Volume III, Number 23. 15 December 2021.

On 1 December, the Armed Forces of the Philippines dropped 500-lb bombs and shelled with howitzers a community in Miag-ao, Iloilo, killing at least nine people in the horrendous carnage. The AFP claimed that they attacked a 70-strong force of the New People’s Army. But this was refuted by the Communist Party of the Philippines who said that only a small unit of the NPA was deployed in the area to assist in the villagers’ farming activities.

The CPP also said there was no armed encounter between the NPA and the AFP, contrary to the claim of President Rodrigo Duterte’s security forces. Local witnesses said civilians were among the nine grossly mutilated bodies.

In the last few months, the AFP conducted indiscriminate aerial bombings and machine gun firing and artillery shelling in many places in Bukidnon and Agusan del Norte in Mindanao island; Northern Samar, Mindoro, Quezon and other provinces. These brutal attacks often killed and injured more civilians than NPA guerrilla fighters.

The escalation of the Duterte regime's atrocious military operations is a major component of his avowed aim to crush by the end of his term the armed revolution led by the CPP. It is also a means to strike fear among the traditional opposition and to quell the rising resistance of the Filipino people. He is using to the hilt his newly acquired fighter planes, helicopters, military-drones, missiles, bombs and other military equipment from the United States and other imperialist sources.

Duterte is increasingly desperate in the face of mounting resistance to his fascist regime, not only in the Philippines but also from abroad. Besides an impending “people's power” mass demonstrations and strikes, he also fears prosecution for his crimes under a new anti-Duterte regime after the May 2022 elections and the International Criminal Court for his own and his cabal's crimes.

The only sour note is US President Biden inviting the globally notorious Duterte to the so-called Democratic Summit, as part of US efforts to consolidate an international front against China.

The Communist Party of the Philippines correctly pointed out that the vicious use of bombs and other powerful weapons among the general population brazenly violates International Humanitarian Law. It likewise violates the 1992 Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, specifically the basic principle of distinction between combatants and civilians and the protection of civilian lives.”

The Filipino people and the revolutionary forces condemn the Duterte regime's crimes against humanity.

In the meantime, the traitorous, fascist and plundering Duterte regime generates the fertile conditions and for accelerating the advance of the people’s democratic revolution through protracted people’s war.