The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) pointed out on Tuesday that the Duterte regime’s Anti-Terror Law will fail to stop the growth of the revolutionary armed struggle and instead will likely fuel the further growth of the New People’s Army (NPA).

“In the same way that Marcos’ 1972 martial law shut all avenues for democratic expression, the Anti-Terror Law will be used to terrorize and silence all opposition, giving the people no other recourse but to join the revolutionary armed struggle as a way of fighting back against the regime’s corruption, brutality and subservience to the US and China,” said CPP Chief Information Officer Marco L. Valbuena.

“The Anti-Terror Law will give the military and police the license to pounce on anyone it wants to accuse of being a communist or communist-supporter. By terrorizing and silencing the people through the Anti-Terror Law, Duterte will succeed only in stoking the people’s anger and pushing them to further support and join the NPA,” added Valbuena.

Over the past years, officers of the AFP and PNP have been arbitrarily accusing critics of the regime of being communist fronts, supporters, abettors or linked to the CPP and NPA. In their anti-communist zealotry, the AFP and PNP see red wherever they look, and accuse every one who stands for the people’s interests of being a communist, said the CPP information officer.

“The toiling masses and intellectuals continue to be drawn to join the NPA because of the regime’s intense persecution, suppression and threats against the democratic forces,” added Valbuena.

Valbuena pointed this out after Rodrigo Duterte certified yesterday the Anti-Terror Bill as an urgent legislative measure. His fascist diehards in Congress are now railroading the passage of this law before Friday. The said bill was already approved at the committee-level last week.

The rush to enact the Anti-Terror Law is clearly being directed by the National Task Force and Malacañang itself. Duterte and his ilk of militarist officers led by Delfin Lorenzana, Eduardo Año and Hermogenes Esperon want to have their bloody hands on the Anti-Teror Law to further consolidate the fascist regime and suppress dissent.

“The Anti-Terror Law will be the last brick to complete the Duterte regime’s martial law infrastructure, short of outright declaration,” said Valbuena. “It will put into place the worst draconian measures that Duterte-Lorenzana-Año-Esperon junta have long wanted to impose to terrorize and silence the people and establish absolute rule,” he added.

The CPP called on the Filipino people to see through the thin legal veil of Duterte’s martial law, break out of the restrictions imposed by the regime and creatively and militanty wage collective resistance amid the pandemic in order to assert their democratic rights and protect the people’s interests against the corrupt, fascist and anti-people regime.