Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Dec. 7 statement from the Information Bureau, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

On Duterte’s Proclamation 374

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) strongly rejects Proclamation 374 issued by #1 terrorist Rodrigo Duterte declaring the CPP and the New People’s Army (NPA) as “terrorist organizations” on the basis that both groups are listed as “foreign terrorist organizations” in the US State Department. This declaration conveniently places his regime, particularly his main fascist machinery—the AFP—as a strong contender for increased military aid and weaponry under the US bloated budget for its “global war on terror.” By kowtowing to the US line of “counterterrorism,” Duterte is opening wide the door for increased US military intervention across the country, as he did in Marawi and Mindanao when he declared the now defunct Maute group as “terrorists.” Duterte’s shameless puppetry to his US imperialist masters is unbounded when it comes to furthering his own fascist ambitions.

Furthermore, the declaration not only targets the CPP and the NPA but more so persons and organizations that Duterte and his military cabal can designate at will as terrorists for “financing and aiding” the CPP and the NPA. This clearly targets the national democratic legal mass movement which he has repeatedly threatened with a crackdown for supposedly “conspiring” with the NPA.

Duterte will also be able to shakedown or extort from corporations and businesses by simply associating them with the NPA. He has already done so by threatening mining companies which he accuses of “aiding” the NPA by paying revolutionary taxes.