CPP sympathizes with typhoon victims, mobilizes forces for relief work
June 24, 2008
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today expressed sympathy and concern for the hundreds of thousands of victims of typhoon “Frank” and called on all revolutionary forces to carry out all possible efforts to extend relief and assistance in the rehabilitation of those physically and economically devastated and dislocated by the typhoon.
Among the victims of the recent typhoon are more than 700 passengers of the sunken MV Princess of the Stars, most of whom are feared dead, as well more than 160 dead and more missing in Iloilo province and hundreds of thousands of others ruined and displaced in the Visayas, Bicol region, Southern Tagalog, Central Luzon and Metro Manila. In Iloilo province alone, landslides and mudflows have resulted in widespread havoc and dislocation of hundreds of thousands in more than 430 barangays.
The CPP pointed out that the great majority of victims are peasants, fisherfolk and the “common tao” rendered vulnerable to destruction wrought by typhoons and other calamities due to their impoverished living conditions, the government’s long-standing negligence and callousness, and total disregard for environmental safeguards.
The CPP said further that decades of rampant big-scale commercial mining and logging and the recent rush to strip forests and replace them with hybrid corn plantations have resulted in extensive river siltation and vulnerabity to flooding of wide swaths of Western Visayas. “We hold the Arroyo regime accountable for its principal role in the destruction of the environment as a result of the wanton violation of the national patrimony, disregard of national food security, and abuse of the country’s natural resources,” said the CPP.
“As chief advocate and implementor of the imperialist `globalization’ policy in the country, Gloria Arroyo has been promoting unbridled mining and logging and the widespread conversion of agricultural and forested lands to commercial production for export in the Visayas and other areas of the country at the expense of food sovereignty and self-reliance, environmental protection and the nation’s patrimony,” the CPP stressed.
The CPP also held the Arroyo government and the owners of Sulpicio Lines particularly responsible for last Saturday’s sea tragedy. The safety and welfare of sea travellers was of least concern to the government’s maritime regulatory bodies and the big comprador owners of the shipping line.
The CPP called on all its forces, including Red fighters of the New People’s Army (NPA) as well as revolutionary activists and members of mass organizations and sympathizers to extend any and all possible assistance within their means and capability to help the victims of the recent typhoon.
NPA fighters in typhoon-stricken areas, particularly in the most adversely affected areas in Iloilo and Eastern Samar will be on defensive mode as they carry out rescue, relief and rehabilitation work. The CPP warned AFP troops as well as American forces against using “relief work” as a pretext to trespass into guerrilla zones and revolutionary base areas to carry out offensive military operations against the NPA and the revolutionary masses.