By Jose Maria Sison
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
December 25, 2018

Having become a tyrant and a shameless instigator of mass murder and other grave human rights violations, Duterte is the abominable No. 1 violator of human rights and is the precise target of the Filipino people’s exercise of their sovereign right to free themselves from tyranny and to undertake all necessary actions to oust him from his position.

Duterte and his followers seem to have forgotten that he received only 39% of the vote in the elections of 2016 and that the 61% that did not vote for him was the overwhelming majority. Despite the weakness and vulnerability of his position, Duterte has become a tyrant escalating the oppression and exploitation of the people.

He has brazenly used his armed minions to commit mass murders and other human rights violations. He has arrogantly pushed his scheme of fascist dictatorship through charter change for a bogus federalism. He has imposed an intolerable tax burden on the people and has caused the prices of basic goods and services to soar. He has treasonously sold out the sovereign rights and national patrimony of the people.

In an attempt to confuse the situation, Duterte and his apologists claim that a political refugee like me and political consultant of the NDFP has the unenviable role of tyrant that Duterte is playing. In fact, they insinuate that the victims– the aggrieved people, the legal opposition forces and the armed revolutionary movement– are the violators of human rights for fighting and seeking to oust the tyrant.

As a co-belligerent in the ongoing civil war in the Philippines, the people’s democratic government (PDG), which is led by the Communist Party of the Philippines, secured by the New People’s Army and supported by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines has vowed to follow and enforce the International Bill of Rights, the International Humanitarian Law and the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).

The people’s democratic government (PDG) should welcome the expressed demand of the reactionary Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) that the PDG respects human rights. In this connection, GRP should present formally its complaints to the PDG directly or through the Joint Monitoring Committee established under CARHRIHL. The GRP and NDFP negotiating panels previously submitted their respective complaints to said committee under CARHRIHL.###