Just recently, Marcos ordered government agencies to use the country’s newest slogan: Bagong Pilipinas. But what can be justly said to have changed within the Philippines? Not the severe crises and poverty. Not the state fascism. Not the rapacity of the ruling classes. Nor the government’s servility towards imperialism. In fact, even this slogan is just a rehashed version of Marcos Sr., his dictator father’s Bagong Lipunan. Truly, only these slogans and empty words change, not the rotten semicolonial and semifeudal system.

In fact, the US-Marcos Jr. regime is nothing but continuation of what all those previous administrations began. The imperialist US installed Marcos Jr. to power to maintain the legacy of oppression and exploitation. From economic to military arenas, Marcos Jr.’s projects, programs and policies only continue to reflect the interests and designs of the local ruling classes and the US imperialist.

What this brand-new slogan aims to achieve is condition the people’s minds and subject them to psychological manipulation. Marcos wants to project his regime as the one that shall change the country. He wants to reinvent the government’s image and garner the people’s popular support while, in actuality, continues to implement the age-old oppressive status quo.

The current regime is knowledgeable in psychological manipulation. Just like the previous Duterte regime, it aggressively touts disinformation and historical revisionism to make the oppression and suffering that the masses endured in the past palatable. In changing the public perception of their collective past, it becomes easier to change how they see their current situation. The regime forces the public to disregard the state’s weaknesses, treachery and crimes against society.

In the midst of these devious manipulation and psywar, the people must rightfully remember that real change must be seen and felt, not merely contained in words and paper. Genuine societal change can only be achieved by eradicating the hindrances to development: the control of imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism and feudalism over the country’s societal system. Only through the conscious and decisive people’s revolution can the bases of oppression and exploitation be ended. A truly bagong Pilipinas can only be borne by a new societal system that is genuinely liberated and liberating.