With the appointment of Gen. Jose Faustino Jr as officer-in-charge and eventual secretary of the Department of National Defense (DND) under the incoming Marcos II regime, the Filipino people can anticipate the dirty war in Mindanao to be expanded and intensified across the country.

We hold General Faustino as among the worst of the fascist generals of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) responsible for the brutal campaign of aerial bombings, extrajudicial killings and gross abuses of human rights in Mindanao, since it was placed under martial law in 2017.

Under US indoctrination and direction, and as Duterte stooge, General Faustino is responsible for the dirty war against the Lumad people and peasant masses of Mindanao. He successively led the 10th ID, the Eastern Mindanao Command and the Joint Task Force Mindanao which are all notorious for the bloody war against civilians. Under his command, the AFP launched large campaigns of suppression and pacification against the masses, hamletting entire villages placing them under military rule, red-tagging and dismantling people’s organizations, and breaking up of their programs including the Lumad schools.

The campaigns of military suppression led by General Faustino were concentrated in Northern and Eastern Mindanao where mining operations and expansion of plantations are being valiantly resisted by the people. The campaign of the AFP is to suppress the people’s resistance and establish fake organizations that will “welcome” the capitalists, mostly big American companies, who will grab their land.

General Faustino is an ardent supporter of the National Task Force-Elcac, Duterte’s notorious fascist agency, having benefited much from the hundreds of millions of pesos of infrastructure building under the “Barangay Development Program”–a corruption-ridden program that aims to satiate military officers and buy their loyalty, under the guise of addressing the “roots of the armed conflict.” Of the ₱1.6 billion NTF-Elcac BDP budget for 2021, more than ₱1.2 billion (or 75%) went to five regions alone which were all under Faustino’s command in 2021.

General Faustino, like General Lorenzana and all his predecessors in the DND, will wage a losing and failing war against the New People’s Army (NPA). Behind the fake numbers of “surrenders,” battlefield “victories” and “dismantled guerrilla fronts” being reported daily by the AFP is the people’s seething outrage against endless military suppression and occupation of their communities.

By defending the people with arms, the NPA continues to steadily expand and gain the broad support of the masses. No amount of US-supplied bombs, howitzers and bullets will stop the growth of the NPA. Despite all difficulties, the broad masses of peasants and minority people continue to build their organizations to fight the AFP and aggressors who are grabbing their land. Under the illegitimate Marcos II regime, people in great numbers are bound to wage resistance and join the people’s war.