PRESS STATEMENT
June 8, 2024
Ka Maoche Legislador
Spokesperson
Apolinario Gatmaitan Command
Negros Island Regional Operations Command
New People’s Army
The Apolinario Gatmaitan Command-New People’s Army Negros Island Regional Operations Command (AGC-NPA) calls on all NPA units and revolutionary forces throughout the island to show its collective action to support Negrosanons affected by the eruption of Mt. Kanlaon last June 3 and the lahars in the following days.
All guerrilla fronts are tasked to lead efforts in gathering support from revolutionary mass organizations, various sectors and allies for immediate aid. Revolutionary mass organizations should be mobilized to extend help to the victims as soon as possible.
The recent volcanic eruption and damages caused by the El Niño phenomenon to the agricultural sector on Negros Island, now pegged at around ₱340 million in Negros Occidental and ₱2.4 billion in Negros Oriental, have taken a heavy toll on the lives and livelihoods of Negrosanon peasants and farm workers. Instead of concrete and legitimate assistance, the Marcos Jr regime has settled with mere performative acts of giving unsustainable aid for politicking and military propaganda. Recently, the 303rd Brigade has declared that it will continue conducting military operations in the countryside “amid its disaster response” in an effort to sugarcoat the reality that the reactionary government is more fixated on terrorizing the masses than serving them.
The Marcos Jr regime and its local government units must take seriously its responsibility to address the needs of the Negrosanon masses particularly in rebuilding their homes and livelihoods devastated by Mt. Kanlaon’s eruption and the succeeding floods. It has yet to fulfill its promise of government aid for the serious effects of the El Niño phenomenon on the island.
Thus, it is imperative for the Negrosanon masses to collectively demand for just compensation from the reactionary government for irreparable damages they had to endure in the succeeding calamities due to the reactionary state’s inept and sluggish response. Furthermore, they must clamor for an end to relentless state terrorism.
The succeeding calamities have exacerbated landlessness and buried the Negrosanon masses in perennial destitution and hunger. Indubitably, agrarian revolution, a component of revolutionary armed struggle, must be pursued to solve centuries of feudal and semifeudal oppression and exploitation on the island. The NPA Negros is, as always, one with the masses in realizing such. ###
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