In the coming months and years, it is the task of the national-democratic movement to earnestly carry out mass propaganda and organizing. Every effort should be made to reach millions upon millions of people in factories, communities, campuses, offices and others. They must advance their struggles primarily against price increases, for higher wages and salaries, jobs and livelihoods, and against US military intervention and its war preparations and provocations.

Take advantage of the favorable situation to further the task of arousing, organizing and mobilizing all democratic sectors of the Filipino people, especially the workers, peasants and the broad masses of the toiling people.

Gather the growing indignation of the Filipino people against the oppressive, fascist and puppet US-Marcos regime that has brought them greater misery, poverty and suffering. In the past two years under Marcos, the economy and people’s livelihood have plunged, state terrorism and repression of democratic rights have intensified, corruption and greed have worsened, and the puppet regime’s subservience to the political and military intervention of US imperialism has deepened.

The anti-people, anti-poor and pro-imperialist policies of Ferdinand Marcos Jr have led to the further deterioration of the economy and people’s livelihood, which Duterte left in shambles. Since Marcos took over, the prices of rice and other basic goods and services have skyrocketed. In an effort to attract foreign investment, Marcos has prevented increases in the minimum wages of workers and the salaries of ordinary employees, which now cover only half their families’ daily living expenses.

Marcos has failed to solve the serious problem of unemployment, especially among the youth. Worse, Marcos paved the way for big foreign capitalists and their big bourgeois allies to seize the land, fishing grounds, homes and livelihoods of the masses of toiling people, and even of the petty bourgeoisie in the countryside and urban areas. Millions upon millions of Filipinos have no jobs, no decent work or adequate income. Marcos has pushed for greater import liberalization, further killing local production, and crippling and bankrupting the economy. The Filipino’s debt burden has increased as a result of Marcos’ rapid borrowing. Marcos’ claims of “growth” are empty and false, and merely obscure the steady deterioration of the conditions of the broad masses of the people.

Marcos unleashed his fascist military and police agents in order to relentlessly attack the hungry and angry people. In hundreds of rural barangays, the military rules under the guise of “community service” and “village development”. In the cities, factory and office unions, poor community groups, campus organizations, associations of women, church people, human rights defenders, environmentalists and so on, are subjected to surveillance. People are intimidated to “surrender” or “return to the folds of law” in an attempt to silence them, break their unity, and suppress their resistance.

Marcos uses the twin Anti-Terrorism Law and the Anti-Terrorism Financing Law, to carry out left and right arrests, filing of false charges, and detention. In the countryside, human rights abuses, killings and massacres of civilians, and other violations of international humanitarian law continue unabated. Terrorist aerial bombings, strafings and artillery shelling are carried out relentlessly, to strike fear into the hearts of the population.

Under Marcos, the rotten core of the ruling system is further exposed. Since his return to Malacañang, Marcos has successively dismissed the cases against his family related to the hundreds of billions of pesos of wealth accumulated during the dictatorship. In a sign of the crisis of the ruling system, Marcos’ greed for bureaucratic corruption and privilege is insatiable. He holds hundreds of billions of pesos in the Maharlika Investment Fund to benefit his cronies and favorite officials.

Marcos now controls the smuggling of rice, sugar, and other agricultural contraband. Marcos snatched away major government contracts from Duterte’s hands, such as the Mindanao railway project, and other large infrastructure projects. This is one of the causes of the eventual breakup of their supposed “unity” and intensifying conflicts between the rival factions of the ruling classes.

While Duterte bowed to China and was dominated the US, Marcos completely surrendered the Philippines’ freedom and independence to US imperialism. In exchange for military aid, political support and promises of investment, Marcos built the US more military bases and facilities throughout the country to preposition foreign troops and weapons. Marcos has allowed the US to use the Philippines as a base for its military operations in line with its geopolitical strategy against its imperialist rival China. Not a day goes by that the US does not use the Philippine land and sea for war exercises and preparations. Under the guise of defending the West Philippine Sea, Marcos has allowed the US to use the AFP and Philippine Coast Guard to launch provocative operations against China and to justify the possible invocation of the Mutual Defense Treaty when the US wishes.

The future of the entire country is bleak and the situation of the Filipino people is certain to worsen under the US-Marcos regime and the rotten state of the ruling classes. The entire people must rise up and act together to defend their national and democratic interests. Marcos is now the number one burden on the shoulders of the masses of the people, the number one terrorist, the number one in corruption, the number one puppet of US imperialism and the number one traitor to the country’s freedom and security. The US-Marcos regime is number one being exposed, condemned and opposed by the Filipino people.

Persevere in all areas of resistance. From factory strikes, to rallies in schools, offices, communities and streets, to challenging the reactionary elections, to armed struggle in the countryside, the broad masses must give form to their anger and their profound contempt of Marcos, and take action to denounce and shake the foundations of his reign.