NDF Panay June 12, 2015 Press Statement | Arriving from Japan, Benigno Simeon Aquino III (PNoy) will come to Iloilo on June 12 to celebrate the anniversary of General Aguinaldo’s premature declaration of independence from Spain some 117 years ago. PNoy crows as his achievement his facilitation of more Japanese monopoly capital to invest in the Philippines and the start the negotiation of a Visiting Forces Agreement with Japan to be able station itsnaval ship in Philippine port side by side with American and Australian ships and troops.
The ‘vin d’honneur’ or celebratory toasting for the occasion will be in the very city that still bears theseal proclaiming the ‘honor’ bestowed by the Spanish Colonial Government to the then Spanish colonial city. The seal was awarded to the city for its role in conscripting the Ilonggo colonial troopswho were deployed to Cavite to help suppress the Filipino uprising there against the Spanish colonial rule: La Muy Leal y Noble Ciudad de Iloilo—to the Most Loyal and Noble City of Iloilo to the Spanish crown.
But then the irony is beyond the comprehension of BS Aquino III, a.k.a. PNoy. For how can an American puppet President feel the imperial dog leash around its neck when he sees Filipino interest as similar(and thereby subservient) to those of the dominant American government. Pnoy inherited the presidency mainly thanks to the prestige of the anti-Marcos dictatorship prestige of his parents and as the favored candidate of the American government, but his puppetry was modeled after an earlier forebear—the original Benigno Aquino, his grandfather. Benigno Aquino Senior was the then puppet Speaker of the National Assembly of the Philippines set up by the Japanese invaders during World War II. He was arrested in Japan, where he fled with the defeated Japanese invaders, deported and jailed in a Philippine prison for treason where he died. The irony again was that he was prosecuted for being a traitor to the American colonial interest and not necessarily to that of the Filipinos’. Puppetry to foreign interests apparently is an Aquino dynastic streak of character as with most Philippine elite politics today.Like grandfather, like grandson.
We submit that true Philippine Independence has yet to be won. A country like the Philippines could only be truly independent if it has developed a comprehensively industrialized and self-reliant economy that is food secure having a developed agriculture stemming from genuine land reform and protective of its patrimony. A basic component of independence would be a united people led by nationalist leaders fully aware of its identity and national interest and willing to fight to secure and maintain its independence. To fight for and defend its independence it must rely on a strong armed force that derives its strength primarily from the people who are ready to do battle to preserve the country’s sovereignty, integrity and honor.
Even President Diosdado Macapagal was unsure that the ‘independence granted’ by the Americans onJuly 4, 1946 was genuine and so he had it transferred to June 12—the day independence from Spain was proclaimed by General Emilio Aguinaldo. But then we will never forget that American imperialism crushed the Filipino revolutionaries by cannon fire and rifles and drown the struggle for liberation in rivers of blood and colonized the country for fifty years. After 1946, with their loyal and willing surrogates like Pnoy, America has maintained its firm control of our economy, politics, military and culture. And many Filipinos are blinded to this because of America’s stranglehold of their minds.
Santa Barbara town, where Pnoy would be raising the flag of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines, bore witness to the armed struggle that Panayanons launched not only against the Spaniards but also against the American invaders. General Martin Delgado of Santa Barbara town ledthe Filipino revolutionaries against the Spanish and the Americans. But when defeated in combat, he surrendered and was coopted by the American occupiers to become Iloilo’s first puppet governor of the American colonial regime. He was installed by the Americans invaders at the very Casa Gobierno where the toasting to ‘independence’ of PNoy would be held. In the same manner were General Sevillano Aquino, the great-grandfather of Pnoy, General Emilio Aguinaldo and others were coopted by the Americans. And it was lucrative too. The Cojuangco family side of PNoy acquired Hacienda Luisita, some 10,000 hectares of Spanish Friar lands, via appropriation by the American colonial government and handed over to PNoy’s forebears on the mother side. And the legacy of political opportunism, patronage aka pork barrel, family dynasties, graft and corruption was passed from generation to generation of politicians until today. Even the parody of ‘independence’ have since been foisted by governments runby little brown Americans (and maybe Japanese too).
But we are not fooled! We accuse Benigno Simeon Aquino III and the Aquino regime of Treason on thefollowing grounds:
a. Advancing, imposing and enhancing the US imperialist plunderous policies of neo-liberalism, of globalization on the Philippines. By opening the country to foreign predatory capital and exploitation, the Aquino regime continued to allowed imperialist countries to syphon billions of dollars in superprofits from the country and looted the patrimony of the nation. In so doing it denied any chance for the country to comprehensively industrialize and develop its entire economy. And thus, consigning the majority of its people to misery.
Currently it is hosting, even here in Panay, the various conferences and summits of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to further open up and exploit the country and people of the underdeveloped nations of the Pacific Rim. China was spot on when it declared that the Pacific is large enough to accommodate the US and China (and no other countries were mentioned). The ASEAN FreeTrade Area treaty was allowed to go into effect by PNoy and an ASEAN Economic Community will be setup at the end of 2015. As a result of this, free trade in agriculture would drive the rice and sugar industry to bankruptcy because of cheap subsidized competition from abroad.
Such policies will further leave the country in more misery, poverty and being laid waste. It will forever consign the economy to a foreign investment, labor export-reliant oriented and mendicant state. As millions of Filipinos wallow in debt and want, the country could never stand on its own feet never mind independent. PNoy is behind his allies attempt to change the constitution (CHACHA) in order to allow foreign ownership of Filipino land, businesses, patrimony, media and the like. Even as foreign ownership of land is opposed by some 62% of Filipinos inspite of the brainwashing by colonial educators, economists and politicians.
b. Opening up the country to thousands of foreign troops and weapons of mass destruction, allowing America to utilize all military bases and civilian ports and airfields, all land access, sea and airspaces. This opens up the country to attacks by America’s enemies that are not our enemies. Because of the Mutual Defense Agreement and the latest variant, Enhance Defense Coordinating Agreement (EDCA), our people are again subject to military troop abuses, killings, rape and sexualexploitation, toxic waste disposal by American troops. Making the Philippines dependent on American arms since the 20th century has only weakened the country’s armed forces and render them inutile in the face of Chinese incursion. Ironically, for all its hemming and hawing, America would not go to war even if China continues to occupy such islets as America has more economic interest at stake in cooperating and dealing with China.
The US made sure that we would never imbibe the lesson exemplified by the People Liberation ArmedForce of Vietnam (a small nation) who fought for independence and won against the French, Japanese,American and Chinese occupiers and invaders. Instead, the US-oriented Armed Forces of the Philippinesdeploys almost all of its battalions and train its guns against the Filipinos, the NPA and Moro rebels andin defense of the Aquino regime and its foreign masters.
c. The Aquino regime, by propagating the culture of Filipino inferiority to imperialist dominance in all aspects of Filipino life in the guise of neo-liberalism, globalization, ‘independence’ with specialAmerican protection and ‘friendship,’ perpetuates the American Manifest Destiny to ‘civilize’ the Philippines like America’s Wild West. The Aquino regime instituted the K to 12 education program to better prepare the Filipino youth for export as laborers and abandoning any attempt at education to prepare the youth for national industrial and modern production. The Pilipino language studies were deleted from college courses; rendered as unnecessary to a foreign dominated, foreign investment led and export oriented (including labor) economy. Whatever Filipino cultural program retained included a bastardized ‘independence’ anniversary every year, tourist-oriented extravaganzas with token façade of native costumes/story lines and along religious rites even down to municipal and barangay levels.
The Aquino regime perpetuated a culture that renders the country unsure of its identity and susceptibleto foreign control and dominance.
d. The Philippine foreign policy as practiced is just an extension of America’s and other foreign influences on the country. It reflects the country’s assigned role in an imperialist globalized world where the US defines the Philippine semi-colonial niche. All neo-liberal treaties of free-trade and cooperation are subscribed to the detriment of the economy. Among its concern, is the exportation of its labor and ensuring that dollar earnings are increasingly remitted back home never mind if families are torn apart or OFWs are constantly subject to abuse. Filipino interest then is always subjected to foreign dominant scrutiny and only prevails if it does not contradict the later.
PNoy’s latest ‘achievement’ is to instigate a regional war over some islets and to encourage Japanese militarism with his VFA negotiations with Japan. The ultranationalist Prime Minister Abe of Japan hasalways sought ways to justify the revival of Japanese military (especially its oversea capability) which is prohibited by the Japanese constitution ever since the end of Japan’s rape and plunder of the whole Asia in World War II. And PNoy, as a historical amateur indeed, dared to provoke China who suffered much from Japanese aggression, never mind running roughshod over the sensitivities of Filipinos and other Asians to the barbarous Japanese war machine.
The Aquino Regimes puppetry and treasonous policies and actions is one major reason why the Aquino regime should be ousted from power. Along with this, the Filipinos should fight for genuine independence and national liberation. Specifically:
1. Oppose the imposition of neo-liberal APEC policies that subjects the country and further be robbed of its patrimony, its people squeezed dry for bigger superprofits by monopoly-capitalists of America,Japan, Europe and China. Oppose the hosting of the APEC in Panay and be party to our own roasting.Oppose the ‘inclusive’ thrust of APEC that claims to include the poor in the development schemes of APEC but is really meant to further privatize—subject the poor and middle income Filipinos to profit generating programs for big business. It would also cut off governmental social welfare programs for the disadvantage—health, education, disaster relief and rehabilitation. Expose the focus on disaster management while silent on the cause–the major industrialized countries are the ones generating extreme weather conditions with their unmitigated burning of coal and oil for energy. Expose the inclusion of Blue water economy as an attempt to further deplete the fish resources of the country.
2. Expose the EDCA as an attempt to legitimize an arrange between the Aquino regime to allow American troop intervention all over the country in the guise of combatting terrorism, or facing upto Chinese occupation of a few islets and in Western Philippines. Expose the armed force of a selfproclaimed independent country being an extension of the US Armed Forces or being the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) all over again. Do away with BALIKATAN—this time,pretending to prepare for disaster while intervening in a civil war between the AFP and the NPA as it has done recently in Tapaz and Jamindan town.
3. Define the Filipino culture devoid of foreign vested interest and in sinc with the fight for an independent country. Oppose the K to 12 and the elitist and commercial educational system.Propagate Filipino as the national language in all levels of educational and even in all official and social communication and activity. Develop a culture that unites the country against foreign domination and for genuine development of all Filipinos.We must persevere in the national democratic revolution to achieve national independence and liberation. This we owe to those who laid down their lives and offered their blood, sweat and limbs and did not bow to American arms like what General Teresa Magbanua, Apolinario Mabini and General Macario Sakay did. This we owe to later generations of revolutionaries, as we swear that they do not diein vain. And only then could Filipinos proclaim true independence. And only then can we build anindustrialized, prosperous country that we all have longed for.
