Revolutionary forces in Eastern Visayas today raise their fists high in solidarity with the tens of thousands of Filipinos set to march the streets to protest the blatant display of bureaucrat capitalism under the US-Marcos regime.

We especially acknowledge the new breed of students and youth activists in Eastern Visayas who have been mounting growing protest actions. We salute them for bravely asserting their rights in the face of threats and harassment they have endured for years from fascist and warmongering state forces. They serve as inspiration to the downtrodden masses in the region whose voices have been stifled by the white terror carried out principally by the 8th Infantry Division.

In Eastern Visayas and elsewhere in the country, mass actions will be held today, the 53rd anniversary of the declaration of martial law by Marcos Jr’s dictator father. It is a poetic reminder of their family’s legacy of corruption, nepotism, and cronyism which continues to plague the Filipino people even after the downfall of his father’s regime and especially now during his current hold on power. The people’s call for accountability and an end to corruption grows even louder and manifests how the people have never forgotten.

They scoff at Marcos’s theatrics. They are not content with the hearings and grandstanding by complicit bureaucrats, the resignation and reshuffling of some scapegoats, and the squealing of grafters caught en flagrante delicto. They concentrate their anger and call for accountability towards Marcos, the one who benefits most from his rein on power. They see his flood-control crusade as a sham that only aims to wash his own hands of culpability and to monopolize the thievery of public funds.

The people realize that bureaucrat capitalism has long afflicted the country, ever since US imperialism had “granted” it independence. They see how every puppet regime has been plagued by corruption. To name a few: Marcos had his confidential funds, budget insertions, and anomalous flood-control projects; Duterte with the Pharmally and Philhealth fiascos; Noynoy Aquino with the pork barrel scam; Arroyo with the bogus NGOs, NBN-ZTE scandal and the fertilizer fund scam, Estrada the ousted jueteng lord, Ramos and his overpriced government contracts, and Corazon Aquino’s own brand of crony capitalism and letting the plunderous Marcoses off the hook.

Bureaucrat capitalism is entrenched at the national level and up to the provinces, towns and barangays. Notorious dynasties such as the Tans in Samar, Evardones in Eastern Samar, the Ongs in Northern Samar, the Romualdez and Petilla clans in Leyte, the Mercados in Southern Leyte and the Espinas in Biliran, thrive as their constituents remain in the quagmire of poverty. Town mayors force barangay officials and their appointees to pawn their honoraria to them or to relatives with usurious interest. They overprice relief goods and swindle the rest of the funds for themselves. In the barangays, corrupt officials take for themselves up to 60% of their internal revenue allotment or IRA. They implement ghost projects to milk dry the so-called “development fund.” Just like their national counterparts, local bureaucrats enrich themselves by making a business out of governance.

But in the end, they are never held accountable. Samar governor Mila Tan who was found guilty of graft never set foot in prison. Tim Capoquian of Gamay, Northern Samar, found guilty of nepotism, was pardoned by Rodrigo Duterte himself. Recently, Marcos’s cousin Martin Romualdez performed a token resignation of speakership but remains scot-free.

Bureaucrat capitalism is an illness that goes beyond graft and corruption—it is the systematic use of political power where bureaucrats further accumulate wealth by upholding policies that serve US imperialist interests. It is no coincidence that the officials who line their own pockets with public funds are also the ones who open the country up for imperialist plunder, take away land from peasants, engage in criminal operations such as smuggling, drug trafficking and illegal gambling, support counterinsurgency, and collude with military and police elite who also fatten themselves with defense contracts and military aid. They are the same officials who purvey backward economic policies that stunt the country and undermine the people’s aspirations for genuine development.

That is why corruption and bureaucrat capitalism as a whole can never be eliminated under the current semicolonial and semifeudal system. It perpetuates the class rule of the big landlords, big comprador bourgeoisie and bureaucrat capitalists, who, along with US imperialism, all stand to gain from these conditions.

The people have been disillusioned, and are thus calling for a complete overhaul of the system. They now wield mass actions as a legitimate form of protest. At the same time, they also see that genuine change and good governance cannot be achieved through piecemeal political reforms. They recognize that revolutionary change through armed struggle is of utmost necessity.

The NDF-EV calls on the broad Filipino masses to wage people’s democratic revolution against the US-Marcos regime. They must arouse, organize and mobilize the greatest number of oppressed classes and sectors for revolutionary change. They must wage all forms of struggle, primarily armed struggle, to smash the three ills of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism that all exploit and oppress them. It is only through the victory of the people’s democratic revolution can true democracy, social justice and freedom be attained.