Our journey to shalom is through the National Democratic Revolution with a Socialist Perspective!

 

I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
And the joy in My people;
The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her,
Nor the voice of crying.

“No more shall an infant from there live but a few days,
Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; (Isaiah 65: 19b-20a)

The Christians for National Liberation (CNL), an allied organization of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), affirms that the only path towards our Christian aspiration of shalom is through the path that dismantles the semi-colonial and semi-feudal systems in the Philippine society. Only by waging the National Democratic Revolution with a socialist perspective could we eradicate the social evils that historically and continuously scourge our land: imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism. And only through it could comprehensive agrarian reform and national industrialization could be achieved, the concrete foundations for fully restoring human rights and dignity.

On the 2022 Human Rights Day, we nurture our resolve and commitment to journey with the millions of oppressed, exploited, and marginalized Filipinos in the struggle towards the fulfillment of their rights. Right from the start of the Marcos II – Duterte fascist, reactionary government, they have already proven that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is inept in addressing the economic crisis he has inherited from the Duterte regime.

The people are already seething with outrage over the rising prices of basic goods and services, the miserable wages of Filipino workers, incessant oil price hikes, additional taxes, and neoliberal policies that turn the toiling masses into milking cows for corruption. How can the rights of the people be afforded, when they cannot afford to have food on their table? Greed in flesh, Marcos Jr. has already shown his ignorance and indifference to the people’s sufferings, pushing them to a lingering death from hunger and poverty. But in the thick of these wretched conditions, the toiling masses inevitably find ways to fight back, to be critical, and redirect history for the people’s victory through parliamentary and armed forms of struggle.

In desperate efforts to shut the resounding resistance of the toiling masses for their democratic rights, Marcos Jr. and his cohorts are maximizing all platforms for systemic repression. Aware of the alternative path it offers, the fascist reactionary state is also hell-bent on crushing the armed resistance in the countryside. The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP), through the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), and other armed goons of the GRP are guilty of unforgivable war crimes as provided by the Geneva Conventions and its protocols and by the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).

As CNL, we vehemently condemn the GRP’s heinous war crimes, including massacres, cold-blooded killings, abduction, and torture, against combatants, non-combatants, and hors de combat, even including civilians and masses as their casualties. The CNL asserts the Christian mandate to exemplify love and honor life by struggling with the millions of oppressed and exploited Filipinos, the most radical form being in the countryside through taking part in the protracted people’s war. We uphold that in times of relentless suffering and oppression, the people have the right to fight for their dignity and freedom. We uphold that the people’s genuine struggle for liberation is just, more so the people’s war is the only way to the realization and fulfillment of their human rights especially when they are being enslaved by the shackles of imperialism (Deut. 20:1).

The Christians for National Liberation, thus, highlights now more than ever the role of base-building, organizing, and joining the revolutionary army to further support and strengthen the national democratic revolution with a socialist perspective. People of faith, through our belief in the God of justice, let us consolidate, expand, and sustain the revolutionary underground movement, and strengthen the revolutionary armed struggle!

Long live the National Democratic Revolution with a Socialist Perspective!
Advance the people’s war towards national liberation!

 

Our journey to shalom is through the National Democratic Revolution with a Socialist Perspective!