Road projects of the US MCC and 8th ID
serve to support the AFP's arena of battle*
Fr. Santiago Salas
NDF - Eastern Visayas
June 5, 2011
The National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas today said 8th Infantry Division chief Gen. Mario Chan is covering up the fact that the road projects in Samar are essentially the same in supporting the arena of battle for Oplan Bayanihan of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. “Gen. Chan is lying when he says the projects of the US Millenium Challenge Corporation and the 8th ID are different from each other,” said NDF-EV spokesperson Fr. Santiago Salas. “The difference is only on paper, but these projects have the same purpose of transforming the arena of battle towards the maximum use of military force for Oplan Bayanihan. As part of the AFP's Triad Operations, the so-called “non-combat” or “civil-military operations” mainly serve to strengthen intelligence and enhance combat operations.
“These non-combat military operations such as that pushed by the 8th ID's road projects are thus meant to intensify efforts to deceive the people, malign the revolutionary movement, expand the mobilization of civilian agencies and organizations for Oplan Bayanihan, and deodorize the AFP. It is Oplan Bayanihan's ambition to create a surging military, political and propaganda offensive to destroy the New People's Army and the entire revolutionary movement.”
Fr. Salas also dismissed Gen. Chan's denial that the 8th ID's road projects will partake of the US MCC $214-million grant. “Everybody knows public funds can be easily manipulated or stolen without any accountability, to suit those in power especially in a case where the US would be caught red-handed. The Aquino government is cash-strapped and has been drastically cutting back on basic social services. But Gen. Chan is flaunting that P4.6 billion will be required to finish his projects, which mainly target alleged strongholds of the revolutionary movement in the triboundary of Samar Island. The crux of the matter is that the avowed purpose of the US MCC and 8th ID projects is to debilitate and destroy the revolutionary movement through Oplan Bayanihan.”
The NDF-EV spokesperson added that both the 8th ID's projects and the US MCC's National Secondary Road Project from Western Samar to Eastern Samar are just showcases without substance to buttress the popularity of Noynoy Aquino and thus justify the brutal scheme of Oplan Bayanihan. “The 8th ID and US MCC projects do not address the fundamental problems of the people. As a stark example, of the region's 4.2 million population, two million are farmworkers, poor peasants and lower middle peasants, who make less than 50 pesos a day because of the lack of land or total landlessness. The much-ballyhoed road projects are thus practically irrelevant to vast numbers of the peasantry, who in the first place have almost nothing to market and barely make enough to eat. What the peasants and the people really need are genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization to make economic progress possible. The heavily publicized US MCC project will largely only benefit the political, economic and military interests of US imperialism and its big business and big landlord local puppets. It will facilitate Oplan Bayanihan and pave the way for large-scale logging and mining pushed by US-led imperialist globalization.”
Fr. Salas said the people must be more critical, vigilant and united than ever. “Oplan Bayanihan has been described as Oplan Bantay Laya with a smiling face. Meaning to say, human rights violations will persist, but there is more effort by the military and the Aquino government to deceive and divide the people, as seen in the road projects of the 8th ID and the US MCC. The people must not lose sight of their basic interests and must persevere in their militant and revolutionary struggles. They are facing the life-and-death struggle of revolution and counterrevolution. The people have no better choice than to cast away illusions and to win the revolution.”
* Url:http://theprwcblogs.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-projects-of-us-mcc-and-8th-id.html
