The AFP-PNP, having run out of excuses to cover up the resurgence of tactical offensives of the NPA in the Cordillera, resorts once again to their old antiquated lines to downplay their defeats. One of these is the oft-parroted line that the NPA only to project their presence this coming elections in order to collect Permit-to-Campaign (PTC) from politicians. In their frantic dash for damage control, their tongues are twisted in different directions. First they portrayed the NPA as a receding force, and now they tell everyone the NPA has the capacity to collect these PTC, which they term as ‘access tax.’ True to their form as protectors of imperialist and big comprador interests, they desperately portray the NPA in the blackest of descriptions in the name of so-called ‘terrorism,’ which is the reverse of what the NPA have earned to stay vibrant and still strengthening in 50 years.

As a matter of policy, the revolutionary movement does not believe that fundamental changes in this semicolonial and semifeudal society will be achieved in an election that is controlled and manipulated by the ruling class. However, the revolutionary movement respects the will of the people to participate in an election to present the people’s agenda and support progressive candidates. Due to the fact that it has already established its distinction as a belligerent force, candidates actively seek the advice and views of the CPP-NPA every election period. The revolutionary movement engages in talks with willing candidates in order to put forward the stand of the revolutionary movement regarding the issues and problems affecting the majority of the people and how can they help to advance and resolve these problems, not to simply collect PTCs from them. The term “Permit to Win” is a figment of the imagination of the talebearers of the AFP-PNP as the revolutionary movement does not endorse any candidate within its territories. Even Rodrigo Duterte, when he was still mayor of Davao City, was persuaded to face and talk with the revolutionary movement in Mindanao because he cannot ignore the growing prestige and influence of the national-democratic movement.

The NPA’s launch of tactical offensives all over the country is not a noise-making exercise, it is a statement that the rapacious fascism of the US-Duterte regime will be answered by resounding punitive actions against his fascist troops who have been the main agents of state terrorism in the countryside. Election period or not, the revolutionary movement will continue to fight for the people’s interests through armed struggle, painstaking organizing, implementation of agrarian revolution in the most backward and neglected parts of the country and lay the ground for national industrialization.

Duterte’s thinking that he can obliterate the national-democratic movement through the use of military might, political persecutions and deceptions will only remain in his fantasies. History has shown that even the Marcos dictatorship, who had sown the worst forms of fascism in his 14-year rule, has failed to break down the budding revolutionary movement. Instead, his rule was the one thrown in the wastebasket of history as the most rotten rule in the course of the succession of puppet regimes. And the people duplicated this feat in ousting the corrupt and fascist Estrada regime in 2001. After so many twists and turns in the 50 years of the national-democratic revolution, it is on the right track and the conditions are ripening for its advancement to higher stages, because of the continuing support of the impoverished and exploited masses who have long been suffering from the state’s implementation of neoliberal policies.

Expose the lies and deceptions of the US-Duterte regime!
Fight against militarization and state tyranny!
Advance the national-democratic revolution to higher stages!