Objection to US bomb and missile donation to Duterte terror regime
We vehemently object to the Trump government’s “donation” of $18 million worth of bombs and missiles that will exarcerbate the Duterte regime’s dirty war against the people. The war matériel was received by the AFP last Monday.
We demand the incoming Biden regime to take action against continuing US military support for Duterte’s state terrorist regime and his reign of human rights abuses.
We call for an end to the US “enduring commitment” and “critical alliance” with the Duterte regime, an international pariah in terms of human rights.
We demand an end to US support for “counterterrorism” which only embolden Duterte’s military and police officers in their dirty war of suppression.
With US support, the AFP has conducted relentless aerial bombing and artillery shelling campaigns not only against the military-linked Abu Sayyaf criminal bandits, but moreso against the revolutionary forces of the New People’s Army.
For close to two years now, the AFP has conducted aerial bombing and strafing campaigns against suspected NPA guerrilla camps. These invariably cause physical and environmental damage, endanger lives and bring about sufferings to nearby peasant and minority communities.
In fulfilling Duterte’s order to “flatten the hills,” the AFP wants to repeat the total destruction of Marawi in the futile attempt to crush the NPA and suppress the people’s armed and non-armed resistance.
This year, we have recorded at least five incidents of aerial bombardment in Bukidnon, three in Surigao del Sur, two in Davao del Norte and at least one each in Compostela Valley, Misamis Oriental, Northern Samar, Sarangani, Zambales and Zamboanga del Norte.
Aerial bombardment against moving guerrilla targets violate the international principle of proportionality and always potentially bring losses to civilian lives and property. There are several incidents that bombs have exploded near peasant and minority communities, caused damaged to farms, felled forest trees, destroyed homes and sources of livelihood, and killed farm animals and pets.
To the broad masses of the Filipino people, US-supplied bombs bring nothing but fear and sufferings. In several instances, residents of entire communities have been forced to leave their homes in search of safe haven.
We call on the American people, whose money is being used to fund the AFP’s bombing, shelling and strafing drives against the Filipino people, to support the call for an end to the US government’s military support to the Duterte terror regime.
We urge the international human rights and humanitarian community, all pro-people forces as well as the media to focus and investigate the ill-effects brought about by the AFP’s aerial bombardment and strafing campaigns and its violation of international humanitarian law.