Escalating numbers of poverty and worsening socioeconomic conditions of the Filipino people, especially in the rural areas, are a scathing indictment to the glaring ineffectiveness and hollow claims of “peace and development” by the NTF-Elcac and its so-called Barangay Development Program (BDP).

Recent publicized surveys showing that more than 63% of families rate themselves as poor confirm the gross state of the economy and deepening crisis under the Marcos regime. Even the Central Bank admitted in its study that more than 75% of Filipinos are poor and distressed. More than 80% of Filipino families, representing workers, peasants and the middle to lower petty-bourgeoisie, are without savings and toil daily to provide food for their children.

The situation is especially dire in the countryside where tens of millions of Filipinos suffer from the lack of jobs and livelihood resulting from the absence of land reform and industrialization. The situation was worsened last year by recent climate disasters, as well as by expansion of mining and plantation operations, causing the economic displacement of millions of peasant masses.

In the face of widespread hunger, landlessness, joblessness, low wages and skyrocketing prices, the NTF-Elcac’s statements that its projects under the BDP “addresses the concerns of the people” through “infrastructure developments” ring hollow and totally lack credibility.

The NTF-Elcac infrastructure projects, consisting of roads, school building, health station, electrification, and water system, utterly fail to address the fundamental demands of the peasant masses, including genuine land reform, lower land rent, substantial wage increases for farm-workers and agricultural laborers, and the eradication of usury.

These so-called “flagship initiative” of the NTF-Elcac merely perpetuate and obscure the continuing vicious cycle of state neglect and exploitative feudal and semifeudal system in the countryside. Under the Marcos 2025 budget, the budget for health and education were further reduced in favor of corruption-laden infrastructure projects.

The NTF-Elcac’s BDP projects are a cesspool of corruption. In its own statement, it revealed that last year, Marcos allocated an additional ₱5 million for more than 800 BDP projects sourced from “unprogrammed funds.” This went against the decision of the congress last year to reduce the funds for the NTF-Elcac to ₱2.5 million per project. The additional funds provided by Marcos rounds up more than ₱4 billion of military pork barrel that buys the loyalty of the AFP’s officers.

The failure of the Marcos regime to address the basic demands of the peasant masses continue to fuel their resistance to advance their cause for genuine land reform. The conditions in the countryside continue to become even more fertile for waging people’s war. The peasant masses are determined as ever to support and join the New People’s Army, as their own army to fight for their rights and aspirations.