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Post by dodger on Jan 11, 2014 17:59:29 GMT
NPA Panay
Jan 10, 2014
We will lead the rehabilitation of those who have been devastated by typhoon Yolanda! This is the main content of the program drafted by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in Panay for the year in the face of the massive loss of livelihood caused by supertyphoon Yolanda's onslaught in the island and other parts of the Visayas.
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Post by dodger on Jan 17, 2014 9:17:33 GMT
CPP commiserates with hundreds of thousands of calamity victims in Mindanao and Visayas
Thursday, 16 January 2014 By CPP Information Bureau Photo from CPP Information Bureau
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) commiserates with hundreds of thousands of victims of widespread floods and landslides in large parts of Mindanao and parts of the Visayas resulting in damage to properties and crops and further economic hardships to the people.A low pressure area has caused continuous rains which have lasted for more than a week. The non-stop rains resulted in swelling of overly-silted rivers flooding residential areas, agricultural fields, roads and other infrastructure. Among the areas flooded are the fields where victims of the recent supertyphoon Yolanda have set up tents.
According to reports by concerned units of the CPP and commands of the New People's Army, local Party branches and NPA Red fighters, barrio (village) and inter-barrio revolutionary committees and mass organizations have been mobilized to extend emergency assistance to the people victimized by the calamity.
The CPP said the widespread floods is a result of the massive deforestation of Mindanao, and the siltation of rivers and other water systems. The grave destruction of the environment is a result of continuing large-scale logging, mining and plantation operations which started since the advent of US colonial rule.
“The past and current Philippine governments should be made responsible for the massive environmental destruction in Mindanao and the rest of the country,” said the CPP. “Up to now, the reactionary Aquino regime continues to encourage the entry of foreign big capitalists to engage in the destruction and plunder of the environment. Nor has the Aquino regime engaged in any form of environmental regeneration to prevent the destructive effects of rains.”
“It is thus completely just and necessary for the victims of the calamity to demand compensation in the form of emergency food rations, economic assistance and economic reparations. They must make the Aquino regime responsible for its failure to guarantee the safety and security of the people against the floods and landslides,” said the CPP.
“They must condemn the continuing pro-mining, pro-plantation and pro-logging policy of the Aquino regime and struggle vigorously to drive away the large-scale plunderers and destructors of the environment and the people’s livelihood,” said the CPP.
“They must expose the bureaucratic anomalies in relief and rehabilitation work and echo the appeal for foreign governments and international aid organizations to avoid coursing their assistance to the corruption-infested Aquino regime,” said the CPP. “The people must build their autonomous civil defense and disaster response organizations to facilitate the entry of international aid that are extended directly to the ground.”
“For its part, the revolutionary forces are being mobilized to carry-out relief work in the areas affected by the flooding and landslides. The revolutionary committees under the people’s democratic government are tasked to facilitate the entry and distribution of emergency supplies to the affected areas,” said the CPP. “People in villages with communal farms administered by their own revolutionary government who have surplus harvests to spare can extend emergency food assistance to other affected villages,” pointed out the CPP.
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Post by dodger on Jan 17, 2014 9:34:57 GMT
The Communist Party of the Philippines on Maoism,
New Democratic Revolution, China & the current world
January 23, 2014
Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Founding Chairman
Communist Party of the Philippines
Interview by:
New Culture Magazine
Communist Reconstruction Union of Brazil
1 – What is your position towards Mao Zedong Thought or Maoism? Are there big differences between treating the theoretical contributions of Mao Zedong to scientific socialism as “Mao Zedong Thought” or “Maoism”? What would consist in taking Maoism as the third stage in the development of the theory of the practice of the proletariat? Would Maoism get in contradiction with the contributions given by other theoreticals of scientific socialism, like President Kim Il Sung with its Juche Idea?
JMS: There is no difference in content between Mao Zedong Thought and Maoism. When the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) used the phrase Mao Zedong Thought in 1969, all the major theoretical and practical achievements of Comrade Mao were encompassed. They are also encompassed in the word, Maoism, used by the CPP since the early 1990s. The phrase Marxism-Leninism-Maoism evokes continuity and advance. The appearance of the word Maoism is symmetrical to Marxism and Leninism.
Maoism has further developed all major components of Marxism and Leninism. In philosophy, Mao explicated materialist dialectics as applied by Marx in Das Capital and he penetrated further and elaborated on Lenin’s reference to the unity of opposites as the most fundamental law of materialist dialectics. Previously, Engels had put forward the three laws of contradiction and Lenin focused on confronting empirio-criticism.
In political economy, Mao had an updated critique of monopoly capitalism up to bureaucrat monopoly capitalist in revisionist-ruled states and improved on the previous theory and practice of socialist revolution and construction in the Soviet Union. He elaborated on the relationship of the mode of production and the superstructure in the long socialist transition to communism.
In social science, he pointed to the proletarian class struggle against the bourgeoisie as the key link in all the mass struggles to advance the socialist revolution. He put forward the the rectification movement as the way to deal with serious errors and to maintain and strengthen its integrity and effectiveness. He developed the strategic line of protracted people’s war as the way for the peoples in underdeveloped countries to destroy the power of imperialism and reaction and achieve national and social liberation.
But what brings Maoism to the level of the third stage in the development of the revolutionary theory and practice of the proletariat is Mao’s theory and practice of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat through the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in order to combat revisionism, prevent the restoration of capitalism and consolidate socialism.
Maoism does not reject but encompasses the principle and practice of self-reliance in Kim Il Sung’s idea of Juche. It can encompass variations of emphasis on certain principles and policies in the application of scientific socialism in various countries with different historical backgrounds and circumstances. It is the constant duty of communist and workers’ parties to integrate theory with concrete practice in various settings.
2 – In Brazil, the theories of Mao Zedong concerning bureaucrat capitalism were not well studied. Could you explain what bureaucrat capitalism is and how does it manifest, nowadays, in the countries oppressed by imperialism?
JMS: Bureaucrat capitalism simply means the corruption of state officials who use the state for the private accumulation of capital by themselves, their families and cronies. It may involve the state directly providing them with capital resources and privileges for their private business enterprises. It may also involve the establishment and operation of state enterprises for the benefit of private capitalists in various ways.
The government officials of the bourgeois state (and the revisionist-ruled state) are representatives and functionaries of the bourgeoisie. The high level officials are often members of the big bourgeoisie and are easily recognized as bureaucrat capitalists. These high bureaucrat capitalists recruit as their political agents and technocrats smart guys from the urban petty bourgeois intelligentsia. These hirelings can also become big bureaucrat capitalists as they rise in rank in the bureaucracy and accumulate private assets in capital and land through corrupt practices.
3 – It is known that the landlord system is one of the main characteristics of underdeveloped countries. How is the agrarian situation of the Philippines nowadays? How does the survivor of the semifeudal monopoly of the land in the Philippines relates with the situation of your country as a semi-colony of US imperialism?
JMS: The Philippine social economy is still underdeveloped, agrarian, pre-industrial and semi-feudal. The countryside is still ruled by the landlord class, while the cities are ruled by the big compradors. The landlords are still the most numerous and widespread exploiting class and the peasants are the most numerous and widespread exploited class in the Philippines. The landlords still own most of the land producing rice, corn, sugar and tobacco even as foreign and domestic holders of land operate plantations producing pineapple, banana, palm oil and rubber.
The big compradors are the chief trading and financial agents of foreign monopoly firms and are the wealthiest and most powerful in semi-feudal society. They themselves are often big landlords to ensure control of agricultural exports in their hands. Thus, the cream of the ruling class is often referred to as the big comprador-landlord class. This is the class that dominates the present semi-feudal economy in contrast to the overwhelming dominance of the landlord class in the feudal economy of the past, up to the end of the 19th century.
It was the US colonial regime that started the semi-feudal economy and put the comprador big bourgeoisie in the top ruling position among the natives and mestizos at the beginning of the 20th century. By the time that the US shifted from colonial to semicolonial rule in 1946, the semifeudal ruling class of the big comprador-landlords had become well-developed. They became the principal trustees of the US and their political agents took charge of the bureaucracy from top to bottom.
4 – The Communist Party of the Philippines has as one of the components of its political line the accomplishment of the new-democratic Revolution through the Protracted People’s War, where the people’s political power is built through the protracted armed struggle and the encirclement of the reactionary power of the old bourgeois State. What measures does the Communist Party of the Philippines take in the liberated areas, where it is at the head of all political, economic and cultural life? How are the liberated areas capable of sustaining themselves for so long in the face of the armed offensive of the old State? What is the extent of Red political power in the Philippines? What are the perspectives for the expansion of the liberated areas?
JMS: The general line of the Communist Party of the Philippines is the people’s democratic revolution through protracted people’s war against US imperialism and the local exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords. The political aim is to achieve national liberation, establish the people’s democratic state and proceed to socialist revolution. The economic aim is to complete the land reform, industrialize the country, develop socialist industry and agricultural cooperation. The cultural aim is to develop a national,scientific and mass system of culture and education.
The CPP is the advance detachment of the working class and leads the revolution. It builds its branches in factories, farms, schools, offices and communities. It has organized the New People’s Army as the main organization for defeating the enemy and overthrowing the ruling system. It has built aboveground and underground mass organizations of workers, peasants, youth, women, professionals, cultural activists and so on. The National Democratic Front encompasses the underground revolutionary forces in the united front. Towards building the people’s democratic government, local organs of political power are being established.
The revolutionary forces and people carry out genuine land reform and turn backward villages into political, economic, social and cultural bastions of the revolution. Despite enemy campaigns of military suppression, the armed revolutionary movement has become strong by integrating Party leadership, armed struggle and mass base building. Red political power now exists in more than 110 guerrilla fronts with millions of people in substantial portions of 71 of 81 Philippine provinces.
The perspective and plan of the revolutionary movement is to advance from the stage of strategic defensive to that of the strategic stalemate by increasing the number of guerrilla fronts to 200, CPP membership to 250,000, the number of Red fighters with automatic rifles to 25,000, the membership of the mass organizations by the millions and the strength of the organs of political power at the village, municipal and provincial levels.
5 – Is there still any performance of revisionist organizations in the Philippines? Do they have any influence among the masses? How does the CPP relates with these revisionist organizations?
JMS: The revisionist party now calls itself the CPP-30. It has been rendered small and inconsequential as a result the anti-revisionist criticism and repudiation by the Maoist party since the 1960s. It has failed to shake off its notoriety for having been a running dog of rhe Soviet revisionist clique since the 1960s and for having openly capitulated to the Marcos fascist dictatorship in 1974. It does not have any significant mass following. Its main activity is showing up in revisionist gatherings abroad to slander and vilify the CPP, NPA and NDFP. The CPP gives the revisionists a rebuff every time that they make an attack.
6 – We know that, after the death of Mao Zedong, in 1976, a right-wing sector led by Deng Xiaoping emerges as the leadership of the Communist Party of China and initiates a series of policies that the Chinese government calls “reform and opening-up”. The emergence of this line in the power meant the end of the Cultural Revolution and the beginning of the capitalist restoration. Do you agree with the idea that nowadays China would be an imperialist country? Or that, even with all the changes, it still plays a positive role in the international arena?
JMS: Indeed, the Dengist counterrevolution resulted in the restoration of capitalism in China and its integration in the world capitalist system. By Lenin’s economic definition of modern imperialism, China has become imperialist. Bureaucrat and private monopoly capital has become dominant in Chinese society. It is exporting surplus capital to other countries. Its capitalist enterprises combine with other foreign capitalist enterprises to exploit third countries and the global market. China colludes and competes with other imperialist countries in expanding economic territory, such as sources of cheap labor and raw materials, fields of investments, markets, strategic vantage points and spheres of influence.
However, China has not yet engaged in a war of aggression to acquire a colony, a semicolony, protectorate or dependent country. It is not yet very violent in the struggle for a redivision of the world among the big capitalist powers, like the US, Japan, Germany and Italy behaved in joining the ranks of imperialist powers. It is with respect to China’s contention with more aggressive and plunderous imperialist powers that may be somehow helpful to revolutionary movements in an objective and indirect way. China is playing an outstanding role in the economic bloc BRICS and in the security organization Shanghai Cooperation Organization beyond US control.
7 – Some Latin American countries, like Venezuela and Bolivia, are facing political transformations in which sovereignty is affirmed and the contradictions with US imperialism is deepened. In the Venezuelan case, the Bolivarian government even speaks about transition to socialism. How do you evaluate those processes?
JMS: The policies of Venezuela and Bolivia that are anti-imperialist, assertive of national independence and promotive of social reforms and socialist aspirations are admirable and deserve support. They deliver blows to imperialist hegemony and create opportunities for the advance of the revolutionary party of the proletariat and the popular masses. But it is doubtful whether the current enlightened and benevolent leaders of the Venezuelan and Bolivian government can carry out a socialist revolution without defeating the violent resistance of the imperialists and the local reactionaries.
8 – The crisis in Syria was a theme that gained much repercussion in the year of 2013, as consequence of the direct maneuvers of US imperialism to enact a war against this country. It is known that these maneuvers were barred because of an unfavorable international conjuncture. In your opinion, which role would play a direct offensive against Syria in the logic of the US policy of world domination? How does the defeats suffered shakes the positions of the main imperialist power in the world geopolitics? What is the meaning of the cooperation between China and Russia to prevent a new alibi for war of the US government?
JMS: China and Russia have made effective moves within and outside of the UN Security Council to prevent the US from bombing Syria and from igniting a regional war. By standing up for the national independence of Syria as well as Iran, they gain points from third world states. Thus, they increase their weight in dealing with the US and other imperialist powers in terms of inter-imperialist contention as well as collaboration.
The avoidance of war as a result of the diplomacy of Russia and China on the US is welcome. At the same, it is the lookout of Syria and Iran for allowing the US and its agents to enter freely their territories to search and inspect sites of chemical and nuclear stocks and activity. Also, it is not improbable that someday the US and its allies will bomb Syria and Iran on grounds of failing to comply with agreements. Agreements with the US did not render Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya immune to US aggression.
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Post by dodger on Jan 25, 2014 14:11:52 GMT
Production in the uplands
The ekonomiyang sarang sa kaugalingon ug panggubat (ESKP) or self-reliant war economy forms part of the New People’s Army’s (NPA) economic work in the upland areas of Northeastern Mindanao Region (NEMR). As the name suggests, ESKP aims to develop the livelihood of the masses in the uplands both for their welfare and the advance of people’s war. As of now, ESKP is widespread in NEMR’s highlands, where more than 4,000 families have been given land to till for free.
ESKP is being implemented amid the severe poverty of the Lumad and settler masses after the onslaught of decades of large-scale logging in the upland forests. The masses either became exploited workers in logging companies or engaged in small-scale logging. Farming became minimal or was abandoned altogether, leading to widespread hunger and disease.
Lingkawas, the revolutionary mass paper in NEMR published a case study of how ESKP was developed in an upland community.
The process began in April 2012, when Red fighters found a small clan of farmers comprising two households with seven individuals. They planted rice on two parcels of land, aside from a few other crops. But their produce was hardly sufficient for their food and other needs.
The comrades organized them into a banwa or small sub-village and helped them develop their farms.
By October, their banwa became part of a broader campaign to build the ESKP in the locality. The head of the clan convinced his children to live and farm in the area. Thus, from only two households, the banwa grew to seven households where 11 families consisting of 27 individuals lived.
In accordance with the ESKP orientation, the members of the banwa pooled their labor to open new farms. From two small parcels of riceland, they opened nine parcels comprising nine hectares. Aside from rice, they added root crops and some vegetables. At that time, the comrades assisted them by giving them some cash to buy rice, so they could have something to eat while building their farms.
The people met with some trials while building the ESKP. They had just finished planting rice in November 2012 when the rain poured in torrents and typhoon Pablo struck. This rotted their root crops, which should have served as their staple while they waited for their rice and corn harvests. It was the corn that they had already harvested that tided them over during the rainy season until January 2013. With this experience, they decided to always plant corn so they could have food on stock during the rainy months.
Meanwhile, the ESKP had slowly transformed the scenery at the banwa. In the middle of the forest were expansive farms full of the green and newly sprouted leaves of the masses’ crops.
It was not only in the farms where the seeds the revolution had planted were bearing fruit. Advanced leaders and activists emerged from the ranks of the peasantry, forged in the process of developing the ESKP. Not long after, the mass organizations of peasants, youth and women, the people’s militia and the Party branch were formed.
In April 2013, after the rice harvest, the first round of the ESKP’s implementation was assessed and shortcomings were identified. First, the farms were an hour’s walk away, leaving the peasants with only six hours to work. Second, their harvests were still small. Third, the farmers still relied on the old practice of clearing patches of forest land every planting season in order to open new farms. This rapidly denudes the forest. Fourth, the broadcast method was still being used to plant rice, which wasted too many seeds. This was explained to the farmers, and appropriate measures were taken.
The result, the next harvest yielded 100 sacks of palay, from five sacks of seeds planted in November 2012.
Nonetheless, the harvest was still too low and sufficient only for 30 days’ consumption. This was because their farms were too small. They decided to expand their farms to 30-40 hectares and plant them not only to rice and corn, but to sweet potato, other root crops, fruits and vegetables. They reckoned that in the next harvest, they would have a surplus.
They also determined that the keys to a bountiful harvest were effective leadership, planned agriculture and exchange of labor. Thus, when they planted corn, they formed two work groups of 12 persons each. They cooperated in opening both their communal and individual farms.
And when they planted rice in October 2013, they opened 24 parcels. The youth had their own communal farm. The peasants expanded their sweet potato patch, planting 9,100 stems. They paid particular attention to sweet potato because the crop could survive for up to two years without much maintenance. This is important because of the possibility that brutal military operations could drive them temporarily from their communities. In any case, the could still eat sweet potato even if their other crops become casualties of militarization.
Along with launching the second round of ESKP, they also launched a cultural campaign. The youth were given the Basic Orientation on Art and Literature. After the course, they staged a cultural presentation, with the ESKP as theme. Their parents fully enjoyed their children’s vibrance and newly found skills.
There has been a noticeable improvement in the lives of the masses in the banwa since the ESKP was built. With a sure source of food, they have grown healthy and gotten sick less often.
Their cooperation has enabled them to finish land preparation more quickly, leaving them with more time to pursue their political tasks. They are able to hold weekly meetings and cultural activities. When there are enemy movements, the people’s militia automatically patrols the banwa’s surroundings. They now have time to haul supplies for the NPA.
This experience has shown that the ESKP is an effective way of rapidly building and consolidating revolutionary bases in the uplands. The ESKP serves as a means not only of improving the masses’ livelihood, but their political consciousness as well. From a state of backwardness, the ESKP has comprehensively transformed upland communities into relatively advanced revolutionary bases. It has given the masses a serious reason to take political action to defend both their welfare and the revolution. ~
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Post by dodger on Feb 1, 2014 19:50:33 GMT
Saturnino
On December 4, the residents of Saturnino, a farflung barrio in Compostela Valley gathered to celebrate their community's recovery from the devastation wrought by typhoon Pablo. With the Red fighters, the Ang Bayan staff and a number of regional Party cadres, Saturnino's residents hailed the victories achieved by their village with the help of the Party and the New People's Army this past year. The celebration was led by the local Party branch.
Saturnino was severely devastated by the fury of typhoon Pablo. All houses and structures in the community were levelled, including the schoolbuilding. The surrounding forest was denuded, and the residents' newly planted corn and vegetable crops were ruined. Nobody died in Saturnino but the residents knew that many were killed in the neighboring villages that form part of a vast mining area. The reactionary government concealed the real number of deaths in these barrios.
The residents of Saturnino firmed up their resolve to remain in the village despite a campaign by the reactionary state to evict them from the area in the guise of "relocation." The residents knew that such relocation was merely a pretext to allow big mining and logging companies to freely make use of the land and forest in their community. They decided to collectively build their houses and eventually, their schoolbuilding. They built a water system to provide safe and potable water for their school and several clusters of houses. In preparation for another disaster, they also built temporary shelters or "bunkers."
Despite its limited resources, the Regional Party Committee in Southern Mindanao helped in the community's initial rehabilitation by providing materials and food subsidies for the residents who worked full-time to build houses and public facilities.
The Saturnino residents count among their major victories the vast improvements in the productivity of both their individual and communal farms. They now have bigger harvests compared to the period before the storm hit. Despite the difficulty of opening a farm in an area that was strewn with huge trees that had been felled by the typhoon, the residents persevered in clearing more than 30 hectares of land in order to plant rice and corn.
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Post by dodger on Feb 18, 2014 15:55:09 GMT
CPP mounts rehabilitation efforts in Haiyan areas amid looming hunger, GRP neglect Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines
February 18, 2014The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today said all units of the New People’s Army (NPA) and revolutionary mass organizations in the areas most devastated by supertyphoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) on 8 November 2013 are undertaking all-out efforts at rehabilitation, amid looming hunger and the grave neglect of the Aquino government.
“More than 100 days since the Yolanda devastation, the Aquino regime has all but completely abandoned the small peasants, poor fisherfolk, urban poor, and ordinary income earners after having declared the end of relief efforts, satisfied at having distributed small grocery bags of emergency food supplies, and cramping people in tents and sub-par bunkhouses,” said the CPP.
“According to information released by Aquino’s officials, social welfare agencies were able to distribute just above 4.3 million 3-6 kg. rice food packs and 395,108 25-kg. rice packs to 1.4 million people,” said the CPP. “This would amount to a measly average of 0.15 to 0.20 kg. per day of rice, which is just half of the Filipino daily consumption average of rice of 0.35kg. per day.”
“The (Aquino regime's) Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) further boasts of promoting a PhP245-260 (US$5.50 - 5.80) per day cash-for-work program (CFW), although this covers just above 5% of the total number of families affected for a short period of 10 days.”
“Aquino’s officials boast that 1,455 families have already been transferred to bunkhouses when in fact, 1.1 million homes were devastated by the supertyphoon,” said the CPP. “Worse, tens of thousands of people, especially small fisherfolk and urban poor, are being prevented from rebuilding their old houses in the Aquino-defined 'no-build-zones' within 40 meters of the high-tide shoreline.”
“The Aquino regime is effectively displacing tens of thousands of poor people only to provide their land to Aquino’s big comprador supporters who are now profusely salivating over the prospects of building malls and other capitalist infrastructure in the areas,” said the CPP.
“All in all, the Aquino regime has refused to heed the demand of the people for assistance to resume livelihood,” said the CPP. “It has instead made use of the grave destruction to justify the allocation of huge investment funds in infrastructure projects that it is now offering to its big business supporters.”
“Widespread and prolonged hunger threaten the people whose livelihood were devastated by Yolanda,” pointed out the CPP. “Because of the insufficiency and high prices of rice, poor peasant families have started to consume their buffer rice stock meant for the next planting season, further threatening local production of rice and food sufficiency.”
“With the New People’s Army, revolutionary mass organizations are waging collective efforts to carry out rehabilitation to build communal farms in order to produce root crops, vegetables, and other food stuff for their immediate consumption,” said the CPP.
“The peasant masses are gearing to wage agrarian struggles. Particularly in Leyte island, which population is comprised largely of poor peasants working in big haciendas and coconut farms, peasant mass organizations are demanding from the big landlords land to till and produce food crops,” said the CPP.
“The people’s democratic government through the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) is exerting efforts to course funds through revolutionary mass organizations in order to jump start production, even as the peasant masses demand the cancellation of usurious debts,” added the CPP.
“NPA Red fighters have been instructed to plant a minimum number of food crops including a quota of banana trees, camote (sweet potato), and other root crops and vegetables, together with the revolutionary peasant mass organizations in the areas devastated by Yolanda,” said the CPP. “In anticipation of the planting season this May, NPA units, Party committees, and mass organizations are busy training people in planning out production and administering their communal farms.”
The CPP added: “The people’s democratic government is stepping up efforts to raise funds to purchase or produce farm implements, as well as provide locally applicable infrastructure to raise agricultural productivity, including basic irrigation systems. The NDFP is also mobilizing resources to acquire and distribute motor boats to kickstart the livelihood of the poor fisherfolk.” |
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Post by dodger on Mar 13, 2014 13:24:02 GMT
www.philippinerevolution.net/publications/ang_bayan/20140307/panayanon-minorities-unitePanayanon minorities unite
Hundreds of members and allies of TUMANDUK, an alliance of 17 organizations of national minorities in Panay picketed on February 27 in Tacas, Jaro, Iloilo City to assail the absence of any assistance from the Aquino regime for the victims of typhoon Yolanda in the island’s interior villages.
It has been almost four months since the storm’s onslaught, but aid from the Aquino regime is still focused on the town centers and coastal areas.
Thus, whatever assistance that has reached the victims has been the result of initiatives exercised by the people themselves and their organizations. To enable the victims to recover, TUMANDUK resolved during its 9th assembly on January 19 to demand that government fulfill its obligation to rehabilitate the people, provide social services and advance the rights of indigenous peoples. They agreed to continue the struggle to defend their land. They forged ahead in opposing Oplan Bayanihan and the Jalaur River dam project which are both destructive to their livelihoods, trample on their rights and cause them further suffering.
The assembly which was held in Barangay Aglinab, Tapaz, Capiz was attended by 1,200 members of TUMANDUK, aside from some 200 guests and friends from the Ati tribe as well as progressive organizations from Iloilo, Antique, Capiz, Aklan, Guimaras and Negros.
The assembly also ratified TUMANDUK’s membership in the Philippine Platform for Indigenous People’s Rights or PPIPR. The PPIPR was organized by the Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP) and the Koalisyon ng mga Katutubong Samahan ng Pilipinas.
The assembly was a success despite the military’s attempts to sabotage it. On the night of January 14, fifty soldiers from the 61st IB arrived in Barangay Aglinab ostensibly to conduct a medical mission. The delegates did not succumb to the military’s psywar and the soldiers were forced to leave the day after.
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Post by dodger on Mar 13, 2014 13:37:57 GMT
www.philippinerevolution.net/publications/ang_bayan/20140307/people-s-initiatives-at-rehabilitation-in-panayPeople’s initiatives at rehabilitation in Panay
Because the progressive organizations in Aklan were aware of the government’s long-term neglect of impoverished communities in the province, they themselves decided to act and effect the organized evacuation of thousands of families before supertyphoon Yolanda hit.
With the help of KADAMAY, PAMALAKAYA, GABRIELA and PAMANGGAS, more than 13,000 poor peasant families and other residents of coastal areas were evacuated. The evacuees came from the towns of Kalibo, Numancia, Tangalan and New Washington. Thus, the people incurred fewer casualties, especially in New Washington which bore the brunt of Yolanda’s fury.
After the storm, the people’s organizations immediately mobilized Task Force Tabang-Aklan and coordinated with a wide network of progressive organizations and personalities to bring food, drinking water and other necessities to the first batch of families that evacuated.
Meanwhile, in Tumanduk communities in Panay’s interior villages, the minorities resorted to dagyaw (bayanihan or community cooperation) to clean up the rubble in the typhoon’s wake and repair or rebuild the ruined houses.
Thousands of victims who received assistance from Task Force Tabang-Aklan also helped in distributing relief goods and providing data on the devastation that were more concrete than those reported by government agencies. Through them, it has come to light that almost 90-95% of Aklan’s 17 towns lost their livelihoods. The local and national governments have been turning a blind eye to the real depth and breadth of the calamity to justify their criminal negligence.
The people continue to call the Aquino regime to account for its failure to help them.
In February, DILG Secretary Mar Roxas was met with a protest rally of calamity victims at the Kalibo International Airport when he visited Aklan. The protesters demanded that Roxas release government funds for rehabilitation which they have yet to receive.
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Post by dodger on Mar 13, 2014 13:42:35 GMT
www.philippinerevolution.net/publications/ang_bayan/20140307/mass-struggle-against-usury-by-microfinancing-banksMass struggle against usury by microfinancing banks
A mass struggle last year by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas-Caraga Region against two rural banks has achieved initial gains. Some 2,000 people joined the struggle against Cantilan Bank Inc. (CBI) and People’s Bank of Caraga. Two negotiations with CBI have resulted in a reduction of interest charges from 30% to 15%. Service charges were also reduced by 50% (from P200 to P100).
Insurance fees have also become optional. Up to 7,000 families in 14 municipalities benefited from the struggle. Meanwhile, negotiations with the People’s Bank of Caraga are ongoing.
The two banks are engaged in microfinancing (known simply as “lending” in the region). Microfinancing favors lending from P3,000 to P25,000 to groups, ostensibly to encourage cooperation, more productive use of borrowed funds and less burdensome debt payments. In fact, group lending is extremely favorable to the banks because group leaders are used as machinery to pressure group members into paying. Weekly installments, on the other hand, serve to conceal how big and onerous the interest payments actually are. In essence, this is a form of legal usury.
The demands presented during the negotiations were agreed upon in various municipal-level fora attended by rice farmers, store owners, teachers and mothers. Usually, the following fees are deducted from a P3,000 loan: P21 for personal insurance, P80 (Philam Insurance), P200 (capital build-up), and P300 (service charge). All in all, a total of P601 is immediately deducted from the principal, with the borrower actually receiving only P2,399.
On paper, 30% interest (or P900) is imposed on the principal of P3,000. But with P170 weekly installments for 26 weeks, the borrower ends up paying P4,420 instead of P3,900. Instead of P900, the bank actually charges up to P1,420. The banks claim that the excess amount constitutes the borrowers’ “savings,” but in actuality, they are never able to utilize the money.
The concept of microfinancing or people’s banking/community banking has long been pushed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank allegedly to provide capital to the poor and alleviate poverty, especially in the countryside. These form part of the reformist illusions being peddled by the imperialists that poverty can be resolved without changes in the social structure.
Cantilan Bank Incorporated is owned by Lt. Gen. William Hotchkiss, currently the director general of the Civil Aviation Authority and former chief of the Philippine Air Force under the Ramos and Estrada regimes.
CBI is a member of the Microfinancing Council of the Philippines which has links with institutions run by multinational corporations, among them the William and Belinda Gates Foundation, MasterCard Foundation, Dell Foundation, UK Aid and Citi Foundation.
Meanwhile, People’s Bank began engaging in microfinancing in 1999, mainly to allegedly serve wives of beneficiaries of the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). It has 12 branches all over the Caraga Region.
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Post by dodger on Apr 3, 2014 11:19:57 GMT
NPA School
Low literacy rate is very common in the country. The reactionary government who has, in the first place, the responsibility to give free education to the people, abandon it.
Revolutionary forces see to it that everybody can read and write, especially in the New People's Army.
NPA School is about giving basic literacy lessons among NPA comrades. (Northeast Mindanao Region)
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