By FRANK FERNANDEZ
Spokesperson, NDFP – Negros
The call of Gov Alfredo Marañon Jr for the NPA to unite with the government is a call for surrender of the revolutionary forces and for it to abandon the revolutionary cause of the people and become slaves under the domination of US imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. This call will become humorous in the event that the determination of the Party, the Red Army and the masses become steadfast in realizing the attainment of the strategic stalemate stage of the peoples' war in the next 5 years.
Being one of the big and despotic ruling comprador-landlord in Negros, the governor will only mislead the people on his "war on the problem of poverty" thru his "Negros First-Priority Development Agenda" to cover up the problem of "poverty" of the masses of the working class and the whole economic crisis of the country which is rooted in the feudal and monopoly of the landlord class of the wide landholdings and the absence of nationalist industrialization in the Philippines which is dominated by US imperialism.
If Marañon is determined in solving the problem of poverty and hunger of the masses, NDF Negros is challenging him to show some signs. One, he implements real land reform by distributing for free to the peasants the land owned and leased by the Marañon-Javelosa-Sarosa in Sagay City, the land of Eduardo Cojuangco Jr under the fake reform of ECJ corporative scheme, land owned by the Arroyos in Isabela and Binalbagan and other land assets of big landlords. Besides this, he must prosecute and jail the haciendero-landlords who do not pay the minimum wage of P233/day for plantation workers and P223/day for non-plantation, wherein according to the survey conducted by his brother the late Governor Joseph Marañon manifested that 50% of the sugar planters in the province do not pay the minimum wage. He must also demand on the Congress of the Philippines for a P125 wage increase that has long been demanded by the workers.
The TRUTH is, Gov Marañon does not want a revolutionary armed force existing that will disturb and threaten the ruling social system in the country ruled by the local exploiting classes of big bourgeisie compradors, landlords and US imperialism. For a personal reason, he does not want a Red Army that will frustrate his plans for consolidation and expansion of his economic and political power not just in the first district but in the whole province by using his position as the highest local official.
Marañon 's long record in different positions in the reactionary government as councelor, vice-mayor, mayor of Sagay City, assemblyman and congressman of the first district is more than enough to prove on who's interests he is serving. This also proves that he uses the different positions in government to serve his personal interests while the masses go hungry, landless and receive very low wages even in areas of Sagay City which is the capital of the feudal reign of the Marañon-Javelosa-Sarosa dynasty.
Whatever is the record of the program of government of Marañon in the past, surely it is also the showcase of his much publicized "Negros First". Essentially, the "First" in his program is not the people but the carting of public funds and the use of his power in expanding his agri-business interests in the production of meat, sugar and eco-tourism in the province. His showcase projects of food security and optimum health care program for the people will remain an illusion because of the denial of land reform to the peasants, absence of nationalist industrialization and the existence of a social system where government is operated by bureaucrat officials as their private business in order to accumulate big profits illegaly and legally.
If there is no revolutionary Army of the people, the people will never win in their righteous struggle for land reform and other basic demands against the exploitative and oppresive classes who maintain a mercenary Phil Army, PNP and para-military. Because of the NPA, the people was able to gain revolutionary victories in the economic, political, defense and basic social services in more than 40 years of armed revolutionary struggle and on the final victory of the new national democratic revolution.