NDF Negros strongly urges all revolutionary organizations and forces to heed the call of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) for emergency food production and other economic measures to be carried out in all revolutionary territories.

Along with the continuing mass campaign for public health regarding the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the revolutionary forces must ensure to support the economic needs of the masses. Enhance cooperative production of rice, corn, root crops, vegetables and other food sources to brace the masses for the inevitable economic repercussions brought about by the health crisis, not to mention the added burden of the shortsightedness and martial imposition of solutions by the Duterte regime.

Village revolutionary committees can mobilize their respective economic committees to assess and plan for the year. Production work must be top priority to cover the needs of their respective territories. The masses in their thousands should work together to meet the needs of both the cities and countryside. Landlords are also urged to allow free collective use and benefit of their land, and also to extend financial assistance and other forms of support. Units of the New People’s Army can help organize and mobilize collective production.

Reports of rampant militarization from the field prove that AFP/PNP troops violate their own ceasefire order. They are intervening and attacking the victories of the people garnered from their struggle for genuine land reform. Our peasants and farm workers in their greater numbers should defend their cooperatives and associations against the socio-economic sabotage of state troops.

As expected, the US-Duterte regime’s purely military solution without a mass-oriented orientation for testing and economic support generates dire consequences for the Filipino people. Unrest and ouster calls among the population, even from his former supporters, have become notable. The Filipino people must translate this agitation to demand for a pro-people response to address their health and socio-economic needs.

NDF Negros also supports the call of the CPP and other organizations for Duterte to hasten the release of public funds to augment the needs of the sectors most affected by the crisis, who comprise the majority of the impoverished masses: our farmers and farm workers, fisherfolk, the urban poor, and healthcare workers among others. ###