A military official was reported to have acknowledged that the Duterte regime is losing the propaganda war with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the revolutionary forces. In a Philippine Daily Inquirer report, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) Director General Alex Paul Monteagudo claims that the CPP-NPA “has exploited and deceived the people for 50 long years.”

To Mr. Monteagudo, we have this to say: The CPP, the NPA and all revolutionary forces in the Philippines could not have thrived for 50 years if it were not speaking the truth which reflect the objective conditions of the Filipino people. They could not have grown and persevered if they did not express the sentiments and aspirations of the people.

The revolutionary forces speak about the objective realities which Duterte tries hard to obscure. About rampant killings, arbitrary arrests, and gross abuses of human rights perpetrated by military and police forces against the mass of poor people under condition of martial law. About landlessness and the grabbing of peasants’ and minority peoples’ lands. About the continuing crisis of the local economy and deteriorating social conditions of the masses. About the lack of jobs, low wages, oppressive working conditions, high prices and burdensome taxes. About Duterte’s treason and sellout. How he favors big business oligarchs, big plantation owners and mining companies. How Duterte and his cohorts continue to accumulate unexplained wealth. His ambitions to be like another Marcos and how he fears ending up in jail. The people’s outrage and their determination to wage armed struggle and all forms of resistance.

The fact is, the revolutionary movement continues to grow in strength and draw in thousands of adherents everyday because it speaks the truth about exploitation and oppression, abuses and injustice which daily beset the people. The Party’s program and its declarations reflect their aspirations for genuine freedom and democracy, real change and a better life.