Bicol RTF-ELCAC failed! The armed revolutionary movement in the region continues to advance!
Read in: Pilipino
If the Bicol Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict-Task Force Katuninongan asin Kauswagan (Bicol RTF-ELCAC) has anything to show for its two years of existence, it is that the armed struggle in Bicol continued to gain headway. Despite all the attacks, dirty schemes and surrender campaigns, no unit of NPA-Bicol had been severely damaged, no guerilla front had been decimated and no mass base had been dissolved. Red fighters and commanders continue to increase their knowledge and skills in studying the science and art of waging guerrila warfare—both in theory and practice. Most of all, they failed to extinguish the ever-deepening understanding of the correctness and necessity of armed revolutionary struggle.
With the aid of both the AFP and PNP in the region, the Bicol RTF-ELCAC stands as a machinery of a whole-of-nation brand of terrorism and militarization – from campaigns of mass murder and massacre in Masbate, Operation Manhunt Charlie in Sorsogon, SACLEO in Camarines Norte and widespread RCSP-Baranggayan and destructive focused military operations both in Albay and Camarines Sur. This has been combined with systematic campaigns of deception ranging from bloating the numbers of surrenderrees, parading civilians, children and even agents of the police and military as NPA members who have been arrested or have surrendered, orchestrated encounters and bogus community projects.
In spite of all these, the Bicol RTF-ELCAC completely failed. It is because such machinery has not an inch of intention to resolve the roots of the armed struggle in the region. The Bicol RTF-ELCAC merely served as a fascist instrument to further deprive the Bicolano masses of their right to life, land and a prosperous future.
Instead, the Bicol RTF-ELCAC only exacerbated Duterte’s crimes that push the masses to wholeheartedly support and join the people’s war. The advancement of the people’s war is deeply rooted and continues to be embraced by the Bicolano masses. They unceasingly pursue agrarian revolution in the face of prevalent landgrabbing and destruction of local production. They unremittingly strengthen their revolutionary mass organizations because of the persistent dangers of neoliberalism and fascism to their rights and livelihood. They continuously take arms and join the New People’s Army because state terror and oppression continues.
The determination of the Bicolano masses to advance the revolution endures and will continue to endure. In this light, the revolutionary movement in Bicol challenges itself to daringly and resolutely step up the guerilla warfare in the region. The Romulo Jallores Command-NPA Bikol will continue launching tactical offensives that would punish the armed sycophants of Duterte like the Bicol RTF-ELCAC and will seek preliminary justice for its victims. Every NPA unit in the region will more firmly engage with the masses and their revolutionary organizations in consolidating the achievements and advancements made by both the mass and revolutionary movements in Bikol.