‘Trump, biggest threat to world peace, justice and democracy’ – progressive groups

Progressive groups protest near US Embassy in Manila. (Photo by Altermidya)

By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Progressive groups marched to the United States Embassy in Manila on Monday, January 20, as President-elect Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated in Washington, DC.

Umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said the second presidency of Trump is “the biggest threat to world peace, justice, and democracy.”

In a statement, Bayan said that like former President Joe Biden, “Trump seeks to preserve and expand US hegemony by containing rivals like Russia and China. This will lead to more troop deployments in the Asia-Pacific and the building of US military outposts in countries like the Philippines.”

“Trump is expected to reward corrupt allies like Ferdinand Marcos Jr in exchange for allowing the US to conduct provocative military drills, store weapons of mass destruction, and install bases across the country. Since 2022, Marcos Jr has maliciously collaborated with his American patrons to advance the geopolitical agenda of US imperialism,” the group said in a statement.

Read: Marcos Jr. gifts deeper military presence to US 
Read: US tries out new missile system in ‘Balikatan’ 2024

Human rights group Karapatan also said that although Trump tries to distance himself from Biden during the electoral campaign, the two of them agree on “intensifying efforts to drag the Philippines into US warmongering schemes in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly against China and North Korea.”

“Trump’s hostility towards China certainly matches, if not surpasses, that of Biden,” Karapatan said in a statement.

Karapatan added that the recent creation of the Philippines-Security Sector Assistance Roadmap (P-SSAR) seeks to ensure the provision of continuing US military assistance to what they described as “puppet regimes in the Philippines,” starting with the Marcos Jr. government.

The P-SSAR was created under the Biden administration. The group said Trump can be expected to affirm and pursue the P-SSAR, “which will ostensibly facilitate the country’s transition from internal security operations to a ‘robust territorial defense posture’–a roundabout way of saying that it is aimed at enhancing the Philippine military’s capability to pander to the US’ bellicose designs in the Asia-Pacific.”

“The P-SSAR jumpstarted with the signing of the General Military Information Agreement and the publicized combined coordination center of the US and Philippine armed forces during the last quarter of 2024,” they added.

Karapatan also said that Trump is also expected to uphold Biden’s commitment of $500 million in military aid to the Philippine government to implement the P-SSAR, “while Marcos Jr. pursues his National Security Policy that mimics US counter-insurgency blueprint.”

Photo by Altermidya

“Aside from US military aid’s fueling of military operations undertaken by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), the US bares its advisory role in implementing domestic terror laws that undermine rights and freedoms and target political dissenters,” they added.

Read: Government’s counterinsurgency plan and terror financing law against rights defenders

On deportation of undocumented immigrants

Karapatan also cited threats of deportation of undocumented immigrants in the second administration under Trump who vowed to start deportation on day one of his presidency. He also plans to militarize the US border with Mexico and start construction of the border wall, similar to what Israel has built along its border with Palestine, Karapatan said.

“Trump has chosen migrant labor as his scapegoat to divert the US public’s attention from the deeper roots of the economic crisis buffeting the American people. His tack is not much different from that of Adolf Hitler, who fomented rabid anti-Semitism and exterminated millions of Jews as a way of refocusing the German public’s attention from their economic travails amid the Great Depression,” they added.

Karapatan said there are some 300,000 undocumented Filipino workers who are long-time residents of the US.

Meanwhile, Bayan urged all Filipinos “to show solidarity with Americans resisting the anti-labor, anti-migrant, and anti-poor policies of the outgoing and incoming US government.”

“We call for more localized protests against all US bases in the Philippines, and the rejection of US-led military exercises and operations across the country,” Bayan said.

Protest in the US on President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration (Photo courtesy of Bayan-USA)

Filipinos in the US oppose Trump

Filipinos in the US also denounced Trump on inauguration day. Almost 150 members of the Filipino community and solidarity allies across the D.C. metropolitan region joined the protest on January 20. They also held a protest in front of the Philippine Embassy and demanded transparency and accountability on the services they can provide to Filipino migrants.

Jhong Dela Cruz of Migrante DMV called on communities to come together and resist the Trump administration’s attack on migrants and workers.

“In every case of back-pay won, every immigration status adjusted, every employer held accountable and even a scheduled execution deferred, it is the people’s movement that achieved these. The militant movement pushes those in power to act, not some pen stroke or speech of a government official,” Dela Cruz said in a statement

“We are the ones that will fight and win victories and we will build a society where we don’t need to migrate for a better life,” he said. (RTS, RVO)

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