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NTF-ELCAC

Kung paano nananaig ang rebolusyon sa kabila ng mga atake

in Mainstream

Tinanong ni Ka Andie ang sarili kung “mananatili pa ba ako rito o uuwi na sa NCR?” matapos maranasan ang serye ng matitinding atake at pambobomba ng Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) sa mga lugar na kinilusan niya. Nasugatan si Ka Andie sa isa mga insidenteng ito. Pero tulad noon, iisa pa rin ang sagot niya sa sarili, “Kung kinaya ng iba, kakayanin ko rin.”

Bahagi si Ka Andie ng gawaing propaganda at publikasyon ng isang rehiyon sa Bisayas, isang dating propesyunal mula sa National Capital Region na nagpasyang kumilos sa kanayunan. Mula noon hanggang ngayon, ang laging nasa isip ni Ka Andie tuwing nahaharap sa mabigat na pagpapasya ay “Kung kinaya ng iba, kakayanin ko rin.”

Normal lang daw ang self-doubt, sabi ni Ka Andie. “Talagang may pag-aalinlangan sa sarili, sa gawain, sa kakayahan. Di ka bubuhayin ng pride, lalo na kung dahil sa pride ay di ka magbubukas sa collective. Importante ang pagbubukas sa collective para makahanap ng wastong solusyon sa mga kinakaharap na usapin, maging sa usapin ng security.”

Pero higit sa pasya ng mga indibidwal na manatili sa kanayunan, sa hukbo, tinukoy ni Ka Andie ang mga susi para manaig ang rebolusyonaryong kilusan sa kabila ng mararahas na atake ng rehimeng Marcos Jr sa pamamagitan ng AFP, Philippine National Police, at ng NTF-ELCAC. Ito ang ibinahagi ni Ka Andie sa Liberation.

1. Pamumuno ng Partido sa pagharap sa kaaway

Di maiiwasang may makararanas ng trauma at demoralisasyon sa mga kasama dahil sa tindi ng atake ng kaaway. Hindi rin naman talaga biro ang makaranas ng pambobomba. Kasabay nito, pag masinsin ang operasyon ng kaaway, gutom ang inaabot. Minsan, isang linggo kaming nagsasalo sa niyog; O, talbos ng kamote, o kamote kapalit ng kanin at talbos naman ng kamote ang ulam.

Pero kahit gaano pa kahirap ang dinadanas ng mga kasama, mabilis itong napapangibabawan kung mahusay ang pamumuno ng Partido sa hukbo at sa masa. Sa karanasan namin, ito ang naging mapagpasya para determinadong harapin ng mga rebolusyonaryo ang mga atake ng reaksyunaryong estado. Napapanatili ng Partido ang revolutionary optimism sa hanay ng mga kasama, hukbo, at masa.

Ang Partido ang nangunguna sa tuluy-tuloy na assessment, pag-alam ng mga kahinaan at kalakasan sa pagkilos at pagtugon sa mga sitwasyong kinaharap, at paghalaw ng mga aral para sa mga bagong plano at mga SOPs. Dahil dito, napipigilan ang mga mapaminsalang atake.

Hindi naman sa lahat ng panahon may atake ang kaaway. Sa panahong “tahimik” ang paligid, nakakapaglunsad kami ng crash course halimbawa ng Batayang Kurso ng Partido (BKP). Tuluy-tuloy pa rin naman ang gawaing edukasyon, political work. Pero sa mga baryo, hindi nagiging “tahimik” dahil nakababad ang militar na nagsasagawa ng RCSP (Retooled Community Support Program). Kaya kailangang mag-adjust sa moda ng pagkilos.

Weekly namin ginagawa ang political work sa hukbo at sa masa. May mga discussion groups (DGs) na iba pa sa gawaing edukasyon. Sa mga DGs, tinatalakay namin ang pambansang kalagayan, mga updates sa mass movement, mga karanasan ng ibang bansa noong nakikidigma sila gaya ng sa Vietnam. Malaking tulong ang mga bidyo—mga karanasan ng ibang bansa at mga pagkilos sa lunsod na naka-post sa social media—para sa morale ng mga hukbo. Dito nakikita nila ang mga pagkilos ng iba pang sektor na nagiging inspirasyon din sa mga pagsusulong ng Hukbo sa armadong pakikibaka.

Pinag-aaralan din ang vulnerabilities ng mga kagamitan ng kaaway gaya ng drones, Hermes, Tucano at FA50. Pati nga kaibahan ng tunog ng eroplano, helicopter at drone ay inaaral din ng masa para hindi sila madaling masindak.

Fake news nga ‘yang sinasabing wala na ang mga guerrilla fronts. Sa amin, pagkatapos ng pambobomba, nakapag-celebrate pa kami ng anibersaryo ng Partido. Malaki ang pormasyon ng hukbo na nandun, nakapag-spaghetti pa kami at, pinaka-importante, nakapagparangal sa mga martir.

Sa pamumuno ng Partido, mas solido ang paglaban sa iba’t-ibang aspeto. Tumitibay ang loob ng mga pwersa at ng masa. Kung wala ang pamumuno ng Partido, humihina ang paglaban.

2. Tambalang hukbo at masa

May pagkakataong parang nakikipag-patintero kami sa mga militar. May insidente pa ngang maraming columns ng kaaway ang nakabangga sa pwesto namin.

Naging mahalagang bahagi ng maniobra ng mga yunit ng hukbo at iba pang mga kasama ang masa. Ang masa ang sumagip sa mga kasama. Sa tulong nila, nakapagmaniobra ang hukbo at nalusutan ang maraming columns ng kaaway. Alam kasi nila ang bawat sulok ng kagubatan, ang mga palatandaang puno at tanim, kahit mga bato at pagitan ng mga puno na maaring lusutan. Mahusay ang orientation nila sa kagubatan.

Importante talaga ang tulungan ng masa at hukbo. Yung husay ng hukbo sa military work at ang natural na kaalaman ng masa sa terrain ay makapangyarihang kombinasyon para sa pagsusulong ng armadong pakikibaka. Napatunayan naman na ‘yan sa mahabang panahon. Sa mga ganyang sitwasyon, ipinapaubaya ko na talaga ang buhay ko sa masa at sa hukbo. Lesson yan sa humility.

Di mo talaga pwedeng ikumpara ang “talino” ng mga peti-B sa talino ng masa, ng magsasaka. Kaya mahalaga ang tulungan ng bawat isa. Marami pang dapat alamin. Yung mga alam nating peti-burges karamihan diyan hindi naman praktikal sa kalagayan ng masa. Magaling naman ang mga peti-b sa paglalatag ng sistema ng gawain, administrasyon. Kaya kailangan ang kumbinasyon ng galing ng bawat isa. Kaya lang, hindi mo ‘to makikita kung kayabangan ang dala mo sa masa.

 

 

 

3. Suporta ng masa

Masa pa rin ang maasahan ng mga kasama kapag wala nang makain. Kapag limitado ang galaw nila sa baryo dahil nga nakababad doon ang mga sundalo, naging unawaan na lang na pwedeng kumuha ng makakain sa mga taniman nila ang mga kasama. Katulong rin ang masa sa pagtatanim at pag-iimbak ng pagkain, bahagi yan ng practice ng war economy sa CS.

Naka-war footing din ang masa sa araw-araw. May relyebo sa pag-gwardya at pagmamanman—lalaki man o babae.

Pero sa totoo lang, ang ganyang relasyon ay bunga naman nang malalim na ugnayan ng masa at ng rebolusyonaryong kilusan. Kung tutuusin, di naman na sila magkaiba. Ang masa at ang hukbo’t mga kasama ay iisa. Bawat pamilya, minsan pa nga ay buong angkan, sa lugar ay may kasama o myembro ng hukbo, di lamang isa o dalawa.

Yung mga tagumpay sa rebolusyong agraryo na inilunsad ng Partido, ng hukbo, ng mga rebolusyonaryong organisasyong masa ang isa sa mga dahilan kung bakit malalim na naka-ugat ang rebolusyonaryong kilusan sa hanay ng masa. Kaya’t hindi kataka-takang automatic na ang tulong ng mga nasa baryo para sa hukbo at mga kasama.

Basta’t nasa tabi ang hukbo, nanatili ang diwang palaban ng masa.

4. Ikatlong kilusang pagwawasto

Para sa akin, ito na ang rurok ng kababaang-loob ng rebolusyonaryong kilusan na pinamumunuan ng Partido—ang pagpuna sa mga sariling pagkakamali, kahit sa publiko.

Naging kamalian din namin ang ilan sa mga nabanggit sa kilusang pagwawasto—yung may paboritong lugar na pinupuntahan o binababaran. Ito yun mga nakasanayang baryo at palagay na ang loob ng mga hukbo.

Pag ganito kasi, maiiwan sa limitadong tao lang ang napapakilos kumpara kung malawak ang naiikutang mga baryo. Nagiging makitid languyan at napapabayaan rin ang ibang lugar. Isang dahilan rin ito na mabilis matitiktikan ng kaaway lalo na kung may naitanim na ispiya sa baryo, mga taong nanggagapang sa base at naniniktik ng bakas ng hukbo at mga kasama. Kailangang mobile talaga para nakakaikot sa iba’t ibang lugar kung nasaan ang masa. Hindi naman nakaka-atake ang kaaway sa lahat ng lugar sa isang takdang panahon kaya hindi imposibleng umikot.

May konserbatismo din kami, halimbawa, ang pag-aalinlangang bumira sa kaaway dahil iniisip na agad ang magiging ganting-salakay nito.

Nakita na ang mga ito bago pa pormal na inilunsad ang ikatlong kilusang pagwawasto. Nauna nang maglunsad ng rectification movement sa region noong pang 2016 pero hindi na-sustain kaya nagpatuloy ang losses. Noong 2018, kasabay halos ng ika-50 anibersaryo ng Partido, nagkaroon na ng resolution na iwasto ang verticalization ng hukbo at paghusayin ang masinsing pakikidigmang gerilya.

Malaking bagay ang rectification movement para makita ang naging kalakasan at kahinaan sa pagsusulong ng digmang bayan. Mahalagang armas ito para salagin ang mga atake ng kaaway.

5. Indibidwal na pagwawasto at pagpapatuloy sa rebolusyon

Hindi naging madali ang adjustments ko sa kanayunan. Mahirap para sa mga peti-burges ang pagtulog sa duyan, o makeshift na kubo sa mga kampuhan lalo na kung sanay sa aircon, malambot na kama, kung sanay sa komportableng buhay sa syudad.

Sa kanayunan ko natutunan ang totoong ibig sabihin ng humility o pagpapakumbaba. Lagi’t lagi pinapaalala sa sarili na hindi ako sapat. Totoo rin naman, sa CS mangmang ka sa maraming bagay. Nalaman kong marami akong di alam sa mundo. Noong umpisa, di nga ako marunong gumawa ng apoy. Magugutom ako dun kahit marunong akong magluto.

Noong simula pa lang, at lalo na ngayon, na-realize ko na kailangan maging mahusay na mag-aaral—hindi lang pormal na pag-aaral kundi maging yung nangyayari sa paligid para tama ang response sa sitwasyon, alam kung ano ang pwedeng gawin. Kahit sa mga usaping security, kailangang pag-aralan ang mga butas.

Ang lahat nang nakakatakot, nagiging less scary if objectified. Lapat lang ng MD (materyalismong diyalektiko), mga pinag-aralan natin sa BKP. Di pwedeng di nag-aaral, nagbabasa at nagtatanong kung bakit ba ako nandito.

Yung asawa ko palagi niyang binabalikan kung bakit siya nasa hukbo, ano ba ang timbang ng mga personal na problema kumpara sa kalagayan ng masa at ang mga ginagawa sa kanila ng mga reaksyunaryong militar. Dito namin hinuhugot ang lakas ng loob para magpatuloy.

Natural namang nakakaisip bumaba o umayaw na. Pero nariyan ang collective para sabihin mo ang mga reservations at tingnan kung ano ang maaaring gawin, ano ang doables. Sa karanasan, ang collective mo pa rin ang tutulong mag-proseso ng mga nararamdaman mo, mga alinlangan, mga kahinaan. Mga ka-collective mo pa rin ang tutulong kung paano iwawasto ang mga kahinaan. Again, kailangan ng humility sa prosesong ito—bukas sa kung paano iwawasto at pangingibabawan ang mga kahinaan. Pagkatapos nung naranasan naming bombing, colective rin ang nakatulong sa psychological at mental recovery namin.

Kasama sa pagiging bukas sa indibidwal na nararamdaman, mga problema, ang pagiging bukas rin sa ideological struggle, healthy ideological struggle para lumitaw kung ano ang mali at tama sa mga naging pagkilos o sa mga kaisipang dala-dala. Mabigat ito para sa iba kaya kailangang maiplasta ang mga pagtingin mo para makatulong, ipaintindi ang mga bagay na hindi ka nakakainsulto. Dito manggagaling ang matibay na pagkakaisa at mabubuo ang mas matatag na Partido para sa higit na ikasusulong ng rebolusyon.

Gagawin natin ang lahat nang sakripisyong ito para sa masa at rebolusyon. Sabi nga, lahat naman tayo mamamatay, kaya isipin na lang natin kung saan at paano tayo makakatulong sa rebolusyon dahil ito ang tama. ###(Priscilla Guzman)

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Lest we forget: Duterte’s Crimes vs the Filipino people (Part 1)

in Countercurrent

Since the “unity” of the Marcoses and the Dutertes resoundingly shattered this year, their word wars and maneuvers have become increasingly messier. They throw mud at each other as if their rivals were much dirtier. But, even as we get entertained and disgusted by their spectacle, let us keep in mind that in our country’s semifeudal, semicolonial condition:

1. They are the same, though as rival bureaucrat capitalists themselves, they race with each other to take as much power and loot from government positions.

2. Occasionally they would “unite” for benefits, but this never lasts.

3. While in power, the ruling clique would top them all in exploiting and oppressing the people, serving the interests of the big landlords and compradors, and their imperialist masters.

4. When out of power, the former ruling clique would seek to protect its loot, evade liability for their crimes and abuses, and try their darn best to come back to power.

The ex-ruling clique of Rodrigo Duterte has yet to answer for his horrid crimes. Yet, his clique is aiming for a comeback not just in the mid-term 2025 elections but more so in the 2028 presidential elections. At the forefront are his children, the current vice-president Sara Duterte, and his two sons (a city mayor and a congressman).

Read: Gloves off in Marcos-Duterte circus

Duterte managed to score the presidency in 2016 by riding on the people’s discontent with the exiting regime of Benigno Aquino Jr. This time around, the Duterte clique is using the same game plan—riding on the people’s disgust with the incumbent US-Marcos Jr regime.

Read: Duterte: Portrait of a bureaucrat capitalist

The people owe it to themselves to remember that, among others, the Dutertes should be made accountable for the following:

1. Mass murder under the “war on drug” campaign

Duterte raised the culture of impunity in the country to a new level with thousands of extrajudicial killings. From 2016 to 2022, he shocked the country and the world with left and right vigilante killings coupled with his brash and profane way of shielding the police, the military and the paramilitary groups. The kin of the victims brought the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC). In 2018 Duterte removed the Philippines from the ICC to evade its probe on his war on drugs.

By 2024, the ICC has finished the first series of investigations confirming the “systematic and mass killings” under Duterte’s “war on drugs.”

While the Marcos 2 regime announced it is reconsidering re-entry into the ICC, it also said it is not honoring the ICC warrant of arrest. However, Marcos Jr’s minions in the House of Representatives went ahead to create a “mega-panel”, called the quad committee, to probe the interconnection between the extrajudicial killings, illegal drug trade and Duterte’s drug war, the Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs), and Chinese syndicates. Also, as of this writing, Marcos’ Justice Secretary Jesus Remulla said his Department “will not hinder the Interpol from executing its duties if the International Criminal Court (ICC) orders the arrest of certain individuals in the country.”

Two years after Duterte left office, there is little legal reckoning for the victims of his regime’s bloody killings, estimated to be tens of thousands. Only eight police officers (mostly low-ranking, never the mastermind) in only four cases were so far convicted.

Read: Solving the drug problem (Part 1)

2. Martial Law, whole-of-nation terrorism

Duterte was mayor of Davao City in Mindanao for decades before he assumed the presidency. Yet, it was Mindanao that he trampled on first and most grievously.

He pounded Marawi for 147 days with the excuse of hunting alleged fighters and allies of ISIS, and then declared Martial Law throughout Mindanao. He caused the evacuation of half a million Moro residents of Marawi and soon, of Lumad also. He ordered relentless killings and brutal military rule, including massacres and closure of Lumad schools, to force the Lumad to give up their right to their ancestral lands.

Duterte’s real purpose then was to clear opposition to the expansion of plantation and mining and logging operations in the mineral-and coal-rich Mindanao. Duterte shamelessly bragged about selling even the ancestral domains of the indigenous peoples to foreign investors.

Read: Marawi a year after: A people’s right to self-determination violated

With Martial Law in Mindanao, Duterte in November 2017, ordered through Executive Order No. 32 a more intense militarization of Negros, Eastern Visayas, and Bicol. He also launched Oplan Sauron and the Synchronized Enhanced Managing of Police Operations (SEMPO) that escalated killings, abductions, and attacks against the legal democratic movement and peasant communities. EO 32 came on the heels of the Duterte regime’s unilateral termination of the peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in August 2017.

Subsequently, Duterte issued Executive Order No. 70 in December 2017 creating the notorious National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and placing the entire government machinery with its resources “at the behest of Duterte and his military gang junta for their whole-of-nation terrorism,” said Ka Oris, the spokesperson of New People’s Army-National Operation Command in 2018. The “whole-of-nation” approach is patterned after the United States Counter-insurgency Guide of 2009, the same framework used by the previous regimes of Gloria Arroyo and Benigno Aquino Jr in their “counterinsurgency” campaigns against the revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

In 2020, while the people were hard-pressed with lockdowns during COVID-19 pandemic, the Duterte regime railroaded the passage of the Anti-Terror Act. Under this law, anyone who dares to air protest or grievance against the regime is automatically tagged as a “communist terrorist” or “supporter of communist terrorists.”

Read: State terrorism normalized amid COVID-19 pandemic

Read: Killing of activists high priority of Duterte regime

The law contains provisions on arbitrary proscription and designation of individuals and organizations as “terrorist.” It removed safeguards on human rights such as warrantless arrests and detention. It violates even the reactionary state’s own Constitution. The “Anti-Terrorism” Law (ATL) became the most questioned law before the Supreme Court with 37 petitions for its nullity.

Using the law, the regime persecuted activists, leaders of people’s organizations, lawyers, human rights workers, even humanitarian organizations. The Philippine UPR Watch (Universal Periodic Review) cited 112 individuals charged with ATL and Terrorist Financing (Republic Act 10168) with 53 organizations/individuals whose Bank Accounts and Assets were frozen.

Read: “My Soldiers”: The Duterte regime’s backbone

Read: In between Duterte’s late night shows, who’s on the stage?

 

3. Corruption

Duterte has yet to answer for his regime’s militaristic rather than health-oriented response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On top of that, his clique has yet to be held accountable for the gargantuan fund mismanagement of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation or PhilHealth, the agency co-financing Covid-19 testing and treatment. In 2021, illegal or invalid fund releases were estimated at Php15 billion.

Philhealth only comes second to the Pharmally scandal, Duterte’s biggest money-making venture during the pandemic through his long-time friend and former economic adviser Michael Yang. With less than Php 600,000 capital, Pharmally bagged 13 contracts from the government on Sept. 2, 2019 worth Php 11 billion for overpriced medical supplies.

Aside from Philhealth and Pharmally, there is no closure yet to revelations of mafia-like corruption in the Departments of Public Works and Highways, Health, Education, Transportation, Information and Communication, Bureau of Correction, and Bureau of Customs. A 2021 report by the inquirer.net (“COA red flags reach nearly every corner of Duterte bureaucracy”) said many government agencies have irregularities in finance handling.

Read: The anti-corruption hypocrisy

Read: Duterte piling up ways to score and hide more loot

Duterte gained favor from the military by intensifying the corruption here that were introduced by his predecessors, for example the so-called pabaon (pocket money) for retiring AFP officials. With Duterte’s NTF-ELCAC, AFP generals and police commanders have grown more addicted to war-and-profit. The NTF-ELCAC’s Barangay Development Program (BDP), called by the CPP as the money pit of corruption, is among the milking cows of military leaders with its billions of peso budget. Most projects were white elephants and unaudited. Military and police officials also line their pockets through the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP), the regime’s “surrender” program that offers payment for every “surrenderer.”

Read: Duterte’s surrender program is a scam

Read: E-CLIP Briefer: It’s all about money

 

4. Rehabilitation of the Marcoses

Given that the Marcoses and the Dutertes are the biggest political dynasties contending in the upcoming reactionary elections, it seems ironic that among Duterte’s legacies is his regime’s contribution to the rehabilitation of the Marcoses.

Duterte is an unabashed fan of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who was notoriously known for plunder, puppetry, cronyism, and tyranny. Indeed, Duterte also imposed martial law in Mindanao and held the entire country captive through various executive orders and repressive laws

One of Duterte’s earlier “achievements” during his term was helping former chiefs of bureaucrat capitalists such as Ferdinand Marcos and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo evade punishments for corruption and war crimes. The Marcoses sought to grandly rehabilitate themselves during the Duterte presidency when the late dictator was buried stealthily at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Also, decades-long graft and corruption charges filed against the Marcos heirs and beneficiaries were dismissed.

Read: Marcos burial is history’s reversal

Read: Rehabilitating the enemies of the people

Read: Marcoses political rehabilitation bodes more tragedy for the nation

 

5. Sellout of Philippine sovereignty and dragging Philippines to US-China conflict

As an editorial of CPP’s Ang Bayan once wrote in February 2021, Duterte is treating Philippine sovereignty like a commodity. Duterte smooched China to fund his Build Build Build (BBB) projects then looked the other way when fisherfolk reported China’s building of military facilities in the West Philippine Sea. This was in exchange for loans from which Duterte got bribes and favors.

Read: BBB building the road to perdition

Read: Duterte is exposed as a traitor and paid agent of China

Yet, Duterte’s puppetry also gave more benefits to the imperialist US. In 2017, Duterte promised then US President Trump he would terminate the peace negotiations with the NDFP; that he would crush the armed revolutionary movement; and he would push charter change to allow foreign capitalists to fully own landholdings, businesses, and other resources in the Philippines. He lifted the suspension of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and came out with a more pro-US proposal called EDCA (Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement) which, among other things, allows the US to store missiles and weapons in Philippine territories, in exchange for weapons and military aid.

Later that same year, the “Operation Pacific Eagle–Philippines” agreement with the US was set which considered the country as a second front of the US “war on terror”.

Read: Back in the claws of the American eagle

Read: Kill, kill, kill misuses people’s funds then harms them

 

6. Economic collapse

Arguably, each puppet president contributes and achieves the worst during his or her own time. But under Duterte, even without or before the pandemic, the economy was already on a downward trend, worsened by his epic failure of coronavirus pandemic response. Agricultural production went down even as rice importation reached 15 percent from 5 percent in 2016. When Duterte’s term ended, the number of unemployed Filipinos grew to 3.7 million from 2.4 million. Inflation was 4.9 percent in May 2022 compared to 1.3 percent in June 2016. Duterte ramped up borrowings, leaving behind almost Php 13 trillion in debt.

Duterte’s boasts could not erase the fact that he bankrupted and pushed the Philippines deeper into poverty. (Pinky Ang) ###

Read: Dutertenomics: The problem is fundamental

 

 

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RIDING THE PROWLING CHINESE DRAGON: China’s Economic Hold in the Philippines

in Countercurrent

“This is the Chinese Coast guard. This is under the jurisdiction of the Chinese government,” blared a Chinese officer who tried to bar a cargo ship from sailing through Panatag/Scarborough Shoal, a part of the Philippine territory off Zambales province in the South China Sea. His action has sparked an outcry, but as of this writing, the Duterte administration continues to avoid offending China.

Its officials—from Malacañang to the Foreign Secretary to the Philippine Coast Guard— have all refused to call out China’s infraction on Philippine sovereignty and on freedom of navigation. Meanwhile, at a Senate hearing around the same period, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana stirred patriotic outrage when he downplayed the Chinese ships’ firing of flares as Philippine ships navigated the West Philippine Sea.

These are just two incidents in a series of cases of Chinese incursions into Philippine territory, all unchallenged, being dismissed, and at times even justified by the Duterte regime. Why would a tough-talking and cursing president, who advertises his stance as “charting an independent foreign policy,” court the people’s ire with blatant subservience? Perhaps, this question should begin with “How much…?”

An imperialist puppet’s gamble for bureaucratic loot

The first time President Rodrigo Duterte visited China three years ago, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) already enumerated ways in which the Filipino people may benefit from ties with China. This would start ONLY IF Duterte strives to build diplomatic relations with China on the basis of equality, mutual respect, and mutual benefits, the CPP said at the time.

But Duterte did not listen. Instead he has shown that he is not at all capable of building diplomatic relations with China on the basis of equality, mutual respect, and mutual benefits. He has persistently desisted from asserting the country’s victory at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, claiming China would wage war against the Philippines if he did so (which has no basis in fact). Thus, he has let pass China’s repeated incursions into our country’s extended economic zones (under the United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS) and bully Filipino fishers at Panatag Shoal.

Probably believing that in the prevailing system, presidents like him couldn’t be anything other than the worst imperialist puppets and bureaucrat capitalists of the day, Duterte is angling for whatever gains he could get from deals with the imperialists. His administration calls China an “integral partner” in their P4.23-trillion infrastructure buildup.

By now it is clear the only change that has come with Duterte is that besides serving US imperialist interests (while feigning to be distancing from it), his administration is moonlighting with another imperialist power, letting it latch on to wherever it can partake of the country’s riches and potentials.

The country’s foremost bureaucrat capitalist finds in China a promising huge pot of bureaucratic loot as former sources have dried up due to the economic slowdown, or are compelled by their citizens to raise questions on and denounce continuing extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations under his increasingly tyrannical rule. On this issue the Duterte administration is allergic to what he deems as foreign intervention.

“Duterte is in a hurry and desperate to secure his kickbacks from foreign loans and contracts from China,” the CPP said in a statement when Duterte still had three years in power. Duterte’s list of projects, flagship or otherwise, has since continued to evolve or get revised.

After three years in power, only nine of Duterte’s 75 listed “Build, Build, Build” projects begun construction. By November 2019, Duterte dropped the projects considered too long or unfeasible. It ‘overhauled’ the list such that only 30-plus of the original projects remained, and added another 68 to the “evolving” list. Half or 50 of Duterte’s flagship infrastructure projects will be funded by Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) or foreign loans, 23 are to be fully funded by the Philippine government, 24 by public-private funding, and only two will be privately financed.

Duterte’s panic over delayed delivery of the loot is palpable. Past midway in his six-year term, the amount supplied so far by China in loans and grants is still far short of the US$9 billion promised by President Xi Jinping during their first meeting in October 2016. Having already signed numerous deals with the Chinese government, his administration wants to proceed with implementing the projects ASAP so the funds could start pouring in. That can happen, of course, only if his administration can overcome the public criticisms and protests over the lopsided provisions of the deals that have been made public, criticisms for the lack of transparency on deals that have yet to be disclosed, and delays in completing the technical and legal requirements that include feasibility studies, environmental clearances, and the freely given consent of communities that would be adversely affected.

A sample of what the Duterte administration can do to push its deals with China: in time for the visit of Chinese vice-premier Hu Chunhua in October 2019, it railroaded the release of environmental compliance certificate and threatened to use police power against public protests on the Kaliwa Dam project in Sierra Madre. Yet, the protests were such that as of February 2020, his economic manager confirmed they have barely started construction in Kaliwa.

Protests against the China-funded projects hinder its implementation. Past debacles with China-funded projects such as the ZTE and Northrail also cast its shadow, slowing down Duterte’s hope for inflows of ODA from China. Until December 2019, the Chinese government wanted meetings with the Duterte government “to thresh out issues involving the Duterte regime’s big-ticket infrastructure and development projects that are being implemented with funding support from China.”

To push through with the projects Duterte needs to remove all constraints including protests. His government has busied itself imposing a de facto martial law since establishing the National Task Force to End Local Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) in December 2018, ordering to place civilian bureaucracies and local governments under the task force.

But Duterte cannot trample on the people’s rights and welfare on the way to collecting his loot and still maintain his dubious popularity. To deceive supporters, he is passing off his “China pivot” as “independent foreign policy.” He is also using it as leverage for demanding more support and funds from the Philippines’ long-time neocolonial master, without really upsetting the established “special relationship” with US imperialist overlords.

In fact, as a US puppet, Duterte is providing exemplary services to his master. He sets the stage for the Pentagon and the Department of National Defense-Armed Forces of the Philippines to use the China card to both increase and extend US military presence in the country. The US has been allowed to have another military facility, this time within a Philippine Air Force base in Palawan. Under Duterte, the US military and the AFP have also conducted an increasing number of war exercises designed to counter China’s military build-up in the South China Sea.

“The aim of these exercises is to ensure that the US will remain militarily dominant in order to protect its economic interests in the Philippines and across the region,” the CPP said in a statement during the Kamandag US military exercises in October 2019.

As president and “public servant,” Duterte continues to expose himself as a total scam. And so, to block protests and increasing calls for his ouster while he strives to make his puppetry to US and China more profitable for himself and his clique, he continues to militarize the bureaucracy and the entire government.

In 2019 his government allowed a military rampage nationwide on the basis of their ‘whole of nation approach’, a harsh and more insidious martial law than that carried out for 14 years by the ousted fascist dictator Ferdinand Marcos (whom he has politically rehabilitated by allowing his preserved corpse buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in 2017).

Enter the dragon: World’s No. 2 power develops its own stranglehold in PH

The Duterte regime has looked the other way as China finished reclaiming and installing military installations over three reefs within Philippine territorial waters. Duterte has all but given the green light to China’s staking claim and proceeding with plans to construct more installations at the Panatag Shoal. He is all but allowing also what amounts to China’s military encirclement of the seas around Luzon, sans any written treaty.

Commercially, China is also gaining humongous ground with the lopsided “joint” deal it signed with Duterte to explore and drill for oil in the resource-rich West Philippine Sea. Officials from the Duterte regime and China are meeting regarding the “joint” oil exploration.

The increased Chinese presence in Philippine coastal areas, islands and waters has placed fisherfolk and urban communities at a grave disadvantage. China’s aggressive grab of Filipinos’ traditional commercial fishing grounds has worsened the fisherfolk’s lot.

Not just in Philippine reefs and seas, China is also boldly entering vital Philippine industries and staking claim over rich natural resources in ancestral territories of indigenous peoples through opaque or lopsided deals with Duterte. As earlier stated, China’s actual fund release in Duterte’s big-ticket “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure projects is so far negligible. But the projects where it is bound to come in, per the deals already signed, and where other private and state-controlled Chinese firms are coming in are many times bigger and more dangerous than the NBN-ZTE deal for which Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo got burned late in her disputably prolonged nine-year term.

Some of the strategic industries where China loans or investments have come in or are in the pipeline include energy (China already owns as much as 40% stake in the National Grid of the Philippines), telecommunications (Dennis Uy’s Mislatel/Dito Telecommunity), water, heavy railways, and various infrastructure projects such as bridges and highways, real estate development including economic zones and islands to be devoted more or less exclusively for Chinese business and gambling operations.

These businesses being opened to China may be par for the course for any imperialist puppet, but Duterte is adding more, “industries” and “trading” such as gambling and drugs. Given Duterte’s red carpet for China, the Philippines has been putting up dens for gambling operations for mostly Chinese operators. Duterte, who has been publicly known as friendly to Chinese drug lords, has also repeatedly been implicated in the illegal drugs trade. The CPP describes him as the overlord of illegal drugs trade in the country.

For now, Duterte has already shown how he has been selling out the country and committing high treason. While Duterte is not the first Philippine puppet president to have entered into lopsided deals with China, his regime surely leads in ramping it up. ###

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In between Duterte’s late night show, who’s on the stage?

in Countercurrent

A series of tragicomedy—and deadly—policies and actions by the Duterte regime have plagued the country and the Filipino people alongside the Corona virus pandemic. On the surface, the regime’s response to the pandemic looked absurd and obviously plucked out from an alternate reality. People call it mema—me-magawa or me-masabi (a popular slang term meaning to look like one is doing or saying something meaningful or relevant). But the mema is actually a consequence of the government’s lack of direction and plan on how to deal with the pandemic and its impact on the country’s already neglected health system and a failing economy. Apparently, the Philippines has become Southeast Asia’s Covid-19 hotspot while the economy has now plunged into recession, the worst in eight decades. Both demonstrate how the regime has gone to rack and ruin. More than six months into the lockdown, the people are more convinced that the criminally negligent regime is deadlier than the COVID-19.

At the onset, health measures such as mass testing, contact tracing, isolation and treatment, and the overall strengthening of the healthcare system (weighed down by the yearly budget cuts even before the pandemic) were sidelined in the battle against COVID-19. With former generals Delfin Lorenzana, Eduardo Año, and Carlito Galvez calling the shots, military and police deployment, lockdown and quarantine, and orders to arrest, jail, and kill the “quarantine violators” were top priority. The measures were largely punitive rather than facilitative, especially in delivering the much-needed services and assistance to the homeless and jobless.

The fascist measures taken by the regime reflect the military’s dominance in the Inter-Agency Task Force against Covid-19 (IATF Covid-19); and the absence of health experts and scientists. Since Day 1 the regime has stubbornly stuck to a failed and irrelevant militarist approach despite the continuous rise in the number of COVID-19 cases, slow recovery rate, and the many deaths among health practitioners and those who were infected by the virus. The people, sick with the mishandling of the pandemic embraced and popularized the slogan/hashtag #SolusyongMedikalHindiMilitar. Recently, the slogan has ceased to be just a social media hashtag as calls for the resignation of health secretary Duque and the revamp of the military-dominated task force mounted.

The Inter-Agency Task Force against COVID-19: A militarized response to the pandemic

The actual operations of the IATF Covid-19 follows the command operation of a military organization with the big three generals—Delfin Lorenzana, Eduardo Año and Carlito Galvez—at the top. National defense chief Lorenzana heads the IATF Covid-19 command center, which oversees the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) of the “Bayanihan We Heal as One” Law; while DILG secretary Año sits as vice-chairperson. Third in command is presidential peace adviser Galvez Jr, the “chief implementer” of the NAP. He heads the National Incident Command (NIC) for its daily operations. Later, when Covid-19 cases rose to dangerous level in Cebu City, Duterte chose former AFP chief of staff and environment secretary Roy Cimatu as deputy chief implementer for the Visayas. Cimatu immediately deployed soldiers and tanks to Cebu, a move that was heavily ridiculed by the people.

The IATF dished out policies, oftentimes problematic and in conflict with those in the local government units and the health sector and other frontline workers, and to the detriment of the working class.

How the IATF Covid-19 works with the existing Task Force for Emerging Infectious Disease (a body created during the term of Pres. Aquino III), the several Czars appointed for quick fix, and the several other task groups is a tangled web. It has neither a beginning nor an end. What is obvious from the public’s view is that the retired generals and the Philippine National Police (PNP) are obviously running the show. DOH’s Duque who was visible in the first few weeks of the pandemic slowly faded from the scene only to reappear later when public demanded for a clear health solution to the pandemic rather than a militarist one. This however did not pacify the people as Duque is largely perceived as corrupt and equally inefficient in handling the pandemic.

Expectedly, the embattled regime shielded its militarist approach and criminal negligence by red-tagging its critics and propagating the pasaway (stubborn, disobedient) narrative against the people, especially the poor. Propped up by the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), thousands of trolls, and aided by a number of reporters in the corporate media, the regime blamed anyone and everyone in an effort to get away from its accountability. Only a month after the lockdown, the PNP recorded in April 2020 some 93,000 people accosted for “quarantine violations” while about 24,000 were arrested and slapped with charges. They are mostly workers and urban poor dwellers who were forced to earn a living in the absence, or lack, of government assistance.

In an interview, Prof. Jose Maria Sison aptly described the IATF Covid-19 a “coordinate of the NTF-ELCAC” (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict) as both task forces are controlled by the same ex-military generals. The IATF Covid-19, Prof. Sison said is, “practically (NTF-ELCAC’s) replication.”

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC): A militarized response to social injustice and poverty

Joining Lorenzana, Año, and Galvez at the helm of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) is national security adviser Hermones Esperon, also a retired general. Esperon is the president’s vice-chair in this task force of 20 cabinet members and two unnamed sectoral representatives.

Created through Executive Order no. 70 in 2018, the NTF-ELCAC embodies Duterte’s rehashed version of the “whole-of-nation” approach started by the Noynoy Aquino regime. It aims to mobilize the whole civilian bureaucracy to end the more than 50 year-old revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army, and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (CPP-NPA-NDFP). Essentially, the NTF-ELCAC has militarised the government and establish a fascist state. Lorenzana, Año, Galvez, and Esperon are among the more than 80 ex-military officers and men who dominate the civilian bureaucracy of the Duterte regime. According to Prof. Sison, the NTF-ELCAC fully created Duterte’s military junta.

The NTF-ELCAC, with the regime’s disinformation/misinformation arm and fake news mill, the PCOO and regional headquarters of the AFP and PNP have been notorious in using public funds to spread lies in the country and in the international community. These are specifically directed against the revolutionary movement, the open and legal people’s organizations, leaders of people’s organizations, human rights institutions, and the regime’s critics. Although oftentimes ridiculous and beyond belief, red tagging has already become a death sentence to many activists. During the lockdown, at least five known leaders—including NDFP Peace consultant Randy Echanis and human rights activist Zara Alvares—and hundreds of activists who were red tagged, vilified as terrorists were murdered.

The NTF is also engaged in a big-time racket through fake surrender of “rebels”—most often civilians who were lured or coerced and later presented as rebel surrenderers. Each “surrenderer” is supposedly given at least Php 65,000 cash assistance. In 2018, at least Php 520 million up to Php 715 million were supposedly spent by the government for this program, mostly ending up in the pockets of military officers and their minions since there has never been many real surrenderees.

Dubbed as the generals’ pork, the 2021 NTF-ELCAC proposed budget of Php 16.44 billion through National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr is almost 3000 percent bigger from the 2020 budget. Año justified the budget saying the fund will be used for the construction of farm-to-market roads, barangay health centers, school buildings, obviously a duplication of the functions and budget of existing agencies. The proposed Php 16.44 billion budget excludes the budget in support of the anti-communist campaign spread in various government agencies e.g., the AFP and PNP. The NTF-ELCAC’s budget is three times higher than the budget allocation to combat Covid-19 like purchases of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other COVID-19 interventions.

Through the IATF-Covid-19, the NTF-ELCAC “has gained more power and resources as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.” Both task forces are used by Duterte “to undertake a de facto martial law regime in the name of fighting the corona virus and to prepare the way for the formal declaration of martial law and the full imposition of a Marcos-type fascist dictatorship.”

While the country was in lockdown, helicopters were used to drop not relief goods but “counterinsurgency” flyers on the remote villages of Sagada and Besao in Mountain Province and in Surigao in Mindanao. Ang Bayan, the official publication of the CPP reported “extensive combat operations” and 14 indiscriminate bombing, strafing, and artillery shelling incidents in Lumad villages in the borders of Agusan del Sur, Bukidnon, and Davao del Norte from March 24 to April 1. Further, Ang Bayan recorded military attacks in at least 625 barangays of 247 towns in 54 provinces while the country was battling the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The highest number of cases of human rights violations was recorded in 149 barangays in Southern Tagalog, 106 in Eastern Visayas, and 101 in Bicol. Meanwhile, 26 incidents of aerial surveillance were also recorded.

The regime’s intense ‘counterinsurgency’ operations happened at the time when CPP-NPA-NDFP’s unilateral ceasefire was in effect from March 26 to April 15. The CPP ceasefire was extended to April 30 when Pres. Duterte lengthened the lockdown; but, the military operations continued. The CPP declaration of a ceasefire was a response to the call of United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres for a global ceasefire during the pandemic.

Simultaneously, in urban and rural centers, humanitarian missions and community kitchens were red-tagged, blocked, and prevented from delivering relief goods to many communities neglected by the government. Worse, those who participated, including a former house representative of the Anakpawis partylist, were arrested, jailed, and charged with made-up charges.

The whole bureaucracy has enabled the NTF-ELCAC to pursue its nefarious activities, aided by the majority of the members of the legislative and judiciary branches of government, which have become Malacanang’s rubberstamps since the beginning of his term. They have enabled the junta to gain traction by providing legal shield to its criminal acts against the people and the revolutionary movement.

It came as no surprise that just as the people fought hard for their lives, livelihood, and their rights amid the regime’s messed up response to Covid-19, measures to suppress further the shrinking “democratic” space such as the ABS-CBN shutdown and the approval of the Terror Law took effect.

The Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) of Duterte’s terror law: State terrorism against the fight for freedom and democracy

Dubbed as the generals’ pet bill, the terror law was approved hastily by the Lower House and signed into law by the president on July 3, ahead of any concrete plan to protect the people from the impact of the pandemic.

In a statement the CPP said Duterte’s Terror Law “tears away whatever is left of the ruling state’s trappings of democracy. With a rubberstamp Congress, a compliant Supreme Court, a puppet Comelec/Smartmatic, and now with extraordinary power, Duterte has now placed the entire reactionary government under his virtually unquestioned authority and limitless power.”

To date, there are now almost 40 petitions filed at the Supreme Court against Duterte’s terror law representing the views and arguments of various groups and sectors basically because Duterte’s terror law violates even its own reactionary Constitution. One of the extremely treacherous provisions of the terror law is the creation of an Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC), tasked determine who are terrorists and who are not. Dangerously, the ATC it has the powers of both the executive and the judiciary that can issue orders of surveillance, arrest, and detention.

Aside from determining who the “terrorists” are, authorize state forces to arrest people without warrants of arrest, detain without charges for up to 24 days, these presidential appointees act as the sole arbiter under the ATA. The immense power and broad function of the ATC obviously poses risk to people’s rights.

Prof. Sison described the ATC as a “compact board of inquisition and state terrorism.”

The law defined the ATC’s composition as follows: the president’s executive secretary, national security adviser, department secretaries of defense, interior and local government, justice, finance, information and communications technology, foreign affairs, and the executive director of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) secretariat. The National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) acts as the council’s secretariat.

Concretely, under the Duterte regime, those in the ATC are: ES Salvador Medialdea (Chairperson), security adviser Esperon (Vice Chairperson), and heads of departments Lorenzana (defense), Año (local government) Medardo Guevarra (justice), Carlos Dominguez (finance), Gregorio Honasan (information and communications technology), Teddy Locsin (foreign affairs), and Mel Georgie Racela (AMLC).

Again, the same anti-communist fascist generals who dominate the NTF Covid-19 and the NTF-ELCAC are in the ATC, namely Esperon, Lorenzana, and Año,

As soon as the president signed the bill into a law, Esperon fired the signal shot by saying they’re making a list of “terrorist” that would, expectedly, include the open, legal, and unarmed people’s organizations and progressive groups constantly tagged by the regime as front organizations of the CPP and supporters of the NPA. After the signal fire, Esperon immediately sniped at the critics of the terror law saying they must be supporters of “terrorists”.

—

Pres. Duterte often referred to the military and the police as “my soldiers” and the “backbone of (my) administration”. Under the Duterte regime, it has not only become the norm to rely on the military for civilian functions but also to mollycoddle the officers, active or retired, and use them to threaten the people and his critics of a military junta.

A military junta has been among Duterte’s options to remain in power beyond his term in 2022—aside from ensuring reliable successor preferably from his own family. “The current political value for Duterte in having a military junta in prospect is to flatter the military and whet its loyalty to him and at the same time threaten the opposition and the people with the prospect of military junta ruling the country in case of his death or total disability at any time or the failure of his dynastic successor to take over his position,” said Prof. Sison.

The dominance of the military in the Duterte regime means an escalation of its offensives against the revolutionary movement led by the CPP, the NPA, and the NDFP and all the democratic forces in the society even as he face the wrath of the Filipino people and widespread condemnation even in the international community. At the end of the day, he will face the people who will hold him accountable for all his crimes against humanity, for treason, murder, and plunder. ###

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