Statement by the Communist Party of the Philippines
March 25, 2005
Akbayan officer Walden Bello’s statement of December 15, 2004 that Red-baited various Philippine anti-globalization organizations dovetails the series of political assassinations against leaders and members of progressive and democratic organizations in the past three months.
Since Bello tagged organizations such as Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Ibon Foundation, Migrante and the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) as “associated or working closely with the CPP,” at least 27 leaders, members and allies of these organizations have become victims of political assassination.
By Red-baiting these organizations, Bello has assisted the Arroyo regime’s fascist minions in its campaign to vilify Philippine mass-based movements against imperialist globalization in order to set them up as targets of the regime’s campaign of political suppression and assassination, using the distorted logic of the US-Arroyo regime’s doctrine of “anti-terrorism”.
Bello moreover does the Arroyo regime a big service by drawing away attention from escalating state terrorism. He harps on his inclusion in an imaginary “CPP hit-list”, yet remains conspicuously silent over the series of political assassinations and violent attacks against the mass-based anti-globalization organizations of workers, peasants and other progressive sectors.
It is the height of hypocrisy for Bello to continue portraying himself as a stalwart of the anti-globalization movement when he has in fact knowingly provided moral and political support to the AFP’s campaign of attacking organizations that are at the forefront of the Filipino people’s struggles against imperialist globalization.
The CPP calls on the international movement against imperialist globalization to condemn the Arroyo regime for the recent political assassinations which principally target organizations that stand against the regime’s deleterious pro-globalization policies.
The CPP likewise calls on the international anti-globalization community to guard against Walden Bello and oppose his campaign against the anti-imperialist forces in the Philippines.