PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

All-out liberalization stoking people's unrest -- CPP
September 14, 2003

The all-out liberalization of trade and investments being pursued by the Philippine government since 1995 is causing widespread unrest among the Filipino people, especially among peasants in the countryside, according to the Communist Party of the Philippines.

"The Arroyo government, consistent with its total obeisance to US imperialism, turns a blind eye to the detrimental effects on the Filipino workers and peasants of imperialist liberalization policies imposed by the World Trade Organization," Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, CPP spokesman said in a statement coinciding with local and worldwide protest actions against the WTO which is holding its 5th Ministerial Meeting in Cancun, Mexico.

In his statement, Rosal also strongly condemned increasing brutal police repression of anti-WTO and anti-government marches, rallies and demonstrations being launched by peasants, workers, urban poor, students and other sectors. In September 10, policemen truncheoned anti-WTO protestors marching along Taft Avenue near the Manila City hall. Rosal blamed increasing state fascism and Malacanang's standing policy to disperse anti-government protests.

"The liberalization push during the past ten years has more and more worsened the crisis of the semicolonial and semifeudal system in the Philippines," Rosal said. "It has caused drastic destruction of productive forces. It has caused massive dislocation of workers driving unemployment to record highs, and severe deterioration in the lives of peasants resulting in widespread hunger and unrest in the countryside."

"The fast-paced growth of the revolutionary mass movement during the past ten years is certainly related to the qualitative deterioration of the economic crisis wrought by the WTO-imposed liberalization drive since 1995," Rosal added. "Hundreds of people are daily being driven to the path of revolutionary struggle because of the unbearable crisis resulting from imperialist 'free market globalization'."

Rosal said Arroyo's record since she was a senator up to the present is consistently anti-Filipino and pro-US imperialist. He recalled that Arroyo was the one who pushed for the ratification of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and membership of the Philippines in the WTO.

"Consistent with her all-out puppetry to US imperialism, Arroyo has pushed for the elimination of trade tariffs even in advance of schedules," Rosal said. "She is a 'globalization'-zealot at a time when there is a growing consensus around the world to put a stop to relentless liberalization."

"Arroyo's puppetry is one of the principal reasons that has incited widespread calls for her ouster," Rosal added.

Rosal said the people should struggle for immediate pull-out of the country from the WTO and eventual dissolution of the WTO itself, as well as the abrogation of all unequal trade and economic agreements with imperialist countries, especially the US and Japan. He called for a stop to the all-out liberalization of the economy.

The CPP spokesman said that the Arroyo regime and the entire ruling system is not at all interested in achieving genuine national industrialization and economic independence. "They are only interested in further oppressing and expoliting the Filipino masses in order to extract greater profits for their insatiable foreign imperialist masters." ###

Reference:
Anne Buenaventura
Media Officer
Cellphone Number: +63910-240-3553



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