In his speech before the 8th Infantry Division, Pres. Rodrigo Duterte of the GRP yesterday chided the Party and NPA for having an “outdated” ideology and declared that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) can defeat the revolutionary armed movement in Samar and across the country.

In fact, it is Duterte’s ideology—fascism—that is old and rotten. It is an ideology based on hatred of the poor and dispossessed who have learned to stand up and speak out against tyranny and oppression. Fascism is the worst ideology of the reactionary classes who aim to perpetuate their power and wealth accumulation.

It is the same ideology behind Hitler’s holocaust of the 1930s, and various bloody dictatorial regimes from Europe to the Americas and Asia—from Batista to Somoza, Suharto to Marcos and a number of other tyrants who plundered their countries but were eventually overthrown by the people who learned to wage resistance valiantly.

The Filipino people have long rejected fascism in the Philippines and will continue to resist it because it is oppressive and aims to condemn them to eternal hardships and poverty. With his fascist ideology, it is a certainty that Duterte will fail miserably in his declared aim of defeating the people’s armed and non-armed resistance.

The CPP, guided by the most advanced theory of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism with its democratic ideals, will continue to strengthen and draw deep support among the broad masses of the people and lead the New People’s Army and the democratic mass movement to greater heights.