A year has passed since the first Covid-19 case was publicized and the world, so they say, was never the same again. Living through a pandemic was far from everyone’s mind, not even in the wildest thoughts. Yet, it was also the pandemic that showed us the world and how it really is—oppressive and exploitative, and anti-poor. In the Philippines, it underscored and validated the legitimacy of, and the need for, the national democratic revolution in achieving a “new normal”, the future every Filipino deserves.
Highlighted during the people’s battle against the pandemic (and the disastrous impact of the series of calamities that hit the country) were two important aspects:
On the one hand, the pandemic bared to the core the decaying semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system that needs to be smashed and changed. It brought to fore the undeniable criminal negligence of the Duterte regime to respond to even the barest minimum needs of the people. To the regime, the pandemic was not a health crisis but a question of national security. At the same time, it showed the callous and fascist bureaucrats shamelessly displaying its insatiable hunger for power beyond 2022; while openly embracing the interests of the local elite and its imperialist masters.
The twisted narrative that there’s poverty because there is armed revolution dominated the regime’s narrative as it tried to cover up not only its accountability but also the crumbling oppressive and exploitative system it tried to prop up through force, lies, and deception. It branded the revolutionary movement and all its critics as “terrorists”, negating the legitimacy of the people’s struggle, whether armed or unarmed, against an exploitative and oppressive system brought about by the regime’s subservience to the dictates of its masters—the imperialists, the feudal lords, and the big business.
On the other hand, and more importantly, the pandemic demonstrated the Filipino people’s creative power, solidarity, and collective action to sustain each other while making the regime accountable for its criminal negligence and repression. It has shown the people’s strength that, when harnessed, is a potent force in advancing the people’s war to victory and in building the people’s democratic republic that truly represents the interests and welfare of the majority of poor Filipinos.
The semicolonial and semifeudal system, now controlled by the Duterte clique, is on its beam ends, here’s what the pandemic showed us:
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