CPP 51st anniv: Nothing to celebrate, says AFP; Invincible, Joma counters
The Armed Forces of the Philippines said Thursday there is nothing to celebrate about the Communist Party of the Philippines’ 51st founding anniversary as the latter, together with the New People’s Army and National Democratic Front, have been rejected by most of the Filipinos in the countryside.
“There is nothing to celebrate in 51 years of duplicity! The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has been fooling many of our people for more than half a century now,” military spokesperson Brigadier General Edgard Arevalo said in a statement.
Arevalo said the CPP has destroyed the future of the children, ruined the fibers of Filipino family values, prevented economic growth, and divided the nation.
“The CPP that Mr. Jose Ma. Sison founded has lost relevance in a world that has rejected communism. It has become insignificant in a nation governed by strong political will to end insurgency that is bereft of any ideology,” he said.
He added that the people have awakened and now support the National Task Force Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCA) “anchored on good governance that the AFP helps foster.”
“It will not be long until the CPP dies a natural death,” he added.
‘Growing strength’
On the other hand, Sison congratulated the CPP for the growing strength and responding to the demands of the people for revolutionary change.
“The CPP and revolutionary mass movement are invincible. They have been tempered by more than 50 years of revolutionary struggle against the ruling system… They keep on growing because the objective conditions for waging armed revolution are increasingly favorable and the broad masses of the people demand revolutionary change,” Sison said in a Facebook post.
He added that the Duterte administration is now going downhill “and cannot find enough relief from its imperialist masters to overcome the rising revolutionary movement of the Filipino people.”
“Despite being able to retain overall dominance over the Philippines, the US is increasingly looking at Duterte as more of a liability than an asset as he fails to fulfill his pledge to destroy the revolutionary movement and as he allows China to gain advantages that prejudice the economic and security interests of the US in the Philippines,” he said. — RSJ, GMA News