Press Statement
by Prof. Jose Maria Sison
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
November 23, 2018
Memorandum Order No. 32 is formally and actually a declaration of a state of national emergency. This is in furtherance of the ongoing tyranny and de facto martial law nationwide. It is preparatory to formal proclamation of martial law nationwide, the screwing up of the 2019 elections, chacha for bogus federalism and establishment of fascist dictatorship ala Marcos.
The lawless violence that now reigns in the Philippines is actually a monopoly of the AFP and PNP, especially with their perpetration of mass murders with impunity and with presidential protection and cash incentives from the intelligence and discretionary funds of the Office of the President.
In sharp contrast, the NPA follows strictly the laws of the people’s democratic government, the International Bill of Rights and International Humanitarian Law. Duterte has generated the lawless violence under Oplan Tokhang and Oplan Kapayapaan in order to lay the ground for further brutal military and police operations and for justifying martial law nationwide and establishing a fascist dictatorship.
Having authorized MO No. 32, Duterte is unwittingly admitting that the NPA is strong not only in Mindanao but also in other parts of the country contrary to the psywar claims of the AFP and PNP that the NPA is nearly finished. In fact, not a single guerrilla front in Mindanao has been finished, despite the deployment of 75 of the 98 maneuver battalions of the AFP.
The NPA is expected to wage more tactical offensives on a nationwide scale. Outside of Mindanao, the AFP and PNP have targeted so-called focus areas. But their offensives have been blunted and have uttterly failed in Luzon and the Visayas.
Duterte and his armed minions do not understand the guerrilla warfare being carried out by the NPA. They think that the NPA is already finished when it evades the enemy offensives with superior strength.
They forget that the NPA can launch tactical counteroffensives after evasive actions and it can avail of its nationwide strength to launch tactical counteroffensives elsewhere on a wide front in a war of fluid movement.
If only to stop Duterte’s scheme of fascist dictatorship, the NDFP maintains its standing policy of being open to peace negotiations with the GRP even under Duterte. Most importantly, it is putting forward its proposal for social, economic and political reforms to lay the basis for a just and lasting peace.
At the same time, the revolutionary forces represented by the NDFP have made absolutely clear that they will continue to carry out the people’s war for national and social liberation in response to Duterte’s termination of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations, his persistent all-out war policy and his scheme of fascist dictatorship.
The NDFP is well aware of the instability and fragility of the Duterte regime. The tyrant Duterte has worn out and fatigued his limited military and police forces and cannot increase them because of the worsening economic crisis and financial bankruptcy of his regime, aggravated by debt enslavement to China which will start to weigh heavily on the Philippines next year.
Within the AFP and PNP, there is only a small criminal gang loyal to Duterte. This is directly opposed by pro-US and anti-China military officers. At the same time, there is a growing number of patriotic and democratic-minded AFP and PNP officers who aim to withdraw support from the Duterte regime in concert with the people’s uprising as in 1986 and 2001 against the Marcos fascist regime and the Estrada regime, respectively.
Duterte seems to be aware that he is sitting on a throne made of bayonets. Thus, now and then, he publicly expresses fear of a coup d’etat. Indeed, he is vulnerable to a coup d’etat by the group of pro-US and anti-China officers or to a combination of people’s uprising and military withdrawal of support as he takes further steps in making his own authoritarian coup against the GRP Constitution. ###
