Philippines: Report from base area of the people’s war

Philippines: Secret Cables Reveal Exercises Used as Cover for US Military

The following comes Philipinnes Revolution.net

Secret Cables Reveal Exercises Used as Cover for US Military

Communist Party of the Philippines

September 16, 2011

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today called attention to secret cables from the US Embassy in Manila published by the website Wikileaks.org revealing the use of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the annual Balikatan joint military exercises as “legal cover” for the involvement of US military forces in combat operations in the Philippines.

The CPP statement coincided with the 30th anniversary of the historic Philippine Senate decision of September 16, 1991 to abrogate the Military Bases Agreement of 1946. The abrogation paved the way for the dismantling of Subic Naval Base, Clark Air Base and several other American military installations in the Philippines.

“Thirty years after the abrogation of the MBA, US military forces continue to trample on Philippine sovereignty by maintaining permanent presence, engaging in local combat operations, advising the AFP in strategic planning and using the Philippines as a platform for its ‘power projection’ activities in the Pacific region,” said the CPP.

In a cable dated January 19, 2005 titled “AFP/DND Talks Produce Progress on Counterterrorism Scenarios,” former US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone reported to the US State Department that Philippine military and security officials held a working meeting with representatives of the US Pacific Command and succeeded in “developing a range of enhanced US-GRP counterterrorism scenarios”.

In the said meeting, officials and legal counsels of the Department of National Defense (DND) assured the US military that “(we are trying to) push the envelope to combat-related activities” but asserted that such activities “should fall under ‘the rubric of exercise’ because of the difficulty the word ‘operation’ posed for the Filipino side.” DND officials gave assurances that the VFA and Philippine Supreme Court decisions covered such operations.

“This and other secret cables clearly reveal that so-called joint exercises regularly conducted by the US and Philippine militaries merely serve to camouflage the direct involvement of US military forces in combat operations in the Philippines,” said the CPP. According to the CPP, US military forces are involved in combat operations not only in Southwestern Mindanao where the 700-strong Joint Special Operations Task Force (JSOTF)-Philippines is based, but also against the New People’s Army in various parts of the country.

Philippines: Maoists Praised for Aiding Flood Victims

Thanks to Red Ant Liberation Army blog for sharing.

Philippine NPA Fighters

Maoist guerrillas praised for aiding calamity victims

MANILA, Philippines- The fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Saturday welcomed the decision of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) for directing members of the New People’s Army (NPA) to assist victims of mass flooding in Eastern Visayas and other calamity disaster areas in Caraga and Bicol regions due to non-stop rain since the Christmas holidays last year.

U.S. Imperialists Unleash “Terror-Scare” in Philippines

Philippines-NPA Fighters

New wave of “Terror-Scare” an old US Imperialist ploy to intensify military intervention for US military basing and economic interest

Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlo

Spokesperson

National Democratic Front of the Philippines

Mindanao November 6, 2010

There has been a series of “terror-scare” spreading in the country of late. The National Democratic Front of the Philippines in Mindanao (NDFP-Mindanao) views this chain of events along the following the lines:

1. The United States, being in the throes of a deep recession and trapped in the quagmire of wars of aggression in the Middle East, is looking up to the Philippines as its second front to secure its geo-politics in the Asia-Pacific, protect its economic interest and unhampered US military basing in the country. It had to install a more reliable ally — Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III – through a pre-programmed election and drum up a new wave of terror to justify its intensified military intervention.

Philippine Maoists Order Their Army to Intensify Attacks

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer

NPA Woman

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines – The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has ordered its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), to step up offensives in Mindanao.

Jorge Madlos, spokesperson of the National Democratic Front (NDF), said in a statement that the NPA was told to attack “legitimate military targets” as a form of “resisting renewed [military] offensive activities.”

Madlos said the call for increased offensive action was meant “to meet head-on” increased military operations under the extended counter-insurgency campaign, Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL).

“[The CPP] is moving to thwart government’s goal of crushing the Maoist revolutionary movement in three years as laid out by the new administration of President Benigno Aquino III,” he said.

Madlos said a similar order was also relayed to NPA units in other parts of the country.

“It is very clear that the brisk military activities in Mindanao are a direct result of the extension of the OBL campaign,” he said.

The OBL campaign was originally set to end June 2010 but Aquino sought to extend its implementation until the end of this year, Madlos said.