Revolution is the relevant path to a just and lasting peace
CPP Information Bureau
April 26, 2011
The National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas today hailed the NDFP's 38th anniversary last April 24 and said that revolution remains the relevant path to a just and lasting peace. "The Aquino government is unmasking itself in using the peace negotiations with the NDFP to deceive the people while simultaneously launching another brutal military campaign in Oplan Bayanihan," said NDF-EV spokesperson Fr. Santiago Salas. "The burden of peace is on the Aquino government and not on the NDFP. After all, the Aquino government is answerable to the people who are aggrieved over such long-running problems like landlessness, joblessness, imperialist control of the economy, destruction of natural resources and national patrimony, and other basic issues. But the Aquino government avoids resolving the root causes of the armed conflict and refuses to undertake basic reforms, refuses to release the detained NDFP peace consultants and other political prisoners, and steps up its fascist attacks on the people who are demanding the alleviation of their socio-economic plight."
Fr. Salas added that, "The Aquino government's sluggardly and sinister conduct towards the peace talks and the people's travails is bound for blowback. As can be seen in many countries abroad, there are widespread uprisings and clamors for fundamental changes and regime change against corrupt and cruel rulers."
The NDF-EV spokesperson also said the revolutionary armed struggle and the revolutionary mass movement are bound to make great strides forward. "The NPA in Eastern Visayas was able to carry out 54 tactical offensives from 2010-2011, confiscating 35 firearms, and inflicting on the 8th Infantry Division 105 casualties killed in action and 35 wounded in action. From the experiences in guerrilla warfare, the NPA is now developing annihilative attacks to confiscate more firearms and arm increasing recruits. The NPA in Eastern Visayas is determined to contribute to the effort to advance from the strategic defensive to the strategic stalemate in the people's war."
Fr. Salas also explained that various outstanding issues will ignite the people's mass struggles. "The peasant masses are severely affected by the socio-economic crisis and are going to wage antifeudal struggles and press for genuine agrarian reform. The short-term doleouts from the so-called conditional cash transfer scheme will not solve the peasants' suffering. The meaningful changes in the peasants' lives can only come about from reaping victories from the agrarian revolution.
"The rapid decline in the people's standard of living while the prices of basic commodities go up will galvanize them. They are roused by the perennial price hikes of oil and public utilities, while basic social services also decline. In Eastern Visayas, many communities are already angered at the government's railroading of large-scale foreign mining. These issues can unite and mobilize the people into confronting the Aquino government. The sea of poverty the Aquino government is widening to its own peril will some day bring about waves of uprisings against the regime."
