Bulatlat - The Philippines's alternative weekly newsmagazine

This story was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 25, July 31-August 6, 2005

Transition Council should Address Landlessness, Debt and Globalization – Peasant, Fisherfolk Leaders

Bulatlat interviewed two known mass leaders from the basic sectors – Pedro Gonzales, concurrently national vice chairperson and vice chairperson for the Southern Tagalog region of the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya (Pamalakaya or National Fisherfolk Movement); and Imelda Lacandazo, national vice chairperson of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Philippine Peasant Movement), who attended the SoNA rally. What do they think of the transition council idea?

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

In the campaign to oust President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo – who is under fire for alleged cheating in the 2004 elections as well as large-scale corruption and what cause-oriented groups describe as her government’s imposition of anti-national and anti-people policies – there has been considerable talk about the idea of a transition council.

Various political forces agree that the transition council proposed as a replacement to the Macapagal-Arroyo regime, should it be ousted from power, would undertake the tasks of carrying out a number of reforms for a certain period, after which it would call for special elections. It is on what reforms are to be carried out by the transition council that there are still differences among the several anti-Arroyo forces.

The non-traditional anti-Arroyo forces, however, all point to the basic sectors – the peasantry and fisherfolk, workers and urban poor – as the ultimate beneficiaries of the reforms that a transition council would undertake.

Let us hear then from those hailing from the basic sectors. What do they think of a transition council? What kind of program do they think a transition council should embark upon?

There was much talk of a transition council at the rally during Macapagal-Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SoNA) last July 25, where various groups like the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance), the Gloria Step Down Movement (GSM), the United Opposition (UNO), the National Council for Concerned Volunteers (NCCV), and the Be Not Afraid Movement participated.

Sovereignty, social justice

Gonzales and Lacandazo are both of the view that a transition council should address issues related to sovereignty and social justice.

“The basis of unity (for a transition council) should be national sovereignty, democracy, and genuine independence,” said Gonzales, who is also known to fellow activists as Tata Pido. He added that a transition council should first of all cut down on the country’s foreign debt, and then institutionalize policies that would control the exploitation of the country’s resources by foreign investors.

The country’s foreign debt amounts to $55.3 billion as of end-March 2005. Debt servicing currently gobbles up as much as 49 percent of the Philippines’ yearly budgetary allocations.

Meanwhile, Lacandazo said the transition council should address the issue of landlessness. “Because the main problem of the peasantry is landlessness, the call is for genuine land reform,” she explained. “The first step toward that should be the confiscation of the lands of big landlords, so that these could be concentrated on the people’s government and not on Gloria’s government and farmers who have long been landless and have long been struggling for land can have their own land.”

The peasantry comprises more than 70 percent of the Philippine population, and most Filipino peasants are known to be landless.

Now because the campaign to oust Macapagal-Arroyo is a broad-based fight, those who work within traditional political frameworks but who have been opposing the Macapagal-Arroyo regime are also to be represented in the transition council. What do Gonzales and Lacandazo think of this?

Present agenda

“So long as they are now fighting the Macapagal-Arroyo regime, why not?” Lacandazo said. “But they should present their agenda. We have to see if their agenda is really for the benefit of the broad masses of Filipinos. There may those among them whose agenda is for their own interest.”

Gonzales expressed a similar view.

Considering that the transition council could include representatives of sections of the elite who are opposed to the Macapagal-Arroyo regime, how far do they think the people’s demands can go under its watch? Both leaders think the transition council would not yet mean the complete victory of what they call the people’s struggle to change the social system, but it would be a step forward in the fight.

Progressive groups under the banner of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) have been batting for a people’s democratic council to be composed of “patriotic and pro-people figures” with a track record of integrity and competence as political leaders, as well as democratic and progressive elements from the opposition parties that play significant roles in the anti-Arroyo campaign.

The people’s democratic council, according to Bayan, would draft a nationalist-oriented and progressive constitution. After that, it will call for genuine elections.

It would also undertake a number of urgent tasks, including: investigation of the involvement and culpability of Macapagal-Arroyo, former election official Virgilio Garcillano, military officials, and others involved in poll fraud; implementation of electoral and political reforms; rendering of justice and indemnification to human rights victims; and ensuring the protection of and respect for civil liberties; resumption of peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) through the fulfillment of all existing agreements; solving the fiscal crisis by canceling or repudiating all odious debts; and protecting the country from the ravages of free-market globalization and reversing the disastrous structural adjustment programs imposed by the country’s creditors.

Gonzales ran last year for a seat in the Quezon provincial board under the banner of Anakpawis (Toiling Masses), and survived what many view as a politically-motivated assassination attempt that has left him partially crippled. Lacandazo is known as a leading peasant activist not only in the Philippines but also abroad, and has spoken in many international peasant forums. Bulatlat

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