With boastful victory declarations in 2023, the Armed Forces of the Philippines Visayas Command (AFP-VISCOM) inadvertently admits that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People’s Army (NPA), and the entire revolutionary movement on Negros Island and the rest of the Visayas remain undefeated.
According to VISCOM’s fake news factory chief, Lt. Gen. Benedict Arevalo, in 2023 they initiated 82 encounters in Central and Western Visayas, but in reality these are mostly fake encounters aimed at justifying their crimes, including the brutal murder of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Rogelio Posadas and cold-blooded killings of peasant families. Along with this, Arevalo boasted of clearing communities and dismantling organizations which meant de facto martial law in the countrysides.
However, Arevalo could not hide the truth of the failure of his leadership and tried hard to sugarcoat their frustration by claiming that “there is still much to be done” and that “focused military operations will continue…as long as there are still unresolved issues, the threat of resurgence will remain.”
In fact, the other side of maintaining costly military operations purportedly to quash the NPA is that this is a source of military corruption. The AFP will lose a huge milking cow, not to mention endure utter humiliation, if they declare “total victory” over the NPA.
As the AFP is pressured into becoming cannon fodders for the increasing threat of an inter-imperialist war on Philippine shores, it is to be expected that Arevalo will continue shoving similar hallucinations. And yet, their unspeakable crimes against the people, under superficial terms of “internal security operations” and the like, will continue to wreak state terrorism. Unwittingly, however, this will only make the people’s war persevere. While the socioeconomic crisis continues to worsen day by day, the people will fight. Crisis generates resistance, and oppression fuels the revolution.
