Ring-Tone Revolution in the Philippines
By Dave Pugh
Monthly Review
Posted by Bulatlat
"Hello, Garci. . . . Will I win by one million votes?" is ringing on
cellphones throughout the Philippines. It is the taped voice of President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo talking with commissioner of elections Virgilio
Garcillano, nicknamed "Garci" in May 2004 before the election results were
announced. Arroyo did, in fact, win by a million votes.
After three weeks of
silence on the tape scandal, Arroyo admitted on June 28 that she committed
the indiscretion of talking to an election official and called it "a lapse
in judgment." Such is the long history of "dagdag-bawas," a Tagalog
expression for "vote padding and shaving" that is virtually a given as the
ruling elite pass the presidential baton from one clan to another. Never
has a person been elected to the presidency without being part of the top
one percent of the Philippine ruling elite, nor without the blessing of
the U.S. government. This time the U.S. is backing Arroyo, emphasizing
that the "rule of law" must be followed. It is utterly terrified of
another "People Power" that ousted two U.S.-backed Philippine presidents
before.
Tens of thousands of
people have taken to the streets to demand that Arroyo resign or be
ousted. Pressure is growing from the mass organizations of the Left,
opposition political parties, organizations of professionals, church
people, business groups, and retired military and police officers.
While political
insiders want to replace Arroyo with her equally reactionary
vice-president, the mass grassroots organizations advocate forming a
"Transition Council" that would include representatives of the poor and
marginalized sectors of Philippine society. The Transition Council would
put into place meaningful electoral and political reforms; render justice
to victims of human rights violations; resume the peace process with
Muslim and Communist revolutionary groups; and repudiate the Philippines'
onerous debts.
Poverty, Puppetry, and Unofficial Martial Law
These political tasks
point to the grinding poverty, injustice and state terror that the
Filipino people are living under. Nearly 60% of the annual budget goes
to pay off the foreign debt and to pay for the bloated military and police
forces. In order to raise more funds, the government has welcomed foreign
multinationals. To cite one example, US, Canadian and Australian mining
operations have destroyed the ancestral lands of hundreds of indigenous
communities in recent years. At the same time, the Filipino government's
central "labor policy" is to export human labor. More than 8
million people, or 10% of the population, have been forced to look for
work abroad in 162 countries. Their remittances to their families in the
Philippines keep the economy from sinking.
When over 85% of the
population lives below the poverty line, resistance is inevitable.
Struggles by peasants for higher prices for their crops, by women for
divorce rights and reproductive freedom, and demands for U.S. troops to
get out of the Philippines have all mushroomed. For example, the
GABRIELA national alliance of women's organizations has over half a
million members! Together, these BAYAN-related groups have elected six
representatives to Congress, where they fight for the people's interests
and expose how the government operates. Other leftist groups have several
representatives in Congress.
President Arroyo and
the militarists in her administration are seen as joined at the hip with
the US Embassy. She was the first government leader in Asia to join
Bush's "anti-terrorist" crusade in late 2001. Since then, Arroyo and the
Philippine Army have hosted anywhere from several hundred to 5,000 US
troops for "joint training exercises." The US troops have been rotated in
and out to get around the provision in the Constitution barring foreign
military bases on Philippine soil. On the other hand, an undetermined
number of US Special Forces, military intelligence and CIA agents are
permanently based in the Philippines, with the knowledge and protection of
the Arroyo government.
Faced with millions of
oppressed, increasingly conscious people, the Arroyo regime has unleashed
the army and national police against legal grassroots organizations. In
the first six months of 2005, soldiers and their unofficial death squads
have killed over 35 activists in various provinces. This includes members
of BAYAN, GABRIELA, church leaders, lawyers, Anakbayan (youth), and the
electoral party
Bayan Muna.
In November, 2004,
seven striking farmworkers were shot down by soldiers on a picket line at
the
Hacienda Luisita plantation in central Luzon. No justice has been
forthcoming from the Arroyo government or from the big landlord family
(which ex-President Cory Aquino is part of) that owns the plantation. In
much of the countryside, there is unofficial martial law.
The Revolutionary Movement in the
Countryside
The Filipino people are
not only fighting with picket lines and demonstrations. In every major
island of the Philippines, the
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the
New People's Army (NPA) are building a mass revolutionary movement
aimed at toppling the Arroyo government. In 130 guerilla fronts, the NPA
organizes peasants to fight for their needs, and indigenous peoples to
defend their lands and cultures. It institutes health care and education
and conducts military operations to weaken the army and seize weapons.
In many areas, this has
cleared the way for new forms of revolutionary political power based on a
national democratic program. This new government, the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines, has an office in the
Netherlands and has been engaged on and off in negotiations with the
Republic of the Philippines.
The New People's Army
was recently in the Philippine newspapers when they invited reporters to
attend
the first gay marriage in the NPA -- an important accomplishment in a
heavily Catholic country. And many CPP statements are made by the
legendary
"Ka Roger," who regularly speaks on afternoon radio shows in Manila
via mobile phone. In spite of the army's constant attempts to track Ka
Roger down, he continues to be the Philippines' version of New York
City's Larry Davis, the "dude who elude."
In order to deny the
Arroyo regime an excuse to call in the army against the current wave of
demonstrations in Manila, the CPP and NPA have announced that they have
instructed their units to remain in the countryside and to step up
tactical offensives against the army. This policy helps to pin down as
many enemy soldiers as possible in the rural areas, and encourages the
Oust Gloria movement to develop as fully as possible in the large
population centers.
At the end of a recent
statement, the CPP wrote: "For the Filipino people, the crisis besetting
the Arroyo regime is a good thing. It opens the possibility of advancing
their most urgent demands. More importantly, it provides the conditions
for pushing forward the people's war closer to final victory."
23 July 2005
Dave
Pugh is a public school teacher in New York City.
Posted by
Bulatlat
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