II. Desperate State of the Philippine Ruling System
The semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system in the Philippines is in chronic crisis, subjected as it is to the worst forms of exploitation and oppression by foreign monopoly capitalism, domestic feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism. It is therefore vulnerable to the vagaries of the general crisis of the world capitalist system and to the current financial and economic crisis that has already been described by chieftains of imperialist countries as the worst since the Great Depression and by some economic analysts as unprecedented in the last 100 years.
However, most of the year, the Arroyo regime and its economic experts were giving false assurances to the Filipino people that the Philippines was decoupled from or even immune to the financial and economic crisis of the US and world capitalist system. They were boasting about the supposed strong fundamentals of what actually is a pre-industrial, semifeudal and agrarian economy, dependent on the export of raw materials and low value-added semimanufactures, on the remittances of overseas contract workers and on foreign borrowing for covering trade and budgetary deficits.
The lies of the regime have been ineffective, especially when the prices of food and fuel were soaring. The people are disgusted that even as the Philippines is an agricultural country and historically the base of the "miracle rice" it has become the No. 1 rice importer of the world. This has been a result of decades of rice dumping on the country under the auspices of trade liberalization, even way ahead of the schedule for tariff reduction set by the World Trade Organization. This has also been a result of converting land from the production of rice and corn to other crops for export or to entirely nonagricultural uses.
The regime boasted that by raising the people's tax burden through the expanded value added tax under orders from the International Monetary Fund it had protected the economy from global financial and economic crisis. It pointed out that only 20% of Philippine exports go to the US and that any export drawdown would not be painful to the Philippines. In fact, the direct exports of the Philippines to the US amount to as much as 25%. Moreover, the increased Philippine exports to Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan are actually destined for the US after some additional processing.
Certainly, the contraction of the consumer market and production in the US hits the Philippines hard in terms of decreased US demand for Philippine exports. Worst of all, the international credit crunch deprives the Philippine rulers of the key resource for covering trade and budgetary deficits and for servicing old debts with new debts to conjure an illusion of economic growth. As the financial and economic crisis protracts and worsens, the demand for Filipino contract workers abroad will decrease. This means the decrease of the foreign exchange remittances as a major financial resource to which the Philippines has been accustomed.
The depression of the Philippine economy will worsen. The decrease of export income, foreign loans and remittances of overseas contract workers will mean less resources for Philippine production and consumption. Even now the Arroyo regime has already scaled down the previous projections of economic growth rates, which are anyway still exaggerated and do not fully take into account the credit crunch. The reality of depression will include more bankruptcies, closures, reduced production, mass layoffs and the drastic fall of incomes for the toiling masses and even for the middle social strata.
Under current circumstances, the economic depression in the Philippines is already causing acute and widespread discontent among the broad masses of the people. The demand for jobs, decent wages, industrial development, land reform, adequate social services and respect for the democratic rights of the working people will ring louder and move the broad masses of the people to march and rally on the streets and convene at various public places.
For the reactionaries, there is no way out of the depression and the chronic crisis of the ruling system. No part of the huge amounts of funds borrowed domestically and abroad, collected as taxes from the people or remitted by overseas contract workers has gone into industrial development. Even the agricultural land devoted to staple crops has been reduced in the shift to export crops, real estate speculation and other land-extensive enterprises.
The people will increasingly desire and demand a revolutionary way out of the economic and social crisis as the counterrevolutionary rulers employ deception and violence to mislead and suppress them. The people will be further goaded to rebel by the counterrevolutionaries themselves who trample on their basic democratic rights and who offer no solutions to the social and economic problems but only further betrayal of national independence, economic sovereignty and the national patrimony under the auspices of the totally discredited policy of "neoliberal globalization".
The competing political factions of the ruling classes of big compradors and landlords are differentiated by the names of their parties and coalitions but are quite undifferentiated in their subservience to the US-dictated policy of "neoliberal globalization". What they similarly compete for are the blessings of the US and the spoils of political power. Whichever is the reactionary faction that ascends to power tends to monopolize the spoils. The opposition factions, on the the hand, preoccupy themselves with the clamor for clean government and against corruption, but avoid the fundamental issues of national independence, democracy, industrial development, genuine land reform, people's culture and independent foreign policy.
Every reactionary ruling clique, from that of Ramos to that of Arroyo, has proposed to amend the 1987 Constitution of the reactionary government in order to extend its rule and delete or rewrite provisions that were the fruit of the struggle against the US-instigated Marcos fascist dictatorship, such as those restraining the proclamation of martial law, protecting human rights and civil liberties, upholding economic sovereignty and national patrimony and banning foreign military bases, foreign troops and nuclear weapons storage and transport on Philippine territory. In fact, these have been undermined and circumvented through legislation and executive agreements.
Even as the US-directed policy of "neoliberal globalization" has been totally discredited by the current financial and economic crisis, the minions of the Arroyo regime in the House of Representatives have proclaimed that their purpose in seeking to amend the 1987 constitution of the reactionary government is to cast away economic sovereignty and national patrimony and to allow foreign investors 100 percent ownership of land and all kinds of enterprises. The Arroyo regime has embarked on treason in exchange for prolonging itself in power.
The ever worsening social and economic crisis has continuously pushed the political crisis of the ruling system. And the ruling classes have increasingly become unable to rule with any lasting moral authority through any of the reactionary factions that assume power. The broad masses of the people have long become disgusted with the puppetry, corruption, mendacity and brutality that have characterized every reactionary ruling clique. They are therefore intensely desirous of revolutionary change and strongly wish the revolutionary party to lead and hasten the advance of the struggle for the overthrow of the entire ruling system and establish the people's democratic state.
With the Arroyo ruling clique at the top, three political formations collaborate in an unstable alliance for dominating the people. These are the Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino (KAMPI) of the fake president Arroyo, the Lakas-NUCD of ex-president Ramos and the Nationalist People's Coalition of the old Marcos crony Eduardo Cojuangco. These are the largest and most moneyed political formations but are discredited, especially for corruption.
Ranged against these dominant formations are the far smaller parties which stand to benefit from the discredit of the dominant parties, but which tend to be fractious. These include the Nacionalista Party of Manuel Villar, the Liberal Party of Mar Roxas, the Partido ng Masang Pilipino of former president Joseph Estrada, the PDP-Laban of Aquilino Pimentel, and the makeshift coalition called United Opposition (UNO).
The Arroyo ruling clique is pushing charter change through a constituent assembly in a maneuver to prolong its rule. But the Senate has refused to collaborate with the House of Representatives, especially because of popular opposition to the Arroyo project of charter change. The Arroyo ruling clique is preparing to rig the 2010 elections in order to protect its loot and secure impunity for its criminal liabilities. It is preparing to employ massive electoral fraud and terrorism to secure the election of its own candidates.
Contradictions among the reactionary political formations are bound to sharpen as the Arroyo ruling clique tries to rig the 2010 elections as in 2004. Contradictions among the factions in the military and police will also sharpen. They have run deep and wide because the Arroyo ruling clique has persecuted those officers and men who have denounced its criminal policies and activities and has favored those who are not only partisan of the ruling clique but are also flagrantly engaged in corruption and other lucrative criminal activities within and outside the military and police services.
The Party is correct in adopting and implementing the policy of the broad united front in taking advantage of the contradictions and rifts among the reactionaries and in seeking the objective or conscious alliance and cooperation of groups and individuals in the reactionary parties and coalitions, in the civil bureaucracy and in the military and police services who express patriotic and progressive positions against the reactionaries who are the worst and are the most rabidly loyal to the imperialists. The broad united front has taken up important issues against the Arroyo regime, including electoral fraud in 2004, numerous mega cases of corruption, the gross and systematic violations of human rights, unequal trade and economic agreements with foreign powers and the scheme to amend the 1987 constitution.
The Arroyo regime stands as the worst of the reactionaries and is therefore categorized as the enemy of the people and the revolutionary movement. It is comparable to the Marcos fascist dictatorship in its puppetry to US imperialism. It caninely follows the US-dictated policies of "neoliberal globalization" and "war on terrorism" despite the bankruptcy and total discredit of these policies. It is rated as the the most corrupt regime in the whole of Asia and the No.2 most corrupt in the entire world. It has engaged in gross and systematic violations of human rights.
These human rights violations include the massive military campaigns of suppression against workers, urban poor, peasant masses and national minorities; and the extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture of legal democratic activists (including workers, peasants, women, youth, church people, lawyers, human rights defenders and peace advocates) and consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) who are guaranteed safety and immunity under the GRP-NDFP Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees.
The US imperialists have instigated the Arroyo regime to unleash barbaric military campaigns of suppression against the people and the revolutionary forces and to prevent the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations from proceeding to address the roots of the armed conflict with social, economic, political and constitutional reforms. The US and the Arroyo regime have drummed up the so-called "global war on terror" in order to allow US military intervention in the civil war between the revolutionary and counterrevolutionary forces and the continuous basing and operation of US military forces in our country.
In line with the dictates of its US master, the Arroyo regime has rendered impossible the resumption of formal talks between the negotiating panels in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations by preconditioning it with the surrender and pacification of the revolutionary forces and people under the guise of a prolonged ceasefire and by refusing to affirm and comply with the previously signed bilateral agreements without the precondition of a prolonged ceasefire. The malicious objective of the regime is to replace the peace negotiations with ceasefire and surrender negotiations, discard the previously signed agreements and prevent substantive negotiations on social, economic, political and constitutional reforms. After murdering so many NDFP consultants and progressive activists, the Arroyo regime demands the surrender of the very life of the entire revolutionary movement.
The Party and the entire revolutionary movement of the people have no choice but to intensify the revolutionary armed struggle against the priorly escalating military campaigns of suppression against the people under Oplan Bantay Laya and the Enhanced National Internal Security Plan. The New People's Army and all other revolutionary forces of the people can take advantage of the rapidly worsening crisis of the domestic ruling system and the US and world capitalist system. Most concretely, they can take advantage of the fact that the reactionary government and armed forces are now faced with the problem of having to fight on two war fronts, one in Moroland and another all over the Philippine archipelago.
The Arroyo regime has closed the door to peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front by casting away the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD) and demanding the resumption of informal talks without the MoA-AD. It has also closed the door to the resumption of formal talks with the NDFP by preconditioning it on the violation of The Hague Joint Declaration and all other previously signed agreements.
It is of strategic importance to the Filipino people and the Bangsamoro to fight for their revolutionary cause in their respective territories and to maximize their unity, coordination and cooperation in accordance with the longstanding alliance agreement between the NDFP and the MILF.
It is to the great advantage of the revolutionary forces and the people represented by the NDFP and the MILF that in common they fight a thoroughly discredited and isolated regime under severe conditions of domestic and global crisis. They have the critical mass to systematically deliver lethal blows against the many weak points of the enemy armed forces and ruling system. The main thing is to hit hard at those weak points in order to incapacitate and destroy the ruling system. Thus the revolutionary strength of the people can further grow and win greater victories. We can trust the people and the revolutionary forces to build a new Philippines that is independent, democratic, just, progressive and peaceful.
