DAVAO CITY , Philippines – As the Communist Party of the Philippines denounced the recent resurrection of trumped-up cases against former congressional representatives of the Makabayan bloc, the group also warned the people of more rights abuses under the partnership of President Rodrigo Duterte and House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“This is a pointed attack against the broad democratic forces resisting Duterte’s tyrannical rule and moves to establish a dictatorship. It is a portent of a more general crackdown following successive arrests and detention against activists and human rights workers across the country,” the CPP said in a statement it issued on Sunday, July 29.
Arrest warrants were issued in Nueva Ecija last week against former Makabayan representatives Satur Ocampo, Teddy Casiño, former Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano and National Anti-Poverty Commission Secretary Liza Maza over murder charges filed over a decade ago by the Arroyo regime.
The CPP pointed out that the legal attack against them was mounted a few days after Arroyo’s power grab in the Lower House during the 3rd State of the Nation Address of Duterte.
The group said “fascist abuses and attacks” against the democratic forces are set to worsen now that Arroyo is in power.
The CPP recalled during Arroyo time, she formed the IALAG or the Inter-Agency Legal Advisory Group in 2006 and used government funds “to churn out trumped up criminal charges against progressive forces in a desperate effort to tie down their resources and suppress their resistance against Arroyo’s corruption, election cheating, and fascist crimes”.
The same work of IALAG was also revived last year by Duterte under the IACLA or the Inter-Agency Committee on Legal Action, the CPP said.
“Human rights groups have documented a total of 1,206 victims of political killings, 206 victims of enforced disappearances, over 2,000 cases of illegal arrests, and thousands of forced evacuation under Arroyo’s nine-year rule. In just over two years, Duterte’s human rights record has surpassed Arroyo’s in terms of extrajudicial killings in the drug war. With Arroyo by his side, the attacks against the progressive and democratic forces are set to further intensify,” the CPP reported.
The group also warmed all progressive and revolutionary forces to brace for the expected escalation of attacks.
The CPP also called on the Filipino people to unite and intensify the fight to end the increasingly oppressive regime. (davaotoday.com)
