Editorial:
The Arroyo regime�s isolation from the people is worsening

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

Gloria Arroyo�s political isolation is without letup due to her corrupt and brutal rule and the intensifying havoc and hardship wrought on the people by her shameless puppetry to US imperialism.

Serious doubts linger among the majority of the people about her electoral victory. The people are angered by the regime�s suppression of protests against the recently concluded polls which were the filthiest, most fraudulent and most violent in the history of reactionary elections in the Philippines. Further fueling the people�s ire is the fact that the Arroyo regime has been ramming down the people�s throats its �reconciliation� with the Estradas, Marcoses and others on whom the people have already passed judgment for their heinous crimes against the masses.

Every day, more and more are convinced that the perpetuation of the pro-imperialist economic policies zealously being pushed by the regime is extremely onerous for the masses. These policies merely serve the imperialist companies� hunger for superprofits. They stifle local businesses, destroy productive forces, condemn the national economy to a state of backwardness and exacerbate the people�s poverty.

It is neoliberalization and the attendant dumping of imported goods that overwhelm local commodities that lie at the root of the further decline of both local agriculture and business and the rampant unemployment and poverty nationwide. Joblessness and the bankruptcy of the Philippine economy would be far worse were it not for the migration of over eight million Filipinos to find employment abroad.

It is the oil industry deregulation law that brings about the relentless increases in the prices of petroleum products and the unbridled accumulation of superprofits by oil multinationals.

It is the deregulation and privatization of basic services that are behind the unremitting increases in the costs of electricity and water, health services and education.

In the face of all this, the government intentionally keeps low the wages and salaries of workers and employees in both the private and public sectors. The government also deliberately skimps on basic services to comply with the wishes of imperialist agencies. It likewise plans to bleed the people by imposing additional taxes, also in accordance with imperialist dictates.

Arroyo�s subservience to her imperialist master on economic issues is also reflected in her blind implementation in the Philippines of the the Bush government�s �anti-terrorist doctrine�. As the so-called �second front� in the �anti-terrorist war� being pushed by the US, the Arroyo government stands out as a sore thumb in Asia as a fierce supporter and implementor of all of the Bush regime�s antinational, antipeople, repressive and terrorist policies in the Philippines and even overseas.

In its complete subservience to its imperialist master, the regime allows the US to trample on the nation�s sovereignty, violate the national territory, transform the entire Philippines into a military base, and intervene in the country�s internal affairs. Military operations of American forces in areas believed to be �Moro terrorist� bases are dubbed as military exercises.

In the name of the �anti-terrorist war,� government forces conduct fierce military operations continuously and on a wide scale, relentlessly unleash terrorism and perpetrate human rights violations in suspected NPA and MILF/BIAF strongholds. American forces also plan to penetrate revolutionary areas.

To show its complete puppetry to Bush, the Arroyo regime dispatched a 97-man �humanitarian� contingent as political support for the US imperialist occupation in Iraq. Fifty-five of them were military troops.

But the political implications of the capture of worker Angelo de la Cruz by Iraqi militants alarmed the regime. It was forced to repatriate the Filipino troops not only to save Angelo de la Cruz�s life, but more importantly, to save itself from the people�s ire should the captive be decapitated.

Arroyo knows that her imperialist masters would still give more importance to her complete subservience in implementing far more significant policies on imperialist �globalization� and the �anti-terrorist war� rather than the loss of the symbolic presence of a few Filipino troops in Iraq. Nevertheless, the regime is sure to grant huge concessions to its imperialist master because the withdrawal of Philippine forces amid successive troop withdrawals by former supporters of the US war and occupation of Iraq still constitutes a great insult to the US.

The Arroyo regime may be able to ingratiate itself to the people for a brief period, but its true pro-imperialist and antipeople stance will surely emerge. It will eventually impact on the people that Arroyo has no right to remain in Malaca�ang and continue to cause the people to suffer for six or more years.

The people will have the intensifying desire to end their agony. Arroyo�s isolation from the broad masses of the people will relentlessly worsen. The people will unite in their numbers to challenge Arroyo�s continued hold on power.

21 July 2004
English Edition

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