Statement on Gloria Arroyo's last State of the Nation Address
By Jorge "Ka Oris" Madlos
Spokesperson, NDFP – Mindanao
The Filipino people do not expect anything from Gloria Arroyo's upcoming SONA. False statements. Braggadocio. Deception. All this to cover up the corruption, violence and brutality of her puppet regime.
All the people want to hear is Arroyo's farewell. But even this, she refuses to grant. Instead, she is foisting cha-cha upon us all. She is preparing her machinery to perpetrate fraud in the 2010 elections to ensure her own victory or that of her loyal minions. Like Marcos in 1972, Arroyo is prepared to impose martial law. She fancies enthroning herself in dictator-like fashion ala Marcos.
She is courting US imperialism's favor by offering cha-cha enticingly to Uncle Sam along with the promise of giving foreign powers free rein to plunder the nation's wealth.
Arroyo is hungry for power, and her lust for it is insatiable. Thus, she has left no stone unturned to extend herself in power. She does this not only to be able to go on stealing and plundering, but also evade her tens of thousands of criminal accountabilities. As her term comes nearer to its end, she shakes in fear of a people's uprising. She is deathly afraid of the people's cries for justice.
The people will not allow Arroyo's schemes to remain in power. For the people, Arroyo's regime is the regime that imposed EVAT, spiralling prices of food and gasoline and frozen wages and blocked land reform. It is the regime that acquitted Daniel Smith, entrenched the VFA and allowed the entry of hundreds of interventionist American troops. It is also the regime of Oplan Bantay Laya 1 and 2, of extrajudicial killings and thousands of human rights violations. This is the regime that has incarcerated its critics and political opponents and released Romeo Jalosjos and other hardened criminals, the regime that is guilty of the ZTE anomaly, the Fertilizer Fund Scam and P17 billion worth of other corruption cases.
The Filipino people are enraged no end as Arroyo's actions become more brazen. They are bound to wage bigger and more widespread protests and step up their efforts to put an end to the regime that has impoverished, oppressed and brutalized them. Every step Arroyo takes to cling to power incites millions of Filipinos to wage a new uprising.
In behalf of the revolutionary movement in Mindanao and the entire Philippines, the National Democratic Front-Mindanao calls on everyone to intensify the revolutionary struggle. In accordance with the call by the leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines, NDF-Mindanao also calls on the New People's Army and all Red fighters in the island to intensify tactical offensives against the armed minions of the reactionary state.
The intensification of tactical offensives in Mindanao will be done in line with the intensification of NPA tactical offensives nationwide in the coming months. The objective is to contribute to efforts to weaken the ruling regime and gain victory for the oust Arroyo movement and to thoroughly defeat Oplan Bantay Laya 2 and raise people's war to a higher level.
