Sen. Cynthia Villar and Cong. Sandro Marcos’ are fiercely insolent and apathetic in telling the poor to eat camote and plant dragonfruit to avoid hunger as if the solution to starvation is as simple as that. Of course they would as they are on top of the societal structure. They have not had sleepless nights whiled away thinking if there is enough for the next day. They have not had the need to brave the storms, to till the land for spare change. They have not experienced having to work abroad, have two jobs or sell their own selves just to hold hunger at bay. They have not tried to eat pagpag nor to beg for alms. Poverty is not their reality. They maintain capricious and opulent lives needled from the people’s blood and sweat. Their, and their fellow bureacrat capitalists’, maddening arrogance in the face of the majority’s sufferings betrays their loyalty towards the interests of the oppressive and exploitative classes and their desertion of the common Filipino’s plight.

If this is how the supposed ‘leaders’ of the country think, it is not surprising why the majority of the nation remain slaves of hunger. They deliberately oversimplify and refuse to tackle the roots of poverty and crisis that have long lain siege upon the Filipino society. They know that once they seriously address the real problems that hinder national progress, their self interests will hurt. Heavens forbid, the lands be distributed among the peasantry. What will happen to the Villars’ land monopoly, subdivisions and construction businesses then? What will happen to the Marcoses’ wealth and influence if they give back the riches they purloined from the people’s funds?

The path that the poor must take becomes all the more clearer – there is no other salvation but the path of the revolution! The ruling elite will never voluntarily give what the majority needs. They will never genuinely address and resolve the people’s demands. They will always lay the blame on the very same people who feeds the whole nation and provides its wealth. They can never be expected to completely eradcate poverty because it will mean the end of their control over the nation’s power and riches.

NDF-Bikol enjoins the Bikolano masses and the Filipino people to join the people’s democratic revolution. The suffering that the people endure from the hands of the ruling classes and this rotten system is more than enough. It is now time to invert the status quo!