Communist Party of the Philippines
With the reactionary elections coming to a close, it now appears that the Philippine neocolonial state will be headed next by Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III.
Once Aquino assumes power on 30 June, the Filipino people are intent on immediately confronting his presidency with the most pressing issues arising from the basic political and socio-economic problems they have been suffering under the prevailing rotten semi-colonial and semifeudal system.
The Number One immediate demand of the Filipino people is the prosecution and punishment of Gloria Arroyo and her ilk for all the crimes they have committed while in power.
They demand justice for numerous crimes of plunder including the ZTE national broadband network deal, the IMPSA deal, the Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard scam, the Fertilizer Fund scam, the Swine Fund scam, and several other cases of gross plunder.
They demand redress of grievances and remuneration for the numerous crimes against humanity and violations of human rights in the conduct of the US-Arroyo regime's Oplan Bantay Laya 1 and 2. Justice is demanded by human rights advocates and the families, friends and supporters of more than a thousand victims of extrajudicial killings, thousands more illegally arrested, tortured and detained, abducted and involuntarily disappeared, and millions of victims of forced evacuation, looting and razing of their homes and farms by the fascist troops under her command.
Any vacillation on Aquino's part to pursue, prosecute, arrest and punish Arroyo and her ilk will be roundly rejected by the people.
There remains the threat of Arroyo's power perpetuation schemes through the backdoor of Congress by seizing the Speakership, weakening the executive branch, pursuing charter change and eventually repositioning herself as Prime Minister. Arroyo will be bankrolling efforts to seize the Speakership with billions of pesos accumulated through plunder. She will rely on the loyalty of key officials in the military, especially of newly appointed Chief of Staff Gen. Delfin Bangit and her other loyal generals at the top of the AFP, as well as her majority of loyalists in the Supreme Court, including the incoming Chief Justice Renato Corona, whom she has just appointed.
Aquino's impending assumption of the presidency significantly facilitates the return to power of the Aquino-Cojuangco haciendero clan. His presidency will be highlighted by the demand of the restive peasantry for genuine land reform, including the scrapping of the fake stock distribution option, the immediate distribution to the tillers of their family's vast landholdings, and the dispensation of justice to the victims of the Hacienda Luisita Massacre.
Given the Aquino-Cojuangco clan's insistence on holding on to Hacienda Luisita and Aquino's own evasiveness regarding the issue of genuine land reform, his presidency will be marked by a nationwide upsurge of the revolutionary struggle for genuine land reform and the emancipation of the peasantry from feudal bondage.
Aquino and the clique of US-led foreign chambers of commerce, big landlords, big compradors, the Aquino-Cojuangco clan and pseudo-reformists behind him are bearers of neocolonial, feudal and elitist policies.
In the face of all this, the Filipino people are determined to confront the new presidency with pressing demands for more significant socio-economic reforms. They demand an end to, and the reversal of, the IMF-dictated neoliberal policies obsequiously implemented by the US-Arroyo regime and other regimes before it. They demand a stop to opening up vast tracts of the nation's agricultural land and natural resources to the gross plunder and wanton destruction of imperialist, big comprador and big bureaucrat capitalist corporations.
They demand the establishment of real national industries instead of export processing zones, sweat shops and outsourcing centers. They demand an end to the labor-export policy, the creation of solid instead of casual and contractual domestic jobs, and the guarantee of just and sufficient wage increases to meet the highly increased costs of living. The continuing and worsening international and domestic crises are pushing the Filipino toiling masses and impoverished people to tread the path of militant struggle.
Aquino will be confronted as well with the people's patriotic demand to put an end to the permanent presence of US military troops in the Philippines and an end to the unequal military treaties with the US superpower. Patriotic forces and the people demand an end to the intervention of US troops and advisers in the country's internal military affairs, including the US military's role in designing and planning the AFP's campaigns of suppression against the anti-imperialist, progressive and democratic forces.
US imperialism maintains its interest in keeping the ruling political system and neocolonial state stabilized and, thus, securing the long-term economic, political and military interests of the US in the Philippines. US imperialism thus pushed hard on Arroyo and rivals among the ruling classes to make the just concluded reactionary elections appear more orderly and conclusive than previous ones in the hope of mitigating the contradictions among the rival factions of the reactionary ruling classes.
The deepening economic crisis, the diminishing state resources for sharing the spoils of power and the continuing tightness of their power struggles, however, continue to further intensify the contradictions and violence among the rival reactionary factions. The crisis of the ruling political system will further deepen and escalate as Aquino tries to assume power while Arroyo continues to scheme her way to perpetuate herself in power and evade prosecution and punishment.
The puppet reactionary state will continue to be rocked by contradictions among the ruling classes and and by the intensification of the people's struggles.
The revolutionary forces are facing an excellent opportunity to step up the revolutionary struggle. They are determined to pursue the path of people's war to advance the national and democratic aspirations of the Filipino people.