Central Committee

December 26, 1991

The Political Crisis Is Worsening

The socioeconomic crisis continues to fuel the political crisis of the ruling system. The rivalries of the political parties and factions of the exploiting classes are becoming more bitter and more violent. The ruling system is increasingly being weakened internally as it escalates its attacks on the people.

The objective conditions for waging the armed revolution are better than ever. The crisis of the ruling system under the U.S.- Aquino ruling clique is far worse than under the U.S.-Marcos ruling clique. The current regime is thoroughly isolated. The people are desirous of a change of government; and they are in a revolutionary mood.

There is no doubt whatsoever that due to the chronic crisis of the system and the ceaseless aggravation of the crisis, the objective situation is fluid, volatile and favorable for bigger mass actions by the legal democratic forces and for accelerated tactical offensives by the people's army. It can also be said that the subjective forces of the revolution are certainly stronger than in the earlier periods of revolutionary upsurge (as, for instance, in 1970-72). But there are problems besetting the revolutionary forces that reduce their capacity and effectiveness to take advantage of the situation.

These problems need to be identified and solved through an all-round rectification movement in order to enable the subjective forces of the revolution to take advantage of the fluid crisis-ridden situation and cause the revolutionary mass movement to surge forward. There are deepseated and long-running problems that have reduced the capacity of the Party to lead the masses at the basic level in both urban and rural areas. These problems should not be glossed over by casuistic argumentations over whether it can be said that the objective conditions are fluid or not.

Since July 1990, the acutely critical conditions in the country have been favorable for an upsurge in the revolutionary mass movement in the urban areas. But neither sweeping agitation for an "immediate insurrection" to crack the ruling system nor the scheme to degrade the revolutionary forces by building a paper alliance (with peace negotiations as its main concern supposedly in order to swing the middle forces and the unpoliticized masses to the Left in preparation for an "insurrection that would lead to a sharing of power in a coalition government in the medium term") has brought about a great upsurge in the revolutionary mass movement. The revolutionary forces should neither be too far ahead (thus the need for the united front) nor too far behind (thus the need for revolutionary integrity) if allies and the masses are to be galvanized for an upsurge of protest actions on definite burning issues.

In the countryside, the objective of solving the problem of "regularization" and correcting the imbalances in the deployment of cadres and resources in favor of extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare on the basis of an ever expanding and consolidating mass base is precisely to enable the people's army to launch more effectively the tactical offensives within the strategic defensive. Our guerrilla fighters must wage only those battles that they are capable and sure of winning.

Although stimulated by the favorable objective situation, the subjective forces of the revolution, the Party and other revolutionary organizations, have to know the measure of their strength, rectify errors and shortcomings and undertake all necessary measures to preserve and further strengthen themselves. In leading the masses, the Party must arouse, organize and mobilize them. Consequently, it can launch legal mass actions and armed tactical offensives that can be won within the strategic defensive.

The rectification of insurrectionism does not mean that we stop calling for and undertaking those mass actions within our capability. Neither does the rectification of "regularization" mean that we stop calling for and undertaking increased tactical offensives within our capability.

There is a stampede by some eight political figures seeking to replace the already isolated president in the forthcoming elections. But the more potent of the various reactionary political forces are those that have a substantial share of government resources, access to campaign money from the big U.S., Japanese and Taiwan-Chinese firms and the local exploiting classes and have a considerable armed following inside and outside the reactionary military and police forces.

It is expected that money and blood will flow to decide which candidates will win at the highest level as well as at lower levels. The stakes are extremely high in the contest between the Aquino and the Marcos factions even as they seem to have made secret deals regarding the question of stolen assets and human rights violations. The most formidable competing teams in the elections are offshoots of the Aquino and Marcos factions. But there are also the other parties that wish to take advantage of the main split within the ruling system.

It is the notion of the U.S. and local reactionaries that a brief electoral campaign period, elections for a day in a multiparty circus and making a choice among candidates of the exploiting classes can delude the people and make them believe that there is democracy. Thus the elections are supposed to stabilize the neocolony. But in fact these elections split the ruling system. The fragmentation of the exploiting classes is such that the winning party and presidential candidate are unlikely to garner more than 50 percent of the electorate.

Whoever gets elected president from whichever party will have to work out compromises with allies but will be faced with powerful opposition within the system. If the Aquino ruling clique retains power through a dummy presidential figure and cheats in the elections, there will probably be some major political violence soon after the elections. And yet even if the current ruling clique prevails, the Aquino family will have increasing differences with whomever may be its presidential front man.

The ruling system will become more fractious, weak and volatile. The commanders of the reactionary armed forces will become more ambitious as the political and economic crisis worsens, even as the same reactionary military and police forces remain fragmented into several factions. At the moment, there are as many as five of these military factions: the Aquino faction, the Ramos faction, the pro-Marcos Soldiers of the Filipino People (SFP), the pro-Enrile Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabayan (RAM) and the Young Officers' Union (YOU). These factions will not disappear despite the efforts of the United States to reunify them and concentrate them against the revolutionary movement. The reorganization of the Philippine Constabulary and the local police forces into the Philippine National Police creates additional conditions for fragmentation and allows local executive officials to cultivate their own armed following within the PNP in so many fiefdoms.

At the moment, the AFP and the PNP continue to coordinate in launching campaigns of suppression against the revolutionary forces and the people. But there is a growing division between the military and police forces not only because of clashing loyalties to political groups but also because of clashing interests over criminal activities and tong collection from gambling, prostitution and other vices.

In conducting operations against the Party, the NPA and NDF, the military and police forces appear to coordinate very well only because there are crack intelligence units directed by U.S. and Filipino intelligence officers who take advantage of the urban basing of the staff organs of the revolutionary movement and the identifiability of revolutionary personnel who are on the enemy manhunt list and yet are in these staff organs. Upon the withdrawal of such personnel to the countryside, the enemy will be deprived of easy targets.

All Party members and Red fighters must grasp the point that when the military and police forces are fractious and the ruling clique feels threatened by a coup d'etat, it concentrates its forces in the citadel and therefore makes it difficult for revolutionary forces to seize this citadel before the backbone of the enemy military forces is broken in the countryside. The illusion of hastening the seizure of the cities mainly through urban activities and urban concentration of cadres, who are on the enemy manhunt list, must be cast away.

The very perseverance of the revolutionary forces and the people along the strategic line of encircling the cities from the countryside and accumulating strength through tactical offensives within the strategic defensive serves to weaken and crack the ruling system, as more and more resources are misdirected towards the military, police and paramilitary forces rather than towards other purposes. As the armed revolutionary movement and the legal democratic mass movement grow in strength, the ruling system weakens and cracks further.

The enemy is already under severe political and economic strain in pursuing his total war policy. He deploys brigades to concentrate on certain guerrilla fronts and in the process assaults and abuses the people but fails to destroy the guerrilla forces that are closely linked with the masses on a wide scale in far more guerrilla fronts than he can pounce on.

The broad masses of the people reject the ruling system and detest its military, police and paramilitary forces as they go on a rampage of killing, looting and burning to force the peasant masses to leave their homes and farms. The Aquino regime's six-year record of human rights violations surpasses any six years of the Marcos fascist record in terms of disappearances, assassinations, illegal detention, torture, arson, bombings, strafing, food blockades, strategic hamlets and forced mass evacuation of people.

More than a million people have been displaced and turned into refugees by military operations. The military forces use blind bombing, artillery fire and strafing, massacre people, burn homes and crops and compel the people to flee from targeted areas in different parts of the archipelago. Several tens of thousands of people have been rounded up and illegally detained in both rural and urban areas. Worse than during the Marcos fascist regime, the military, police and paramilitary forces can kidnap people at will under the Supreme Court doctrine of warrantless arrest. Thousands have been subjected to torture and extrajudicial execution. Others are languishing in prison because their right to bail is violated or nonbailable charges are maliciously filed against them.

Hundreds of priests and pastors, human rights lawyers, journalists, leaders of legal progressive political parties and other well-respected personalities have been assassinated or have been made to disappear. The military has been more brutal under the Aquino regime than under the Marcos regime in this regard. Thousands of leaders and activists of the working class, peasantry and youth have been murdered.

The Aquino regime has viciously attacked the patriotic and progressive forces that consistently fought against the Marcos fascist regime. And yet under U.S. auspices, the Aquino and Marcos political factions of the same exploiting classes try to exercise restraint in fighting each other and even forge agreements on stolen assets. There is certainly close kinship between Marcos and Aquino not only in corruption but also in the continuing violation of human rights.

But the people are not helpless. They are determined to fight for their national and democratic rights. The struggle between armed revolution and counterrevolution is still at the center of the stage. The guerrilla forces of the New People's Army continue to wipe out enemy units, inflict casualties and accumulate strength. They are resolved to expand and consolidate the mass base for their self-reliant revolutionary armed struggle.

Far more significant than the electoral farces and institutional games played by the already isolated ruling clique are the strengthening of the patriotic and progressive mass organizations and the launching of mass actions and campaigns to promote the rights and interests of the workers, peasants, fishermen, women, youth, professionals, small businessmen and other people.

The broad mass movement has taken up the issues of national independence and democracy. Among these major issues taken up by information campaigns and mass actions are the following: U.S. military bases, IMF economic policy dictates, foreign debt, oil price increases, wages and workers' rights, land reform, human rights violations, the regime's total war policy, women's rights, education, ecology and peace.

Strikes and protest rallies and marches have been carried out. The most outstanding of these in the year have been the demonstration of nearly a hundred thousand people in February at Mendiola bridge and the May First workers' rally and march on the U.S. embassy. On the issue of the U.S. military bases, the militant mass organizations and alliances have been able to inspire the majority of Philippine senators to reject the draft treaty agreed upon by the regime and the U.S. government.

The struggle against the U.S. military presence is far from over. The U.S. government is still in a position to deal with the next reactionary regime for the retention of the Subic naval base. The JUSMAG, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. control over all radar stations in the country will persist until they are removed by the people's revolutionary struggle.

The legal democratic mass movement has high hopes of advancing further in the year ahead. The mass organizations and alliances have shown their determination to bring the struggle for national liberation and democracy to a new and higher level.

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