Cast in the same mold


The Marcoses and Dutertes are guilty of the same crimes against the Filipino people.

They are bureaucrat capitalists who, for the longest time, amassed wealth through their political positions as they rule the country like a family corporation. They only know how to serve their imperialist masters and the ruling classes to which they belong. They wallow in crime and corruption and their bureaucrat capitalist greed is insatiable. They both carry out political repression and fascist suppression using the military and police against those who get in their way and those who organize and fight for their rights. They embody the rottenness of the ruling system. Marcos and Duterte are cast in the same mold.

That Marcos Jr and Sara Duterte are at swords’ point is not only because they want the biggest share of the bureaucratic loot for their own but it is also about who wields power the longest. It shows the factional splits within the ruling classes, reflective of the crisis of the ruling system. Whoever gets the upper hand will not change the suffering of the majority of the Filipino people. Currently, the Marcos Jr regime remains the face of bureaucrat capitalism, fascism, and the semicolonial, semifeudal state.

These contradictions will be at play in the coming 2025 midterm elections and in the 2028 Presidential elections.

At present, Marcos Jr is definitely on a higher ground especially because Duterte’s crimes are highlighted. And, until Marcos Jr’s major mistake or scandalous action or deal committed is exposed, it will remain so. Aside from the billions of plundered funds to back up their electoral campaign super-spending, the Marcos camp has, comparatively, more reserve presidential aspirants e.g. Martin Romualdez or his sister Imee than the Dutertes’ have. Except for the Dutertes, there is no prominent personality yet in the gravely weakened traditional political opposition for their presidential candidate in 2028. More importantly, Marcos has ensconced himself as veritable US imperialism’s puppet-partner, compared to Sara’s undetermined status in the eyes of US imperialists as their prospective puppet-partner. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) noted that as early as now, “the US imperialists are busy preparing their reserve horses of political groupings composed of former military officers and anticommunist groups, that are using the slogan of ‘clean governance’ with the view of replacing the Marcos clique in 2028.”

This situation spells the continuing hopelessness of the existing electoral system dominated by political dynasties, the bureaucrat capitalists, the landlords and big comprador bourgeoisie who only look at their own interests and that of their capitalist masters.

The current rotten system holds no future for the masses. The electoral system is not the solution to attain palpable changes in governance that would pave the way for the long-awaited tangible and sustained improvement in the people’s lives, now and in the near future.

Hence, the people’s hope can only come from their unity, to muster their own strength to end hunger and poverty, resist exploitation and fascist repression, and support unrelentingly, in whatever ways they can find and create the revolutionary movement’s sustained pursuance of victory—through armed struggle, to seize political power, and to establish the people’s democratic government.