Office of the Central Committee
Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa-Pilipinas (RPMP)
January 30, 2003

Three key personalities of vital importance to the Stalinist communist movement in the country made their public statements on the killing of Romulo Kintanar by armed hit men last January that gave away the treacherous and murderous nature of the Stalinist CPP-NPA leadership.

Publicly known except by himself as the self-exiled chairman of the Stalinist CPP, Jose Maria Sison a.k.a. Armado Liwanag was quick to issue his immediate reaction of the murder as not the doing of the CPP. To some who may not be knowledgeable and inexperienced on the ways of Sison, this made him appear to have an ineffective control on the activities of the CPP-NPA in the country. This could even mean that he has no responsibility on the crime that has been officially acknowledged by the CPP’s spokesperson Gregorio Rosal. He might have learned his lessons from his public approval of the murder of the late Rep. Aguinaldo by the CPP-NPA which implicates his involvement in the crime.

Unfortunately for him, in his desperate attempt to eliminate any opposition and cower those who led the rejection of his directives contained in the document “Reaffirm Our Basic Principles…”, he led the CPP in deciding and publicizing the criminal responsibility and death penalty for these Central Committee members that included Romulo Kintanar. Jose Maria Sison has believed so much in his capacity to fool everyone as he has fooled the organization of the CPP into believing that he is a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist that can lead the party to victory in waging a revolutionary struggle in the country.

He is nothing but a professed leader who wants the power and final word in every decision of the organization he leads but doesn’t want any responsibility nor to suffer any hardships as consequence of the CPP-NPA’s conduct. He is only out to build his image as a “rebel leader” and enjoy all the benefits and privileges that come with it but not the difficulties of a rebel’s life. This been clearly proven by his insistence in continuing to live in comfort as one with political asylum in a very liberal foreign country while the bulk of the CPP-NPA live the difficult life of fugitives as “revolutionaries” with little support from the masses.

Gregorio Rosal remain to function as the spokesperson of the organization who enjoys to hear his voice and see his face splash in the media as he tries to effectively deliver the message of violence from the CPP-NPA. The official announcement of the CPP-NPA he made admitting the treacherous act against Romulo Kintanar as the way of exacting revolutionary justice meted by the “people” only serve to prove once more the self-serving distortions that the Stalinist CPP-NPA makes on revolutionary traditions established by the history of great revolutionary movements and the revolutionary masses. The CPP-NPA calls the treacherous murder as “revolutionary justice” because it categorizes itself as a “revolutionary” party when it has, in fact, defiled revolutionary principles with its Stalinist and dogmatic Maoist brand of ideology that has done so much harm to the people in imposing its authoritarian and dictatorial ways. Secondly, the murder is supposed to have been based on “crimes committed against the people” because it arrogates unto itself as the “people” because professing itself to be the “political party of the people” and Romulo Kintanar dared to criticize and expose the errors of this party’s leadership. The specific military actions undertaken which Gregorio Rosal had announced as examples of these “crimes” were, in fact, just a few of those viewed by the CPP-NPA as gains and successes of its policy of intensifying raising of funds for the revolutionary war effort by “expropriating the capitalists”. They were just a few of the countless and continuing acts of which Jose Maria Sison has the primary and command responsibility. The recent destruction of the Globe cell sites in its campaign to raise money is a glaring present-day proof of this policy.

Satur Ocampo whose stature as a party list representative is supposed to give him an opportunity to share the merits of plurality of ideas and debates rather than the Stalinist surgical method of annihilating the opposition has done nothing but try to defend the CPP-NPA of any blame and prematurely accuse the RPA-ABB of revenge. As former comrades who were both in the Central Committee of the CPP-NPA before, Satur and I know fully well that working for the political isolation of a conceived foe is but the prelude to physical elimination. It is a necessary step of minimizing and if possible avoiding any political repercussion in meting the death sentence on the concerned individual. In his media interview, he tried to free the CPP-NPA of any guilt of the murder by saying that the leadership’s decision was only to isolate Romulo Kintanar politically.

Worse, he went to the length of already putting the blame of any possible counter-action in revenge of the murder on the RPA-ABB. Satur Ocampo doesn’t seem convinced on the non-violent way of addressing, to quote him, ‘the weaknesses and policy failures of the government’ since he seemed very keen in criticizing the Peace Agreement between the government and the RPMP/RPA-ABB. By this, he has no business in continuing to hold office as a representative in congress and even to invoke the democratic rights of Bayan Muna members to march to the Edsa shrine last January 20.

We on our part in the RPMP/RPA-ABB cannot help but conclude that after all, Satur Ocampo is just using the democratic space to pursue the CPP-NPA tactics of using legal methods as a secondary means to serve the advancement of the main form of struggle in the countryside in waging the protracted people’s war. This could explain the fact that in many of its provincial operations we have observed Bayan Muna projects trying to win over the people in known areas of operations of NPA units.

Jose Maria Sison has already publicly rejected the draft of the government for a peace agreement between them prior to any formal exchange. After all he is not really just a consultant but the party dictator. This supposed peace talks between the CPP-NPA and the government has not prospered since it started before the CPP was split in 1986. The CPP’s stalling in the peace talks has to a certain degree benefited from the bad image that the Philippine government has with many countries because of its problems of economic mismanagement, corruption and bureaucratic red tape. It has some support from groups in these countries. However, with the conclusion of the Peace Agreement between the government and the RPMP/RPA-ABB that is open on the participation of church people, the real agenda of the CPP to bide time and gather strength for the armed overthrow of the government is getting more exposed.

It has been continuously leading its membership into blindly following the path of armed struggle when social conditions do not warrant it. This has already caused much unnecessary loss of lives and aggravated the sufferings of the poor, especially in the rural areas. Worse, the CPP-NPA leadership continues to deal with blind rage any critique or opposition to its errors.

We believe that the people and all other groups and individuals who sincerely desire social justice and have the interest of the oppressed and exploited working people at heart will never remain blind to the lies and machinations of false people’s leaders whose real intentions are but their narrow and self-serving interests. Neither will the cause for genuine peace and democracy be cowered by the call for more blood by the desperate and power-hungry Stalinist leadership of the CPP-NPA. Romulo Kintanar’s death from their murderous hands is and will remain a great tribute to the cause for real democracy and for just and lasting peace.