elections as cover for intensifying counterinsurgency operations marked by heightening political repression and reinforcing military control of rural villages. The objective of these operations is to suppress the people’s resistance and protect the interests of big landlords, big business and foreign mining corporations and plantations. In the past years, these operations have also been used to help the campaign of politicians favored by the military, especially those who have connived in the fascist campaign of suppression.

Despite repeatedly declaring that the NPA has only a single “weakened guerilla front,” the Philippine Army declared yesterday that its field units “remain on alert and will still conduct internal security operations” to ensure the election’s “peace and order.” These operations institutionalize the “guns, goons and gold” tactics that characterize past elections campaigns.

We strongly urge candidates to reject the offers of armed security by the AFP, as these are only being used by the military to carry out political repression. Combat units of the AFP are legitimate targets of the NPA.

The CPP, NPA and mass organizations affiliated with the NDF do not take part in the elections. The revolutionary forces will continue to wage people’s war against the reactionary neocolonial government of the ruling classes of big bourgeois compradors and big landlords.

From their revolutionary vantage, the Party provides critical analyses and insights into the reactionary elections, while highlighting the outstanding economic and political issues of the people and underscoring the need for them to collectively fight for their national and democratic interests, especially their demand for land reform and national industrialization.

These analyses help guide the people in their actions. Raising the people’s consciousness and strengthening their organized ranks are key in pushing for their demands, as they face, confront and challenge the reactionary elections, and intensify their fight against the fascist and corrupt US-Marcos regime, especially amid the worsening political and economic crisis.