Take advantage of intensifying conflicts among the reactionaries
The Macapagal-Arroyo regime is fast becoming isolated from the Filipino people due to its failure to resolve socio-economic problems, its severe corruption, its having completely allowed the entry of American troops, its militarism and scuttling of the peace process.
In demonstrations held in Manila and other parts of the country on May 1, about 75,000 workers called for the ouster of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime. Prior to this, thousands of women staged a demonstration and assailed Macapagal-Arroyo as a "traitor to the motherland". Since February, there have been continuing protests in Manila and other cities against the launching of Balikatan. There have also been successive demonstrations by various oppressed sectors in defense of their interests.
The Macapagal-Arroyo regime is fast becoming isolated even from the urban petty bourgeoisie who participated in their numbers in the EDSA 2 demonstrations. More and more of them are joining alliances of various patriotic and democratic forces against issues like corruption, the oil price hike, rising charges for electricity and water services and US armed intervention.
Macapagal-Arroyo's labored attempts to deodorize herself
Even surveys conducted by bourgeois institutions could not cover up the fact that Macapagal-Arroyo's popularity is fast declining. Macapagal-Arroyo desperately tried to improve her popularity by issuing new P200 bills with the images of her father, a former president, at the obverse and hers at the reverse; by visiting urban poor communities and making a show of giving out land titles; and coming up with other sophisms. A multi-million peso advertisement that had planned to depict her as "Ina ng Bayan" (the people's mother) and deodorize her image, failed and was pelted with criticism.
Another gimmick that Macapagal-Arroyo had intended to enhance her image involved seizing the initiative in calling for a summit of all political parties in the country, a plan originally conceived by the reactionary opposition. In the so-called All Political Parties Conference held on May 3-5, Macapagal-Arroyo, together with Speaker Jose de Venecia, convened 21 political parties, mostly identified with her own camp. This included Lakas-NUCD, Nationalist People's Coalition, Liberal Party, Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas and a number of small opportunist party-list groups.
The Macapagal-Arroyo camp had intended to use the conference to unite with various political parties on certain political agenda. But the conference was boycotted by the leading reactionary opposition parties, the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino and the PDP-Laban. In justifying their move, they cited an alleged plan to arrest some opposition leaders and the blocking by the police of workers and other demonstrators from Southern Tagalog en route to Manila to join a rally on May 1.
Bayan Muna likewise refused to attend in protest of the severe violence and suppression being perpetrated against its leaders and forces by the state's armed forces. Bayan Muna likewise had no interest in attending a gathering of elitist political parties and assisting in efforts to enhance the image of the ruling clique.
The participants to the conference resolved to convene a constitutional convention to amend the reactionary 1987 constitution (see related article) among other matters. But this remains a proposal and must go through the legislative wringer.
The conference turned out to be an exercise in futility, with the Macapagal-Arroyo camp talking to itself.
Conflicts within the Macapagal-Arroyo camp
The intensification of long-simmering conflicts within the Macapagal-Arroyo camp has recently burst out in the open. A faction within the camp has formed the Freedom Force led by Teodoro Benigno, Cesar Sarino, Pastor Saycon, Peping Cojuangco, former PNP Chief Supt. Florencio Fianza among others. Benigno was Press Secretary under former president Corazon Aquino and is now a newspaper columnist. Cesar Sarino is known to be close to former president Fidel Ramos. Pastor Saycon heads the Council of Philippine Affairs (COPA), one of the groups that ousted the Estrada regime. COPA had even then wanted to set up a civilian-military junta, but was unable to do so when it was overtaken by the sudden turn of events in Edsa 2. There are allegedly 19 high-ranking military and police officials behind this group now.
The Freedom Force says it fears that "the deteriorating conditions in the country are in danger of being exploited by the extreme Left and extreme Right", and has thus proposed to replace the current leadership with the "collective leadership of the middle forces".
The group, however, failed in its attempt to secure the blessing of Jaime Cardinal Sin.
Malacañang also took action to prevent the group from using government facilities. Pastor Saycon's wife Maria Montelibano was removed from her post as IBC 13 director. The group has been silenced for now.
Estrada camp's desperation
From the very beginning, the Macapagal-Arroyo regime has wanted to strike a compromise with the Estrada camp to protect the stability of the current government.
Among others, the compromises that the regime had been prepared to grant included the extension of several privileges to Estrada during detention and allowing him to take a trip to the US supposedly to seek medical treatment. In exchange, the Estrada camp secretly offered to stop destabilizing the Macapagal-Arroyo regime. But all this has come to naught with the persistent vigilance of militant groups.
Since May 1, 2001, the Estrada camp has been attempting to overthrow Macapagal-Arroyo by funding and instigating attacks on Malacañang. Conflicts between the two camps have escalated to this level.
The Estrada camp planned a new round of actions for April and May this year to challenge the regime. Part of the plan was a drama that had Estrada refusing to participate in his trial. The Estradas wanted to gain public sympathy and use this to incite street demonstrations and other actions outside of the legal or constitutional framework. But such attempts by the Estrada camp failed and immediately fizzled out.
Due to the regime's fears of a repeat of last year's incident, it deployed an excessive number of police forces around Malacañang and other areas in Manila to block pro-Estrada forces from any attempt to reattack Malacañang this May 1. They arrested the leader of the People's Movement Against Poverty (PMAP) responsible for busing in pro-Estrada demonstrators.
To attain bigger numbers for their demonstration on May 1, they coordinated with the opportunist and counterrevolutionary group Sanlakas. The People's Consultative Assembly (PCA), erstwhile pro-Ramos and also a former ally of the Macapagal-Arroyo camp, has likewise joined the Estrada camp. But the Estrada camp failed to mobilize enough forces and resorted to psywar instead to intimidate the regime. In its intensifying desperation to return to power, the Estrada camp will continue to foment even more trouble and schemes before and during the 2004 elections.
Favorable to the revolutionary movement
The further isolation of the ruling regime and the trend towards violent conflicts among reactionary factions are favorable to the revolutionary movement. This must be taken advantage of to the fullest to strengthen the revolutionary forces and target the principal agent of US imperialism. At the same time, it is necessary to explain to the people the difference between the progressive and revolutionary forces on the one hand, and the various reactionary and opportunist groups courting the support of the masses on the other.
The revolutionary movement will continue to resist the regime currently in power that reeks from the stench of corruption, militarism and puppetry. As the Party has declared, the revolutionary movement is prepared to resist the current regime and succeeding reactionary cliques while it accumulates enough strength to overthrow the entire ruling system.
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