The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today said the two-year amnesty application of the Marcos government and its so-called National Amnesty Commission (NAC) is an epic failure, and nothing more but a hollow public spectacle. The NAC concluded its amnesty application period yesterday, March 13, claiming to have received thousands of applications from “former rebels and supporters” of the revolutionary movement.

“Marcos’ amnesty program failed to deceive the Party, the masses and their revolutionary forces,” said Marco L. Valbuena, the Party’s Chief Information Officer. He lambasted the NAC’s figures asserting that most of the supposed applicants were ordinary peasants and poor civilians deceived and coerced into surrendering and applying for amnesty.

Valbuena added that only a handful of “counterrevolutionary traitors,” who now serve as collaborators of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the National Task Force (NTF)-Elcac, took part in the program. “These renegade traitors are utterly despicable for accepting ‘amnesty’ from the fascists at the expense of betraying the national and democratic aspirations of the Filipino people and the memory of their martyrs,” he added.

Since Marcos’ issuance of Proclamation No. 404 in November 2023, the CPP has consistently rejected what it calls a fake and self-serving amnesty scheme. “The revolutionary movement remains determined to advance the armed struggle to end imperialist domination, tyranny, corruption, and oppression under the Marcos regime,” Valbuena affirmed.

He further noted that the government’s amnesty campaign, combined with its militarist approach, has failed to weaken the revolution’s resolve. “Genuine and lasting peace can only be achieved by addressing the roots of the armed conflict—widespread social injustice and the lack of genuine national sovereignty,” Valbuena stressed.

Valbuena also criticized the administration for turning the amnesty program into another source of corruption. The regime spent millions in public funds to establish so-called local amnesty boards. “In relation with this amnesty charade, hundreds of millions, if not a few billion pesos were allotted for unaudited “barangay development programs”, lining the pockets of bureaucrats and military officers,” he said.

“Marcos is mistaken in the belief that state terrorism can snuff out the people’s aspirations and kill their resistance,” Valbuena said. “Every day that military and police forces employ armed might, the more that people are roused to defend their rights and livelihood and driven to take up arms in resistance.”

He concluded that the amnesty program “ended up as nothing more than a useless piece of paper.”

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