Posts

As Duterte vacillates, NDFP perseveres on peace documents

While President Rodrigo Duterte has yet to decide whether to resume formal peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) the Reds are hard at work on their draft documents on social and political as well as political and constitutional reforms.

NDFP Chief Political Consultant Jose Maria Sison said the NDFP has encouraged its peace panel, its Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reforms (RWC-SER) and its Reciprocal Working Group on Political and Constitutional Reforms (RWG-PCR) to continue their drafting work despite Duterte´s scuttling of the fifth round of formal talks last May.

“Indeed, the NDFP Negotiating Panel, the RWC-SER and RWG-PCR have continued their drafting work with the same dedication and enthusiasm as before,” Sison said.

Sison was reacting to Duterte’s statement Saturday that he is again open to resuming formal negotiations with the NDFP after the New People’s Army in Compostela Valley Province released prisoner of war (POW) Senior Police Officer 2 George Rupinta.

“If you (NDFP) want to resume the talks, I am not averse to the idea. But let me sort out first the other branches of government,” Duterte said said after meeting with the freed POW.

Sison said the NDFP consultants and experts who are working on the drafts of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) and the Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Constitutional Reforms (CAPCR) do not wish to throw away the work they have done on account of Duterte’s withdrawal in the talks.

Sison said the NDFP peace panel is anticipating several possibilities in their ongoing work.

“The Duterte regime itself might in due time find it wise and necessary to resume formal peace talks or it cannot last long in power and it is replaced by a new leadership of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) that is willing to resume the peace negotiations,” he said.

In either case, Sison said the NDFP Negotiating Panel, its RWC-SER and its RWG-PCR cannot be disappointed with having worked hard to do serious research, public consultations and deliberations in order to produce the drafts they would consider worthy of the negotiations and the Filipino people.

Sison said the third possibility is that the Duterte or post-Duterte regime of the GRP is not interested in peace negotiations with the NDFP to address the roots of the armed conflict.

“Then the people’s democratic revolution through protracted people’s war simply proceeds until it overthrows the rotten ruling system,” he said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

 

CPP dismisses Duterte’s demand for NPA surrender

BANGKOK, Thailand–The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) dismissed President Rodrigo Duterte’s demand for the New People’s Army (NPA) to declare another ceasefire and for guerrillas to surrender and work for his government as paramilitaries.

In a statement Saturday, the CPP Information Bureau said Duterte’ demand for an NPA ceasefire as a precondition for the resumption of formal peace negotiations is unacceptable, adding the Armed Forces of the Philippines is conducting all-out war against their forces and civilians throughout the country.

“This is unacceptable. Does Duterte really take the revolutionary forces as fools?” the CPP asked.

In his speech on the 17th anniversary of Digos’ cityhood Friday, Duterte said there will be no talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) until the Reds declare a ceasefire.

“If you want to resume the peace talks, you declare ceasefire or nothing. And if you say you want another war, be my guest,” Duterte said.

Duterte cancelled the fifth round of formal peace negotiations between his government and the NDFP last May after the NDFP spurned his demand for another ceasefire “as a goodwill measure and create a favourable climate” for the negotiations.

The NDFP, however, said a ceasefire is unacceptable while Duterte is implementing a “triple war” through his so-called war on drugs called Operation Plan (Oplan) Double Barrel/Tokhang, counter-insurgency program called Oplan Kapayapaan, and martial law declaration in Mindanao.

“Duterte has lost all moral grounds to make such a demand. Recall that the NPA declared a ceasefire on August 19, 2016 which lasted for close to 160 days as a response to Duterte’s signed commitment to release around 500 political prisoners through an amnesty proclamation,” the CPP said.

“Duterte, however, wasted the goodwill of the NDFP when it failed to fulfil its commitment and took advantage of the NPA ceasefire to deploy his soldiers and conduct military offensives,” the group added.

No NPA capitulation

The CPP said NDFP-GRP negotiations will no longer be fruitful while Duterte demands NPA capitulation and surrender.

“Surrender. I will make you soldiers of this republic. Just CAFGU (Citizens Armed Force Geographical Unit) for the moment,” Duterte in his speech said.

Duterte added there would be no preconditions for the surrender and promised to give them firearms and houses once they turn themselves in to a mayor or the military.

NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison scoffed at Duterte’s latest statement and said his former student has gone truly insane.

“He wants to convert surrendered NPAs into his soldiers? Duterte has truly gone insane,” Sison said in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Sison said that, early on, Duterte has been proven to be a liar and untrustworthy.

“The line has been drawn to separate, fight and overthrow the US-Duterte regime. Duterte would have a hard time to act convincing again,” Sison said.

More NPA offensives

The CPP said it is the people who clamor for the NPA to mount more and more tactical offensives.

“Victories of the people’s army inspire resistance amid widespread killings and the climate of fear imposed by the Duterte regime,” the CPP in its statement said.

“The NPA launches tactical offensive to bring to account the Duterte regime and its soldiers and police for thousands upon thousands of Oplan Tokhang killings, the successive killings of peasants, national minorities and youths, military occupation of civilian communities, aerial bombings and shelling, the near-genocidal war against the Maranaos of Marawi, arbitrary arrests and detention, and so on,” it added.

The CPP also dismissed Duterte’s threat to 50 more years of civil war.

“By the looks of it, Duterte may not even last his term. He has roused the anger of the Filipino people and caused his increasing isolation. The revolutionary movement will surely outlast the US-Duterte regime,” the CPP said.

“The Filipino people and their revolutionary forces have waged close to 50 years of people’s war. They do not tire. They are determined as ever to wage revolution because they seek to end the unbearable sufferings of workers and peasants under the oppressive and exploitative system,” it added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

 

CPP says it’s time to fight Duterte’s ‘repressive tyrannical rule’

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) called for the isolation of the Rodrigo Duterte administration after the successive killings of minors believed connected with the government’s war against drugs as well as its martial law in Mindanao and counter-insurgency program.

In an editorial of the party’s official organ Ang Bayan, the CPP’s said the Filipino people’s outrage is rapidly accumulating against Duterte’s “repressive tyrannical rule.”

“They indict Duterte for the successive killings of several youths these past days by his armed minions: Kian delos Santos, 17 years old, Carl Angelo Arnaiz, 19 and Reynaldo de Guzman, 14, who all were tortured and killed by stabbing and shooting by the police in the “war against drugs”; and Obillio Bay-ao, 19, Lumad youth in Talaingod, Davao del Norte, who was shot and killed by paramilitary forces,” the article said.

The CPP said the people blame Duterte for the killing of many thousands by the three wars he has launched: the Oplan Tokhang “war against drugs”, the Oplan Kapayapaan war of suppression and martial law in Mindanao, and the anti-Moro war and destruction of Marawi.

“The people detest Duterte for repeatedly ensuring protection and giving incentives to police and soldiers for blindly following his kill orders,” the CPP said.

The revolutionary group said almost 20 were killed under Oplan Kapayapaan and Oplan Tokhang in the last two weeks alone.

The CPP also scored the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ failure to end the war in Marawi after more than 100 days of siege.

“The people are fed up with Duterte’s repetitious, scornful and self-conceited speeches. His pretensions, spectacles and false images are rapidly losing efficacy in the face of actual measures, policies and programs which harm the interests of the people and oppress the downtrodden,” the CPP said.

The party called on its forces to “act vigorously to expand and consolidate the ranks of mass organizations and build the people’s broadest unity in order to isolate and resist the US-Duterte regime.”

The group urged the formation of broad alliances, that could include “Duterte’s political rivals.”

“Various forces can also unite against Duterte’s measures to suppress his political rivals (through detention, impeachment and murder) and to monopolize political power through charter change under its supposed pursuit of ‘federalism,’” the CPP said.

The CPP said the people are slowly overcoming and repudiating the climate of awe and fear imposed by Duterte.

Sparrow’ teams and commando units

CPP founding chairman Jose Maria Sison for his part said there is a public clamor to form self-defense units in communities in addition to New People’s Army and People’s Militia forces to defend the people against Duterte’s “triple war.”

“The CPP’s Central Committee may study and decide on this clamor as it sees fit,” Sison in an online interview told Kodao.

Sison said it is justified that the Filipino people fight the Duterte regime using all forms of struggle in light of the killings of civilians, including minors.

“If ever-increasing and ever-widening rallies won’t be enough to isolate and oust the Duterte regime, the people’s war should move resolutely forward so that it won’t just be Duterte but the corrupt ruling system that would be brought down,” Sison said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Agcaoili: Lorenzana set on ‘burning the house of President Duterte’

“Militarists” in the Rodrigo Duterte government are on course to completely burning the house down, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) said in reply to Department of National Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s statement that social and economic reforms are “completely unacceptable.”

NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said Lorenzana confirmed “beyond doubt” being an outright peace spoiler when the secretary openly opposed land reform and national industrialization in a statement Saturday.

“This pro-American relic of the Cold War truly believes that land reform and national industrialization are communist ideas! Wow! No more talks talaga kung ganun!” Agcaoili said.

In a statement Saturday, Lorenzana denied being a peace spoiler, adding he should be viewed as a “defender of the Filipino people” instead.

Tungkulin ko pong ipagtanggol ang sambayanan sa mga katulad ng CPP/NPA na gustong magpairal ng sistemang maka-komunista,” he said.

Lorenzana said he is against any peace process “that is clearly is stacked against the government and favorable only to the CPP-NPA-NDF (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-NDFP).”

The Defense chief added the terms of the Comprehensive Agreement for Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) are “completely unacceptable even to a casual observer.”

Lorenzana failed to identify if he was referring to the NDFP or the Government of the Republic of the Philippines version of the CASER proposals being discussed before Duterte suspended formal negotiations.

Agcaoili said Lorenzana’s all out war solution, however, is purely fascism.

“With his fascist mindset, Gen. Lorenzana believes that there is no need of reforms in Philippine society – that anyone who disturbs the peace of the exploitative and oppressive rule of the big landlords and compradors supported by their imperialist masters, deserves to be run to the ground by the military with all the arsenal under its command,” Agcaoili said.

“Gen. Lorenzana has to wake up to the real world before he completely burns down the house of President Duterte,” he added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva/Featured photo by Viory Schellekens)

NDFP to ‘peace spoiler’ Lorenzana: Explain your failures instead

It is Delfin Lorenzana who should explain where the Department of National Defense (DND) budget goes, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Negotiating Panel said in response to the defense secretary’s allegation Thursday the NPA collects P1.2 billion in “revolutionary taxes” in Eastern Mindanao alone.

NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said while all taxes collected by the NPA are spent for services to the people and the communities, the DND and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) budgets only go to corruption and used to kill civilians.

“Without confirming his allegation, what is Lorenzana complaining about? What about the P137.2B 2017 budget of the DND, where did the monies go? To line the pockets of the generals, military commanders and senior officials of the DND and AFP and towards the acquisition of military equipment used to kill civilians, bombard communities, destroying crops and houses and laying waste to Marawi, close schools and day care centers in Lumad communities, threaten and harass the people, etc?” Agcaoili asked.

“Yet, the AFP is unable to perform its principal duty of protecting and defending the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Philippines against foreign aggression in the West Philippine Sea, including the Tubbataha reef,” Agcaoili added.

Lorenzana alleged Thursday at a forum in Makati City the NPA rakes in at least a billion pesos in so-called extortion activities in Eastern Mindanao that affects the course of doing business.

“The amount of money that the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) and the NPA are collecting from Eastern Mindanao alone is P1.2 billion a year,” Lorenzana told the Management Association of the Philippines.

Lorenzana also admitted he was the one who convinced President Rodrigo Duterte to stop peace negotiations with the NDFP.

Peace spoilers

Agcaoili said he is not surprised with Lorenzana’s admission.

“Since the time of (the late dictator Ferdinand) Marcos, the AFP has not gone back to the barracks, unable to accept the most basic of democratic principles – civilian supremacy over the military – and always threatening coups once the soldiers don’t get their way and terrorizing the people with guns and equipments that are paid for the taxpayers,” Agcaoili said.

“It is, in the words of President Duterte, a staunchly pro-American institution, unwilling to accept changes and reforms in Philippine society – the peace spoilers,” he added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

NPA: Successful Gubat ambush, Ka Magno’s last hurrah

SORSOGON — Andres “Ka Magno” Hubilla helped plan the ambush that killed four government troopers and injured seven others Monday, the Celso Minguez Command of the New People’s Army (NPA) in this province said.

In a statement today, the provincial NPA unit said their fallen Communist Party of the Philippines Sorsogon Party Committee Secretary helped in the painstaking planning of the ambush days before he was killed because of many human rights violations reportedly committed by the state troopers.

“Kasabay si Ka Magno na naging bahagi ng matiyagang pagpaplano at pag-aaral ng sitwasyon para maikasa ang nasabing ambus,” Ka Samuel Guerrero, Celso Minguez Command spokesperson, said.

Guerrero said they successfully ambushed a platoon of the 31st Infantry Battallion of the Philippine Army and the 5th Regional Public Safety Battalion of the Philippine National Police based in Gubat town in Barangay Marinas at 5:25 in the morning Monday.

Guerrero claimed they killed four soldiers, including platoon leader 2Lt. Lee Omega Tremedal, Sgt. Rolyn Cabagon, Pfc. Jaype Nebiar and another he failed to identify.

The rebel spokesperson also named five of the injured 31st IBPA troopers, including Michael Lionar, Jeremy Tu, Roland Sayson, Eduard Lumanog and Mark Oscillada.

Meanwhile, Maj. Virgilio Perez, spokesperson of the Southern Luzon Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) yesterday said only two soldiers were killed and seven were wounded in yesterday’s clash.

Perez declined to name the casualties pending formal AFP notification of their families.

Guerrero said their Red fighters took three M4 carbine rifles, ammunition pouches, military packs and radio equipment from the waylaid soldiers.

“Kampanteng naglalakad ang 30-kataong tropang kaaway ng tambangan ng mga kasama. Umabot ng 45-minuto ang labanan,” Guerrero said.

“Ang maging sobrang kampante at mayabang ang bulnerabilidad ng kaaway na nasamantala ng mga kasama,” he added.

Guerrero said the ambush was also a reaction to the continuous combat operations by the government troops in Casiguran and Gubat towns since August 3.

Residents of several Casiguran barangays had been wary of increased military presence in the area since the killing of Hubilla, fellow NPA member Miguel “Ka Billy” Himor and civilians Arnel Borres and Dick Laura in Barangay Trece Martires last July 28.

Hubilla and Himor’s wakes were held in neighboring Barangay Sta. Cruz, a few kilometers from the ambush site.

The 31st IBPA was the unit involved in what locals say was the “Casiguran Massacre.”

“Inspirasyon ng mga kasama sa matagumpay na taktikal na opensibang ito ang dakilang buhay ng dalawang rebolusyonaryong martir (Hubilla and Himor),” Guerrero said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

NPA’s Celso Minguez Command ambushes gov’t troops on the day fallen comrades are buried

CASIGURAN, SORSOGON—On the day of the funeral of two of their fallen comrades, the Celso Minguez Command of the New People’s Army (NPA) ambushed a patrolling unit of the Philippine Army Monday, killing a lieutenant and a sergeant and wounding seven government troopers in neighboring Gubat town.

As thousands of family members and supporters were preparing for the five-kilometer funeral march for Andres “Ka Magno” Hubilla and Miguel “Ka Billy” Himor, the Red fighters waylaid a unit of the Philippine Army using a command-detonated explosive at past five o’clock in the morning in Barangay Casili, Gubat.

Sources said the injured troopers were rushed to Sorsogon Doctors Hospital but reporters were prevented from entering the facility.

Both the 9th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army and the NPA have still to issue statements on the incident.

Units of the Philippine National Police set up checkpoints on roads leading to the site of the incident.

Hubilla and Himor, on the other hand, were buried at a private memorial park in downtown Casiguran after a long march led by red banners and streamers.

The caskets were borne on top of a flat-bed truck with honor guards standing on both sides as the march snaked around the town.

Activists and supporters from all over Sorsogon and the Bicol provinces joined the march, making the funeral the biggest seen by this town in decades.

Thousands of townsfolk also lined the streets as the funeral made its way to the cemetery, seemingly amazed at the banners of underground organizations being openly displayed.

In his homily during the funeral Mass, Monsignor Francisco Monje said Hubilla and Himor offered their lives in the service of the poor and should be remembered for selflessly offering their lives to bring genuine social change.

“Because we have all been promised change. But where is change? It is the likes of Andres and Miguel who give us alternatives for effecting change for the poor,” the priest said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

‘Beloved sons’ of Sta Cruz: Thousands flock plaza to honor NPA fighters

SORSOGON— Thousands of people from all walks of life from all over the Bicol Region flocked to Barangay Sta. Cruz in Casiguran town Sunday night. They came to honor the two fallen New People’s Army (NPA) fighters Andres Hubilla and Miguel Himor in a unique tribute.

Progressive songs blared throughout the community. Flags of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), NPA and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) lined up the plaza. The villagers carried and arranged chairs for the visitors while children ran around as if a fiesta was being celebrated.

Before darkness fell, the caskets of Hubilla and Himor were transferred from their respective homes to the plaza. They were placed on the stage amidst flowers and banners. An announcer periodically told the gathering crowd the tribute for two of Sta. Cruz’s most beloved sons shall start on time.

Hubilla was Ka Magno, Ka Carlo, or Ka Bunso to the NPA while he was “Pay Magno” to the peasants and fisher folk of this southernmost Luzon province. For nearly three decades, he was among the leaders of the storied Celso Minguez Command of the NPA that government troops failed to crush through countless counter-insurgency operations from the Corazon Aquino to the current Rodrigo Duterte governments.

Hubilla: A teacher to the end

But it was the brutal Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship that turned a quiet and conscientious student to a legendary NPA commander in Hubilla. While still a 14-year old Grade Four student on his way home from school, he was stopped by troops from then Philippine Constabulary (PC), tortured, arrested and imprisoned for 75 days. Upon his release, he was again accosted, tortured and arrested by the PC. He quietly joined the Kabataang Makabayan soon after while resuming his studies and being a working student.

“It was nearly inconceivable that Andres would become an activist because he was focused on his studies and in his work as a house boy. In fact, he was my best student in English,” Ma’am ‘Cely’ told AlterMidya.

Through sheer determination and hard work, Hubilla finished his teacher’s course at Anunciation College in Sorsogon and was immediately hired as a high school teacher at his alma mater’s campus in Gubat town.

There, he became a very popular teacher who got along famously with his students. Teaching remained a life-long passion with Hubilla even when he was already with the NPA.

“He was responsible for sending hundreds of peasant children to school by asking benefactors for scholarships. He also spearheaded repairs and enhancements of many schools throughout the province. I wonder what would become of his education projects now that he is gone,” Ma’am Cely said.

Himor: A ‘regular’ route to becoming a guerilla

Himor, on the other hand, took a more regular route to becoming a revolutionary fighter. Also a son to poor peasants like his distant uncle Hubilla, poverty forced “Ka Billy” to find a job as a store errand boy in Metro Manila.

There, he realized that contractual workers like him would never be able to escape poverty and lifelong servitude without drastic social reforms. As soon as turned 18, he went back to this province and asked to be drafted into the NPA.

“Ka Billy showed early his potential of becoming a good fighter and organizer. He was a jolly fellow, joking about his self-declared good looks to crack people up. But he convinced a barrio maiden he was indeed good looking enough and they soon got married. They have a baby barely a year old,” the CPP in Bicol said.

Himor was only 21 when he was killed on July 28 along with Hubilla and civilians Arnel Borres and Dick Laura a few kilometers away from where their bodies lie in state in Barangay Sta. Cruz.

Funeral march

Thousands of supporters are expected to participate in today’s funeral of the fallen NPA fighters.
A five-kilometer march from Barangay Sta. Cruz will precede a funeral mass at Casiguran’s Catholic church before a noontime internment, family members said.

“It will be one of the biggest funeral marches this town shall ever hold with not just barrio mates and relatives but with hundreds of supporters from all the Bicol provinces,” a CPP member said.

Hubilla and Himor would be interred at Casiguran Cemetery.

“Ka Magno and Ka Billy’s heroism and service will serve as as inspiration to the people of Sorsogon to continue the fight for liberation and social justice,” the NPA’s Celso Minguez Command said in a statement. # Report by Raymund B. Villanueva / Altermidya

Ifugao court frees two political prisoners

By Aldwin Quitasol

BAGUIO CITY — The Regional Trial Court of Lagawe, Ifugao province today acquitted two Cagayan Valley activists, apologizing for their unjust imprisonment for nearly five years.

Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Cagayan Valley organizer Rene Boy Abiva and Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytors Nationwide (Piston) Party Cagayan Valley regional coordinator Virgilio Corpuz were deemed innocent of charges of multiple murder, according to National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Randy Felix Malayao.

Abiva and Corpuz were charged with 12 counts of murder at the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Lagawe, Ifugao by the 86th Infantry Battalion and 5th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army.

The two were detained at the Bureau of Jail and Management Penology (BJMP) facility in Tiger Hills, Kiangan, Ifugao.

Abiva was an employee of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Region 2 and an ACT organizer of the in the region when nabbed on December 28, 2012 by the military.

He was tagged as one of the New People’s Army fighters who staged an ambush against the Philippine Army troopers in Tinoc , Ifugao in April 2012 that killed 10 soldiers.

Abiva’s DSWD daily time record (DTR), however, revealed during trial he reported for work on the day the Tinoc, Ifugao ambush happened.

Corpuz for his part was nabbed in his residence in Santiago City, Isabela by elements of the Philippine National Police Regional Regional Mobile Group on January 2013.

Corpuz, also a development worker of the Katinnulong Daguiti Umili ti Amianan at the time of his arrest, was accused by the Philippine Army to be a certain “Harold Castillo” who participated in another ambush.

“The State must be made accountable for the trumped-up charges and for the more than four years Abiva and Corpuz were made to suffer,” Malayao said.

Various progressive organizations also rejoiced at the acquittal of the two political prisoners.

“The Ifugao Peasant Movement, Cordillera Human Rights Alliance-Karapatan and Cagayan Valley Karapatan join the family and friends of Rene Boy Abiva and Virgilio Corpuz in their long-delayed release from BJMP Ifugao after nearly five years of detention,” the organizations said.

“The court apologized for detaining the two who have been falsely accused and jailed wrongly. The judge said if there were only a law to justly compensate the two, they would be compensated,” they added.

“Their freedom is the people’s victory. Their commitment to serve the people remains and their families are with them,” Cita Managuelod, Virgilio Corpuz’ wife, for her part, said. (With reports from Raymund B. Villanueva in Manila)

STREETWISE BY CAROL P. ARAULLO: Unmasking Duterte

These days, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte is turning out to be his own worst enemy.

He cannot keep himself from rambling on and on, revealing his bloodlust, megalomania, contempt for objectivity and truth, small-mindedness and bigotry, gullibility for the “intelligence” briefings by the AFP and the propensity for using strong-arm techniques to get his way.

A year ago, at the beginning of Duterte’s presidency, his crassness seemed to be just an idiosyncratic style born of his being an uncouth politician from the boondocks, used to the rough-and-tumble and straight-talking ways of those who are reared in the frontiers of Mindanao.

Many ordinary folk found him engaging, even refreshingly tactless, hence appearing to be honest and sincere.

What was important is that he promised to wipe out the illicit drugs trade in three to six months by means of a bloody “war on drugs”; zero tolerance for graft and corruption; a stop to the practice of “endo” (end-of-contract) that undermined workers’ security of tenure; easing the burden of taxation while spending more on social services for the poor; siding with landless peasants in their fight against the landed oligarchy; an end to the despoilment of the environment through large-scale mining; and to top it all, to release all political prisoners and bring about a negotiated, peaceful settlement of armed conflicts by engaging in peace talks. He also did the unexpected by appointing three avowed Leftists in his Cabinet.

High hopes abounded as well as serious misgivings. The revolutionary and progressive forces on the Left of the political spectrum decided to give Duterte a chance to prove his claims to being the first “Leftist” and “socialist” President.

While long-time mayor of Davao City, traces of his Leftist background surfaced in so far as 1) he acknowledged the CPP-NPA as a political entity born of endemic poverty and oppression; 2) he had a modus vivendi with the CPP-NPA with regard to their de facto existence as a shadow government, including their collection of revolutionary taxes and punitive actions against exploitative and oppressive businesses; 3) he did not consider “all-out war” as the correct or even viable solution to insurgency; 4) he maintained open lines of communication with the CPP-NPA 5) he upheld the human rights of rebels and political activists; 5) he asserted political independence versus US military intrusions in Davao City; 6) he welcomed peace negotiations as a means of resolving armed conflicts by addressing their root causes in unjust socioeconomic and political structures.

A short year later, Duterte is close to fully unfolding towards the Right. Whatever background of activism in his youth has become overwhelmed by the conservatism of his adult years as a politician in the mold of a bureaucrat capitalist until winning the presidency and becoming CEO of the reactionary state.

President Duterte has scuttled peace talks by insisting on an indefinite, bilateral cease-fire even before reaching a comprehensive agreement on socioeconomic reforms (CASER). Duterte not only failed to fulfill his promise to amnesty and release all political prisoners, he continued his regime’s brutal counterinsurgency program including the bombardment of civilian communities suspected to be supportive of the CPP-NPA and the targeted killings of unarmed activists.

He resorts to lies and ad hominem attacks on NDFP Chief Political Consultant and CPP Founding Chairperson Joma Sison to belittle, insult, and dismiss him as a revolutionary leader. He parrots the worn-out AFP line demonizing the CPP-NPA as terrorists and plain criminals extorting from the people and businesses.

Duterte is in over his head. His conceit is that his overrated stint in Davao City provides him the blueprint for dealing with the complexities of the country’s historical ills. He misrepresents authoritarianism for political will and resort to mass murder and bullying tactics for decisive leadership.

Duterte’s opportunistic alliances with the Marcoses and ex-President Gloria Arroyo, his over dependence on the pro-US, militarist troika of Lorenzana-Año-Esperon and pandering to the AFP and PNP to preempt a coup attempt by his rivals — all these reveal that he is indeed an ultra-reactionary contrary to his self-delusional pose as a “leftist.”

But as a Marcos wannabe, Duterte lacks sophistication. His expressed intention to bomb lumad schools as a counterinsurgency measure makes him vulnerable to charges of genocide and other war crimes. His demagoguery is repetitive and tiresome. His resort to martial law in Mindanao and the destruction of Marawi City to deal with the disastrous Mamasapano-like police operation against Isnilon Hapilon is a testament to his incompetence and brutality as a commander-in-chief.

Duterte’s “war on drugs” is an unmitigated failure. It’s outcome: an unending body count of alleged small-time drug users and dealers, victims of extrajudicial killing by police and touted vigilantes incited on their murderous killing spree by no less than President Duterte. Impunity reigns with Duterte shielding the police establishment that he once described as “rotten to the core” from investigation by the Commission on Human Rights and the Ombudsman. A police official, coincidentally surnamed Marcos, who stands accused of murdering a suspected drug lord while in jail has been reinstated and will soon be eligible for promotion upon the specific instruction of no less than President Duterte.

Duterte’s economic policies and programs have not departed from the failed policies of his predecessors in keeping the economy backward and the majority of the people eking out a precarious existence with no stable sources of livelihood or forced to take their chances working overseas. His resort to dole-outs, including one-time subsidies for higher education, is unsustainable. Social services like housing and health care remain unaffordable, of poor quality and inadequate. Whatever economic growth benefits foreign multinationals, their domestic business partners and corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.

Finally, Duterte has maintained his off-and-on diatribe against the US, citing its track record as a brutal colonizer of the Philippines and as an exponent of wars of aggression against sovereign countries in the Middle East and elsewhere. His tirades intensify as criticisms from US quarters of his regime’s bloody war on drugs intensifies and as the US government hedges on the delivery of armaments and other forms of military aid.

But as the US well knows, Duterte is not about to touch any of the lopsided military agreements such as EDCA and the VFA that allows US military presence on Philippine soil and power projection in the Asia Pacific region.

Meanwhile, Duterte’s courtship of China for loans and investments is leading us to debt peonage to a new master and abandonment of our sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea.

The Duterte regime is headed towards complete unmasking and isolation as anti-people unless it drastically changes course. Unfortunately, there are few signs that this can or will happen. # (First published in BusinessWorld, 31 July 2017 / [email protected])