The amnesty offers purportedly for the revolutionary movement that the fascist US-Marcos regime hypes are nothing but drivel. Just like the localized peace talks and other deceptive schemes, the entire revolutionary force in Bikol adamantly rejects this said ploy.

First, it has no intention other than to escalate the sham surrender campaign. A fascist campaign that epitomizes the reactionary government’s flagrant infringement of human rights and international humanitarian law. Thousands of Bikolano civilians that have no connections to the revolutionary movement and have no criminal charges in any court have already been arbitrarily forced to ‘surrender’ by the military and police.

According to 9^(th) IDPA’s own accounts, Bikolano ‘surrenderees’ who are supporters of the CPP-NPA-NDF now reach 3,000. Most of them are ordinary farmers, fishermen and downtrodden civilians from the countryside. This is a grave violation of the international humanitarian law that forbids forcing civilians to change their beliefs. These individuals and entire communities who have been victimized by the forced surrender campaign suffer from systematic and ceaseless military and police violence and abuses.

Secondly, this is just a dangerous trap concocted by a state that continuously hunts, arrests, imprisons and kills anyone it wants to – with or without crimes, young or old. It must be remembered how illegal detentions, arrests and trumped-up charges abound. In Bikol, there are currently 44 political prisoners under the US-Marcos Jr. regime. Most of them are progressives and mass leaders who have no crime other than the exercise of their freedom of speech and right to demand their democratic interests. Adding to this figure are another 41 individuals who have been charged with trumped-up cases from June 2022 up to present including three senior citizens accused of being NPA supporters.

In fact, even those who they had forced to surrender earlier have not been immune to the state’s witch hunt. In just a year, not less than 10 surrenderees have still been arrested by the 9^(th) IDPA and PNP Region 5 even after they subscribed to ECLIP.

In the end, the offer of amnesty by the US-Marcos Jr. regime is but one among the long list of desperate schemes of this rotten state to abate the persistently strong and blazing people’s democratic revolution in the region and across the country. And just like their previous ruses, this will certainly be rejected and frustrated by the revolutionary movement and the Filipino nation.