The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) believes Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s red-tagging against the camp of presidential candidate Leni Robredo “is serving the tyrant Duterte’s scenario-building to justify the possibility of imposing martial law as a last resort option to secure power.”
Lacson, said Marco Valbuena, information officer of the CPP, “who surely is aware that he has no chances of winning, is using his campaign as platform to serve as Duterte’s attack dog against the Robredo camp.”
There is persistent talk that Duterte’s plans to create a scenario of “political chaos” to “blame the communists” in order to justify the imposition of emergency rule and carry out the mass arrests and crackdown against the broad democratic forces before or right after the elections, Valbuena said. “This scenario is set to be played when plans to steal the results of the May 2022 elections for the Marcos-Duterte tandem become untenable because of the overwhelming rejection of the people.”
The police arrests yesterday of peasant organizers in Cavite, a day after a congressman claimed that “NPA-trained” activists joined Robredo’s campaign rallies, are a veiled attempt to sow fear among campaigners and supporters of Robredo and other progressive candidates and parties, the CPP claimed.
Lacon claims of possessing “intelligence information” but can only cite the participation of national democratic organizations and parties in Robredo rallies as basis for his declared “fears” that a Robredo victory will lead to a “coalition with the communists,”. Valbuena said. “Lacson lost what little credibility he had when he referenced statements made by the NTF-Elcac’s consummate liar Jeffrey Celiz, who made himself known by falsely promoting himself as a former member of the NPA’s “national command.”
Lacson, the CPP said, “is a veteran of red-tagging against activists and oppositionists.” It added, “(Lacson) was also reported to be behind the Rizal Day bombing of 2000 to derail the mounting protests against the Estrada regime. He is a staunch supporter of the NTF-Elcac’s brutal war of suppression and principal author of the draconian “Anti-Terrorism Law.”
Valbuena believes, the Senator and presidential bet “has stepped up his attacks in the face of mounting support for Robredo as shown by the large mass demonstrations during a number of campaign sorties in different parts of the country.”
The CPP believes, “the Robredo-Pangilinan campaign is proving to be the most formidable electoral challenge to the ruling Duterte clique,” adding that “so far, it is Robredo’s campaign and rallies which have successfully brought together the broadest array of democratic forces. These are serving as a means of expression of the people’s pent up anger against corruption, foreign subservience, and tyranny of the Duterte regime, and plans to bring back the Marcoses to Malacañang through deceit and stealing the elections.”
Valbuena firmly said, “(for the record) neither the CPP nor the NDFP has forged any agreement with any of the political parties running in the May 2022 elections. Neither are the CPP or NDFP concerned with discussing a “coalition government” at this time.” He clarified that the “NDFP, together with various peace advocates, have only publicly expressed hopes that the people will support a candidate that will resume peace negotiations with the NDFP in order to discuss the socioeconomic and political roots of the current civil war.”
The CPP further claims that several presidential candidates, including Robredo and Lacson, have declared openness to “peace talks,” but it believes “this can only be “election talk”, as none have been explicit in declaring plans to resume the suspended peace negotiations with the NDFP and recognize all past agreements as basis for moving forward.”
