Intensifying fascism in Metro Manila
To thwart the rapid advance and expansion of protests and struggles in Metro Manila, fascist suppression is being tightened in this bastion of reactionary power. The targets include not only the revolutionary movement and the legal democratic forces in the urban areas but also Estrada's political rivals.
Because of the intensity of the regime's crisis of rule, it now openly uses the instruments of terrorist rule to intimidate and suppress the people.
Enlarging and streamlining the fascist machinery. The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) is the foremost machinery for fascist suppression in the region. Under it are five police district offices encompassing western, central, northern, southern and eastern Metro Manila.
The police machinery has been streamlined at every level, from municipalities and cities down to the barangays. The NCRPO maintains at least 172 detachments in 17 towns and cities in Metro Manila. In major intersections, it also maintains contingents of Special Weapons and Tactics Teams, mobile units and Marines in full battle gear and armed with M16s and other weapons.
Special police forces such as Gen. Panfilo Lacson's Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force are also based in Metro Manila.
Using the antidrug, anticrime and anti-terrorism campaigns as a front, the masses in Metro Manila are being terrorized through the maintenance of police and military "high visibility" and the setting up of checkpoints in key public places such as big commercial centers and shopping malls and major intersections and thoroughfares.
Anti-communist propaganda campaign. The PNP actively leads campaigns to vilify the revolutionary movement, the Party and the NPA. A striking example is the intrigue that it was the NPA (aside from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front) that has been planting and setting off bombs in crowded places in Metro Manila.
Meanwhile, the masses are being terrorized about legal organizations and national-democratic forces in the region that are branded as communist. At the Pepsi plant, for instance, a series of anti-communist seminars have been held to split the masses as they advance their struggle. The genuine union is being accused of having connections with the Party.
Setting up an intelligence network. Frequently, members of mass organizations in factories, communities and schools who have been deceived by anti-communist propaganda are recruited to become part of the surveillance machinery against the revolutionary and democratic forces aside from the actual intelligence machinery of the PNP and AFP.
At the Food Terminal Inc. in Taguig, a series of courses on how to form reserve organizations of the AFP have been held since 1998. Part of the seminar involves training in intelligence work against the revolutionary movement.
At the Pamantasan ng Makati, the commandant of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. himself directly recruits informers from among the students. Those recruited are assigned to closely watch the programs and activities of the student council, student leaders and suspected members of the underground movement.
Attacking and suppressing the legal democratic forces. The US-Estrada regime confronts the struggles of the toiling masses and the rest of the people with an iron fist and intensifying open suppression. Outstanding indications are the violent dispersals of workers' strikes, demolitions of urban poor communities, dispersals of pickets, marches, rallies, demonstrations and other mass protest actions by the people as well as arrests, mauling and jailing of strikers, demonstrators, activists and movement organizers.
On July 24, up to 15,000 police forces were deployed to suppress and disperse mass actions against Estrada's State of the Nation Address. One-hundred nineteen were injured, 35 were arrested and one was missing in violent attacks by the police.
| Because of the intensity of the regime�s crisis of rule, it now openly uses the instruments of terrorist rule to intimidate and suppress the people. |
Up to 1,000 policemen were also deployed and ordered to attack the picket lines of striking workers of the Light Rail Transit in the last week of July.
Opportunist renegades connive with the regime in sabotaging the struggles of the working class. At Triumph International, union officials affiliated with Frank Pascual's Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya called on workers to end their strike and comply with the "return to work" order issued by the Department of Labor and Employment. One hundred and fifty policemen, goons, firemen and security guards attacked the picket lines four times as the workers and genuine union leaders stood their ground and defended it.
Dismantling suspected revolutionary bases. Communities and factories suspected of being mass bases of the revolutionary movement particularly feel the heat. Communities are demolished, strikes are busted and leaders are arrested to terrorize the masses and thwart the advance of the mass movement.
In urban poor communities around Victoria Homes in Muntinlupa, for instance, PNP forces along with National Bilibid Prison guards and inmates armed with mallets, crowbars and bulldozers tore down houses several times in April. After each demolition, the residents' belongings were ransacked. Similar incidents occurred in Pasig, Malabon, Caloocan and Makati.
In the face of such attacks and suppression, the people's resistance has intensified in urban poor communities, factories and schools. More and more are marching along the path of revolution. The US-Estrada regime's hold on power further weakens and the reactionary state trembles in its own bastion of power.
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