Two governments exist in the Philippines: one is revolutionary, the other counterrevolutionary
Prof. Jose Ma. Sison
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
Chief Political Consultant
August 21, 2004
Two governments exist in the Philipines. One is the nationwide revolutionary government of workers and peasants based in the countryside. The other is the counterrevolutiionary government of big compradors and landlords centered in Manila.
The revolutionary government or the people's democratic government (PDG), consisting of organs of democratic power, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) as the leading party, the New People's Army (NPA), the mass organizations and the Filipino people in general are represented by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).
The GRP is the counterrevolutionary government of big compradors and landlords. Periodically it holds elections. But these elections merely seek to conjure the illusion of democratic choice and at the same time to reinforce the rule of the big compradors and landlords. The GRP is the political instrument of these classes for oppressing and exploiting the people.
Candidates and parties that try to represent the rights and interests of the exploited classes of workers and peasants may be allowed to run for elective offices. But in so many ways (including political, military, economic and financial constraints), the ruling classes do not allow them to get more than a few token elective positions.
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is absolutely wrong in presuming that the revolutionary forces and people under the governance of the PDG would rather seek a share of power in the GRP through elections controlled by the exploting classes than build the PDG further in the course of the new democratic revolution through protracted people's war.
There is a fundamental difference between the PDG and the GRP. The PDG fights for national liberation and democracy against US imperialism and the local exploiting classes. The GRP is a puppet government that is servile to the US. It works for the collaboration of the foreign monopoly capitalists, the landlords and the corrupt bureaucracy and military.
Currently, the US and other imperialist governments are sabotaging the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations by maligning and listing the CPP, NPA and the NDFP chief political consultant as "terrorists". They attack and violate the solemn GRP-NDFP agreements, such as The Hague Joint Declaration, the Joint Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).
- They interfere in the internal affairs of the Philippines and violate the principle of national sovereignty and jurisdiction of the Filipino people over events in the Philippines, as upheld by The Hague Joint Declaration.
- They violate the safety and immunity guarantees provided for by the JASIG to all duly-authorized persons in the peace negotiations.
- They transgress the fundamental rights of the people and the Hernandez political offense doctrine upheld in the CARHRIHL.
True to its character as a puppet of US imperialism, the GRP has welcomed and endorsed the renewed "terrorist" listing of the CPP, NPA and NDFP chief political consultant. It has shamelessly allowed the US to interfere in Philippine affairs and violate the national sovereignty and jurisdiction of the Filipino people over events, entities and circumstances in the Philippines.
The US and GRP are engaged in a malicious scheme to put the NDFP under duress in the peace negotiations. The objective of the imperialist master and the puppet government is to intimidate and pressure the NDFP towards capitulation. But the US and GRP can only succeed in torpedoing and sabotaging the peace negotiations. The NDFP's resolute and militant adherence to the line of revolutionary struggle for national liberation and democracy frustrates the US and GRP.
At any rate, the NDFP has taken the just and reasonable position of postponing the formal talks in Oslo, previously scheduled for August 24 to August 30, in order to give the GRP a chance to fulfill its obligations under the Oslo I and Oslo II Joint Statements of February 14 and April 3, 2004, which are as follows:
- Adopt and implement measures effective enough to invalidate and do away with the "terrorist" listing of the CPP, NPA and the NDFP chief political consultant,
- Release all political prisoners who have been detained in violation of the Hernandez political offense doctrine, and
- Expedite the indemnification of the victims of human rights violations under the Marcos regime.
As it fails to fulfill the above obligations, the GRP becomes responsible for the indefinite postponement of the formal talks of the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels and for the probable suspension or even termination of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations.
The GRP is vainly hoping that with the military and psywar aid of the US it can force the capitulation or destruction of the PDG and the revolutionary movement of the people. The US-directed and US-propped Marcos fascist dictatorship failed to destroy the revolutionary movement and unwittingly succeeded in inciting the people to join the revolutionary movement. There is no reason why the Macapagal-Arroyo regime stricken by an exceedingly severe crisis can fare better against a much stronger armed revolutionary movement of the Filipino people.
It is futile for the GRP to expect that the revolutionary forces and people represented by the NDFP would allow the PDG to be dissolved in favor of the GRP and the ruling system of big compradors and landlords.
Certain possibilities exist:
- Negotiated truce and alliance between two governments against
a common enemy like US imperialism or for a common objective like national liberation,
- Continued civil war between the two governments until the PDG defeats the GRP over a protracted period of time, and
- US military intervention escalates into a US war of aggression and the broad masses of the Filipino people respond with a war of national liberation against the foreign aggressors.
The US has enjoyed the status of sole superpower as a consequence of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the prior long-drawn betrayal of socialism by the revisionists and the neocolonial cooptation of third world and other retrogressive countries. But in so short a time, the all-round crisis of the US and world capitalist system has become so grave and so deep that it is driving the people to take the road of anti-imperialist struggle and revolution.
Following the total bankruptcy of "free market" globalization, the escalation of imperialist plunder, terror and war is generating people's resistance on an unprecedented scale against the overstretched No. 1 imperialist and terrorist power. Once again in the history of humanity, it is clear that intense oppression and exploitation drive the proletariat and people to fight for national liberation, democracy, socialism and world peace and progress.###
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