Highest Praise to the Communist Party of the Philippines on its 50th Anniversary in Waging the National Democratic Revolution!
On this Christmas season, which is the incarnation anniversary of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father Nilo Valerio Unit (FNVU) – a segment of the Christians for National Liberation here in Northern Luzon (CNL-NL) – and all the progressives and sympatizers of CNL-NL among Christians and their churches in the Northern Luzon provinces, take this occasion to hail to the highest degree the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on its golden anniversary for its revolutionary achievements in the pursuit and advancement of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) through Protracted People’s War (PPW) throughout the country. With the cumulative revolutionary successes of the NDR-PPW, gained in the past five (5) decades, and alongside the continuing and worsening chronic crisis of semi-colonialism and semi-feudalism in Philippine society, CNL is very confident that the CPP and the whole Filipino people would be able to raise to higher levels the NDR-PPW in the coming New Year and future years until national victory shall be achieved for socialist construction to commence.
While celebrating the CPP’s 50 years in carrying forward the Philippine revolution, we are inspired by the many martyrs and heroes of the Filipino people – who include those from the CNL, such as Seminarian Alfrdo Cesar, Deaconess Purificacion Pedro, Rev. Fr. Nilo Valerio, Rev. Fr. Zacarias Agatep, Lay Leader Amanda Alvarez, Deaconess Filomena Asuncion, Pastor Roselle Joy Ravena and other Christians in the advancement of the NDR through armed struggle here in Northern Luzon. And as we honor to the highest degree the CPP on its 50th anniversary, CNL also wishes to convey its deepest gratitude to the CPP for ceaselessly guiding and explaining to Christians over the past years its program for a people’s democratic revolution. Consequently, we consider the following four (4) points below as reasons for CNL to express its highest praise and deepest gratitude to the CPP on its golden centennial in waging the Philippine revolution.
FIRST AND FOREMOST, CNL fully respects and is utmost in its gratitude to the CPP for its red and expert cadres in guiding and helping the progressive Christians, church people, and the religious men and women in the establishment of the CNL on Feb. 17, 1972 during the anniversary of the martyrdom of Fathers Gomez, Burgos and Zamora. Through CNL, the Church people and the religious men and women in the Philippines have enriched over the years their knowledge of the NDR-PPW and have strengthened their continuing active participation and support in upholding, defending and promoting the national and democratic rights and interests of the entire Filipino people, especially the workers, peasants, fisherfolks, women, youth and national minorities as they are the “least of Christ’s brethren”, irrespective of their religious beliefs and their ethno-linguistic origins.
Subsequently, the progressive Christians, the open-minded Church people and the enlightened religious men and women have described CNL as their revolutionary organization to confront Philippine social realities and practice their Christian faith by taking part in the new democratic revolution, as the continuation of the old democratic revolution, started by Bonifacio’s Katipunan and participated thereon by Father Gregorio Aglipay and other Roman Catholic priests from 1896 to 1903 against Spanish colonialism and US imperialism. And since the CNL’s establishment and under its banner, Christians, Church people and the religious have adopted the call: “Preach the Good News to the Poor, the Deprived, and the Oppressed. Love your Neighbor. Serve the People.”
SECONDLY, CNL honors and is exceedingly glad to the CPP for respecting the Christian faith, pursuing dialogue between communists and Christians, and further enlightening the latter about the NDR with a socialist perspective. Such basic attitude of the communists towards the Christian faith should remind all Christians and their churches in their missionary endeavor to build and develop the power of the poor and the oppressed along the life of the early Christians in communal fellowship of owning properties in common and distributing proceeds of human labor to everyone according to one’s needs, as concisely described in the Acts of the Apostles (2:44-45 and 4:32,34-35). In many ways, communists have also enlightened the CNL, Church people and the progressive religious men and women about the fundamental right to freedom of thought and belief, which is clearly enshrined in the revolutionary constitution, found in Guide for Establishing the People’s Democratic Government. The CPP’s recognition of this fundamental right is the communists’ full respect to the Christian faith and other religious beliefs.
That is why CNL calls and asks all its members to address themselves in a special way to their comrades who are Marxists (revolutionary atheists), because of the traditional antagonism between Christians and Marxists that the ruling classes and US imperialism continue to exploit to the present day. CNL proclaims that Christians unite with the communists within the NDFP on the basis of the national democratic program. Within this political unity, all CNL members engage themselves in ideological Christian-Marxist dialogue, which helps them understand better the specific characteristics of Philippine society, the NDR and the people’s war. Thus, CNL declares that, as an ideological justification for anti-communism, Christianity and the Christian churches have become a special weapon for counter-revolution of the ruling classes and their imperialist masters. Accordingly, the CNL beckons its members to constantly combat Christian chauvinism and anti-communism and resist the enemies’ efforts to exploit these in fostering splits among people. Hence, CNL affirms that the key question is not atheism or theism; it is revolution or counter-revolution.
THIRDLY, CNL greatly praises and is highly thankful to the CPP in establising the New People’s Army (NPA) on March 29, 1969 to lead and advance the protracted people’s war from lower to higher stages in order to dismantle the semi-feudal and semi-colonial sytem. CNL is committed to the armed struggle as the principal and decisive form of struggle because CNL believes that, together with the non-armed forms, the armed struggle is important in building the people’s democratic power to overthrow the landlord-comprador bourgeoisie dominated state, and in advancing the agrarian revolution and national industrialization in order to lay the foundations of a socialist society in the Philippines.
In the coming years, the CNL shall continue its contribution to educate the populace, the church sector in particular, on the necessity, justness and legitimacy of the armed struggle. It must expose the reactionary character of the ruling system and the structures of violence of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial society as the political and economic basis of the option to take up arms. It must assert the fact that defense of national and people’s rights through armed revolution is an ethical imperative under the historical circumstances. It must show the legitimacy of the armed struggle in the current situation where the ruling classes have closed all doors to the peaceful resolution of the basic problems of the Filipino people, which are the root causes of the ongoing and intensifying armed conflict.
Since February 2017, Duterte and his pro-US imperialist and fascist army and police commanders have totally stopped the peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP. Ranting against the bishops and priests, and disbelieving in the “stupid God” of the Roman Catholic Church, the fascist Duterte has a “personal god” who has advised him to shroud the country with tyranny through his three (3) anti-Filipino wars. While constantly unleashing all-out war against the Filipino people, his tyrannical god must have also been the reason why Duterte issued last year Proclamation No. 360 terminating the peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP, and for Proclamation No. 374 listing the CPP-NPA as terrorist organizations. His Oplan Tokhang “war against drugs”; his Oplan Kapayapaan war of suppression throughout the country; and his martial law in Mindanao which he has extended and whose scope has now included Samar, Negros and Bicol; and his anti-Moro war in Mindanao – that has led to the total destruction of Marawi and untold hardships to hundreds of thousands of Maranaos – have all resulted to countless extra-judicial killings and have completely abandoned the respect of human rights and the international humanitarian laws.
In his 2½-year presidency, tens of thousand Filipinos from the urban poor, workers, peasants, Lumads, Moro people, other national minorities, the women and the youth have already been murdered by terrorist Duterte’s reactionary army and police. Included in the tens of thousand slain are 10 mayors, 6 vice mayors and 3 Catholic priests, killed in the past months, namely, Fr. Tito Paez and Fr. Richmond Nilo both of Nueva Ecija, and Fr. Mark Ventura of Cagayan. With his 3 wars unleashed daily against the Filipino people, fascist Duterte, his tyrannical god and his pro-US imperialist and anti-Filipino army and police has now become the best recruiters for the NPA to hasten the fast increase of the Red army platoons and companies in all regions for the people’s war to move forward to the advanced sub-stage, till the strategic stalemate stage shall be attained.
FOURTHLY AND LASTLY, CNL highly exalts and is exceedingly grateful to the CPP for leading the national united front whose most consolidated embodiment is the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), established on April 24, 1974. Together with other revolutionary mass organizations, CNL officially became one of the founding member organizations of the NDFP. Through CNL, more and more Church people and the religious men and women were conscienticized as they saw the real features of the US-Marcos Dictatorship (USMD), the great US-imperialist puppet and as another promoter of feudalism, bureaucrat capitalism and fascism throughout country.
Currently, the NDFP, consisting of 18 allied revolutionary organizations including the CNL, are bound together by patriotic and progressive principles. As a member organization, the CNL fully and actively supports the NDFP in following the national united front policies of relying mainly on the revolutionary basic alliance of the working class and the peasantry, of building the alliance of the positive forces which are composed of the basic alliance and the sectors of the petty-bourgeoisie, of winning over the middle strata of the bourgeoisie, and of taking advantage of the conflicts among the reactionaries in order to isolate and defeat the worst reactionary clique of the people’s enemy. The effectiveness of such policies has been demonstrated when dictator Marcos in 1986 and corrupt Estrada in 2001 were overthrown. These 2 grand events, especially the ouster of dictator Marcos, have been very successful because of the powerful convergence of all forces with their own respective reasons, such as the Roman Catholic and other Christian churces, the traditional opposition forces, the CPP, units of the reactionary armed forces, and other forces.
Especially before and after tyrant Duterte’s 2nd SONA, an unholy alliance has been formed by the Duterte-ArroyoMarcos clique with their ruling class cohorts in order to establish a fascist dictatorship and consolidate state power. And because of the ungodly alliance’s unbridled pro-US imperialist puppetry, fascism, corruption, plunder, repression and abuses, the economic and political crisis have worsened and deepened throughout the country.
Such disastrous actuations of the Duterte-Arroyo-Marcos alliance (DAMA) certainly enflame the Christians, the religious men and women, their church leaders and the whole Filipino people to closely join themselves together in order to carry out more resolutely the mass struggles and revolutionary resistance to end martial law and military encampments in rural communities, demand wage increases, end contractualization and the TRAIN law, implement genuine land reform and put an end to the class dictatorship of big landlords and big comprador bourgeoisie. The unholy DAMA definitely encourages more and more people to join the New People’s Army to wage armed struggle and build a truly democratic government that genuinely represents and serves the interests of the Filipino people.
Long live the Communist Party of the Philippines! Long live the National Democratic Front of the Philippines! Long live the Christians for National Liberation! Join the New People’s Army! Advance the People’s War to higher stages!