Message to the FQS Activists in Northern Luzon

7 December 2002

I am deeply pleased to know that the veteran activists of the First Quarter Storm in Northern Luzon are holding their second reunion. I wish I could personally join you.

Let me join you in spirit and convey warmest greetings of solidarity to you and to my relatives and friends who are with you as special guests. Let me join you in celebrating the contributions you have made to the development of the national democratic movement against the three evils of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.

This is a time for renewing our resolve and reviving our militancy to pursue our patriotic and progressive cause, especially because the Filipino people are suffering terribly from the daily worsening crisis of the domestic ruling system and the world capitalist system.

At this point in our lives, we must be more conscious than ever of the need to pass on our legacy to succeeding generations. Let us inspire and encourage the youth from the broad masses of the people to continue the struggle for national liberation and democracy until complete victory is won.

I am grateful that in this current reunion you are giving special attention to the national and international campaign to defend my democratic rights and to demand the resumption of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations, and that you are determined to contribute what you can to the aforesaid campaign.

Let us resolutely and vigorously fight the scheme of the US imperialists to use the slogan of anti-terrorism as a pretext for intensifying exploitation and oppression of the people of the world and for whipping up repression, threats of mass destruction, military intervention and wars of aggression.

The real big terrorists in our history and current circumstances are US imperialists and their puppets. Never forget the fact that the US aggressors killed more than 1.4 Filipinos from 1899 to 1914 and instigated the 14-year long Marcos rule of open terror. By the way, you should be able to find a legal way of destroying the monstrous face of Marcos on the way to Baguio.

Now the US is hell-bent on military intervention and on serialized occupation of the Philippines under the guise of "antiterrorist" operations, training exercises, civic action so on. The US and the Arroyo puppet regime are trying to terrorize the people and labeling their victims as terrorists. Once more the times call for the strength of conviction and militancy that generated the First Quarter Storm of 1970.

The generation of the First Quarter Storm succeeded in eliminating the term "subversion" from the vocabulary of repression. Now the imperialists and their reactionary puppets wish to replace it with "terrorism" as a catch-all and open-ended term for suppressing the people and the forces of the national-democratic movement.

So long as national and class exploitation and oppression persist, let us remain steady on the revolutionary course of the national-democratic movement. Let us stay youthful and energetic as we link with the youth of today in continuing the struggle for national liberation and democracy. There is nothing more rejuvenating than the revolutionary spirit and mass movement.

Mabuhay kayo! Mabuhay tayong lahat! Mabuhay ang sambayanang Pilipino!