Injustice begets resistance, and heightened injustice will only result to a stronger revolution. This is the inevitable outcome of the relentless fascist attacks of the AFP, PNP, and NTF-ELCAC in Negros Island, especially as time grows shorter each day for their commander-in-chief Duterte’s official term.

As the fascists resort to even more desperate measures of blatant disrespect of human rights and intentionally failing to distinguish combatants and non-combatants, the broad masses in Negros are even more convinced to join the New People’s Army (NPA) and fight for their rights.

Focused military operations as the enemy’s tool to suppress the masses

Since the implementation of Memorandum Order (MO) 32 and Executive Order (EO) 70, the masses in Negros have suffered from intense human rights violations, bloodied further after the signing of the draconian Anti-Terror Law and the ambitious deadline of the 3rd ID of its counterinsurgency drive by June 2022. Through sheer military overspending, Joint Task Force-Negros (JTF-Negros) has mobilized up to 15 battalions of the AFP and PNP to mount one focused military operation (FMO) after another, to hardheadedly chase their pipedream of pulverizing the revolutionary movement in the region.

From the last quarter of 2021 up to the first quarter of 2022, fascist troops have accumulated grave human rights violations including red-tagging, harassment, enforced surrenders, gun pointing, illegal arrest and detention based on trumped-up cases, and murder. The majority of these cases involve civilians especially peasant activists, and the common denominator is planting of evidence or armed coercion by state troops, as what happened in Calatrava, Canlaon City, Guihulngan City, Bacolod City, Moises Padilla, Isabela, Binalbagan, Himamaylan City, and Santa Catalina. Most recently, these include the illegal arrests of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Consultant and JASIG holder Ramon Patriarca and his activist companions in Himamaylan City and Nemfa de Lima in Canlaon City, the enforced disappearance of Iver Larit in Bacolod City, and the murder of former municipal councilor Henry Hermoso in Vallehermoso.

Another trademark of their brazen brutality is the murder of unarmed revolutionaries. In the same period, there have been 11 cases of cold-blooded killings of Red fighters and Party cadres all over Negros. Akin to the results of the PNP doctoring causes of death of Tokhang victims, the AFP attack deep in the night to kill defenseless comrades and justify their atrocities as fake encounters, with bodies of their victims bruised and contorted due to torture.

The FMOs of the 302nd and 303rd Infantry Brigade are cowardly measures to try and quell the armed revolution by suppressing the masses and demoralize their collective spirit. State-sponsored attacks have notably increased since the start of the election season, with the aforementioned troops and PNP maneuver forces (SAF and RMFB) scourging the countryside in their counterrevolutionary drive. As they preach their black propaganda that they religiously follow protocols of war, their consistent record of harming the innocent and the defenseless are clear indications of what they truly are: monsters who have no regard for human life, much like their commander-in-chief Duterte and their imperialist masters.

This is also a sign of Duterte’s desperate cling to power. He is using his mercenary troops to censor and crush dissent to pave way for the Marcos-Arroyo-Duterte (MAD) alliance. They connive to steal the reactionary elections, continue the nepotism of plunderers and butchers further aggravating the socioeconomic conditions of the Negrosanons and the Filipino people. They will fortify the civil-military junta and prolong martial rule in the country to fatten up the pockets of cronies and their own. Duterte’s choices remain to include the imposition of Martial Law or cheating the election results through utilizing his goons in the AFP and PNP and his lackeys in the COMELEC.

Thriving amid difficulties, NPA-Negros continues to reap victories

While openly proclaiming that the NPA in Negros “is on the brink of defeat,” the AFP suffers backlash after backlash due to various tactical offensives mounted by the NPA all over the island. While the AFP insists it can annihilate the NPA, it has repeatedly postponed its deadlines from – 2019, 2021, the end of Duterte’s term by June 2022, and now even hinting of postponing it yet again–proof that despite their heightened attacks, the NPA in Negros thrives.

Through maintaining tactical initiative in war, attritive and annihilative actions are carried on in the five guerilla fronts in the island. Even during defensive actions, the NPA flexes on circumstances and is quick to assess their shortcomings to improve tactics and techniques in the protracted people’s war.

The AFP’s declaration of dismantling the guerilla fronts in North and Southeast Negros and weakening the Southwest are effectively proven hogwash due to recent encounters in the area. Their propaganda are quick to dismiss that what they encountered were mere ‘remnants’ of the guerilla front, yet are inconsistent on what they babble about. Gen. Inocencio Pasaporte of the 303rd brigade boasts that the front in South Central Negros is weakened, but after the ambush mounted by Red Fighters in Binalbagan last February, the fascist troops lash out against civilians in the area for not informing them of NPA presence.

Moreover, partisan operations that punish intelligence assets and criminals in Guihulngan City, Kabankalan City, Toboso, Calatrava, Escalante City, Binalbagan and others, have continued to dislocate the military’s spy network. While the AFP denies their involvement in intelligence, they divulge themselves as liars when they take revenge against the innocent after such attritive actions.

Amid the relentless fascist attacks of JTF-Negros to sow fear among the masses, revolutionary mass organizations through the guidance of the CPP-NPA have adapted creative means to render state forces blind and deaf while pushing forth antifeudal and antifascist campaigns, such as resisting neoliberal policies like sugar importation, rising oil prices, and deprivation of basic social services such as health and education. They have become conscious that the response to state terrorism is to persevere and raise their capabilities to fight back.

Despite some setbacks, the 5 guerilla fronts in the region continues to flourish. The NPA carries on to perform its tasks of armed revolution, agrarian revolution, and building its mass base. It is waging an extensive and intensive guerilla warfare based on an ever-widening and ever-deepening mass base. Armed with Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and under the absolute leadership of the CPP, NPA-Negros is determined to strengthen its foundations and advance in its military and political work.

Fascism breeds resistance

Duterte and his cohorts are revealing themselves as paper tigers. When the ruling class can no longer reign the old way through deception and pseudodemocratic methods, it resorts to ways it knows best: tyranny and fascism. Unwittingly, however, it fails to demolish the revolutionary movement deeply rooted among the masses. The more they trample the rights of Negrosanons, the more that they push them to swell the ranks of the NPA.

While the regime pours all its resources to military overspending and electioneering, effectively putting the country in even a worse state of debt, it is sharpening and exposing the rottenness of the status quo. And as conditions worsen for Negrosanons and the Filipino people, no amount of modern weaponry, disinformation and deception, or outright brutality can sow fear among the masses who are eager for genuine liberation and a just and lasting peace.

As the MAD alliance tries its best to manipulate the elections, they expose that the rotten semicolonial and semifeudal system cannot be merely changed by which representative of the ruling class sits in Malacanang to be commanded by the imperialist US, but through the seizure of political power through armed revolution tirelessly waged by the CPP-NPA for over 53 years. Their fascism will only unwittingly strengthen the NPA severalfold. ###