Price hikes and deficient food supply. Commodity prices doubled in spikes. Mountains of debts. Slave-like wages and labor conditions. Widespread unemployment. Vulnerabilities to natural calamities and disasters. Threatened sovereignty. This is what the Philippines look like now under the US-Marcos Jr. regime.

Across all corners of the country, the people suffer from poverty and starvation. This is a direct result of the long-standing government’s disregard of the national economy, opening of national resources for local ruling classes and foreign capitalist interests. Even more enraging, after all these, the inept regime still has done nothing but hawk illusory data, continue pushing for destructive neoliberalism, and line their pockets with more kickbacks and wealth.

But the masses do not care about these figures and rates of progress that Marcos Jr.’s propagandists peddle. Their reality is that they writhe in hunger and are drowning in destitution. And the regime’s ineptitude in the face of this grim reality only further proves that there is indeed no other solution against poverty but people’s war. A state that is of and for the ruling classes can never be expected to serve the people’s interests.

Even in the wake of the crisis, laws such as the Maharlika Investment Fund that would only put corruption in overdrive are still brazenly railroaded, Marcos Jr’s luxurious trips abroad become increasingly costly and other such opulent acts displaying their gross wealth and excesses, while the masses are dying of hunger, are proliferating. Worse, these riches that they so frivolously squander are drained from the Filipino people’s own blood and sweat.

NDF-Bikol calls on the public to fight against these conditions. If the masses do not uprise, there will be no food on the table. The greatest number of masses must come together and demand their democratic interests. They must confront the puppet and inutile US-Marcos Jr. regime. It must be pushed to break away from the neoliberal rule that has weakened the economy and has worsened the national crisis. They must demand the implementation of genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization – vital areas needed to attain true development for all. Most of all, for long-lasting and complete solution of poverty, the active participation of the people in the people’s democratic revolution is imperative. Only through the upheaval and transformation of the current system can the people achieve the fulfillment of their democratic interests.