The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper
Duterte branded ‘tyrannical’ ruler
DAVAO CITY – Tyrannical ruler! That’s what communist rebels branded President Rodrigo Duterte as the New People’s Army – which is fighting for a separate rule in the Philippines – urged the public to unite with the billowing wave of resistance against tyranny.
Rubi del Mundo, a rebel spokesman, said extra-judicial killings by state forces continue in the country with more than 8,000 people dead in Duterte’s anti-drug war. He said more than a dozen mostly natives or indigenous people were also murdered in the southern region of Mindanao and the killings still continue relentlessly.
“Four months into its implementation, the evils of martial law declared by the President Rodrigo Duterte, are pushing the masses in the region to fight in the face of escalating toll of human rights violations perpetrated by the Armed Forces and the police, and paramilitary forces,” he said, adding, in Southern Mindanao alone since May, security forces had committed at least 68 cases of human rights violations against peasants, Lumad, Moro and other sectors. Sixteen civilians were victims of extra-judicial killings for either being a Lumad, a peasant or actively opposing the anti-people policies of the reactionary government.
Del Mundo said Duterte’s atrocious war on drugs has claimed lives of poor Filipinos while the rich and powerful drug syndicates continue to escape his selective justice, save for a few of his political opponents.
“He continues to mock the millions of victims of this dark past—thousands of whom were from Davao City and around Southern Mindanao—by frequently declaring that Marcos’ martial law was very good and conspiring to reestablish the Marcos clan in position and strengthen their hold in national politics,” Del Mundo said.
He said the NPA has steadily recruited members in the South and vowed to continue offensive operations against security and government targets. “Democratic struggle and armed revolution flourished during the 14 years of Marcosian martial rule. Duterte’s copycat dictatorial rule will trigger the massive recruitment of young idealistic peasants, workers and petty-bourgeois into the NPA and the underground revolutionary movement and fight the hated regime,” he said.
There was no immediate statement either from the military or police or Duterte on Del Mundo’s claims.