Communist Party of the Philippines responds to Special Rapporteur’s report

The Communist Party of the Philippines has issued a statement on the Special Rapporteur’s report:

CPP spokesperson Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal said the Alston report thoroughly exposes all the lies, subterfuges and fascist policies and atrocities of the Arroyo regime and its security and defense agencies and officials. “The Alston report has helped significantly in pinpointing the standing fascist policy and designs of the Arroyo regime as the motivating factor behind the spate of extrajudicial killings perpetrated by the government armed forces. The Arroyo regime’s all-out war against the revolutionary forces and its fascist and antipeople counterinsurgency policy and campaign have resulted in the widespread trampling of the people’s democratic and human rights.”

Rosal expressed confidence that the Alston report will help draw more attention to the dire human rights situation and intensifying fascism in the Philippines under the Arroyo government and help embolden the Filipino people in defending their rights and opposing the present regime and its security and military forces’ campaign of fascist violence.

“At the same time,” Rosal said that “there remains a pressing need to expose and underscore the several thousand other cases of military abuses victimizing hundreds of thousands of people, including the forced evacuations of peasant communities, food and economic blockades, aerial bombings and strafings, arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions, torture and harassment perpetrated by the armed forces in the course of its operations in the countryside and in urban poor areas.”

Rosal also took note of the concerns raised by Professor Alston regarding the revolutionary judicial system and the promulgations by people’s courts against those found guilty of grave criminal and counterrevolutionary offenses.

Rosal asserted that “While the revolutionary movement and its governmental and judicial bodies make judgments and takes action against criminal and counterrevolutionary offenses outside the framework of the existing reactionary state and justice system, these judgments and actions are based on an autonomous revolutionary political and justice system that has its own integrity and at the same time is synchronized with international law and conventions, and thus are not at all ‘extrajudicial’.”

The CPP spokesperson said, at the same time, that “While the existing revolutionary government and justice system is basically formed and already applied in practice, it is still young, full of vibrance and in the process of developing alongside the growth in expanse and advance of the people’s war, and is thus wide open to further systematization and much improvement.”

Rosal said that he will send Professor Alston a copy of relevant documents regarding the revolutionary movement’s governmental and judicial system, including the “Guide for the establishment of a People’s Democratic Government,” “The People’s Court” and relevant primers that are being studied by all Party members, Red fighters of the New People’s Army (NPA), officials of revolutionary government bodies, members of revolutionary people’s courts, officials and members of revolutionary mass organizations.

Rosal also assured the UNHRC Special Rapporteur that the CPP and the revolutionary forces and all those active in the formation and administration of the revolutionary government and justice system also continue to study relevant documents of international humanitarian law including relevant Geneva conventions and protocols. “The entire revolutionary movement under the leadership of the CPP strives to strictly abide by international humanitarian law, as well as its own rules and revolutionary ethics, as it carries forward the people’s war and advances its own revolutionary governmental and justice system.”