By BENJIE VILLA

WHAT really pushed Washington to declare the country’s mainstream Maoist movement as a "foreign terrorist organization" or FTO? Why has the White House not included its armed breakaway factions, such as the Visayas-based Proletarian Revolutionary Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB) and the Central Luzon-based Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan (RHB, or People’s Revolutionary Army)?

Perusing over recent statements of leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its political wing, the National Democratic Front (NDF), particularly that of CPP leaders Jose Ma. Sison and Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, and NDF chieftains Luis Jalandoni and Fidel Agcaoili, they all point to one gist: that the Philippines is a strategic country located in Southeast Asia, which the US badly needs by way of establishing "permanent" military presence in order to maintain its hegemony in the region.

With the September 11 terrorist attacks on US soil, the White House allegedly saw an opportunity to pursue this supposed objective by using as a "pretext" the Philippine government’s failure to decimate the bandit group, Abu Sayyaf, which has been similarly labeled as a foreign terrorist group that has reported links with the al-Qaeda terror network of Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden.

But to the communist leaders, crushing the Abu Sayyaf through the just-concluded Balikatan 02-1 maneuvers was just another "pretext" to further the another alleged US objective: that of eliminating the CPP-NDF and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), which are supposed threats the American military presence in the country.

Thus, early this August, US Secretary of State Colin Powell finally declared the CPP and the NPA as "foreign terrorist organizations." This was followed by a crackdown on alleged rebel assets and bank accounts abroad, particularly in The Netherlands, where Sison, Jalandoni, Agcaoili and around 30 other rebel leaders have been living in self-exile.

But why the international crackdown, which has practically equated the CPP-NPA-NDF with bin Laden’s al-Qaeda international terrorist network? Besides, the Philippine military has several times belittled the rebels’ strength as a spent force, and that the likelihood of a communist takeover at Malacañang appears to be a remote possibility, either now or in the near future.

WORLDWIDE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT

Recently, in what has been perceived as a move to counter Washington’s terrorist tag on the rebel movement and a crackdown on its leaders living abroad, an international coalition was established and called The Committee to Defend Filipino Progressives in Europe.

But there is more than what meets the eye in the kind of international support that the CPP-NPA-NDF leaders have been receiving.

In a recent interview with the Turkish newspaper, Umut Yayimcilik, Sison either wittingly or unwittingly disclosed what the CPP-NPA-NDF has become in the international community.

He said: "The Maoists have assumed the duty of rebuilding the international communist movement, strengthening the broad anti-imperialist movement and waging protracted people’s war wherever possible, especially in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the retrogressive countries betrayed by revisionists."

The worldwide communist movement has weakened since the late 1980s and early 1990s with the crumbling of the United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). The "revisionists" referred to by Sison were apparently those responsible for the deterioration of the communist international or ComIntern after they supposedly deviated from the teachings of Marx, Lenin and Mao Tsetung.

The CPP-NPA-NDF is basically a Maoist movement because it embraces the Mao’s idea of "protracted people’s war."

ILPS

Sison further hinted that the "rebuilding" of the global communist movement had a "fresh advance" with the establishment of a "broad anti-imperialist solidarity" through the formation of the International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS) at the turn of the new millenium.

Elected as chairman of the ILPS’ international coordinating group was Bayan Muna sectoral Rep. Crispin Beltran, who is more popularly known for having led the radical Philippine labor group, Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).

Sison, who founded the CPP in 1968 and acts as the NDF’s chief political consultant, was designated as consultant of the ILPS. He also chairs the international initiative committee of the ILPS.

The ILPS has drawn into its fold around 200 progressive and left-leaning organizations from 38 countries around the world, namely Afghanistan, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Brazil, Burma, Burma.

Canada, Congo, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong in China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy.

Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Scotland, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey and the US.

As the ILPS is basically led and composed by those who believe in the combined teachings of Marx, Lenin and Mao Tsetung, for which they are being collectively called as Maoists, Sison boasted: "The Maoists have the most comprehensive grasp of the past, present and future of the world proletarian revolution."

"They understand the principles and methods of revolution," he added. "They therefore have the confidence in moving forward in the revolution."

The ILPS regards the US as the world’s number one "imperialist" country that has perpetuated "intensifying exploitation and oppression unleashed by free market globalization (under) the new world disorder."

Apparently, this international clout established by Philippine mainstream communist and aboveground leftist leaders was the very reason why the US has equated the CPP-NPA-NDF with bin Laden’s al-Qaeda.