Reds mark 50th anniversary

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — Clandestine celebrations marking the 50th founding anniversary of Communist Party of the Philippines will continue despite the government’s refusal to declare a ceasefire with the rebels during the Christmas holidays.

“However they try, the military and police will fail miserably as assemblies and meetings are already slated to be mounted inside and outside the NPA (New People’s Army) guerrilla zones with thousands set to gather and celebrate the achievements and victories of the party,” the CPP said yesterday after the rebels declared a five-day unilateral ceasefire on Dec. 24 to 26 and Dec. 31 to Jan. 1, 2019.

The rebels are celebrating the CPP anniversary on Dec. 26.

The CPP said it is up to President Duterte and the leadership of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police to decide whether they will declare a unilateral ceasefire.

The administration’s refusal to declare a truce showed complete disregard of the traditional holidays and chose to continue mounting combat operations and raining bombs while the people celebrate Christmas and New Year.

The CPP claimed that the government would waste the opportunity to give their weary and homesick foot soldiers a short respite from non-stop operations.

“The fact is, the AFP and PNP leadership are so obsessed at preventing thousands of people from celebrating the CPP’s 50th anniversary that they have chosen to forgo declaring their own unilateral ceasefire,” the CPP said.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año also rejected the holiday truce being offered by the CPP, describing it as “meaningless.”

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana had also objected to the truce with the rebels.

Año said the rebels will only use the ceasefire to consolidate their forces.

“We will not allow ourselves to fall into the same trap again. We have seen time and again the insincerity of the communists and their front organizations,” he said in a statement.

Año hit the rebels for calling for a ceasefire during the yuletide season while attacking government troops at the same time.

Col. Benedict Arevalo, commander of the Army’s 303rd Infantry Brigade, said operations against NPA in Negros island and other rebel-infested regions would continue even during the Christmas holidays.

“Business as usual for us,” Arevalo stressed.

Foreign policy

CPP founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison junked on Sunday the suggestion of presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo for him to return to the Philippines and see for himself Duterte’s foreign policy.

“I do not have to go to the Philippines right away to be able to know Duterte’s foreign policy of subservience to several imperialist powers, especially the glaring obedience to China,” Sison said.

In a statement posted on the National Democratic Front (NDF) website, Sison said contrary to Panelo’s view, Duterte is not pursuing an independent foreign policy.

The Duterte regime is instead “pursuing a policy of subjecting the Philippines to the continuing overall US dominance and to the incoming debt colonization of the Philippines by China and the surrender of the sovereign rights of the Filipino people in the West Philippine Sea,” Sison said. 

Sison said Duterte is a coward in dealing with China.

“Panelo’s boss Duterte is so brave when he threatens and actually induces mass murders of poor people by his armed minions. But he is so cowardly and servile in dealing with China regarding the sovereign rights of the Philippines and the Filipino people,” Sison said.

In contrast, Sison said that Vietnam has demonstrated that it can file diplomatic protests against China on a bilateral and multilateral basis and still maintain diplomatic and trade relations with China. 

“Obviously the Vietnamese authorities do not have shady deals with China and Chinese corporations like Arroyo and Duterte and their Chinese comprador partners have,” Sison said.  –  With Emmanuel Tupas, Jose Rodel Clapano, Gilbert Bayoran