Patricio Ramirez
Spokesperson
Partido ng Manggagawang Pilipino
In the wake of the assassination of Romulo Kintanar, there is speculation about parallelisms with the murder of Ka Popoy Lagman. Despite similarities in the mode of the assassination, one glaring difference stands out. Ka Popoy was “on active duty,” a leader of the revolutionary movement when he was assassinated. This is why his assassination was clearly political and aimed against the revolutionary movement. This is also why his death was such a major blow to the revolutionary movement.
In the light of conjecture about vengeance by the Communist Party of the Philippines on its former comrades, we reiterate our own party’s stand that political differences in our ranks, or even amongst former comrades in the struggle, are resolved through political struggle not military means.
The assassination of Kintanar is being used and intentionally manipulated to whip up anti-communist hysteria to discredit the entire progressive movement. The government is deliberately leaking to the media so-called intelligence reports that officials of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime, such as Roberto Tiglao, being on “the NPA hit list.”
This efforts dovetail with recent attempts to label progressive organizations as “terrorists,” as shown by the statement of the President referring to militant unionists who “terrorize the factories”. Such anti-communist hysteria conveniently feeds into the “war against terrorism” propaganda that is being used to attack democratic rights, as well as the progressive movement, in the guise of anti-terrorism bills that have been tabled in Congress.
We will oppose and expose any such manipulation of events, such as the assassination of Kintanar, for the purposes of justifying anti-progressive and anti-people political agendas.
Meanwhile terrorist acts carried out against genuine revolutionaries such as Ka Popoy remain unpunished. Two years later after the assassination of Ka Popoy, the reactionary state and its police-military apparatus has nothing to show in tracking down and apprehending his murderers. ###