Topic: Philippines

It is wrong for Duterte to say sweepingly that they are all communists or they are mere facade of communists. They act legally and pursue an anti-imperialist and democratic line. And they constitute themselves as a broad united front of forces for national sovereignty and democracy against puppetry, tyranny and corruption. They include people from various walks of life and represent different schools or currents of thought and belief.

It is not true that Duterte enjoys high trust rating and popularity despite the notoriety it has gained in the Philippines and abroad for the mass murder of drug suspects, the killing of peasants and the indigenous people, the destruction of Marawi, the abuses of martial law and the scheme of fascist dictatorship through Con-Ass and ChaCha. The commercial survey firms, like Pulse Asia and SWS, are not asking the correct questions and are not using the correct methods in their small sampling of public opinion.

Sison said: “Duterte´s pretense to change the unitary form of government to that of a federation is akin to Marcos’ pretense to shift to the parliamentary form of government. As in the case of Marcos, the real objective of Duterte is to concentrate powers in his hands as fascist dictator”.

Jose Ma. Sison, in a statement issued early Wednesday, January 17, said President Rodrigo Duterte “is hellbent on imposing fascist dictatorship on the Filipino people and is flagrantly using basically the same strategy and tactics of mass murder, intimidation, corruption and charter change as the late fascist dictator (Ferdinand) Marcos used.”

‘Duterte is hellbent on imposing fascist dictatorship…and is flagrantly using basically the same strategy and tactics of mass murder, intimidation, corruption and charter change as the late fascist dictator Marcos used,’ says Jose Maria Sison

Of course, when I first read the report on Duterte´s interview with Mindanews I had some misgivings that he did not mean what he said because of his notoriety for saying one thing and then saying the opposite within a short period and also because of his arrogance and anger in setting some absurd preconditions, like the CPP and NPA humbling themselves and capitulating to his tyrannical rule

Asked if branding the CPP-NPA as a “terrorist organization” will solve the problem, Duterte admitted it won’t. “No, but it can lessen their number,” he said.

“In the interest of the Filipino people and for the sake and purpose of resuming the peace negotiations, I am willing to have serious conversations with President Duterte,” Sison said. “It would indeed be a waste if we would not interface even once, considering the success of the four rounds of formal talks since 2016.”

by Vladimir Guevarra Part 1: Please click here to view the video interview or hover the mouse over the text below: On how long it could take to…

As revolutionary forces, the CPP, NPA and the toiling masses of workers and peasants build their own revolutionary democratic government (organs of political power) against the reactionary government of big compradors, landlords and corrupt burreaucrats represented by Duterte. On this principled basis, the CPP and NPA cannot and will not enter the court of the reactionary government to participate in proceedings.