PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

Regime's anti-people acts are rousing the people to unite against Arroyo
January 19, 2005

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is rousing the Filipino people to clamor for her removal from office. The measures and policies she pursues aggravate the Filipino people's sufferings and further enrage them. In the past several days, her regime has committed successive acts that are patently antipeople and completely insensitive to the people's welfare.

These are bound to cause greater hardships to the toiling masses and catalyze them to take action against the antipeople and puppet Arroyo government.

1. In accordance with the wishes of the Cojuangco family to smash the workers' union at the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT) and retaliate against the striking workers, the Arroyo regime has ordered the dismissal of 35 leaders of the CAT Labor Union (CATLU). The Arroyo regime used the full weight of antilabor laws to declare the CAT strike illegal. Its supposed role as an "arbiter" between the Cojuangcos and the CAT workers is a farce. It has discarded the worker's urgent demand for a P100 increase in daily wages and instead ordered an insulting P12 increase.

   The CPP and the entire revolutionary movement deplore the pro-Cojuangco, pro-landlord and pro-big bourgeois comprador stand of the Arroyo regime with regard to the CAT strike. Such acts of the Arroyo regime are bound to further inflame the workers of CAT, prolong their strike and generate greater sympathy and support.

2. In an effort to please the International Monetary Fund and other foreign creditors, the Arroyo regime is pushing vigorously for a 20% increase in the VAT, among other new antipeople tax measures. These tax measures will cause a further increase in the prices of goods and services, even as the government's continued prioritization of military spending and the onerous foreign debt can only lead to the further deterioration of public services.

   The Filipino people are outraged at how congressmen are being directed by Malaca�ang to railroad the bill calling for a VAT increase and several other tax measures and in the same breath, block the passage of the bill calling for a P125 legislated wage increase. The Arroyo regime is clearly acting in behalf of its foreign creditors and foreign big capitalists against the wishes and interests of the Filipino people.

3. Arroyo is all the more infuriating the Filipino people by propagating the shameless lie that the Filipino people "are not poor" and that unemployment is "not that bad". She has resorted to desperate measures to gloss over the gross reality of mass poverty and mass unemployment. Arroyo has the gall to call herself an economist when what she manifests is the same logical reasoning as that of an Imelda Marcos. Like Imelda, she manipulates statistics and draws absurd conclusions in a desperate attempt to prettify grotesque social realities.

4. In its zealousness to push its so-called antiterror drive, the Arroyo regime has heightened efforts to clamp down on Moro communities in Metro Manila and elsewhere, sowing terror and trampling on the civil and political rights of the Moro people. Arroyo's armed minions arrested without warrant 17 residents of Moro communities in Manila and falsely accused them of planning to bomb a procession of Catholic devotees in Quiapo on January 9.

   The Arroyo government seeks to drive a wedge between the Filipino and Moro people by deliberately stoking religious, cultural and political prejudices against the Moro minority. She, however, cannot stop the growing unity between the Filipino and Moro people who both see a need to forge a united stand against their common enemy--the oppressive Arroyo government.

These successive antipeople acts in the past several days add to the Arroyo regime's growing list of crimes against the Filipino people which includes, among others, incessant increases in the prices of oil and other basic commodities, heightened bureaucratic corruption from the ranks of military generals to members and relatives of the First Family, cuts in government social spending, heightened militarism and the unprecedented intensification of human rights violations.

By committing such acts, the Arroyo regime has further intensified the Filipino people's desire to put an end to her corrupt, puppet and militarist regime. Even surveys cannot help but reflect this widespread clamor to end the Arroyo government. The hatred against the Arroyo regime is most intense among workers and peasants, but is strong as well among the middle social strata that include students, teachers, government employees and professionals reeling from the social crisis and outraged by the Arroyo regime's massive corruption.

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is dreadful of a broad united front standing up against her regime. She, however, trusts that the fragmented political opposition will fail to unite, considering that the main personalities of the elite opposition are mutually distrustful of each other's secret dealings with Malaca�ang. She also trusts that the loyalty she has cultivated among military generals will be able to preempt any mutiny or coup attempts.

At this point, the leading efforts of mass-based people's organizations will play a key role in the building of an anti-Arroyo united front. These forces have been the most militant and steadfast in fighting the corrupt, antipeople and puppet Arroyo regime. National democratic forces, in particular, wield a broad influence and are capable of uniting a wide range of sectors, groups and parties into an anti-Arroyo broad alliance.

The strength of an anti-Arroyo united front will be amplified in the course of widespread mass actions mobilizing the people on a wide range of issues. There is bound to be a groundswell of protests this year against tax measures, rising prices and corruption and demonstrations demanding wage increases as the crisis continues to sharpen and cause greater hardships on the people.

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



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