National Democratic Front of the Philippines
Southern Mindanao
Press Statement
October 5, 2007
Plunderous NBN deal a hallmark of bureaucrat capitalism under the Arroyo regime— NDF Southern Mindanao
The scandalous 329 million-dollar National Broadband Network scam that has now become daily primetime fare further exposes the Arroyo regime’s inherent rotten character in plundering the nation’s wealth and resources. The Filipino people are repulsed by the shameless plunder being committed in broad daylight by Arroyo through her own husband Mike Arroyo and other minions. This deal, while scrapped by Arroyo for political expediency in the face of the people’s ire, is a hallmark of the insidiousness of bureaucrat capitalism in the Philippines.
The graft-ridden deal exposed by the supposed allies of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo also shows the cracks within the current ruling clique. Failed project bidder Jose de Venecia III, the son of Arroyo ally in the Philippine Congress Jose de Venecia, who exposed the scam, and in bitter bickering with Arroyo’s bagmen, only prove that there is infighting for monopoly over corruption money.
Arroyo’s purported cancellation of the NBN deal is a political maneuver to cover-up her own culpability. But this deal is just the latest in a string of plunderous crimes of Mrs. Arroyo. She had plundered the nation by robbing from farmers their fertilizers funds, pocketing big kickbacks from the Diosdado Macapagal Highway project, and stashing millions more as revealed in the secret Jose Pidal accounts. She gets mammoth shares of kickbacks, together with her generals, from increasing the AFP’s budget for counter-revolutionary and all-out wars, intelligence, and for disappearances and extrajudicial killings committed under Oplan Bantay Laya I and II.
Arroyo commits plunder as the Filipino people suffer in extreme poverty and hunger. The regime offers our people and resources to greater exploitation from foreign deals such as the equally scandalous JPEPA (Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement).
Bureaucrat capitalism and imperialism combined flourishes in the regions upon the sponsorship of Mrs. Arroyo. In Southern Mindanao, big business foreign capitalists and local big landlords and agribusiness giants had been amassing wealth from mining, logging and water resources, and agribusiness cash crops at the expense of peasants, indigenous peoples, and agricultural workers. Currently, big Australian mining companies are set to mine the 27 billion-dollar worth of nickel in Davao Oriental. The gold rush site in Diwalwal in Compostela Valley Province had been opened up for potential foreign mining investors. US imperialism has been bankrolling big mining investments in the country.
The people who are wallowing in extreme economic deprivation and oppression are long fed up with the grave corruption, highway robbery and plunder by the US-Arroyo regime. The Filipino masses are working to oust the bankrupt US-Arroyo regime, the rotten ruling system it represents and demands that the US-Arroyo government pay for their crimes against the people.
(Sgd) Rubi del Mundo
Spokesperson
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
Southern Mindanao
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