The AFP and PNP have nothing to brag about in their raids and arrests of activist leaders, workers and youth cultural workers belonging to progressive organizations October 31 in Bacolod City and November 1 in Escalante City. The fascist maneuvers of the PNP-CIDG, Negros Occidental Provincial Police Office (NOPPO), AFP 3rd Infantry Division, 303rd Brigade and the 79th IB, show the desperation of the US-Duterte regime in implementing its counter-revolutionary war in Negros island and the whole country.

The AFP and PNP have no real “accomplishments” to show for in their aim to crush the armed revolutionary movement in Negros this 2019. The fake surrenders, anomalous arrests and killings are trained on civilians, as with the planting of firearms and explosives on vehicles and offices of activists in Bacolod and Escalante which they pass off as accomplishments against the New People’s Army or NPA .

The AFP and PNP can only brag with lies in response to the NPA’s tactical offensives against the fascists in Negros. The 79th IB incurred heavy casualties in the NPA’s successful ambush in Paitan, Escalante City last August 31. To conceal their combat defeat, the 3rd ID and 303rd Brigade can only release fake news and implement brazen repression of activists and people who exercise their right to organize, speak up and protest. Even before the recent raids in Bacolod, eight activists were arrested in Escalante using the same modus of planting arms and explosives.

Since Duterte declared Memorandum Order 32 and Executive Order 70 last year, numerous human rights violations against peasants and ordinary civilians were recorded particularly in North Negros. State agents of the National Task Force (NTF) to End Communist Insurgency and Center for Collaborative Solutions and Initiatives (CCSI) have been operating in Escalante City to force civilians to surrender and to trick peasants into class collaboration to relinquish their victories in mass struggles for land, rights and livelihood. Civilians were forced to attend the anti-people “Peace Summit” or “Fake ESCAM” on the day of the anniversary of the Escalante Massacre where 2,500 “Fake NPAs” were presented by the military as rebel returnees.

The recent set-up of the Joint Task Force – Negros and the implementation of raids and arrests of civilians are part of desperate and and humiliating steps of the US-Duterte regime against its critics and the democratic mass movement. The open violations of the AFP-PNP against the rights of peasants and civilians give impetus to the people to embrace and rest their hopes on the revolutionary army and democratic people’s government based in the countryside.

The people must not think twice in joining the NPA to fight the abuses of de facto Martial Law and Memorandum Order 32 of the US-Duterte regime!