Be wary of Pres. Duterte and the fascist AFP-PNP Commanders!
They are, in fact, wolves in sheep’s clothing!

Our Lord Jesus Christ condemned the rulers and pharisees of his time as false prophets. He categorically told his apostles and disciples, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are voracious wolves. You can know them by their deeds…” (Matthew 7:15-16).

As we, in the Christians for National Liberation (CNL), reflect on the Biblical verses above, let us join all women in the world to celebrate the International Women’s Month. Let us salute the women, principally here in the Philippines, who have struggled and continue to fight for real change. And let us apply Christ’s denunciation against the US-Duterte Regime (USDR), the fascist AFP-PNP commanders and the regime’s rabid cronies who have positioned themselves in government, and particularly against President Duterte who persists to mistreat women. Like wolves in sheep’s clothing, they tell lies and deceive the Filipino people. They use coercion in order to compel all national government agencies (NGAs) and local government units (LGUs) to implement their fascist laws, orders and acts against the exploited and oppressed Filipino people, especially most hostile to the interests of the workers, the urban poor, peasants, fisherfolks, national minorities, the Moro people, the women and the youth.

And what deceptions and dishonesties did Duterte and his cohorts execute at the start of the 2016 national elections campaigns and after he was elected president? That he would end within six (6) months the drug syndicates; if not, he would resign as president. That he would kill all those involved in the illegal drugs, as he warned the drug lords, “Do not destroy my country. Do not destroy the youth of the land.” The truth is in his 3 years and 9 months now as president, tyrant Duterte has proven himself as the No. 1 destroyer of the Filipino people, especially the workers, urban poor, peasants, fisherfolks and national minorities, through his regime’s exploitative and oppressive Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act, Rice Tarification Law, and “Build, Build, Build” projects that are funded with high interest by the modern revisionist Chinese government. And instead of emancipating the destitute inhabitants from feudal, comprador bourgeois and foreign capitalist exploitation by genuinely promoting agrarian reform and national industrialization, totalitarian Duterte leads daily the Filipino masses to poverty, sickness and death. And could you imagine: According to the Dec. 2019 national data, more that 30 million Filipinos are in extreme poverty!

And who, do you think, have been destroying and continue to destroy the youth of the land? Despotic Duterte and his fascist AFP-PNP commanders have been killing and continue to kill not only the youth but also workers, peasants, urban poor, national minorities, the Moro people, and women by means of their three (3) wars – Oplan Tokhang “war against drugs”, Oplan Kapayapaan war of suppression throughout the country, and martial law and anti-Moro war in Mindanao. Their 3 wars have all resulted to countless killings all over the land and the complete abandon for the respect of human rights. Duterte’s martial law and anti-Moro war in Mindanao has led to the total destruction of Marawi and untold hardships to hundreds of thousands of Maranaos. President Duterte’s 3 wars against the Filipino people have led to the regime’s violent crackdown on human rights defenders and justice advocates and to more than 27,400 Filipinos (as of August 2019) – mostly peasants, workers, urban poor and national minorities, but also a big number of lawyers, human rights workers, priests and pastors – who have been murdered in cold blood. Some of the said 27,400 cases of murdered Filipinos have already been filed against Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the world’s only permanent war crimes tribunal which is an independent judicial institution with the power to try and punish individuals for the most serious crimes of international concern such as genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression, and war crimes. President Duterte and his army and police commanders have to be penalized for such criminalities!

Other great trickeries and deceits of autocrat Duterte to satanically gain the sympathy of the exploited and oppressed Filipino masses were when he proclaimed himself as “the first socialist president of the Philippines”, when he invited activists and their progressive organizations inside Malacañang Palace, when he offered some cabinet positions to nationalist and democratic leaders of the people’s mass movement, when he reopened the peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP to supposedly resolve the root causes of the armed conflict, and finally when in the last quarter of 2016 Duterte declared to leave the military and economic dominance of the United States in the country and to forge closer ties with China and Russia for the promotion of a Philippine independent foreign policy. But such seeming “good deeds” turned to naught; as dictator Duterte and his reactionary and pro-US imperialist AFP-PNP commanders continued their 3 anti-Filipino wars. All these 3 wars of Duterte and his reactionary army and police commanders are, in fact, outrightly antagonistic to the “Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law” (CARHRIHL), signed by both the GRP and NDFP Negotiating Panels on March 16, 1998, and approved and signed by the corresponding principals of the both Negotiating Panels, NDFP Chairperson Mariano Orosa and GRP President Joseph E. Estrada on April 10, 1998 and August 7, 1998, respectively.

The tyrant’s deceptions and dishonesties were gradually unfolded by President Duterte himself when on November 23, 2017 he issued Proclamation No. 360, formally terminating the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations because Duterte needed the continuance of the armed conflict as an excuse to impose on the Filipino people a de facto martial law and eventually a fullblown fascist dictatorship. Meaning, Duterte never had the intention to attain genuine justice and lasting peace for the exploited and oppressed Filipino people; as he issued on December 5, 2017 another decree, Proclamation No. 374, listing the CPP and NPA as terrorist organizations. Thus, instead of denouncing US imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism as the root causes of the people’s chronic impoverishment and of the ongoing and intensifying armed conflict, Duterte blames the NPAs as the reason of poverty and the lack of development in Philippine society. This deceives the Filipino people as to the true root causes of poverty, underdevelopment and the people’s war. It veils the fact that the true terrorists of the Filipino people are US imperialism, the No. 1 terrorist throughout the world, and the fascist puppets of US imperialism in the Philippines, headed by President Duterte himself who solely orders his AFP-PNP top commanders and his cronies at the national and down to the local level.

President Duterte’s trickeries and deceits were fully revealed when he signed on December 4, 2018 Executive Order 70. Through this EO, despotic Duterte has directed his pro-US imperialist AFP-PNP to implement the “Whole-of-Nation Approach” by means of the “12 Pillars”, i.e., the NGAs. Essentially, EO 70 fully serves the economic and political interests of the US imperialists, the big landlords and big comprador bourgeoisie who are themselves the big bureaucrat capitalists that exclusively control the reactionary government and the fascist armed forces. Thus, to hide the dictate of their US imperialist masters, to maintain and further consolidate their control and to further deceive the Filipino people, autocrat Duterte, his ardent cohorts and his pro-US imperialist AFP-PNP top commanders are just using the issue of “communism” to justify their ruling class dictatorship, impose a de facto martial law, and commit countless human rights violations against the Filipino people.

Using “End Local Communist Armed Conflict” (ELCAC) as the smokescreen of the USDR’s class repression, despotic Duterte and his blood-thirsty and pro-US imperialist AFP-PNP commandants continually coerce all NGAs and LGUs from the provincial down to the barangay level in order to declare maliciously the CPP-NPA as “persona non grata”, push forward the “localized peace talks”. They oblige all NGAs and LGUs to assist the anti-Filipino AFP-PNP in their “Oplan Kapanatagan” military campaigns, as well as in their corruption-laden “Enhanced-Comprehensive Local Integration Program” (E-CLIP) which only produces fake NPA surrenderees. They are forcing all the NGAs and LGUs to malignly support the fascist state’s red-tagging campaigns against activists, human rights defenders, justice and peace advocates, people’s progressive organizations and pro-Filipino Party Lists as “communist supporters and fronts”.

Nonetheless, like other counter-insurgency operation plans by past fascist regimes, ELCAC, the pipe dream of the satanic USDR, will certainly fail again because it does not at all and will never address the root causes of the intensifying armed conflict. It outrightly conceals the fact that US imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism are the continuing three (3) root causes of the people’s war being launched nationwide by the NPA, the revolutionary army of the exploited and oppressed Filipino people.

We, in CNL, therefore, appeal to all Christians, who are officials in the various LGUs and personnel in the different NGAs, to resist the coercion of the fascist state and its anti-people army and police. We pray that all of you be united with the exploited and oppressed laborers, urban poor, peasants, fisherfolks, national minorities and other sectors, especially the women and the youth to end the fascist acts of intimidations, harassments, slanderous propaganda, vilifications, red-tagging, illegal arrests and detentions, trumped-up charges and extra-judicial killings by state forces. Such monstrous atrocities of the reactionary military and police forces against the Filipino people in order to impose President Duterte’s tyranny and the regime’s further subservience to US imperialism, while selling the country’s sovereignty to China, must totally be stopped.

May you, Christ’s disciples in the LGUs and NGAs, learn lessons from the experiences of the struggling masses during the ouster of dictator Marcos in 1986 and corrupt Estrada in 2001. May you courageously join the Filipino people to topple down the USDR at the earliest possible time through a powerful convergence of all anti-Duterte forces. May you broaden and strengthen the people’s resistance against tyranny. May you be of great help to oust the despotic and satanic US-Duterte regime.