AFP's new "holistic counter-insurgency plan" will victimize more ordinary and innocent people


Manila-- The revolutionary forces in the Philippines thorugh their spokesperson issued a statement today that the new oplan- BANTAY LAYA II "will be more vicious in their effort to catch the fish by totally draining the water."

Expect the next counterrevolutionary Internal Security Operations Plan (ISO plan o oplan) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to be more vicious and victimize more ordinary and innocent people and entire communities. This was the reaction of the revolutionary forces to pronouncements yesterday by the AFP ahead of final touches in the Arroyo regime's new ISO plan for 2007-2010 that aims to put an end to the revolutionary movement by 2010.

The current Oplan Bantay Laya which began in 2001 terminates at year-end. The new oplan is being considered as a more "holistic extension and advancement" of the current oplan and is tentatively referred to by Malacanang as Oplan Bantay Laya II.

Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal anticipates the new ISO plan to be not much different from the current one, except that "the new oplan they are now preparing makes believe that it can ‘holistically' eliminate mass support to the revolutionary movement and thus decisively wipe out the revolutionary forces by 2010." Rosal explained that while the current and the new oplan are both pushing Arroyo's declared "total war" against the revolutionary movement, the current Oplan Bantay Laya, which initiated the "civilianization" approach specifically targetting "rebel-influenced communities," is limited by its objective of merely "minimizing and containing rebel influence, support and strength." The new oplan, said Rosal "will be more vicious in their effort to catch the fish by totally draining the water."

Asked whether Oplan Bantay Laya II would incorporate Arroyo's "all-out war" policy against the revolutionary movement, the AFP chief AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said "We do not call it ‘all-out war,' but we call it the ‘holistic approach'."

Rosal said this so-called "holistic approach" is actually only a euphemism for more of the same fascist antipeople approach, which only means "the intensification of attacks against civilians, ordinary and innocent people and entire communities" in the hope that this will be the "final solution" to finish off the revolutionary movement by 2010.

"In the past, all these oplans have sought to put an end to the armed revolution in five years or so. From Lambat Bitag I, II and III and Oplan Makabayan I and II to Oplan Bantay Laya I, the AFP has failed miserably in putting a stop to the growth of the people's armed revolutionary struggle. Their empty bragadoccio has been sounding like a broken record."

"All the AFP's oplans have been no different from each other except for the fact that each one is more ruthless and barbarous than the previous, reflecting the increasing brutality out of the desperation of the reactionaries," declared Rosal.

"Oplan Bantay Laya I was especially merciless. Its record number of political killings, enforced disappearances, forced evacuations, torture and other atrocities shows the current regime's height of disregard of human rights and international humanitarian law," added Rosal.

The revolutionary forces spokesperson pointed out that under Oplan Bantay Laya's plan to "destroy the political infrastructure" of the revolutionary movement, "the AFP has become more brazenly fascist and erased all distinctions between armed combatants and unarmed civilians directely contravening universally accepted principles of international humanitarian law."

Rosal said AFP officials and soldiers are indoctrinated with the "no-civilians" dogma being propagated by the clerico-fascist tamdem of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and Fr. Romeo Intengan of the Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP). Under this dogma, the AFP has carried out a relentless campaign of political killings targeting activists, community organizers, as well as church people, lawyers, teachers, journalists and students and other individuals who are known for their pro-people advocacies.

It is also under this dogma that the AFP has been relentlessly carrying out aerial bombing operations against communities in the countryside that are suspected to be base areas of the movement's forces as illegal arrests, torture, the imposition of a cedula requirement for all residents and travellers, unholy hour raids on civilian homes, forced participation in military-organized fora and rallies and other fascist acts terrorizing the people.

Rosal dismissed AFP claims that they have successfully recovered areas in Central Luzon, Southern Luzon and other areas "by winning over the people." "In truth, they have only intensified their barefaced fascist atrocities against civilians and innocent people. Such brazen acts only further push the people to fight and rely on the armed struggle," said Rosal.

"As Oplan Bantay Laya II intensifies the AFP's fascist attacks on the people--call it 'holistic approach' if they will--it will all the more only intensify the people's anger at the brutal regime and its armed forces and incite the people to support the armed revolution and take up arms themselves," added Rosal.


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