BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – The underground Communist Party here is open to alliances even with its so-called class enemies and traditional political parties to contribute to national efforts to oust what it had earlier called as the “two-sided traitor,” President Duterte.
Juanito Magbanua, spokesman of the New People’s Army Leonardo Panaligan Command, told DNX in an online interview that the issue over the non-renewal of the broadcast franchise of network giant ABS-CBN might even become a flashpoint for groups who want to oust Duterte who is midway into his six-year term.
The military had identified Magbanua earlier as a ranking cadre of the CPP’s regional executive committee once headed by former priest Ka Frank Fernandez who was captured summer last year along with his wife and also a ranking Communist cadre Cleofe Lagtapon.
Duterte, a populist mayor from the Mindanao city of Davao, ran and won the presidency without holding any national position.
He had come under fire lately over the non-renewal by a Congressional committee of ABS-CBN’s franchise, which critics said was a decision influenced by “personal gripes” against the station that Duterte claimed did not air his political ads during the campaign period for the 2016 polls.
At least 11,000 workers of the network across the country will lose their jobs as a result of the shutdown, activists and network officials said.
Magbanua said even so-called class enemies can become allies in the ouster movement against Duterte but it would be on a case by case basis, subject to talks and evaluations by the Party leaders.
