Editorial:
Make the Macapagal-Arroyo regime pay dearly for its support of warmongering against Iraq

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

Macapagal-Arroyo's blind and shameless support for US imperialism's plan to attack Iraq is despicable. In all of Asia, it is only the Macapagal-Arroyo government that has given immediate and unquestioned support for the imperialist war.

Even without any request from the US, Macapagal-Arroyo announced that her government was ready to grant the US access to Philippine airspace and to various infrastructure needed for the operations of American troops.

Like her imperialist master, Macapagal-Arroyo is devoid of respect for the national sovereignty and right to self-determination of the Iraqi people and government. She promotes and defends the US' arrogant and unilateral plan to attack and seize any country. This is no different from her puppet advocacy of US imperialism's moves to ravish the national sovereignty of, and further plunder and oppress, the Philippines.

Neither does she hesitate to endanger the millions of Filipino workers now employed in the Middle East. During her hypocritical trip to Kuwait in the first week of February, she herself took the lead in convincing Filipinos there to accept the US' justifications for attacking Iraq.

In exchange, she gets scraps of aid and loans that her bankrupt and corrupt regime thoroughly craves.

The Macapagal-Arroyo regime will pay dearly for its blind and shameless obsequiousness to US imperialism's every desire. This will lead to her regime's further isolation from the Filipino people who are strongly opposed to the impending US attack on Iraq.

Presently, the Filipino people's national united front against imperialist war is further expanding. It is composed of patriotic and democratic organizations of the toiling masses, civic groups, politicians, religious organizations and even Catholic church institutions and Islamic groups.

These forces have a broad basis of unity encompassing those who resist the imperialist violation of the sovereignty of nations, those concerned about the welfare of Filipino workers in Iraq and the Middle East, those who do not want the Philippines entangled in a war it has nothing to do with and those who simply do not want war. The most thoroughgoing in their resistance are the revolutionary and antiimperialist forces.

The united front against imperialist war likewise fiercely opposes the presence of American troops in the Philippines. The approximately 1,300 American soldiers in the Philippines may be used to support US military operations in the Middle East. Worse, there are threats to use American forces in combat operations in the Philippines. It has been reported that US President George W. Bush and Macapagal-Arroyo have already agreed on the deployment of four teams of US Green Berets to fight the Abu Sayyaf. It would not be farfetched for American troops to be used against the revolutionary forces in the country.

It is a patriotic and internationalist duty of the Communist Party and the Filipino people to unite with the Iraqi people in defending their sovereignty against US imperialist attack and occupation. The Party and peoples opposed to imperialism and war unite with the American people and the peoples of Europe, Asia and other parts of the globe in resisting the warmongering moves of the Bush government.

The Filipino people's contribution in helping the Iraqi people and the international united front against imperialist war is to resist Macapagal-Arroyo's all-out puppetry and its plans to give the US access to our territory as a staging and transit point for American attack troops and equipment.

The New People's Army's contribution to the international united front against imperialist war is to intensify tactical offensives against the mercenary AFP and PNP troops in order to weaken the puppet Macapagal-Arroyo regime.

In manifesting her absolute loyalty to her imperialist master, Macapagal-Arroyo has now become infamous the world over as one of the most loyal puppets of US imperialism. History will also judge her as one of the worst of all the past puppet presidents of the Philippines.

February 2003
English Edition

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