June 16, 2024
Ka Cecil Estrella – RJPC-NPA Spokesperson
As the reactionaries celebrated the Philippine Independence Day last June 12, Negrosanons, especially those from Northern Negros, and the entire Filipino people suffer perpetually from the policies brought about by US imperialism and its local cohorts, bureaucrat capitalism, and feudalism. The ever worsening semi-colonial, semifeudal Philippine condition is a result of US-granted “independence” to the Philippines.
The Filipino people suffer greatly from neoliberal policies dictated by US imperialism, such as liberalization of the economy that nailed down wages and destroyed local agriculture, privatization of public utilities, deregulation of oil, denationalization of the country, among others.
The Philippines as a semi-colony of US imperialism enacts and enforces policies that oppose and prevent the Filipino people’s call for genuine land reform and national industrialization and national liberation and democracy. The main instrument to protect US imperialist interest in the country is the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), dictated and trained by US imperialism to unleash state fascism and terrorism.
There is no genuine independence when civilians are threatened in ones community, assaulted for their political views and unjustly killed. There is no genuine independence and democracy if the vast number of Filipino people has little to no land, has no job or income and are prevented to enjoy their basic rights and freedoms.
Particularly in Negros, it is US imperialism that imposed the island’s monocrop sugar industry. Since 1857, Nicholas Lonely, then British Vice Consul with US imperialist, started to convert agricultural lands, forest areas and vast lands to sugar plantations. For decades, sugarworkers’ condition remained the same: tapaseros (cane cutters) since then use machetes to cut canes and manually carry cut canes by their shoulders; sugarfield workers since then use specialized bolos for weeding and; and sugar workers since then receive meager wages.
In Northern Negros, the monocrop sugar industry since then did not alleviate the conditions of families dependent on sugar production. However, it is the mass actions and collective efforts of sugar workers in their struggle for wage increase and benefits like home and farm lots, among others, that relieved families of constant hunger.
Recent weeks in Northern Negros witnessed state terrorism perpetrated by AFP’s #DiMasaligan79IB and its agents, despite the onslaught of El Niño, to project its “achievements” against the revolutionary New People’s Army (NPA). Three incidents of killings transpired since May 2024 in Calatrava, Negros Occidental alone. Several families left their homes due to fear that they may be killed next. A number of sugarfield workers refrained from working after they were incessantly harassed by #DiMasaligan79IB operating troops.
On May 2, Fructoso ‘Otoy’ Patubay, 63 years old, of Barangay Laga-an of the mentioned town was brutally killed on his way to tend to his carabao. After the incident, a fake Facebook account maliciously named Bagong Hukbong Bayan using the NPA’s logo and photographs to malign the good name of the people’s army, sent death threat messages to remaining family members.
As per investigation by a unit of Roselyn Jean Pelle Command – Northern Negros Guerrilla Front of the NPA (RJPC-NPA), witnesses account the presence of Revolutionary Proletarian Army (RPA) bandits and #DiMasaligan79IB’s agents in the area by the time of incident.
Then, Jeje Redobles’ murder in Barangay Cambayobo of the same town by #DiMasaligan79IB troops on May 22 was covered up with a fake encounter. War materials were planted on Redobles to make him appear as an NPA combatant. Redobles was an ordinary sweet potato and banana farmer. No NPA unit was deployed in the area by that time so it is impossible for an armed clash with #DiMasaligan79IB to happen. Redobles was repeatedly summoned since 2022 by the AFP to become their intelligence asset in the area but he refused repeatedly.
By May 30, Jigger Bartolo, 43 years old, was killed in Barangay Hilub-ang of Calatrava town. Similar modus was used by Patubay’s butchers in killing Bartolo. Similar to Patubay, witnesses account to have seen #DiMasaligan79IB’s agent in the area by the time Bartolo was killed. Bartolo was red-tagged by the AFP as an NPA supporter during #DiMasaligan79IB’S Retooled Community Support Program (RCSP) on 2019-2022 in the said barangay. Barotolo was one of the many residents presented as “surrenderee” after repeated summons, interrogations and intimidation.
Since the first week of May up to now, Barangay Macasilao of Calatrava town, among other barangays, has been occupied by terrorist #DiMasaligan79IB soldiers. Operating troops are staying in civilian communities and public areas such as the gymnasium.
A number of families fell prey of #DiMasaligan79IB’s incessant interrogation and coercion. Farmers and sugarworkers are hesitant to leave their homes and are afraid to tend to their farms or go to sugar haciendas for fear of being interrogated, as blood-thirst operating troops check their belongings and packed meals for a day’s work. Two reported victims were threatened to be buried alive and another two, with one right in front of his minor daughter, were threatened to be killed on-site for failure to report NPA presence or tagged to be NPA supporters.
After Bartolo’s death, locals heard rumors of a death squad or hitmen by the AFP roaming the barangay aiming for the PhP100,000 reward per red-tagged civilian’s death. With this, at least three families fled their homes for fear of being killed. Several incidents were reported already to the barangay officials against fear-sowing #DiMasaligan79IB but they are made incapable against military power.
Schemes of extortion by #DiMasaligan79IB and its agents misrepresenting the NPA were also monitored in the same town. Small businessmen from barangays Winaswasan, Lalong and Laga-an, all belonging to the said town, sought the genuine people’s army to report cases of repeated extortion and death threats should one resist the #DiMasaligan79IB extortionistas’ demands. Small sugarcane planters and small farmers of barangays Dolis, Ani-e and Maaslob, all in Calatrava town, have also experienced pressure from the hands of #DiMasaligan79IB extortionists.
As the AFP lead the reactionaries’ commemoration of the fake Independence Day through a ceremonial flag raising all throughout the country, and with #DiMasaligan79IB’s participation in Bacolod City’s ceremony, they ceremonially displayed their professionalism and commitment to ensure the safety of the reactionaries’ properties and interests, especially that of US imperialism, at the expense of the Filipino people’s lives, livelihood and security.
For the Filipino masses, especially residents of Northern Negros, today is but another day to struggle for genuine liberation and democracy. The national democratic revolution against US imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism and feudalism is sustained by the Filipino masses’ thirst for genuine freedom from oppression and exploitation. At the head of this people’s war is the Communist Party of the Philippines (Marxism-Lenninism-Maoism), with the New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front as its weapons to destroy the three basic problems of the Filipino people to attain genuine liberation and democracy.###
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