Max O
The Philippine
government arrested on 22nd March two leading members of the Communist Party of
the Philippines (CPP), Benito Tiamzon (party Chairman, below) and Wilma Austria (party
General Secretary). These leaders were captured together with five other
leading members of the CPP in central Cebu Province in the Western Visayas
islands, an area devastated by Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) last year.
The CPP and its military
wing, the New People’s Army (NPA) have
for the last 45 years been waging an armed struggle, leading the country's
peasants and workers in the campaign to win their liberation against the
dictatorship of the Philippine ruling classes and their master US imperialism.
They were arrested on
trumped up charges for"... crimes against humanity that include murder,
multiple murders, and frustrated murder", by the Aquino regime, a
notoriously corrupt, inept, and crony-run government. Both Tiamzon and Austria
were busy investigating the conditions of workers in the Visayas region whose
lives were shattered by the Typhoon Yolanda, when they were arrested.
Arrests
violation of the peace negotiations
These two leaders, as
well as being senior cadres of the CPP Central Committee, are also consultants
of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) which had being
carrying out peace negotiations with the Philippines government. In fact these
arrests are in violation of a 1995 agreement guaranteeing the safe conduct and
free passage of persons advising the NDFP in its peace negotiations with the
government under the auspices of Norway.
The peace negotiations
have been stalled since 2011 and the Aquino government declared that Tiamzon
and Austria are not entitled to legal protection from arrest, rejecting the CPP
and the NDFP demands that the two be released. Their arrests has stopped them
overseeing the efforts of the CPP's and NPA in carrying out rehabilitation work
in devastated regions.
They had been organising
and monitoring the NPA in mobilizing its Red fighters to help build communal
farms, till the land, distribute seeds and other agricultural resources from
the NDFP. This is in contrast to the substantial amounts of relief goods that
had rotted in the Aquino government’s warehouses while the people of Tacloban
city, Visayas continue to suffer from lack of food, shelter and income.
The arrests came a week
after the CPP denounced the Philippine government of President Aquino for
preparing a treaty with the United States, to be signed when U.S. President
Barack Obama visited the Philippines in mid-April. The treaty would give the
U.S. access to Philippine military bases and to set up American facilities
within those bases.
The Philippine
government has been expanding existing camps and bases, especially naval, and
setting up new ones in readiness for the American 'move-in'. The CPP stated,
“This agreement is a throwback to the era of U.S. military bases, where
thousands of U.S. combat troops, their warships, jet fighters, communication
facilities, nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction were
stationed within the country, and where the bases were used as launching pads
for aggression in defence of U.S. interests.”
A
gift for Obama
The preparation of the
treaty and the arrest of the two CPP leaders are considered ideal “welcome
gifts” for Obama. Just as important, the arrests were also meant to undermine
the activities to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the founding of the New
People’s Army on 29 March. The NPA has played an important role in the history
of contemporary Philippines: developing a successful armed struggle; creating
and organising revolutionary bases in the country side; assisting peasants in
their agricultural work; expanding participatory democracy amongst the
peasants; and carrying out successful militant union worker struggle in the
industrial sectors of the cities, in particular through the Kilusang Mayo Uno
(KMU).
The CPP has condemned in
the strongest terms the illegal arrests of Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria.
Indeed, the international revolutionary movement backs up the call of the CPP
that these two senior leaders be released from wrongful detention.
As the CPP states:
"While the wisdom and guidance of individual leaders is important, the
advance of the revolutionary struggle depends more on the collective wisdom,
determination and organization of the revolutionary masses. The arrest of
Tiamzon and Austria will not stop the main trend of advance of the people’s
war.
"It is the Aquino
regime’s puppetry, corruption, brutality and mendacity that teach the Filipino
people about the need to wage revolutionary resistance. They are thus ever
determined to advance along the path of widespread mass struggles and
revolutionary armed resistance in order to achieve national and social
liberation."
No comments:
Post a Comment