III. Swift worsening of the rotten ruling system
The rotten ruling system of the comprador big bourgeoisie and landlord class is under severe strain from the global capitalist crisis of overproduction in all types of goods and from the US-dictated neoliberal .free market. policy of denationalization, investment and trade liberalization, privatization and deregulation.
The chronic crisis of the ruling system is rapidly worsening in an all-round way. The economic and social crisis is inflicting extreme suffering on the broad masses of the people and inciting social unrest and armed revolution. The socioeconomic crisis has brought the political crisis to a level similar to that on the eve of the declaration of martial law under the Marcos regime.
The Philippines is dependent on the importation of equipment, fuel and semiprocessed components and does not produce capital goods. And increasingly all types of Philippine exports (agricultural and mineral raw materials and low value-added semimanufactures) are depressed by the global crisis of overproduction.
The Philippines has to produce more of the same kind of exports even at lower prices in the world market in order to earn foreign exchange or else cut down the importation of inputs for the production of export goods and thus earn less foreign exchange.
Even agricultural production for domestic consumption is being cut down by the rising costs of imported inputs and by the liberalized imports of food products, including rice, corn, sugar and meat. The land available for agriculture has also been reduced by the rapid accumulation of land in the hands of the few for real estate speculation although the bubble of private construction has burst.
Under conditions of the global overproduction of manufactures, such as cars, construction materials, consumer electronics and telecommunications, the exploiting classes have accelerated their conspicuous consumption and have intensified their exploitation of the working class and peasantry.
The foreign trade deficit has mounted from year to year and can be reduced only by austerity measures, production cutbacks and disemployment. The export of men and women for overseas contract work has been a far bigger foreign exchange earner than any export product. But it is now hemmed in by global economic crisis and by competing labor exports from other impoverished countries.
The foreign debt of the Philippines is soaring. It is pushed up by ising interest payments on the old debt and by new debt to pay for the old debt and cover the ongoing trade deficit. Recent foreign loans have been used mainly to bail out the banking system. Japanese loans for public works has come in trickles and with strings attached. The foreign creditors are exacting more onerous terms These include higher interest rates and shorter periods of payment and designated contractors and suppliers at higher prices.
The reactionary state incurs annually an ever higher level of local public debt and imposes a heavier tax burden and higher fees for public services on the broad masses of the people in order to cover the ever rising budgetary deficit. Most of government spending is on debt service payment, military and police forces and bureaucratic corruption. Social security savings have been used to finance stock market and merger scams. The US-Estrada regime claims that the country.s gross domestic product (GDP) has grown from the level of last year. This is illusory. The GNP figure is bloated by guesstimates, counterproductive expenditures and understated estimates of the inflation rate. Even the regime admits that the economy is far from reaching the GNP level of 1997.
Because of the worsening socioeconomic crisis, the ground is decreasing for amicable mutual accommodation among the competing political factions of the exploiting classes. The ruling clique is more avaricious than ever and is more easily exposed. Political rivalry among the reactionaries is becoming more bitter and violent.
The rottenness of the reactionary state is conspicuously manifested by the flagrant corruption of Estrada, his several wives and children and their respective dummies and cronies who engage in all kinds of shady deals, involving contracts with the state, access to state financial institutions and business privileges. As in the years of the Marcos fascist regime, a monopolistic system of presidential pork barrel has replaced the relatively more extended system of congressional pork barrel.
The ascension of the Estrada ruling clique reflects an unprecedented deterioration of the economic and political system. The financial and political support of the Marcos family, the most notorious Marcos cronies and crime lords brought to power a president who was previously a popular movie actor but is a mentally unstable alcoholic. In so short a time, there is already a popular outcry for his ouster or forced resignation. Because of the stench of its corruption and its growing isolation, the US-Estrada regime is vulnerable to a coup d.etat. There are several groups of military officers who wish to replace Estrada with his vice- president in keeping with the 1987 constitution of the reactionary state. They are unanimous in condemning Estrada for corruption, mental incompetence and favoritism for certain military and police officers who run criminal syndicates.
The coercive apparatuses of the state are riven by factionalism reflective of the splits among the reactionary politicians as well as criminal syndicates engaged in smuggling, gambling, drug traffic, prostitution, extortion, kidnap-for- ransom, illegal logging and so on. The dominant military and police officers are the operatives of Estrada in the most lucrative criminal activities.
The current ruling clique mouths the platitudes of the 'free market' dogma and believes that the all-out sale of national patrimony to foreign monopolies would make the Philippines 'globally competitive'. It is for this reason that the regime wants either the reactionary constitution to be amended or legislation to be undertaken to achieve the same results.
The regime is blatantly opposed to national industrialization. It does not even pretend to be for it, unlike previous regimes that misrepresented big comprador projects as flagship industrial development projects. It cynically cites as development and antipoverty projects casinos and other gambling ventures. It has allowed the infrastructure to deteriorate on a nationwide scale and dissipated public funds in a few showy public works projects amidst a disarray of similarly graft-ridden flimsy projects. It encourages land accumulation by a few big comprador-landlords under its wings. It reclassifies the few token areas of land under the bogus land reform program of the reactionary government as nonagricultural in order to deliver these to landlords and real estate speculators. And it cynically tells the landless tillers that if they wish to own land all that they need to do is to buy the land at the going market price or buy shares of stock in agricultural corporations owned by the likes of Eduardo Cojuangco.
Under the "free market" slogan, the imperialists and the reactionary state abandon social pretenses. The political arrogance and greed of the exploiting classes know no bounds. These result in terrible suffering for the people and thus incite them to wage revolutionary struggle against the state.
The regime is increasingly unleashing open terror and is practicing an undeclared martial law even as it has severe financial difficulties in maintaining the army and police. It has declared all-out war against the revolutionary movement and the people and in this connection has terminated the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. At the same time, it is trying in vain to deceive the people by misrepresenting its scheme of localized surrender negotiations as the replacement of erstwhile peace negotiations.
To have cheaper cannon fodder than the military and police regulars, the regime is increasing personnel of the paramilitary forces by the tens of thousands. These are used as baits as well as shields by the regular forces when in patrols and offensives and are thus exposed to higher risks at lower pay. In addition, the regime is encouraging big compradors and landlords to organize private armed gangs Military officers are also forming vigilante groups, death squads and pseudoreligious armed fanatical cults in addition to the official paramilitary units.
The neocolonial and neoliberal policy of denationalization, liberalization privatization and deregulation is a brazen attack on the human rights (particularly the social, economic and cultural rights) of the people by the US imperialists and the puppet regime. It is the rationale for such rampant violations of civil and political liberties as arbitrary arrests, torture extrajudicial killings, arson, looting bombardments of communities, food blockades and forced mass evacuations.
In response to the escalating attacks on the people, the legal democratic mass movement has vigorously surged forward Protests and demands have been raised on socioeconomic and political issues Workers, peasants, women, youth, church people and other sectors of society have been conducting mass education and mass campaigns and protest actions according to their class and sectoral interests as well as according to their common interests against the ruling clique, the imperialists and the local exploiting classes.
The workers have campaigned against the labor flexibility policy, the massacre of regular jobs, the pressing down of wages casualization and sho t-te m cont actualization and the all-out attack on their basic rights. The peasants have clamored for land reform and have denounced all forms of aggravating the land problem and the rampant human rights violations, especially in the countryside.
The women have intensified their campaign against gender discrimination and oppression and for gender equality and the rights of working mothers and children. The student youth have conducted strikes against rising tuition fees and the suppression of student governments and campus press freedom. The youth in other sectors are rising up against the conditions of unemployment and all forms of exploitation and oppression.
The biggest nationwide mass protest actions have been conducted against the scheme to sell out the national sovereignty and national patrimony by constitutional amendment, against bureaucratic corruption, against low wages and union-busting and against the repeated oil price hikes and rising cost of living. To arouse and mobilize the people in their millions, the united front has been broadened to include as unstable allies conservative institutions and reactionaries opposed to the ruling clique. There is now a mounting campaign to force the resignation or ouster of the Estrada ruling clique.
The ruling clique is so isolated that it relies for crowd support on a .charismatic. religious organization and on entertainment shows by movie and TV personalities close to Estrada. To frustrate the tactics of the regime in this regard, progressive forces are developing a movement that harmonizes the national democratic line with the social concerns and aspirations of the ordinary clergy, lay leaders and the great mass of religious believers. They stage cultural shows and popularize songs and other cultural fare to raise the revolutionary spirit of the people against the regime and the ruling system.
Revolutionary armed resistance has expanded and grown in strength. The most formidable armies now fighting the enemy are the New People's Army and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. They have forged a formal alliance since late last year and have raised their cooperation and coordination to a new and higher level. There is firm mutual understanding that whenever the common enemy attacks one, the other takes action to relieve the ally by intensifying tactical offensives in its own areas.
Other forces fighting the enemy in Mindanao are the Islamic Command Council of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Al Harakatul Islamya (Abu Sayyaf). There is growing tension between the Moro National Liberation Front and the Manila government because of the latter.s broken promises and its open suspicion that Moro integrees in the reactionary army are spies. A force of 1000 MNLF fighters ran off with their rifles soon after these were issued to them last December.
The domestic ruling system of big compradors and landlords is rotten to the core and is in the process of disintegration. It can be destroyed and replaced by the people's democratic system only through protracted people's war along the line of the new-democratic revolution. The NPA performs the central task of fighting and defeating the military, police and paramilitary forces that seek to preserve the unjust ruling system.
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