File spoon-archives/marxism-general.archive/marxism-general_1997/marxism-general.9707, message 200


Date: Sat, 19 Jul 1997 10:11:26 -0400
From: Vladimir Bilenkin <achekhov-AT-unity.ncsu.edu>
Subject: M-G: Further Splits In Philippines Left


Further Splits In Philippines Left

By Sharon Pereira

     Rumours have been circulating for several months of a split
in the Manila-Rizal Regional Party Committee (MRRPC) of the
Communist Party of the Philippines. The split between the
underground and legal leaderships of the party has now been
confirmed, with both factions holding media conferences in recent
weeks to announce expulsions and make accusations against each
other.
     At a June 22 media conference in Manila, the underground
leadership of the MRRPC announced the expulsion of Filemon
"Popoy" Lagman from the regional party organisation.
     Lagman, the head of the MRRPC, has been working in the legal
mass organisations after being elected chairperson of a radical
workers' centre, Solidarity of Filipino Workers, in February
1996. The underground leadership announced that Lagman was to be
replaced by Elmer Jimenez, said to be Lagman's former deputy.
     According to a report in the June 23 Manila Times, Jimenez
said, "The former party secretary of the region had been expelled
>from the party organisation and is now disenfranchised from all
party functions".
     Nilo de la Cruz, the alleged head of the armed wing of the
CPP, the Alex Boncayao Brigade, has aligned himself with the
underground leadership. The ABB also announced a campaign of
punitive actions against child rapists occupying high government
positions.
     The underground leadership also claimed the mantle and
support of the Revolutionary Workers Party (RWP), which was set
up in an attempt to unite the non-Maoist forces in Manila and the
Visayas region. However, in a June 24 statement, the chairperson
of the provisional leadership of the RWP attacked the underground
leadership's statement as "grossly irresponsible and incorrect".
     The political basis of the split is still unclear. The
underground leadership has attacked Lagman's style of leadership
and blamed him for the "deteriorating state" of the organisation.
Lagman has been charged with attempting to "liquidate" the
underground party organisation. There has also been talk about
Lagman's "mishandling of funds".
     Replying to the charges of liquidationism in an interview in
the Filipino magazine Isyu, Lagman said the underground leaders
are "breaking away because they can no longer go along with the
total cleansing of our Sisonite [Maoist] heritage".
     Lagman accused the underground of "vanguardism". "Their
concept of the role of the vanguard party is to act as the
virtual centre of all activities; a party that controls and acts
as the secret conspirator and manipulator of mass organisations
and the mass movement."
     The Lagman faction has attacked the underground for
initiating the split, instead of arguing their case before the
proper party organs.
     It also criticised the ABB's military campaign, pointing to
a recent incident in which the vice-president of Philippine
Woolen Corporation was kidnapped when the union members were
about to conclude an agreement with the company. The incident is
said to have "nearly compromised their negotiations".
     The underground faction claims to have reconstituted itself
at a regional conference held on June 12. The Lagman faction's
response was to state that it is the party's "legitimate centre".
     Both factions claim that they have the support of the
majority of the membership and the allegiance of the mass
organisations.
     They also claim that the split will strengthen rather than
weaken the movement. According to Jimenez, it will "reinvigorate
the revolutionary movement". According to Lagman, it will
"cleanse" the movement of its Stalinist-Maoist heritage.
     Given the lack of political clarification through the debate
so far, however, this is more probably a split that has
unnecessarily fractured and weakened the revolutionary left in
the Philippines.

(Source: Green Left Weekly #281 - July 16, 1997)


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