An even more savage military offensive against the civilian population in the region under the leadership of MGen. Alex Luna, new 9th IDPA chief, must be expected. Prior to this appointment, Luna had been the AFP intelligence chief and had served as one of the masterminds of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC)’s red-tagging campaign and anti-communist witch hunt. He was dismissed as intelligence chief after he belted civilian victims of red-tagging with threats of assassination and military assaults. One particularly notorious case was his malicious list of universities and personalities supposedly connected to the revolutionary movement.

As former AFP intelligence chief and one of the top operators of NTF-ELCAC, Luna will surely lead the intensified attacks against civilians, especially those from the ranks of patriotics and nationalists. In the upcoming elections, Luna’s expertise in red-tagging shall surely be used to assail progressive partylists and candidates, undermine the public’s democratic right to choose their leader and rig the results in favor of the Marcos-Duterte alliance. The dogged terrorist tagging will serve as the take-off point of an even dirtier militarization and killing campaign against civilians and their communities.

It should also be expected that Luna shall pull all strings to implement NTF-ELCAC’s anti-communist directive in the region. This shall be through intensive military offensives both by means of psychological warfare and disinformation and wasteful focused military operations using their newly-purchased modern weapons.

However, the Bikolano people’s disavowal of the NTF-ELCAC and US-Duterte regime shall be favorable for the NPA-Bikol and its wide mass base in their struggle to frustrate the regime’s dirty war. It is a challenge for the Bikolano revolutionary movement to heed the CPP’s call to further advance and strengthen their ranks in order to foil the enemies’ offensives in the region. All units of the NPA-Bikol and the large number of Bikolano masses should effectively combat and defend against worsening military attacks in the course of forwarding the people’s revolution. This entails the fervent study of lessons from past experiences, particularly the three-year enforcement of MO 32 and EO 70 in the region, and the prudent undertaking of measures to triumph over Duterte’s counterrevolutionary war.

This also means that the Red army must persevere in expanding their areas of operation and escalate the guerilla warfare through the basis of a deepening and growing mass base. They must also fortify the victories achieved in the course of the agrarian revolution, strengthen the revolutionary mass organizations, further the NPA recruitment campaign and all efforts to maintain company-sized guerilla fronts. This is also a clear testament to the need of more tactical offensives that shall make it even more difficult for Duterte to remain in power as a fascist dictator.