August 20: A gathering storm against the US-Estrada clique
More than 230,000 people poured out to the streets of Makati City and other places nationwide to assail rising fascism and to gather the brewing tempest against the ruling Estrada clique. Behind these successful demonstrations is the close cooperation of the militant organizations of the toiling masses, petty bourgeois organizations, the leadership of and organizations under the Catholic church and anti- Estrada elements led by Corazon Aquino.
According to reports, close to 150,000 joined demonstrations held in the cities of Bacolod (60,000), Davao (40,000), Cebu (15,000), Lucena (10,000), Iloilo 8,000), Legazpi (5,000), Kabankalan (5,000) and in the town of Digos, Davao del Sur (5,000).
Thousands likewise participated in simultaneous protest actions held in different cities and towns across the archipelago. In Luzon, rallies were held in Ilocos Sur, La Union, in the cities of Baguio and Dagupan; in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya; in San Fernando and Angeles City in Pampanga; in Baler, Aurora; Daet, Camarines Norte; Naga and Iriga, Camarines Sur; and in Sorsogon. In the Visayas, several thousands also marched in the cities of San Carlos and Dumaguete in Negros; in Kalibo, Aklan; and in the cities of Ormoc and Tacloban in Leyte. In Mindanao, thousands gathered in the cities of Iligan, Cagayan de Oro, Kidapawan and General Santos.
The Estrada government is inciting widespread mass protests and resistance
The continually worsening crisis of the ruling system and the brazen puppetry and fascism of the US-Estrada regime spur intensifying people's resistance in the cities and in the countryside. There is a gathering storm born of the people's widespread struggles to oust the reactionary Estrada regime.
Along with the intensifying armed struggle in the countryside, the wave of massive demonstrations will deal heavy blows against the Estrada regime. There is need to further expand and strengthen the antifascist front, call its attention to and focus its efforts towards ousting the ruling Estrada clique and replacing it with a government of national unity and people's democracy.
Estrada further intensifies the people's seething anger by - planning to change the constitution of the Republic of the Philippines to worsen its antinational provisions and cancel the legacy of the antifascist struggle;
- "suppressing freedom of the press and trampling on human rights;
- orchestrating the return of the Marcoses and the minions of the Marcos dictatorship; and
- propagating and exacerbating corruption and the merging of criminal syndicates and bureaucrats.
In their scheme to change the constitution, Estrada and his ilk are planning the wholesale auction of the national patrimony and whatever is left of the Philippines' economic sovereignty to foreign monopoly capitalists. In this regard, the regime intends to grant foreigners unlimited rights to own real estate and banks as well as mass media, telecommunications, retail and other enterprises. In addition, Estrada will wield autocratic power in entering into treaties and contracts with foreigners free from public scrutiny, including review by courts.
In the name of "economic reforms", Estrada and his minions plan to abrogate the bill of rights born out of the antifascist struggles against the Marcos dictatorship. Estrada wishes to obliterate those provisions that ensure the rights to organize, assemble and to strike, which are portrayed as anti-investments and disincentives to the entry of foreign business to the country. His objective is to give his fascist minions full license to seize property, make arbitrary arrests and perpetrate killings, massacres and other human rights violations in line with his directive to "crush" the revolution and in his bid to exterminate the political opposition in the style of his mentor, Marcos.
Estrada's insistence that changes in the constitution will be limited to these "economic reforms" serves as a smokescreen for the agenda of rewriting those provisions that bar Estrada and other politicians from extending their term limits.
To suppress criticism and protests against antidemocratic and pro-foreign government policies, Estrada has muzzled the mass media. Through means reminiscent of Marcos, he pressured the owners of Manila Times to sell the newspaper after its disclosure of questionable contracts to which Estrada gave his blessing. Estrada is likewise resorting to underhanded schemes to bring the Philippine Daily Inquirer to its knees after its exposure of anomalous contracts and irregularities in the government; and to force other newspapers to toe Estrada's line.
Estrada is also inciting the people's widespread anger by coddling and opening wide the door towards the full rehabilitation of the Marcos family and the minions of the Marcos dictatorship. Estrada and the Marcos family are colluding to hide and divide among themselves the $13-billion ill-gotten wealth deposited in the Union Bank of Switzerland. This is aside from Estrada's conspiracy with Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. to allow the latter to keep all the property he amassed through the ill-gotten P100-billion coco levy fund.
Bureaucratic corruption and irregularities have reached scandalous proportions. Foremost is the anomalous return of the Marcoses and their minions and the secret deals they have been forging with Estrada on the disposition of their ill-gotten wealth. Numerous cases have been exposed involving bribery, favors granted to Estrada's friends and relatives in the awarding of big public works contracts and the use of public funds from agencies like the SSS and GSIS for private businesses. The people's anger further seethes as they witness the coordination of the highest-ranking police and military officers with criminal lords to protect the operations of syndicates involved in illegal gambling, drug trafficking and smuggling.
Unite further in the September 21 rally
Estrada's refusal to heed the demands raised in the August 20 rally impels the people to hold bigger demonstrations on September 21.
The August 20 rallies were successful despite Estrada's attempts to stop them through dirty tricks and by whipping up anticommunist hysteria. But in order to foil Estrada s scheme of ramming down the people's throats the anti-democratic and antinational changes in the constitution and continually trampling on political, economic, social and civil rights, there is need to continue broadening the unity of ever-widening sections of the people and further intensify mass protests. | IN THEIR SCHEME TO CHANGE THE CONSTITUTION, ESTRADA AND HIS ILK ARE PLANNING THE WHOLESALE AUCTION OF THE NATIONAL PATRIMONY AND WHATEVER IS LEFT OF THE PHILIPPINES' ECONOMIC SOVEREIGNTY TO FOREIGN MONOPOLY CAPITALISTS. |
There is need to continue and further enhance the cooperation of militant organizations with genuinely progressive and positive forces, respected institutions and disfranchised sections of the ruling class on the basis of a united stand against fascism. There is need to thwart Estrada's attempts to divide the antifascist united front through threats and bribes.
Serving as the solid core of this united front are the militant organizations of the toiling masses, especially those of the workers, which constituted the biggest organized group in the August 20 rally. The perseverance of militant workers and the toiling masses in opposing oil price hikes, struggling for wage increases and resisting other policies that are a burden to them emboldens and raises the fighting spirit of the antifascist front.
It is the Party's task to march at the lead of the united front of anti-Estrada forces and oppose the anti-democratic and antipeople schemes of Estrada while intensifying the guerrilla war in the countryside and strengthening and expanding the people's unity to achieve the revolutionary transformation of society.
| 
