The latter half of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)’s ceasefire takes effect today despite Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government’s dismissal of the declaration, the group announced.
The Party said the second part of its unilateral ceasefire declaration took effect at midnight and shall last until 11:59 PM of January 1.
The ceasefire “will be fully complied with by all units of the New People’s Army despite attempts by the Marcos government to downplay and undermine the holiday gesture,” the CPP said.
The first part of CPP’s ceasefire was implemented from midnight of December 25, Christmas Day, and ended at 11:59 PM of December 26, its 57th founding anniversary.
Neither the CPP nor the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)-Philippine National Police (PNP) reported clashes on said dates.
The CPP however reiterated its directive for all NPA units to go on “active defense mode” and maintain “high alert” amid the AFP’s ongoing all-out war.
The Marcos government refused to reciprocate the CPP truce with the AFP and the Department of National jointly dismissing the gesture as “propaganda.”
CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena also rejected as “foolish remarks” PNP acting chief Lt. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez’s “doubts” on the “sincerity” of the revolutionary forces in implementing its ceasefire.
Valbuena pointed out that Nartatez’s remark came a few days after the NPA had already successfully implemented the first part of CPP’s truce declaration.
“General Nartatez’s remarks are meant to divert public attention from the Marcos administration’s refusal to make any gesture of goodwill to the people amid their traditional holiday, exposing its militarist agenda and bloodlust,” Valbuena said.
Valbuena added the PNP acting chief is making Marcos Jr. look ridiculous when he warned of possible attacks by the NPA, which Marcos had already officially declared “non-existent” in his last State of the Nation Address last July.
‘Desperate spoilsport’
Meanwhile, the CPP dismissed National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) as a “desperate spoilsport,” suggesting the agency can go dismantle itself for being a “failure.”
The NTF-ELCAC issued a statement on the CPP’s 57th anniversary last Friday, alleging the CPP as a “sunken organization” and the NPA as “a band of isolated bandits.”
The CPP however pointed out that the task force devoted more than a thousand words only to insist that the Party had nothing to celebrate as well as commending itself for having fulfilled its role.
“In truth, the very existence and insistence to exist of the NTF-ELCAC is the clearest proof of its failure. If (it) really wants to prove that the CPP is no longer a political force, the best demonstration of its achievement would be to self-dismantle and call it a day,” the Party said.
The CPP also said that the task force’s claims of “tangible improvements” in people’s lives are grossly inconsistent with concrete realities of widespread joblessness, landlessness, high cost of living, low wages, and lack of basic social services.
It is also self-contradictory for NTF-ELCAC to claim that NPA’s are no longer welcome in communities when the Marcos government still relies on using tremendous military force nationwide, the group pointed out.
“Majority of AFP battalions continue to operate and carry out brutal suppression campaigns against peasant communities in the supposed non-existent guerrilla fronts of the NPA, where they inflict martial law suppression on the peasant masses in thousands of rural villages suspected of supporting the NPA,” the CPP said.
The AFP also has plans to enlist as regulars the 50,000 to 80,000 paramilitary forces under the CAFGU, the group revealed.
The CPP said it has successfully preserved itself despite government’s massive military operations against its forces and is set to make bigger strides in the coming years. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
