Revolutionary forces in Eastern Visayas today commemorate with the Filipino people the anniversary of the Sag-od massacre, with a continuing vow to exact justice for all victims of state terrorism and to wage all forms of struggle to end the tyrannical rule of the US-Duterte regime.

Four decades have passed since goons backed by the fascist US-Marcos regime brutally killed at least 47 peasants in Brgy. Sag-od, Las Navas, Northern Samar. Before that, they were made to “surrender” as members of the NPA. The women were mercilessly raped, children lost their parents and entire families were dislocated. To this day, the perpetrators of the heinous crime walk free. True justice remains elusive to their victims.

The horrors of Marcos’ martial law linger in the hearts of the people of Eastern Visayas. The desperate and tyrannical Duterte regime implements an increasingly savage and remorseless all-out war against the people of Sag-od. Just as before, fascist AFP-PNP troops go in and out of their barrios to force them to surrender, accuse them as “terrorists” or as their coddler, and coerce them to participate in their campaign of brutal suppression.

In the Eastern Visayas countryside, they kill, burn, bomb and pillage the peasants’ villages. They make garrisons out of entire communities, pestering the residents with their drinking, gambling, abuse of women and forcing them to do their bidding. They terrorize the people with intensive and costly military operations, squandering billions of pesos to rain bombs and bullets upon their fields. Military officials of the 803rd Infantry Brigade recently threatened in several PTF-ELCAC meetings to “bomb and make Marawi out of Las Navas,” as if to take pride in their warmongering and savagery as a vain attempt to solve the hardship and misery of the people.

The grave injustice against the people of Sag-od and all victims of state terrorism must not be repeated. The people have in their hands powerful weapons to defeat the monstrous and murderous regime that continues to victimize them. They must strengthen their united ranks and intensify the mass struggle against the terrorist Duterte regime.

They must intelligently evade and frustrate the attacks of the fascist troops in the barrios, oppose the martial law conditions imposed upon them, and creatively resist military occupation of their villages. With close coordination with the people’s army, they can sabotage the troops’ operations, discreetly continue building and consolidating their mass organizations, and facilitating support for the armed struggle to punish and drive out the fascist troops. They must draw support from allies to continually expose and condemn the brutalities of their transgressors.

The US-Marcos regime was toppled by the strong wave of mass actions. They advanced their struggle amid the severe crisis of the rotten semifeudal and semicolonial system and the acute isolation of the dictatorship. The people must draw lessons from history and be inspired in facing the intensified fascist onslaught of the desperate US-Duterte regime. #