CPP orders offensives in protest of Capiz 'war games'
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has directed its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA) in Panay and Bicol to intensify offensives to oppose joint military exercises in these areas.
In an e-mailed statement dated January 25, the CPP also condemned the 25-day US-RP joint military exercises at Camp Macario Peralta in Jamindan town in Capiz.
“The military exercise is an instrument of the US in violating Philippine sovereignty and keeping a tight leash on the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). In training of puppet troops for inter-interoperability with its armed forces and providing war materiél to the puppet army, the US military aims paves the way for increased intervention in the local armed conflict,” the CPP, which has been waging a Maoist-inspired guerrilla war for 30 years, said in its statement.
The “Balance Piston 09-1” kicked of yesterday, Monday, at Camp Macario Peralta, the headquarters of the Army's 3rdInfantry Division and will last until February 20.
The exercises will involve 141 personnel of the 3ID and 31 US soldiers, mostly trainers. It consists of training exercises to be held within the training area of the military camp and 11 training activities including civic-military programs among residents in surrounding barangays.
The 3ID earlier said that the joint military exercises aim to develop the skills of its personnel and enhance the interoperability of US and Filipino troops.
But the CPP said that the exercises and the one planned in Bicol in April “signal stepped-up US military intervention and direct involvement of US troops in the AFP's counterrevolutionary war against the New People's Army (NPA).”
It said the exercises are being conducted in these areas “to pave the way for the US to gain more access to the NPA’s areas of operation and thus be able to give more advice in the field and increasingly participate in direct and indirect intelligence, combat and other military operations against the revolutionary forces.”
Capiz including surrounding villages of the training site are among the areas where NPA rebels are active.
The CPP said the joint military exercises in Capiz and Bicol should be opposed.
“The CPP directs NPA units, particularly those in Bicol and Panay, to intensify tactical offensives in their respective areas of operation in mockery of the US-RP joint military exercises and to prevent US troops from strengthening their foothold in these areas,” it said in its statement.
It said the the US military is “rubbing salt on the collective wounds of the Tumanduk people who have been continually subjected to fascist terror and abuses by the puppet army.”
The military camp is part of the 33,000-hectare military reservation being claimed by the Tumandok, Panay Island's largest indigenous people's group, as their ancestral land.