This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 22, July 10-16, 2005
Arroyo Regime
Is Disintegrating; But Still Has a Few Tricks to Play
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison © 2004 Bulatlat
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Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
The crisis of the ruling system has become so grave that the ruling
classes can no longer rule in the old way. The people want a revolutionary
change of government, in which the toiling masses of workers and peasants obtain
and exercise their due share of political power.
Chief Political Consultant
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
Posted by Bulatlat
The Arroyo regime is visibly cracking up and
disintegrating under the pressure of the broad united front of opposition
political parties, mass organizations, professional organizations, church
people, business groups, retired military and police officers and other forces
demanding the resignation or ouster of Gloria M. Arroyo from her usurped
position as president of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).
After consultation with Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales, former GRP president
Corazon Aquino has categorically called for the resignation of Arroyo and her
replacement by the vice-president, Noli de Castro. In turn, the latter has
promptly begun to drum up his claims to competence as her successor. Through his
most trusted agents, he has proceeded discreetly to contact military and police
officers for support.
The ruling coalition is breaking up. The Liberal Party has taken the lead in
calling for the resignation of Arroyo. Ten cabinet members and high officials
of the Arroyo regime have resigned and in turn have demanded that Arroyo resign,
instead of requiring all cabinet members to resign. They seem to be acting in
coordination with church and business groups which have demanded the resignation
of Arroyo.
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has declared that units of the New
People’s Army (NPA) are keeping away from urban population centers in order to
encourage the broad masses of the people to march and rally against the regime.
The NPA is concentrating on waging tactical offensives in the countryside.
At least four significant groups of military officers have welcomed the CPP
declaration and have pledged to uphold civilian supremacy, respect the
democratic rights of the people and withdraw support from Arroyo upon sight of
at least 500,000 people in the national capital region.
The chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines has declared that the
military would respect the democratic rights of the people to assemble and
speak. But the chief of the Philippine National Police is expressing extreme
loyalty to Arroyo and hostility toward the people who are exercising their
rights in opposition to the regime.
U.S. officials at various levels have announced that any change of government in
the Philippines must follow the “constitutional path” and “rule of law” and have
continued to express support for the Arroyo regime. Thus, the regime boasts that
it will stay in power so long as it keeps U.S. support. At the same time, some
pro-U.S. elements in the conservative opposition parties claim that Arroyo has
lost that support.
While the regime is definitely disintegrating, Arroyo can still play a few
tricks in ways more serious than apologizing for a “lapse in judgment” and
“sending away” her husband and her son. She continues to proclaim that she will
not resign. The forces of the broad united front are therefore forewarned not
to become complacent but to be more resolute and militant than ever in arousing
and mobilizing the people in their millions and in adopting a wide range of
tactics to demonstrate the regime’s inability to govern.
Plans are afoot for Arroyo to stage mass rallies in her favor, especially in
some provinces where governors and mayors remain as her allies, and to use the
Philippine National Police to suppress mass rallies that are not granted permits
by pro-Arroyo local authorities. By these plans Arroyo is taking a gamble that
is likely to inflame civil strife. The very crowds she tries to rally can also
turn against her as in the Ceaucescu example in Romania.
As the public clamor for resignation or ouster continues to grow and her regime
becomes untenable, Arroyo is supposed to have two possible courses of action.
One is to take a leave of absence and have the vice-president Noli de Castro
perform the functions of the presidency. Another is for her to become the
“caretaker president,” who will follow a script prepared by former president
Fidel V. Ramos, House Speaker Jose de Venecia and some smart guys of Lakas-NUCD.
The script entrusts the “caretaker president” with the task of letting a “high
commission” to go through the motion of investigating some corruption scandals,
the two houses of Congress to become a constituent assembly that will make
constitutional amendments for satisfying the U.S. and the local exploiting
classes and for adopting a federal and parliamentary system and the
parliamentary elections to take place in 2006.
However, the most that Arroyo can do is to gain a little more time on her
political death bed. She has politically and morally suffered a fatal wound by
being caught in the act of electoral fraud and stealing the GRP presidency. The
tapes are the incontrovertible proof of her grave crime before the court of
public opinion.
They expose the immorality and illegitimacy of Arroyo’s usurpation of power.
They have already kindled the fire that is fuelled by the wide and deep-going
social discontent of the people due to the crisis of the ruling system and that
has the potential of burning down not only the political house of Arroyo but the
entire ruling system of big compradors and landlords.
Since after the overthrow of Estrada in 2001, the institutions and stalwarts of
the ruling system have considered the phenomena of mass uprisings repeatedly
overthrowing a president as being very risky for the entire ruling system. They
have been frightened by the expressed CPP view that the revolutionary forces and
people strengthen themselves by overthrowing one ruling clique after another
until they gain enough strength to overthrow the entire ruling system. In
reaction, the apologists of the ruling system have invented the myth that the
people are tired of mass uprisings.
But the ruling system has a problem in keeping a detested president long in
power. The longer a president like Arroyo stays in power, the more rotten and
despicable she makes the system to the increasingly exploited and oppressed
people. And whoever is the president, so long as the rotten system persists, the
people will detest it and have all the opportunity to strengthen themselves,
irrespective of how long or short a president can stay in office.
The broad masses of the people demand that the basic roots of their oppression
and exploitation are addressed. They wish to empower themselves against the
U.S. and the local exploiting classes that torment and make them suffer. They
wish to uphold national sovereignty, conserve the national patrimony, carry out
land reform and national industrialization, promote a national, scientific and
democratic culture and adopt an independent foreign policy for world peace and
development.
The crisis of the ruling system has become so grave that the ruling classes can
no longer rule in the old way. The people want a revolutionary change of
government, in which the toiling masses of workers and peasants obtain and
exercise their due share of political power. There are revolutionary forces
that can lead the people in the revolutionary process.
Social degradation and political turmoil will continue so long as the ruling
system of big compradors and landlords persists. The victory of the broad united
front against the Arroyo regime should lead to the formation of a transition
council and a government that accommodate the patriotic and progressive forces
of the legal democratic movement and pave the way for the success of peace
negotiations with the revolutionary forces and people represented by the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines. Posted by Bulatlat