Carrying placards, flags, and megaphones, the Filipino youth vigorously advance their patriotic and democratic struggle amid the intensified attacks of the Marcos regime and the National Task Force-Elcac. They refuse to be silenced and reject becoming debilitated or subservient to the state’s fascist dictates.

In recent weeks, the youth spearheaded and joined various activities to expose and denounce the Marcos regime’s anti-people policies. Inside and outside schools, they participate in the people’s struggles.

Actions in universities

Hundreds of youth-students joined demonstrations and activities in private and public universities to mark the opening of classes last month. They highlighted in the mobilizations the issue of education, the defense of their democratic rights, and the fight against the suppression of academic freedom.

More than 1,300 youth protested at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) in Sta. Mesa on September 2 to start the new academic year. At the University of the Philippines (UP)-Los Baños, around 500 students mobilized on August 12. Hundreds also joined rallies in other UP campuses from Baguio, to Diliman, to Visayas and Mindanao.

Actions also took place at the Technological University of the Philippines Manila, Cavite State University, Southern Luzon State University in Quezon, Bicol University, and Western Visayas State University in Iloilo.

After several years, the Association of Students in Kalinga, an organization in Kalinga State University (KSU), gathered again on August 30 in Tabuk City. The group was previously recognized by the university but ceased when it was red-tagged by the NTF-Elcac and AFP in 2021.

In private schools, activities were held by the youth at Saint Louis University in Baguio City, Adamson University, Ateneo de Manila University, and De La Salle University and other institutions. They did not yield to the administration’s suppression, the threat of suspension, and other sanctions.

Beyond the campus

The youth do not confine themselves to campus issues. They militantly march in the streets with workers and urban poor, and they go to the countryside to unite with the peasant masses and national minorities.

The youth now join the people’s denouncement over anomalous and corruption-ridden flood control and infrastructure projects. They stormed and hurled mud and rotten vegetables at the offices of contractors and the Department of Public Works and Highways, and demanded accountability from the Marcos regime.

They stood with residents of Smokey Mountain and Malara in Tondo against demolition. They continue to support the struggle of workers and unions at Nexperia, the strike at Kawasaki, and they went to picket lines.

They overcome the fear and terror sown by the military in the countryside by joining fact-finding missions in Mindoro and Quezon. They use social media to expose to the public the growing cases of human rights violations in the countryside.

Even Filipino youth overseas return to the Philippines to join the people’s struggle. In recent months, dozens of youth from the US visited the Philippines to learn from the struggles of various sectors.

The youth ignore the NTF-Elcac’s tired ploy of labeling the sector’s activities as “terror grooming.” The Filipino youth now boldly take up the crucial task of arousing, organizing, and mobilizing the toiling masses. They remould themselves and shoulder sacrifices as the inheritors of the Filipino people’s struggle.