CPP calls for unity against Chinese encroachment

The CPP’s appeal is directed to all forces, as well as the military and police, opposed to Chinese encroachment into Philippine territory.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) called for unity against the continued presence of armed Chinese maritime vessels within the country’s exclusive economic zone on the West Philippine Sea.

In a statement published on its website on Wednesday, April 7, the party called for the establishment of a “national united front” against what it calls the Chinese imperialist marine annexation.

The CPP’s appeal is directed to all forces, as well as the military and police, opposed to Chinese encroachment into Philippine territory.

“[The CPP] calls on all forces, from the mass-based democratic forces to the conservative political oppositions as well as elements within the ruling regime and in the military and police forces, to exert all effort to assert the country’s sovereign rights and drive away the Chinese imperialist aggressors,” it said.

The underground group said a growing number of military and police officers are increasingly disgruntled that fighter planes and attack helicopters are being used for aerial bombing of farming villages and mountain communities instead of being deployed to defend Philippine territory.

It asked activist organizations to mobilize its forces to manifest the strong united position of the Filipino people demanding respect for Philippine sovereignty and an end to Chinese economic plunder of Philippine natural resources.

Youth groups slam President Rodrigo Duterte’s silence on the continuing presence of Chinese vessels within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone in a rally. (Anakbayan photo)

‘Stop kowtowing to China’

The CPP blasted President Rodrigo Duterte’s continuing silence on the presence of Chinese boats moored, fishing or extracting marine resources in and around the Julian Felipe Reef and other areas within the Philippine EEZ.

“The Party denounces the continued kowtowing of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to China. He has quieted the just protestations of some of his key officials and downplayed the outright armed encroachment into Philippine territory by Chinese militia vessels and its negative implications on Philippine sovereignty by insisting that Philippine-China relations are on a ‘positive trajectory,’” the group said.

Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana and foreign affairs secretary Teodoro Locsin have both protested the extended presence of Chinese vessels in the area.

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Duterte is clearly persuaded by China’s “vaccine diplomacy,” false promises of “economic investments” and by the numerous bribes he has received and relations with Chinese drug syndicates cultivated over the past few years, the CPP added.

“It must be clearly declared that, in line with the struggle to attain genuine national freedom, it is the patriotic duty of all Filipinos to defend Philippine sovereignty against all forms of foreign encroachments in the country’s marine, land and air territories. In the face of outright Chinese annexation of Philippine territories and plunder of resources, the country must rise and resist together as one,” the CPP said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)