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Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to
search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts
Vol. V, No.
25
July 31 - August 6, 2005 Quezon City, Philippines |
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alternative reader
Mass Movement Is
the Key Factor for Ousting the Arroyo Regime
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
Posted by Bulatlat
Since June, the mass movement to oust the Arroyo regime from power has
expanded in waves in the national capital region and nationwide through
the alternation of localized build up mass actions and peak mass actions
at certain focal points.
The broad united front of opposition parties and mass organizations
against the Arroyo regime deserve congratulations for having already
concentrated 30,000 rallyists at Ayala, Makati on July 8, 70,000 to 80,000
at the same place on July 13 and recently 80,000 to 100,000 at
Commonwealth Avenue on July 25 on the occasion of SONA (sinungaling na
orasyon ng nanlolokong Arroyo).
The supposedly pro-Arroyo rally on July 25 was no more than 15,000 but the
police bloated the count to 35,000. Most of those whom news reporters
interviewed expressed themselves against the Arroyo regime and its crimes.
The mass movement is not a field for the Arroyo regime to compete in. In
fact, Arroyo did not show up at this supposedly pro-Arroyo rally on July
16 for fear of being booed.
In her SONA, Arroyo insulted the suffering Filipino people by claiming
that the growth rate of the depressed semifeudal Philippine economy for
2004 (6.1 per cent) is more than 240 per cent higher than the average
growth rate of the highly industrialized Group of 7 countries. Knowing
fully well the unwillingness of the Senate to join a constituent assembly
with the Lower House, she cynically pretended to embrace the scheme of
charter change through constituent assembly. The rate at which the mass
movement has been growing in size and advancing against the Arroyo regime
is quite good and commendable. It is ridiculous for the Arroyo regime and
its apologists to scoff at the mass movement as failing to raise
immediately enough mass strength to overthrow the regime. It took more
than 2.5 years (August 1983 to February 1986) for the mass movement to
bring down the Marcos fascist dictatorship. The overthrow of Estrada took
more than 2 years from the time BAYAN called for his ouster in December
1998 and nearly five months from the Chavit Singson expose.
The mass movement is the key factor for overthrowing the Arroyo regime. As
in the past, it will become dramatically effective when it is able to
concentrate 500,000 to one million people at a focal point in the national
capital region. The broad united front is working towards massing people
on all the streets leading to the presidential palace. This is expected to
be the focus of militant mass actions all over the country and to signal
the withdrawal of military support from the regime.
The mass movement is the ever developing and ultimate weapon of the
Filipino people in view of the determination of the fake president and her
regime to frustrate every proposal to bring out the truth and render
justice on the charges against her for electoral fraud, corruption and
other high crimes. It is the sacred democratic right of the Filipino
people to assert their sovereign will and rise up to get rid of an
exceedingly oppressive and exploitative regime.
To make a mockery of the proposal for a truth commission, Arroyo who is
the principal accused has announced that it is taking initiative to create
it and handpick its members. She has also announced that the commission is
meant to go after those she accuses of destabilizing her regime. Thus, the
commission will not only exculpate her but will be her weapon for an
inquisition against her opponents.
The House majority belonging to the ruling coalition headed by Arroyo and
Speaker De Venecia is out to squelch the impeachment complaint against
Arroyo by stacking the rules of impeachment. The Arroyo regime is
maneuvering, using both money and technicalities, to prevent the
impeachment complaint from reaching the Senate for trial.
The Ramos-De Venecia constituent assembly scheme to amend or change the
1987 constitution is a nonstarter. The Senate has long been known to be an
unwilling party to its own dissolution. Even during his presidency Ramos
could not push through a charter change. Arroyo is now floating this
merely as a diversionary tactic to obscure her crimes. The scheme of a
mere shift from a presidential to a parliamentary form of government is
being deceitfully depicted as a system change.
Can the Arroyo regime succeed in prolonging its rule by trying to deceive
and intimidate the people? No. The broad masses of the people are outraged
by its crimes and are eager to overthrow it. All reliable surveys show
that the overwhelming majority of the people want to get rid of it. The
broad united front and the mass movement persevere in the struggle to
topple it.
The broad united front of legal opposition parties and mass organizations
is of the consensus that a combination of legal mass movement and
withdrawal of military support from the regime can remove the Arroyo
regime from power. The forces of the armed revolution are of a similar
view and have made clear that the New People’s Army should intensify armed
tactical offensives in the countryside while the pro-Arroyo officers of
the military and police are preoccupied with the social unrest and
political turmoil in the urban areas.
The people are so incensed by the high crimes of the Arroyo regime that
they spontaneously demand the quickest ways to punish those in power or at
least to demonstrate the inability of the regime to govern. If their
demands and grievances continue unaddressed, we can expect spontaneous
elements among the masses, especially the most oppressed and deprived, to
start breaking the glass windows of the multinational firms and the
pro-Arroyo big compradors, landlords and corrupt bureaucrats. We can also
expect some of those in the middle class to start parking their cars at
well-selected choke points and paralyzing every day the road traffic to
and from the presidential palace.
The broad united front and mass movement must stay the course in arousing
and mobilizing people in their millions all over the country and in
raising the level of mass actions to a new and higher level until Arroyo
understands the message that her regime must end or else. The broad masses
of the people can overthrow the Arroyo regime by asserting and exercising
their democratic rights. The best sight we would like to see is countless
people occupying all the streets leading to the presidential palace from
as far as several kilometers away.
The revolutionary forces represented by the National Democratic Front of
the Philippines wish the Arroyo regime to be ousted or to resign as soon
as possible so that formal talks in the peace negotiations can be resumed
with the incoming regime. However, if the regime manages somehow to
prolong its life beyond 2005, they estimate that conditions would become
exceedingly favorable for armed revolution, due to the deepening and
aggravation of the crisis of the ruling system through the continuance of
a hated regime that is without moral authority and legitimacy whatsoever.
Press Statement
July 28, 2005
Posted by
Bulatlat
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