The Christians for National Liberation (CNL), the underground revolutionary organization of Christians and church people, strongly condemns the tyrannical US-Duterte regime for the recent terrorist designation of CNL and 15 other member organizations of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) through the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC).

The CNL asserts that its rationale of arousing, organizing, and mobilizing among the Christians and church people to support the people’s war is rooted in the just and rightful cause of dismantling the oppressive and exploitative structures in semi-colonial, semi-feudal Philippine society. For CNL, the evils are real on earth – US imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism which have plagued the country.

The bourgeois state represented by the butcher Rodrigo Duterte and kowtowing to his twin masters US and China is the main instrument of the ruling classes which imposes its will and violates people’s rights. Duterte is now paving the way for the restoration of yet the greatest devil in the country’s history – the world-class corrupt, murderous Marcoses—through dictator’s son Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s bid for the presidency.

We mark our 50th year this 2022 and stand proud that our faith in God has concretely translated in service to the people by being with them in the frontlines of struggle, especially the countryside where a people’s war has been waged for over five decades now. Our preferential option for the poor has long gone beyond prayers alone but into the daily life and death struggle of the masses, especially the peasants, workers, fisherfolk, urban poor, indigenous peoples, and women. We are proud of our CNL martyrs who have taken the highest form of sacrifice for the national democratic revolution with a socialist perspective. We take great inspiration from Gomburza, which marks its 150th year, in fighting against imperialism (then Spanish colonialism) and all forms of local reaction. None of these actions are terrorist.

The US-Duterte regime is the real terrorist. It has unleashed brutal attacks on the Filipino people on all fronts. Continued adherence to neoliberal dictates sees all-time high unemployment of 3.2 million; a staggering foreign debt of PhP 11 T by 2021 and projected to P14 T by the end of Duterte’s term in June 2022, and greater poverty especially in rural areas.

Duterte leaves a notorious blood trail for the thousands killed in its sham drug war that has killed the poor; and a counterinsurgency program that has killed, arrested, disappeared, harassed activists and critics, including peace consultants of the NDFP. Its worsening militarist orientation has effectively closed the door on the peace process also with the passage of the Anti-Terror Law (from which the ATC derives its abuses), its EO 70 Whole of Nation Approach and creation of the corrupt, red-tagging unit NTF-ELCAC, and the earlier terrorist designations of the Communist Party of the Philippines, NDFP, NDFP Chief Political Consultant Jose Maria Sison and NDFP Interim Chair Julieta de Lima, and now the 16 NDFP member organizations.

It is ridiculous, if not for its deadly implications, that the regime designates as terrorists the NDFP with whom it has been holding peace negotiations, on and off, since 1991. It has brazenly violated previously held agreements including the Hague Joint Declaration, the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CAHRIHL), and the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantee (JASIG). All peace consultants extrajudicially killed and illegally arrested are JASIG holders. The regime is now peddling localized peace talks in violation of these agreements in order to line the pockets of corrupt officials for fake rebel surrenderees, E-CLIP, and others, as well as exposure to direct danger to all those involved in the talks.

Playing straight from the US-directed counter-insurgency program playbook, it has launched massive aerial bombings in at least eight communities starting last year: Northern and Eastern Samar, Bukidnon, and Mindoro Oriental, Cagayan, Abra, Quezon, Iloilo. These violate International Humanitarian Law.

We remain committed to supporting the people not only in exacting accountability from Duterte, his imperialist masters, and local cohorts. We continue to arduously work for the NDFP 12-point program whose principal task is to unite the people for the overthrow of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal system through a people’s war and for the completion of the national democratic revolution.

The brutal actions of the terrorist US-Duterte regime will never cower us into retreat. As the crisis of the ruling system intensifies, state repression will breed more and more resistance, more revolutionaries as in the dark days of the Marcos dictatorship.

Overthrow the US-Duterte Regime!

Wage the People’s War!

Raise High the Banner of the Revolution!

Defeat Marcos Restoration in Malacanang!

Long live the Christians for National Liberation!

Long live the National Democratic Front of the Philippines!

Long live the New People’s Army!

Long live the Communist Party of the Philippines!