Editorial:
No fundamental change from the May 10 elections

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

Under the present semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system, elections are reactionary and only create the illusion of democracy. They can never become a means of expressing the people's will or selecting leaders that can truly represent their interests.

It is the existing economic, political, cultural and electoral system that determines the overall dominance of reactionary parties and candidates. Thus, elections for the reactionary government in the Philippines are nothing but an exercise to determine which faction of the reactionary ruling class will prevail at any given time, benefit from power and safeguard and maintain their class oppression and exploitation of the people.

To attract the people's votes, reactionary candidates make various populist and reformist promises, utilize the culture of feudal patronage, cook up and pay large sums for all sorts of advertisements and gimmicks in the mass media.

The most significant factor, however, in reactionary elections is the use of various instruments�both of the candidate and of the state�for coercion and deception, the use of large campaign funds and vote-buying, and the capacity to manipulate the election results. The use of guns, goons and gold is the decisive element in the outcome of elections in the Philippines.

Progressive parties and candidates participating in reactionary elections are thus at a great disadvantage. Under the existing system and conditions, the highest posts and the most number of seats are automatically allotted to representatives of the ruling classes. Only a few progressive parties and candidates are allowed to win in elections.

In particular, the law on party-lists only sets aside 20% of congressional seats for small parties not included among the five major political parties. Because of the limited niche allotted for these groups, it would be impossible for them to become decisive in enacting or repealing laws. In addition, a large number of those vying for the party-list election are mere extensions of large political parties, military associations, economic groups and other instruments of the reactionary ruling classes.

Aside from this, progressive parties and candidates are victims of fascist violence. In the over 50 years' history of the puppet republic, attacks by the fascist forces of the state and ultra-reactionary political groups have been most vicious and violent whenever progressives make significant advances in reactionary elections. During the 1987 election, it was the progressive Partido ng Bayan that bore the brunt of killings, injuries and harassment.

At present, the militarists in government and other fascists are concentrating their repression on progressive parties and candidates. The most numerous victims of murder and mayhem in the present election come from Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Anak ng Bayan. The fascists and ultra-reactionaries are afraid of the relatively large number of votes that these parties are expected to garner in the election. All of the major surveys have predicted them to win 10 up to 12 seats in congress.

The participation of progressives in reactionary elections, however, is still beneficial despite the tremendous odds and dangers that they face and the limitations to what they can accomplish through electoral struggle and working inside government. One thing they can do at the least is to expose the rottenness of the system and defend the people's national and democratic rights.

The Party establishes links and forges alliances with progressives and takes advantage of contradictions among the reactionaries that are heightened during elections. In forging such a united front, the Party's main concern is to advance the interests of, and acquire advantages for, the revolutionary movement, the revolutionary mass base and the mass movement that it leads.

Nevertheless, the inutility of the reactionary political and electoral system and the criminal campaign of attacking progressives expose the real rotten and reactionary character of the ruling system and its electoral process. Nothing can be expected of them by way of resolving the people's basic problems or achieving any meaningful social change.

In the face of all this, we must further our antifascist propaganda efforts and protests, and persevere along the path of protracted people's war, even as we confront head-on the complex and arduous task of advancing the open democratic movement and our work within reactionary institutions.

It is only through armed revolution that we can overthrow the rotten neocolonial and semifeudal order, establish a new and revolutionary order and realize national freedom, democracy and progress towards the greater advance of Philippine society.

07 May 2004
English Edition

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