In the “global war on terror,” U.S. President Bush, and the hawks in his cabinet, aims to project U.S. military hegemony; attack countries and groups challenging its hegemony and resisting globalization; and prop up the U.S. economy and Bush’s flagging popularity domestically.

With Macapagal-Arroyo’s support to and emulation of the U.S. “war on terror” it aims to get more economic and military aid from the U.S.; ensure the continuous political support of the U.S. to its regime; and have the means to attack its enemies in order to perpetuate itself in power amid persistent questions regarding its legitimacy and calls for its ouster.

It is in the interest of the U.S. to keep Macapagal-Arroyo in power unless it becomes too costly politically. The Marcos dictatorship had the backing of the U.S. until it felt that things would go out of hand if Marcos remained in power.

It is not a mere coincidence that after the sudden surge in joint military exercises and training in 2001, Oplan Bantay Laya, the Arroyo regime’s counterinsurgency program was launched in 2002. It was also in 2002 that there was a 1,111 percent increase in U.S. military assistance for use by the regime in counterinsurgency. The Arroyo regime also had U.S. backing when it declared a state of national emergency and a total war against the Left in 2005.

In the Left, the U.S. and the Arroyo regime found a common enemy. The legal democratic movement is comprehensively anti-imperialist, anti-fascist, and anti-feudal. It is steadfastly opposed imperialist plunder and oppression of the Filipino people. Organizations comprising the legal democratic movement, such as the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) and its member organizations such as Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May 1st Movement), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement of the Philippines), GABRIELA, among others, and progressive party lists such as Bayan Muna (People First), Anakpawis (Toiling Masses), and GABRIELA Women’s Party, are the most vocal and consistent in opposing U.S. military presence and intervention in the Philippines. They comprise the biggest and most consistent movement working for the ouster of the Arroyo regime and for a patriotic and democratic program.

The revolutionary Left, the CPP-NPA-NDFP, is waging a war of national liberation against imperialism and a democratic revolution against bureaucrat capitalism and feudalism. It aims to dismantle the semi-colonial, semi-feudal character of Philippine society and work for national industrialization and genuine agrarian reform towards socialism . It is also intensifying its tactical offensives against the AFP and PNP to hasten the downfall of the Arroyo regime.

The CPP-NPA-NDFP is in the company of FARC in the terror-listing of the U.S. Former U.S. State Sec. Collin Powell’s statement in Nepal is instructive of the U.S.’ design in its “global war on terror.” He told King Gyanendra and Prime Minister Deuba of Nepal, “You have a Maoist insurgency that’s trying to overthrow the government and this really is the kind of thing that we are fighting against throughout the world.”

The joint operations of U.S. troops and the AFP against the Abu Sayyaf is merely a training exercise for the latter does not constitute a real threat to the U.S.- Arroyo regime. The real target of the U.S. in training, advising, and building the capabilities of the AFP is the legal Left and the CPP-NPA-NDFP.

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