5. A FASCIST PUPPET DICTATORSHIP AMIDST CRISIS

The setting-up of the fascist dictatorial regime of the U.S.-Marcos clique is the clearest manifestation that the ruling political system is wracked by a crisis that it can no longer deal with in the old way. The fascist puppet dictatorship is a counterrevolutionary measure of weakness and desperation rather than of strength. A whole series of terrorist acts, capped by the second Plaza Miranda massacre, was unleashed by the Marcos ruling clique to pave the way for it. These events and the subsequent imposition of a fascist martial rule and of a conspicuously autocratic rule have incurred the profoundest hatred of the people and have intensified their desire for revolutionary change and for national freedom and democracy.

The mastermind behind the fascist dictatorship is U.S. imperialism. The fascist dictatorship has been set up to make sure that under a "new constitution" the privileges and interests of U.S. imperialism under the 1935 Constitution, the Parity Amendment and the Laurel-Langley Agreement are not only preserved but even enlarged in the face of the growing anti-imperialist struggle of the broad masses of the people and furthermore to harden the Philippines as a base of U.S. imperialism in the western rim of the Pacific and in Asia and in the face of the failed U.S. war of aggression in Indochina. As a reward, Marcos is allowed to remain in power indefinitely for as long as he can be useful to U.S. imperialism and, of course, for as long as his ambition does not go beyond being the general representative of and even becoming the wealthiest by far of the comprador big bourgeoisie and the big landlord class.

The fascist dictator Marcos keeps on prating about his unjust regime being a "new society." But in fact its monstrous abuses have only served to stress that it is but the worsening of the old semicolonial and semifeudal society. We are witness today to unbridled puppetry, brutality, corruption and bankruptcy. Among the local reactionaries, the fascist chieftain, his family and his closest subalterns in the military and civil bureaucracy are the most outstanding beneficiaries of the puppet, brutal, corrupt and bankrupt "new society."

In essence, the fascist dictatorship is the open terrorist rule of a reactionary clique with big comprador and big landlord interests. The longer it continues in power the more fertile the ground becomes for our people's war. By negative example, Marcos has stood as the best teacher of the people on the state and revolution. In this sense, he is our best propagandist. He has superbly exposed every evil in this semicolonial and semifeudal society by his own lies and misdeeds. His usurpation of all governmental powers; elimination of all legal political parties; monopolization of the press; and the brutal repression of all democratic liberties by such methods as massacre, assassination, zoning, forced mass evacuation, bombardment and arson, blackmail, extortion, illegal arrest, illegal detention and torture have proven beyond doubt the necessity and justness of armed revolution against armed counterrevolution.

All the fascist acts of the U.S.-Marcos clique carried out with brute armed force are calculated to "stabilize" the rule of U.S. imperialism and the local reactionary classes over the broad masses of the people. But the essential effect of such acts has been to widen and deepen the armed resistance. The New People's Army under the leadership of the Party has waged more battles than ever before against the enemy and has established more guerrilla bases and guerrilla zones than ever before. Party and non-Party activists, who in the period before Proclamation No. 1081 had waged mass struggles against the same U.S.- Marcos clique, have in considerable number joined the revolutionary armed struggle in the field or have formed a strong revolutionary underground at various strategic points in the country.

The Bangsa Moro Army which is far better armed than the New People's Army has so far waged the biggest battles against the enemy and have inflicted severe losses on him in troops and equipment. The revolutionary armed struggle of the national minorities for self-determination and against national oppression in Southwestern Mindanao has helped in a big way the New People's Army in various parts of the country by drawing a great part of the enemy's land, sea and air forces. In return, we are doing our best to wage a people's war in our own areas so as to force the enemy to move helter-skelter. At the moment, we are witness to an enemy with the big dilemma of attending to far south and to far north.

There are no siginificant armed forces opposing the fascist dictatorial regime, except the New People's Army and the Bangsa Moro Army. In Luzon, Visayas and the greater part of Mindanao, there is no significant armed resistance except that waged by the New People's Army. We might say that these areas we are faced with a unified reaction. There is no open war among the reactionaries here. There has been a lot of talk about the "Filipino Freedom Fighters," an outfit supposedly run by an anti-Marcos group with some U.S. support, but so far even after two years of fascist martial rule it appears to be a mere token force given to issuing occasional manifestoes threatening some strange mixture of coup d'etat and guerilla warfare. True to their original and essential character, the Lava revisionist renegades have openly surrendered to the U.S. Marcos clique and are blatantly collaborating on hunting down revolutionaries and swindling the masses. There is no way but treat these revisionist fascist diehards as traitors and spies.

Because there is no open war among the reactionaries where it is, the New People's Army is faced with a unified fascist reaction. This means to say that the enemy can launch stronger offensives against us than otherwise in any particular area which he chooses to concentrate on. This is certainly a disadvantage for us. In this regard, we have no alternative but to study and apply the correct strategy and tactics of dealing with enemy campaigns. However, experience has shown that no matter how far the armed resistance in Southwestern Mindanao is, it has induced the enemy to drastically reduce his forces in Cagayan valley since March 1973.

There is a long-term advantage in the New People's Army being the only armed force regarded by the people as their own in at least ninety per cent of the Philippine territory. It becomes easier and simpler for the middle forces to choose which side they must support. The choice becomes easier and simpler, indeed, the worse that the enemy becomes. The confidence and trust of the broad masses of the people in the New People's Army is so great and resounding despite the present smallness and weakness of this army, because it is all that they have against the fascist tyranny.

The economic crisis which has been the basis of the crisis of the entire reactionary political system even previous to the Marcos rightist coup has become far worse under the fascist dictatorship. This economic crisis makes everyone of the people throughout the country suffer no matter how it may appear that he is not directly the victim of the political and military abuses of the fascist dictatorship. Linking the fascist puppet dictatorship with the people's economic suffering is the single method which has made our propaganda for armed revolution most effective. Since long before the fascist martial rule, the broad masses of the people have comprehended the responsibility of the U.S. Marcos clique for the economic crisis.

A runaway inflation; rampant unemployment; accelerated increase of the tax burden; continuous devaluation of the currency; food, fuel and fertilizer shortages; unlimited entry of foreign capital and unlimited remittances of profits; enormous foreign trade deficits covered up by technical smuggling and false statistical figures; excessive foreign and domestic borrowings; ever increasing military expenditures; and inflationary deficit spending on "infrastructures" which fatten the imperialist banks and foreign contractors, serve the colonial trade pattern and the plunder of the country's natural resources and are opportunities for enormous graft and corruption and land speculation with the loot monopolized by the fascist dictator. All these conspicuous ills characterize the fascist dictatorial regime. The deterioration of the economy is so rapid that Party cadres must keep close watch on fast-changing economic data.

The broad masses of the people suffer from the combination of political and economic abuses. As the economy deteriorates, political tyranny aggravates. To be able to continue exploiting the people, the fascist dictatorial regime of the U.S.-Marcos clique resorts to enlarging its armed forces, buying more military equipment and bribing officers and men with promotions in rank and increases in salary, allowances and other privileges. Increased expenditures for such a parasitic entity as the military result in further deterioration of the economy. More exploitation and more oppression engender more resistance, then, another round of military expenditures by the fascist dictatorship in a vicious cycle of its own making.

With complete callousness, the fascist dictatorship has been proclaiming throughout the world that it has succeeded in keeping Philippine labor cheap for the imperialists to exploit. Indeed, the U.S.-Marcos clique for several years already has so preserved the backward conditions of the country that there is an abundance of the unemployed. Now, under martial rule, labor power is made even cheaper than before. The workers are deprived of their trade union rights, especially their right to strike, even as the prices of basic commodities are skyrocketing. Whenever they demand higher wages, the workers are openly intimidated with armed force by the fascist military and are liable to be arbitrarily suspended or dismissed by their employers. The "new labor code" systematizes the suppression of workers' rights under the pincer attack of the fascist government and the big bourgeoisie. To maintain a general state of intimidation, the fascist military and police often conduct raids and zoning operations on factories and workers' communities.

The peasants are callously told that if they wish to have their own piece of land, they must enter into contracts with their landlords whereby they are required to make installment payments so exorbitant that they cannot make good even the first installment. This is what is bandied about as "land reform." The peasants are also required to pay high land taxes; special levies on the sale of their produce; membership dues and special fees for the "barangay" and "barrio association" and fixed contributions to the so-called "savings fund" and "barrio guarantee fund." Further on they are required to pay high interest rates on overpriced fertilizers from the Marcos-owned Planters Products under the "Masagana 99" program and increasing fees for irrigation wherever this is available. Some "insurance" and "medicare" schemes are also afoot to suck more blood from the peasant masses. All over the country the "barangays" are under orders to set up "civilian home defense forces"; these entail extra expenditures by the peasants and also reduce their working hours in the fields as they are forced to make "rondas." Where the people's army is already in the midst of the peasant masses, the enemy resorts to the most brutal military operations which include forced mass evacuation, massacre, looting, arson and indiscriminate bombing and strafing.

Like the toiling masses, the urban petty bourgeoisie detest the fascist dictatorship. The bare essence of the reactionary state in the service of imperialist, big comprador and feudal interests has become fully and concretely exposed to them and in their day-to-day lives their limited incomes are not exempt from the ravages of an inflation generated locally and imported from abroad. The fascist dictatorship has gone so berserk as to suppress all the democratic liberties and persecute tens of thousands of democratic personalities who belong either to the urban petty bourgeoisie or whom this social stratum highly respects. Abuses by the fascist dictator and his military minions have become so widespread that every single urban petty bourgeois either has directly experienced some abuse by them or knows a relative or personal friend abused by them. The urban petty bourgeoisie recognize clearly that an atmosphere of intimidation and terror is being whipped up to keep Marcos in power and to promote the interests of foreign and feudal exploiters.

The national bourgeoisie, especially the lower and middle sections, find themselves cast away by the fascist dictatorship. They are being forced into bankruptcies. The foreign monopoly firms have become even more rapacious in their activities in the Philippines as they try to make up for their losses and difficulties elsewhere in the world. It is the shameless policy of the fascist dictatorship to link its existence with the sell-out of the country to foreign monopoly capitalists, principally American and Japanese. Under the Marcos constitution, Investment Incentives Act, Export Incentives Act and so many specific fascist decrees, the U.S. and other foreign monopoly capitalists are enjoying privileges surpassing those under the 1935 Constitution and the Laurel-Langley Agreement with its parity clause. They are rapidly enlarging their holdings, crushing the national bourgeoisie, taking over all sorts of businesses and opportunities, and plundering the country with complete abandon.

While it is true that we are faced with a unified fascist reaction in Luzon, Visayas and the greater part of Mindanao, this is but the surface of a situation in which the broad masses of the people are seething with hatred for the enemy and are enthusiastically supporting the early beginning of our people's war. Beneath the apparent strength of the enemy is the deep-going crisis and an irremediable rottenness. If not for the broad support that they enjoy, our small armed units would not be able to last long against the powerful assaults of the enemy.