The derailment of the impeachment proceedings against Sara Duterte is a blatant silencing of the people’s strong clamor to hold her accountable for the anomalous use of hundreds of millions of pesos in public funds and other serious cases of corruption and abuse of power.
The entire Supreme Court and the majority of the Senate, including most of Marcos’ allies, decided against the people’s desire to hold corrupt officials and those who have abused the secret funds of the reactionary government.
This action saw how the influence and interests of various bureaucratic-capitalist political factions prevailed. The dismissal of the impeachment complaint reflects the intensifying political maneuvering and conflicts, as well as collusion and accommodation among different factions of the ruling class.
This is just the latest in the series of confrontations between the Marcoses and Dutertes. This deep-seated conflict among the worst fascists and plunderers, along with various factions of the reactionary ruling class, is sure to flare up against in different forms and ways, especially as they now all look towards the 2028 elections.
With their legal acrobatics and toying with the reactionary government’s own laws and processes, the Supreme Court and Senate thwarted the people’s desire to hold Sara Duterte accountable for corruption. The people eagerly awaited the opportunity for her actions involving the misuse of ₱612.5 million as vice president and then secretary of the Department of Education to be scrutinized publicly. More than that, they anticipated the trial to inspect and reveal the corrupt practices of the entire ruling reactionary government.
The Filipino people are aware that Duterte’s misuse of public funds merely reflects the worse and broader corruption within the entire ruling reactionary government. The call for her to be held accountable and punished is just part of the demand to hold to account all officials who indulge in power.
Gross corruption and government thievery under her father, Rodrigo Duterte, are now being surpassed by the brazen plundering under Ferdinand Marcos Jr—the current king of all thieves in government. The tens of billions of pesos pocketed by Duterte are now overshadowed by the hundreds of billions being siphoned off by Marcos through the Maharlika Investment Fund, “confidential and intelligence funds,” various infrastructure projects, and the recovered stolen wealth of his family.
The people suffer immensely due to the severe corruption of the highest officials in the government. Among the consequences are the recent widespread flooding, rising prices of rice and other commodities, rising fees for deteriorating public services, the state’s refusal to mandate wage increases, land grabbing and land-use conversion, environmental destruction, as well as barefaced election fraud, serious human rights violations, and fascist violence.
They collude or partner with big businessmen, foreign capitalists, and banks that benefit from government contracts. They receive kickbacks and bribes, along with other privileges from their power or influence. Bureaucratic capitalists use their power to favor their interests, as well as those of their relatives, friends, or allies.
They enact and implement laws or programs that favor large foreign capitalist investors. Infrastructure projects—roads, bridges, and even “flood control projects”—are favorites of the Marcos regime, as well as previous bureaucratic capitalist regimes, where they typically pocket at least 10% of the project cost.
In a recent speech by Marcos in Congress, he pretended to be angry with the failed flood control projects, to dodge the people’s demand for accountability. The truth is, Marcos himself carefully reviewed each of one these projects to ensure that not one would fail to contribute to his ever-growing plunder. Marcos is angry at those who insert projects into the budget without first ensuring their percentage contribution.
These issues intensify the Filipino people’s desire to hold accountable and punish the bureaucratic capitalists who oppress and cause their aggravation. Amid the insoluble economic crisis of the ruling system in the Philippines, they have become more brazen, insatiable and relentless in their use of power for personal aggrandizemen, while they impose increasingly onerous taxes and fees on the people. The ever increasing Philippine debt is shouldered by the people.
Regardless of the legal justifications, the Supreme Court and Senate’s defense of Sara Duterte against impeachment is, at its core, a defense of bureaucratic-capitalism and the entire rotten semicolonial and semifeudal system. This further intensifies the people’s desire to end the ruling system built on the foundations of corruption and the few’s indulgence in wealth. The stench of the decaying ruling system is increasingly unbearable.
By dismissing the impeachment, the Marcos regime and all its minions have galvanized the broad sectors and groups that previously remained quiet and on the sidelines to speak out and engage in the people’s struggle. Many church people, lawyers, teachers, doctors, nurses, small professionals, and others have been stirred to express their grievances against corruption and abuse of power. They must link and unite their voices with the louder cries and struggles of the basic and democratic classes for living wages, lower prices of goods and services, genuine land reform, regular employment, fishing rights, free housing, adequate education budgets, and more.
While strengthening the people’s united voice to denounce the derailment of the impeachment proceedings against Sara Duterte, the Filipino people must amplify their outcry against imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism—the three-headed monster that strangles and gradually kills the people.
As they take to the streets to express the strongest protest, they must also tread the path to the countryside to expand and strengthen the armed struggle of the New People’s Army. Only through revolutionary struggle can the rotten system be completely crushed and genuine people’s democracy be established.
