EPCC NEWS

January 14, 2010

PHILIPPINES:CAFGU exemption makes Comelec gun ban useless--NDF

Los Angeles-- The EPCC NEWS learned today that the revolutionary movement in the Philippines led by the NDF today said exempting the paramilitary CAFGU (Citizens Armed Force Geographical Unit) also known as Civilian Armed Auxiliaries (CAA) from the election gun ban makes the Commission on Election's gun ban useless.

"With proddings, arms and funds from the reactionary state, especially under the Arroyo regime, paramilitary forces have proliferated as civilian adjuncts and 'force multipliers' not only of the government military and police forces but of feudal-fascist political warlords."

The movement said this was most blatantly shown by the recent Maguindanao Massacre, where more than a hundred of such forces accompanied by the local police and led by the Ampatuan warlords butchered not only family members of a rival political clan, but also media people, human rights lawyers and innocent passersby.

"The Comelec gun ban is a worthless piece of paper in terms of its supposed aim of ensuring peaceful and orderly elections,. "It is now made more worthless by its decision to exempt the CAFGU and its like"

Warlord politicos employ these paramilitary groups to enforce their feudal-fascist monopoly rule over their clout, intimidate and harass the people, and used them as instruments of coercion to vote in favor or against certain candidates and parties.

The Philippine movement reiterating its policy of dealing with the CAFGU and other paramilitary units under the employ of the government armed forces and of warlords

The NDF said that the CAFGU is a target of attack, disarming and dismantling by the New People's Army (NPA).

"Diehard CAFGU forces, especially those who have committed crimes against the people and those who actively join offensive operations against the revolutionary forces are subject to military operations by the NPA," said the CPP. "CAFGU detachments are target of NPA disarming operations."

"At the same time, NPA units exert effort to win over CAFGU personnel considering that they were recruited from among the local peasant population," added the NDF. "They can help the NPA in launching tactical offensives."

"In many places, CAFGU personnel have been clandestinely working with the NPA even as they remain within the CAFGU," said the NDF. "A number have defected to the NPA and turned their firearms against their military-police supervisors and warlord bosses."

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