Amid hostage crisis in Mindanao; KMU calls for increased vigilance, intensified actions vs martial law

The Kilusang Mayo Uno strongly condemns the recent hostage-taking
in Agusan del Sur and demands the immediate release of the remaining hostages .
More so, KMU calls on the Filipino workers and people to increase vigilance
towards, and intensify actions against, all possible moves of the US-Arroyo
regime to expand the martial law in Maguindanao to other areas or the entire
country.

Whoever is directly responsible for the hostage-taking, as well as the reported
ambush of military troops in Sharif Aguak town in Maguindanao, one thing is
clear: the window of opportunity for Mrs. Arroyo to impose martial law on
Mindanao and the entire country is widening. The Arroyo administration can easily
use any incident of violence to its end by imposing greater political control
to perpetuate itself in power and to escape prosecution for its many crimes to
the people.  

As the people increasingly believe that Mrs. Arroyo and her cohorts are the
ones directly responsible for these acts, it is also becoming clear how her
regime is responsible for these by way of laying the grounds for their
occurance. For the past nine years, her regime has nurtured a culture of
impunity, militarism and violence in the country by launching a war against its
people. It has encouraged the proliferation of private armies of local warlords
under its campaign to weed out national liberation forces, especially the New
People’s Army and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Essentially, it has
produced the beasts which executed the most brutal massacre in recent years.

Now, the regime wants to advance its own interests on the basis of the evil it
has sown in the country, which shows us just how power-hungry this regime is.  But Gloria Arroyo should be warned: the people
are capable of mounting an uprising that will abort all her vicious plans. #