In time for the 120th anniversary commemoration of the Balangiga Uprising, the National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas (NDF-EV) celebrates today the heroic victory of the people of Balangiga against foreign domination and called on the Filipino people to defeat the Duterte regime’s fascist version of turning the country into a “howling wilderness.”

“Despite limitations in weapons, the people of Balangiga in Eastern Samar resolutely defeated the US troops who were enslaving them and occupying their lands. They intelligently used the means at their disposal–from bolos, church bells, guerrilla tactics and mastery of terrain –to attest that no foe is mightier than the strength of the people united,” NDF-EV said.

The NDF-EV likened the Balangiga Uprising with today’s people’s war which draws strength from the superior tactics of guerrilla warfare and the collective power of the masses against the advanced weapons and advanced technology of the fascist Duterte regime aided by its US headmaster.

“The bells of Balangiga ring even louder today,” NDF-EV said. “Throughout the country, the US-military trained Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) uses tactics and weapons supplied by its imperialist masters to wage the Duterte regime’s all-out war against the people. The AFP most recently used US military-supplied drones, bombs and artillery to conduct at least three counts of indiscriminate aerial bombing in Dolores, Eastern Samar and in Las Navas and Bobon, Northern Samar, reminiscent of General Jacob Smith’s command to turn Samar into a ‘howling wilderness,’ The AFP even boasted that it will wreak Marawi-like rampage in the countryside.

“The Duterte regime through the AFP wantonly drops bombs to paralyze the people with fear. They militarize the barrios and weaponize the law to terrorize the opposition. They blatantly brush aside civilian lives in a desperate attempt to snuff out the people’s resistance.”

The NDF-EV said that the people must overcome state terrorism with greater resolve by carrying forward people’s. “The people must diligently build revolutionary mass organizations, overcome the limits of militarized lockdowns, and through a myriad of means conduct mass actions that expose state terror. In the countryside, they must participate in the armed struggle to resist the military occupation of their barrios, punish their fascist abusers, and drive them out of their communities. They must work closely with the New People’s Army to not let the fascist AFP-PNP troops, who for decades have killed, tortured, abused and exploited them, go without being apprehended.”

“Akin to the Balangiga Uprising, the people must arm themselves to decisively defeat today’s fascist monster in the person of Rodrigo Duterte. The people must believe in their own collective strength, build their resolve, persevere in numbers and strength, and intensify the people’s war to ring louder than Duterte’s bombs,” NDF-EV ended.