Comrade Marcel
22nd July 2003, 21:32
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines
Press Release
July 20, 2003 http://www.philippinerevolution.org/
CPP sympathizes with AFP ordinary soldiers' and junior officer's
grievances.
The Communist Party of the Philippines today expressed sympathy
with ordinary soldiers and junior officers of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines with grievances against the military leadership and
Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes in particular, and urged them to spurn
the AFP and embrace the example of the late Lt. Crispin Tagamolila.
Tagamolila, a revolutionary martyr, was a Philippine Military Academy
graduate who joined the New People’s Army in the early 1970s.
In a statement, CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal
said that the CPP has long been aware of grievances from the AFP’s
rank-and-file because many ordinary soldiers and policemen have
approached the revolutionary movement for advice on how they could
defend their rights and welfare.
Rosal said that the grievances reveal how "rotten, corrupt,
undemocratic and antipeople" the military organization is. It is
especially revealing how AFP generals and the DND leadership not only
wallow in large salaries, luxuries and special privileges such as
mansions, but also accumulate so much wealth from corruption as well
as illegal drugs, kidnapping for ransom, bank holdups and other
criminal activities, added Rosal. He also cited cases of
misappropriation of soldier's funds and kickbacks from purchase
contracts.
"These top officials of the AFP and DND do not have an iota of
sympathy for their junior officers and common soldiers," Rosal
said. "They use them as cannon fodder for the military's
campaigns of suppression in both countryside and city."
Rosal said that the soldiers’ measly pay is not worth dying for.
“Their deaths are made even more worthless because they are defending
a system that oppresses and exploits workers and peasants, the same
classes which they also came from." He called on junior officers
and ordinary soldiers not only to fight for their welfare against
oppression from their generals, but to "uphold the Filipino
people's patriotic and democratic aspirations."
"We urge them to turn their backs on the reactionary, rotten
and losing course of the AFP, uphold the tradition of the Lt. Crispin
Tagamolila Movement and join and support the revolutionary movement
that serves the masses and marches on the road of people’s
liberation," said Rosal. ###
(Edited by Comrade Marcel at 9:33 pm on July 22, 2003)
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines
Press Release
July 20, 2003 http://www.philippinerevolution.org/
CPP sympathizes with AFP ordinary soldiers' and junior officer's
grievances.
The Communist Party of the Philippines today expressed sympathy
with ordinary soldiers and junior officers of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines with grievances against the military leadership and
Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes in particular, and urged them to spurn
the AFP and embrace the example of the late Lt. Crispin Tagamolila.
Tagamolila, a revolutionary martyr, was a Philippine Military Academy
graduate who joined the New People’s Army in the early 1970s.
In a statement, CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal
said that the CPP has long been aware of grievances from the AFP’s
rank-and-file because many ordinary soldiers and policemen have
approached the revolutionary movement for advice on how they could
defend their rights and welfare.
Rosal said that the grievances reveal how "rotten, corrupt,
undemocratic and antipeople" the military organization is. It is
especially revealing how AFP generals and the DND leadership not only
wallow in large salaries, luxuries and special privileges such as
mansions, but also accumulate so much wealth from corruption as well
as illegal drugs, kidnapping for ransom, bank holdups and other
criminal activities, added Rosal. He also cited cases of
misappropriation of soldier's funds and kickbacks from purchase
contracts.
"These top officials of the AFP and DND do not have an iota of
sympathy for their junior officers and common soldiers," Rosal
said. "They use them as cannon fodder for the military's
campaigns of suppression in both countryside and city."
Rosal said that the soldiers’ measly pay is not worth dying for.
“Their deaths are made even more worthless because they are defending
a system that oppresses and exploits workers and peasants, the same
classes which they also came from." He called on junior officers
and ordinary soldiers not only to fight for their welfare against
oppression from their generals, but to "uphold the Filipino
people's patriotic and democratic aspirations."
"We urge them to turn their backs on the reactionary, rotten
and losing course of the AFP, uphold the tradition of the Lt. Crispin
Tagamolila Movement and join and support the revolutionary movement
that serves the masses and marches on the road of people’s
liberation," said Rosal. ###
(Edited by Comrade Marcel at 9:33 pm on July 22, 2003)