The recent events that have triggered a new wave of protests and calls for President Noynoy Aquino’s resignation are not mere slogans brandished by the militant nationalist youths and the other militant progressive sectors in society. These are gaping wounds deep in the heart of history that have not healed and are still oozing with blood. Verily, these calls are echoed from the shrill voices of the long columns of the Filipino people marching, protesting, struggling against age-old injustices from their beginnings in colonial times.
The gross injustices perpetrated by the American imperialists during their colonial rule was accentuated by the brutal “pacification campaigns” that their troops launched against the Moro people. Thousands of Moro civilian populations perished through mass slaughters—as in the Bud Dajo and Bud Bagsak massacres—even as vast lands of the Moro and other indigenous peoples were landgrabbed and turned into plantations. Deceitful strategems were of course a constant companion of violent brutalities.
But the Americans never fully succeeded in subduing the Moro people of Mindanao and Sulu. Moro resistance against foreign invaders is legend.
But the American conquerors have succeeded in installing a puppet regime among the non-Moro populations of the archipelago in the guise of extending independence or self-rule to the local elite of Philippine society. This was preceded by the Philippine Commonwealth Government which served as a tutelage whereby a period of formation or training of Filipino politicians was ingenuously undertaken. The art of patronage politics in an arena of fraud and deceit was effectively handed down as a lasting legacy of the American imperialists. This was like a colonizing adventure by the Central government in Manila which for all intents and purposes serves as a puppet government of the American imperialists.
Through the years the injustices have continued until the present era of the so-called Philippine Republic. In fact, the present government of the Philippine Republic faithfully adopted the colonial legacy of the American imperialists and has since pursued the policy of “pacification campaigns” against the Mindanaoans under pretexts of counter-insurgency measures. This has always been done with its twin thrust of opening the mineral resources and treasures of the Island to American corporations, chiefly the mining operators.
At certain flashpoints in recent history, freedom fighters of the Moro people— as well as warriors from the revolutionary progressive forces in Mindanao—have engaged in guerrilla war against the armed forces of the Philippine State. And like a veritable “Judas kiss” the enticing gambit of “peace talks” or “peace and development”, would come into play as a deceitful mechanism to lure the rebel warriors to surrender.
The series of regimes from the time of Manuel Roxas to President Benigno S. Aquino III has successively ruled the Filipino through the art of deception and puppetry to American interests. In spite of the act of President Roxas in extending“party rights” to the Americans and the many political, economic and military agreements signed by President Noynoy Aquino with the U.S. Government, the masses of the Filipino people have not been extricated from the tyranny of poverty and misery. Instead of pursuing a thorough agrarian reform program and a nationalist industrialization, it has continued rendering privileges and favors to foreign monopoly-capitalists, which has only stunted the growth and development of the country. And to aggravate the impoverished condition of the people, a reign of large-scale corruption and thievery obtain in high places in the bureaucracy.
The direst misery and suffering of the people happened during the Martial rule under the dictator Marcos because of its repressive tyrannical acts—human rights violations in exceedingly brutal ways—from incarcerations to tortures to manslaughter ridiculously named “salvaging”. Very much like the American colonial rule, the soldiers of Marcos committed mass slaughters of innocent civilians, the most savagely inhuman was the Manlini massacre inside a Muslim mosque. But the martial regime was met with uprisings and rebellion, most significant of which is the revolutionary struggle waged by the New People’s Army and the Moro rebellion. Both of these people’s liberation struggles have continued to the present.
”Social injustice” is the chronic grievous wrong done to the Filipino masses as a consequence of the continuing “pacification campaign” perpetuated by the Central government in Manila . There’s no other way the people would respond to such enslaving governance than to cry in protest and resistance. And where resistance has been waged in various ways and intensity, the government unleashes its armed security forces, exacerbating the situation.
This has been the state of affairs for decades, until. . . the Manasapano incident took place, its tragic dimensions clouded in mystery because the President and the officers at the helm of the military organization have chosen to dish out a barrage of lies and deceptive statements meant to confuse the people. And so the people has raised to greater volume their cry of protest. And this time around, the people’s battlecry is for President Noynoy Aquino to “Step Down”.
Some feeble voices could be heard saying, “Let’s just wait until his term ends in 2016”. But the urgency for Mr. Aquino to step down now is warranted by the argument that if we wait for 2016, the normal electoral process will hold sway. There will be no way then that we can do away with this incumbent system of domination by the oligarchs. The urgency for an alternative warrants a revolutionary action of the masses of the people —Now!
The clamor for the Status Quo to be replaced by an alternative social architecture is urgent and it reverberates in the collective dream of the people. Through the decades of misrule and grave social injustice this dream has flowered through parliamentary and armed struggles, both in the cities and in the countryside. Nothing less than a revolutionary collective action can bring it to fruition. It only remains to be manifested in massive concrete people’s collective,action much like the Edsa Revolt of 1986 — BUT with a fundamental difference. The fundamental difference is that this time around NO Trapopolitician must ascend to the presidential throne. Never!
To insure this eventuality is to create a Revolutionary Transformation Council whose function and task is to institute fundamental reforms whereby a New Social Order shall have radically replaced the rotten Status Quo. In short, a new system shall be designed with definiteness and determination, responsive to the sovereign will and reflective of the supreme interests of the people. Such social architecture shall be designed in such a way that the marginalized and underprivileged must be given highest premium and priority of concern.
The economic foundation on which the political and cultural superstructures shall be built must deal with the demands of the peasant and workers in their struggles through all these years. Needless to say, a genuine agrarian reform is an essential component of the economic base, along with a decisive nationalist industrialization which shall include the development of strategic industries, such as mining and manufacturing.
At no other time shall this dream be pushed to material reality than NOW when the leadership in government is tottering and most urgently needs an alternative in answer to the demands of historical conditions. The futility of the present system of elite democracy and oligarchic interests cannot spur real growth and development. An alternative societal arrangement is an imperative need—one that can liberate the masses from poverty and one that can sustain development under a reign of social justice, freedom and national sovereignty.
This is the only alternative. And it must find its realization NOW. To wait for 2016—or for fraudulent electoral process toprevail with the dominion of Trapo politicians—is to allow the cycle of social injustice and all other attendant evils of the Status Quo to perpetuate and prolong the agony of the masses.
