The people must ardently fight and end the reign of the national traitor Duterte. The future of the entire nation and the life of every Filipino are at stake under his unrelenting subservience to imperialist powers.

Duterte seems to have offered the seas and natural resources of the country at the altar of China in exchange for fat contracts which he and his fellow bureaucrat capitalists profit from. On the other hand, he further strengthened US control of the Philippines as a large military base in exchange for its continuous military aid for his brutal and terroristic “counter-insurgency” and “anti-drug” wars.

As he benefits from these, Duterte is deaf to the clamor of the people to fight for genuine freedom and defend the interest of the country in the face of two rivalling imperialist superpowers. If Duterte remains in power, foreign domination, the chronic crisis, and the fascist supression of the national democratic movement in the Philippines will certainly intensify.

The situation in the Philippines is firmly interconnected with the current global situation which is beset by intensifying contradictions among imperialist powers in the fields of economy and trade, diplomacy, politics and military. While the crisis of the global capitalist system remains unresolved, these contradictions and its impact on the Philippines and other semicolonies and will intensify.

Leading imperialist powers, especially the US which remains as the most powerful due to its vast military machinery dispersed across the globe, are at the center of these contradictions. Various imperialist powers are rigorously challenging the dominance of US, especially Russia in the military field, and China in the economic field.

In its desperation to arrest its internal economic crisis, the US is bustling to revive its hegemony.

The US resists the emerging division of the world (in the fields of military and trade) among imperialists under which its spheres of control are being reduced.

Historically, the Philippines has always been important in the geopolitical strategies of imperialist countries. It is sought after by global powers as it is located along major trade routes, especially that going to and from the Indian Ocean, and East and Southeast Asia.

In the past more than a century, the US imposed its control over the Philippines, firstly through direct colonization, and later on, through indirect control. US military bases in the Philippines are used as springboard for deploying military troops in wars of aggression from Vietnam to the Middle East, and also for expanding its market for American products in Asia, especially in China. Almost three decades have passed since these bases were dismantled, but up to the present, hundreds of American troops are permanently stationed in the Philippines and their exclusive facilities in AFP camps continue to multiply.

The subsumption of the Philippines to the colonial and semicolonial domination of the US is the biggest hindrance to the development and advancement of the country. The economy of the Philippines is dominated by American corporations and is directed by the USAID, IMF-WB, and US banks and finance institutions.

China emerged as a capitalist superpower since the beginning of 2000s. It used its hundreds of millions of cheap laborers to absorb productive capital, especially those from the US. Later on, the world market was flooded with cheap products from China. At present, China is threatened by a production slow down due as it has saturated the market with overproduced commodities and capital. In an attempt to mitigate the crisis it is beset in, China is expediting its exportation of capital in the form of loans and extensive infrastructure construction.

As part of these desperate schemes, China has increased its presence in the Philippines over the past years, particularly through exploiting the mineral and other natural resources of the country. China is competing with the US and other capitalist powers in depleting the resources of the Philippines. Simultaneously, it is pouring in infrastructure projects loans used to purchase its overproduced cement and steel.

China acknowleges that the Philippines is a US military stronghold which the latter uses as its seaport and airport, and a launch pad of its war vessels and materiel. For a long period, the US used the Philippines to dominate and control trade activities in the South Chi­na Sea. China saw the need to strengthen its presence and influence in the Philippines amid its intensifying rivalry with the US. This is why it is aggressively asserting its control and claim over vast maritime territories at the western side of the Philippines, exploiting aquatic resources and constructing their military facilities in the said area.
The Philippines is caught between two clashing imperialist giants. The Filipino people should carry their struggle forward for genuine freedom from US control and the intrusion of China.

This struggle is currently focused on fighting against the national traitor Duterte. He must be opposed and held accountable for his contempt of the freedom and sovereignty of the Philippines.

First, his surrender of the rights of the Philippines in the South China Sea, including the sovereign right to the country’s “exclu­sive eco­no­mic zo­ne” must be denounced. He must also be held accountable for corruption and enriching himself through anomalous agreements and loan contracts.

Simultaneously, Duterte’s subservience to US imperialism must be exposed as the foremost imperialist power in the Philippines, especially that it is attempting to use big mass protests against China to conceal or justify the intensification of its intervention and use of the Philippines for its military interests.

Duterte must be opposed and held accountable for paving the way for the increased presence of US military forces in the country through the Ope­ra­ti­on Pacific Eag­le-Phi­lip­pi­nes, and the increasing number of joint exercises and maneuvers of the US military in the Philippines. We must fight the imposition of the US to change the 1987 constitution to completely liberalize the economy of the country to the benefit of foreign big capitalists, whether American or Chinese. This is being carried forward by Duterte to push for the implementation of his bogus federalism or other changes to ensure the expansion of the power of his family.

We must condemn the US and China for supporting the tyrannical rule of Duterte, and hold them accountable, especially the US, for arming its fasicsts agents. The military support received by Duterte’s military from the US reinforces him to carry on with the relentless mass killings, political persecution and supression against those fighting his reign.