Philippine peace process gaining headway (tags)
Upon assuming office a year ago, President Benigno S. Aquino III declared that the government was ready to resume peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Communist National Democratic Front (NDF) without pre-condition and repeated it in his first State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA).
THE ECONOMIC-POLITICAL SITUATION OF THE CORDILLERAS (tags)
A YEAR after the US-Aquino2 regime took power, the miserable situation in the Ilocos-Cordillera region mirrors the dismal state of the nation. From the impoverished tobacco and palay farmers in the Ilocos provinces to the indigenous people plowing hybrid corn fields, vegetable gardens and rice terraces in the Cordillera, the empty promises of the Aquino regime are reflected in the continuing violations and betrayal of the people?s right to land, livelihood and resources. The real boss of the Aquino administration turns out to be not the Filipino people, but US Imperialism as it furiously expands its economic interests as well as large scale corporate mines and geothermal and hydroelectric power projects in Northern Luzon and rams down the nation?s throat its Oplan Bayanihan (OPB), the so-called internal peace and security plan. It is these that exacerbate and continue to heighten the national oppression that reached ethnocidal proportion being suffered by indigenous people of the Cordillera and the Filipino people in general. Indeed, Aquino?s Daang Matuwid turns out to be no different from the substandard Halsema Highway with its erosions and slides, close-open status and serving mainly foreign interests in extracting super profits from the region?s resources. Oplan Bayanihan: Furthering the National Oppression of the Indigenous People Despite it?s deceptive psy-war features, Oplan Bayanihan (OPB) is fast showing up it?s true vicious character compared to its failed predecessor, Oplan Bantay Laya 1 & 2 of the unheralded and despicable US-Arroyo regime. The 5th IDPA and the NOLCOM of the AFP have overzealously applied its age-old imperialist master?s tactics of ?divide and rule? by exploiting indigenous social, economic and political systems in its counter-insurgency operations. They target not only combatants but more so innocent civilians including minors and the elderly. Coining nice sounding contraption to hide the harshness and vileness of Oplan Bayanihan does not succeed in erasing the notoriety of the AFP as armed units of the ruling class. Changing its notorious ?Reengineered Special Operations Teams? to ?Peace and Development Operations Teams?does not do the desired trick. It succeeds though in sowing intrigues and beclouding clear provisions of peace pact pagta where armed units (AFP/PNP and/or NPA) are not covered. Operating troops continue to quarter in schools, day-care centers, barangay halls and clinics, private homes and other public and sacred places contrary to clear provisions of CARHRIHL and Protocols of the Geneva Conventions. In many cases, families are broken up as a result of soldiers? womanizing. Young female students are also vulnerable to abuses especially where detachments are near schools. In one case, the whole tribesmen of a young lass have to be mobilized to demand accountability of the soldier?s tribes mate when a married soldier impregnated a young first year college student. Also drunken soldiers always spark troubles with youngsters even at the flimsiest of reasons.
CPDF; No fee for campaign (tags)
The EPCC NEWS learned today that an official of the Cordillera People’s Democratic Front (CPDF) said guerrilla leaders would allow political candidates to campaign in Cordillera villages where communist rebels operate without paying permit to campaign (PTC) fees. Simon Naogsan, spokesman of the CPDF, the local political arm of the National Democratic Front, said New People’s Army (NPA) rebels have never forced candidates to pay the NPA in exchange for access to so-called rebel territories.
The CPLA is in the same sinking boat as the Ampatuan private army (tags)
The Philippine Peasant News (PESANTE NEWS) based in the US learned that the most recent in the long-running series of splits in the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA) has produced a purported new and reformed group but is composed of the same old opportunist elements. This was contained in an internet message posted by the CPDF signed by its spokesperson Filiw Naogsan posted on December 15, 2009. The reported ouster of Mailed Molina and the rise of a new group led by Arsenio Humiding is nothing more than a quarrel over the division of spoils within their dwindling organization. This same thing has repeatedly happened to the CPLA in the past as various factions squabbled over the funds, weapons, and jobs in the AFP that were dangled before them by the reactionary government.
Dams, flooding and power (tags)
Not long after Typhoon Ondoy inundated the metropolis with flood waters, Typhoon Pepeng reversed course to hover around Western Luzon and drop more than 600mm of rain in the area. This time, it was the Cordillera region and Pangasinan that were under distress. More than 40 landslides occurred in the Cordilleras triggered by the massive rain which resulted in as many as 250 deaths. Local groups attributed the area’s increased vulnerability to landslides to the long-term large-scale mining activities especially in Itogon and Mankayan in Benguet province. We remember the Colalo landslide that happened in 1999 in Mankayan which AGHAM visited with the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) and environmental groups. And only three months ago, geologists from AGHAM and the Center for Environmental Concerns conducted an inspection of land subsidence in the same area.
Philippine Government Launches New War on Muslim Groups (tags)
War officially came to southern Philippines again as the government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo unilaterally put an end to eleven years of negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) September 3. A month early the government abruptly broke off talks with the MILF on the eve of signing an autonomy pact. There are numerous reports of U.S. Special Forces accompanying Philippines Army units on their deadly sweeps in the Bangsamoro (land of the Moro people) region. More than 100 people have been killed so far and half a million refugees have fled from the fighting. Bourgeois liberals and the petty-bourgeois left lamely call on the government to resume the “peace process,” which in any case was only intended to wear down the insurgents. Revolutionaries instead seek to mobilize Philippine workers to drive out all U.S. forces, whatever their legal status; to force the withdrawal of the AFP from the contested southern areas; and to defend the Bangsamoro people and their right to self-determination.
Communist Party of the Philippines pursues a violent course against its left opponents (tags)
In the Philippines, one of the poorest countries in Asia, 40 percent of the people live in poverty. Conditions there have sparked a large radical movement, heavily repressed by the government.
The CPP-NPA-NDF “Hit List” - a preliminary report (tags)
It is essential to understand the real scope of the assassination policy of Left activists pursued, after the 1992 crisis, by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), its military arm, the New People’s Army (NPA) and its politico-diplomatic arm, the National Democratic Front (NDF).
US-Arroyo Regime’s Sell-Out of People’s Resources to Foreign Mining Corporations Most Desp (tags)
Pesante-USA supports the stand of a growing number of Filipinos and the Catholic Church which has been crusading against opening the country to foreign mining companies. They are correct in saying that mining would only lead to the further destruction of the environment, the exploitation of indigenous people and communities, and eventually the massive loss of other sources of livelihood in the surrounding areas.