Revolutionary forces in Eastern Visayas unite with patriotic and democratic Filipinos in condemning Rodrigo Duterte’s withdrawal of the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement. He has finally laid himself bare as a true puppet of US imperialism and traitor to the Filipino people. He continues to shed any pretenses to his “independent foreign policy.”

Several times Duterte pretended to scrap the agreement so he can milk out as much US military aid to fund his war of terror against the people. The fighter jets, missiles, bombs, rifles, drones, artillery and various military equipment, which are decrepit in quality but bought at exorbitant prices, are used to impose martial law in the countryside, brutally suppress the people, and buttress his terrorist regime.

With US military support, Duterte is thus further emboldened to carry out his various schemes of perpetuating his rule beyond 2022, either through open fascist dictatorship, by brutal suppression of the people, or by manipulating the presidential elections. Meanwhile, US troops are free to station on Philippine soil, enjoying extraterritorial rights and remaining scot free when they violate Philippine law.

Revolutionary forces hold just as responsible the Biden government for continuing to fund the Duterte regime’s “all-out war” against the people. The Biden government has shown that it fully supports and has no qualms against Duterte’s war on drugs, counterrevolutionary war of suppression, war against the Moro people, and all of his other schemes to establish his fascist dictatorship. The hands of the US government are washed with the blood of thousands of innocents in the Philippines and elsewhere in the world.

The NDF-EV calls on all patriotic forces to remain resolute in exposing and opposing Duterte’s treachery against the Filipino people. They must continue to call for the abrogation of the VFA as well as all other agreements that violate national sovereignty and support foreign military interventionism.#