Duterte's anti-NPA Task Force won't weaken NPA —CPP

The Communist Party of the Philippines on Friday said the anti-NPA Task Force of the Duterte administration will "fail in weakening the NPA [New People's Army]."

"Duterte's anti-NPA Task Force will, however, fail in weakening the NPA. On the contrary, with his strongman tactics, Duterte is succeeding only in pushing more and more people to join and support the New People's Army," the CPP said in a statement.

On Thursday, President Rodrigo Duterte announced the creation of a national task force to "address the armed conflict occasioned by the local communists."

"The President was unwavering with regard to the issue as a result of the communist group's efforts in infiltrating and overthrowing the government," Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo then said.

The CPP however said such a move is just a rehash of the "whole-of-government" approach of the Aquino administration "in line with the US counter-insurgency doctrine."

"It aims to mobilize and train efforts of all state agencies to deceive the people by pretending to address poverty with superficial programs. This will be combined with so-called 'localized peace talks' combined with corruption-laden 'integration programs,'" the CPP said.

It also said the task force will "serve as a tool against the legal democratic opposition which the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] call the 'political infrastructure of the CPP-NPA," adding that organizations and political forces labeled as fronts or in conspiracy with the CPP will be targeted.

"Combined with the terrorist proscription case which charges scores of activists of being members of the CPP, as well as with the militarization of the bureaucracy, Duterte's task force will put the entire state machinery to high gear under the regime's effort to crackdown against all opposition," the CPP said.

It added that "Duterte is merely using the CPP-NPA as scapegoat to justify the imposition of draconian measures against various forces who stand against his strongman rule."

"The regime is now in survival mode. It is now primarily concerned with staving off and suppressing all opposition amid the rising clamor for Duterte's ouster from power," it said.

Malacañang on Saturday hit back at the CPP-NPA, saying the statement is self-serving.

"[CPP founding chairman Jose Maria] Sison's statement is self-serving. Obviously he cannot say that the creation of the Task Force will weaken the NPA," Panelo said in a text message.

Panelo said it is the communist rebels who have failed in its struggle to overthrow the government.

"The fact of the matter is that it has not succeeded in fifty years overthrowing the government," the Presidential spokesperson said.

"It has only succeeded in alienating itself from the masses of our people by their atrocious assaults on hapless victims by their ambushes of soldiers, policemen and civilians alike, by their unlawful and forcible collection of revolutionary taxes and their destruction of the properties who fail to fail or refuse to give in," he added.

Duterte on Thursday ordered the Department of Justice to pursue the proscription case against the CPP-NPA-National Democratic Front as a terrorist organization.

The President also challenged Netherlands-based CPP founding chairman Jose Maria Sison to go back to the Philippines and wage his war in the country. 

Moreover, Duterte also criticized communists for believing in what Sison would always say, calling members of the NPA as fools. —KG, GMA News