The Marcos Jr. clique has managed to include in the 2024 national budget provisions for confidential and intelligence funds, totaling PHP 5.277 billion and PHP 4.864 B, respectively. The Filipino people, however, are not ignorant to the true purpose of these funds.

It is blatantly clear that the “confidential” funds are a cover for “corruption” funds. The CIF has always been used both to line the pockets of the ruling clique and its cronies, and to further the state’s fascist attacks against the people.

The 2024 budget continues the trend of increasing military and infrastructure spending while slashing funds for social services and the needs of the public. The 2024 budget includes PHP 733.2 B for “special purpose funds” under the Office of the President, PHP 977.6 B for public works and highways and transport, and PHP 9.7 B under NTF-Elcac, while slashing PHP 6.16 B from state universities and colleges, PHP 10.17 B from the Department of Health, and other welfare services like fuel subsidies and so on.

Sara Duterte’s misuse of her ill-gotten confidential funds proves how these funds are used for corruption. Duterte spent PHP 125 million in 11 days, equating to PHP 11.36 million per day, or 60 years’ wages for an industrial worker in Laguna.

Public outrage and the mass movement has forced lawmakers to remove Sara Duterte’s confidential funds, rechanneling them to supposed agencies protecting Philippine interests in the West Philippine Sea. However, this includes agencies like the National Security Council and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency—agencies known for using their funds to conduct illegal surveillance and harassment against unionists, mass leaders, and opposition personalities.

The people of Laguna can expect little from their provincial representatives in Congress, all of whom caved into supporting the Marcos-Duterte clique’s demands. The 2024 budget debacle has exposed the reactionary nature of the state as self-serving and held hostage by compradors and large land-owners in service to foreign monopoly imperialism. It is the historical product of centuries of foreign interference through colonialism and imperialism, resulting in a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society in perpetual crisis.

The people of Laguna are absolutely correct in calling for the abolition of confidential funds. The masses of Laguna must be guided in struggling for their democratic rights and against outright thievery by bureaucrat capitalists in government.

However, fundamental change can only come through revolutionary action. The revolutionary forces, through the revolutionary mass organizations under the National Democratic Front, the New People’s Army, and the Communist Party of the Philippines, must lead the people’s democratic revolution to establish a state led by the proletariat and the toiling masses.

We call on all revolutionary organizations and cadres in Laguna to continue strengthening the revolutionary movement in the province. We must engage with the masses wherever they may be found; in the communities, in the fields, in schools and factories, and arouse, organize, and mobilize them.

Most importantly, we must continue strengthening the revolutionary movement to support the protracted people’s war in the countryside. The masses must be encouraged to take up all forms of struggle—including armed struggle, in achieving our national and democratic aspirations.

The Filipino masses are the only ones capable of liberating themselves. The masses can only do this through the NPA and the people’s democratic revolution, guided by the Communist Party of the Philippines and the theory of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.

Long live the Communist Party of the Philippines!
Long live the New People’s Army!
Advance the people’s democratic revolution towards victory!