NPA ordered to launch offensives vs Balikatan

MANILA, Philippines - The Communist Party of the Philippines has ordered its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), to conduct tactical offensives in Bicol to "mock" the upcoming RP-US Balikatan joint exercises there. In a statement posd on its website, the CPP said no amount of US military support will help the "puppet" Arroyo regime's "counter-revolutionary" war. "NPA units in Bicol are specifically instructed to launch as many tactical offensives as they can in many areas of the region in mockery of the Balikatan exercises and to prevent the US military from strengthening its foothold in the region. NPA units should continue to intensify their tactical offensives against the puppet military forces nationwide," it said. The CPP said US support for the AFP's Oplan Bantay Laya has not made the puppet regime and Armed Forces of the Philippines any more successful in fighting the NPA. According to the CPP, government's Oplan Bantay Laya has turned out to be a failure as the "people's war" is "blazing forward, gathering strength, and winning more and more victories." CPP said the joint RP-US military exercises in Bicol this April signals heightening US military interventionism in the local civil war. "In doing so, the US seeks to pave the way for the future regular access of US troops in guerrilla fronts in the Bicol region where the NPA operates," it said. The CPP contested the claim by officials of the US military and the Arroyo government that the US forces joining the Balikatan exercises in Bicol will not meddle in the "anti-insurgency" campaign. It similarly contested claims that the participants in Balikatan will focus purely on humanitarian work, branding them "pure hogwash." "The US military does not carry out any operation or mission by any name without specific military objectives. Joint military exercises and "humanitarian missions" only serve as cover for US troops to gain access to the guerrilla fronts to carry out physical and social terrain mapping, conduct surveillance, recruit local agents and influence the local governments and social infrastructure," it said. CPP said retired General Edilberto Adan, head of the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement Commission, admitted that in conducting the forthcoming Balikatan exercises in the Bicol region, the US military has a specific objective of familiarizing its forces with guerrilla conditions and learning jungle combat operations in the area. Also, it said an advanced party of US and Philippine military officials have already begun last month their survey of the target areas, picked specifically for their conditions favorable to guerrilla warfare, mostly mountainuous jungle areas with wide access to sea waters. "Since 2001, the US military has been heightening its interventionism in the Philippines, taking advantage of joint military exercises and 'humanitarian missions.' The US military has kept its presence in the Philippines permanent by rotating troops and stationing them in secluded sections of AFP camps and facilities, and using these as bases for their interventionist operations," the CPP said. - GMANews.TV