Catanduanes Forum

PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines
Teodoro-Puno: Twin fascists, twin puppets
September 17, 2009

"Twin fascists. Twin puppets." This was how the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) described the tandem of Defense Secretary Gilbert Teoodoro and Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, who yesterday were selected by the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD coalition party as its presidential and vice presidential candidates for the 2010 elections.
"For the ruling party to select the defense and interior secretaries to be its electoral bets speaks clearly of the priorities of the US-Arroyo regime, and that is to intensify the campaign of suppression against the people and do every possible means, including the imposition of martial law, in order to ensure the prolongation of Gloria Arroyo's rule of corruption, violence and deceit," said the CPP.
"These two Arroyo jackals have exhibited utter servility to US imperialism and are shameless advocates of its policy of fascist suppression against the organized resistance of the people," said the CPP.
"As defense secretary, Teodoro has been consistently inciting the military to wage total war against the Moro people and the revolutionary forces. Like his benefactor Eduardo 'Danding' Cojuangco, he is a fascist pitbull that has no qualms about unleashing the full force of the state against the people," added the CPP.
"Ronaldo Puno is the perfect fascist partner of the relatively neophyte Teodoro. Serving under the Marcos dictatorship's interior department, Puno pushed for the formation of the Barangay Tanod and schemed to arm them and transform them into his version of Hitler's Brownshirts who were used to suppress any resistance to the Nazi fascist regime," said the CPP. The CPP recalled that Puno had already set up a number of secret training camps in Tagaytay and elsewhere for the Marcos army but was eventually overtaken by the 1986 EDSA uprising.
"Since 2006, Puno has been advocating for the arming of barangay-based security forces in anticipation of the intensification of the people's resistance to the perpetuation of the Arroyo regime," added the CPP. "Colluding with other top military officials, Puno is responsible for the fascist rampage of its army of death squads that has liquidated close to a thousand peasants, workers, students, teachers, government employees, church people and other critics of the Arroyo regime."
"With Teodoro and Puno, the possibility of resolving the socio-economic roots of the civil war through peaceful negotiations is close to nil," added the CPP. "They are the very antithesis of peace negotiations."
The CPP noted that the selection of the ruling party's candidates comes right after Teodoro's meeting with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and CIA Director Leon Panetta as well as right-wing imperialist policy makers including the Heritage Foundation. "In those meetings, Teodoro presented himself as a worthy bootlicker of the US imperialists, praising the US military for its intervention in the Philippines, advocating for the continuation of the Visiting Forces Agreement and all other unequal treaties with the US and reaffirming support to the US global campaign of terror."
"Teodoro has assured the US that he is supportive of the perpetual presence of the US military in the Philippines, a throwback to the colonial days of US military bases," said the CPP.
"By selecting Teodoro and Puno, Gloria Arroyo is taking the calculated move that if she could not push the "charter change" scheme before the elections, a government under her lieutenant Teodoro will. Teodoro has already declared that among his first priorities will be to push for 'chacha,' apparently assuring Arroyo that once she succeeds in winning a parliamentary seat in Pampanga, she will be a shoo-in for the prime ministership, " added the CPP.
"As candidates of the ruling regime, they will surely benefit from the machinery of fraud which helped Arroyo control the results of the 2004 elections," said the CPP. But the Filipino people are sure to roundly reject them, as they correctly believe that they will serve only to perpetuate the corrupt and rotten rule of the isolated Arroyo regime," said the CPP.