Pres. Duterte is dying to impose martial law in the Philippines amid the COVID-19 crisis. Society is sick, the economy bleeding, and democracy long dead. Instead of providing urgent economic and medical assistance to the people, Duterte imposed a tyrannical and fascist order for himself, his imperialist masters and their minions.
The people, however, are resolute and capable to defy and defeat the regime. Whether Duterte be supported by the United States or by China, no imperialist power can stop the Filipino people in fighting back with all their strength for freedom and democracy.
All anti-imperialist forces are called upon to support the toiling masses and the Filipino people in their life-and-death struggle against Duterte’s de facto martial law.
Duterte relied on the US-trained police and the military, even those in the civilian bureaucracy like those heading the social welfare and local government departments, to enforce quarantine measures and so-called relief operations. The corruption and abuses were rampant.
The President himself ordered state troops against those viewed as defiant to “shoot them dead”. The militarized lockdown was immediately rebuked by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the Amnesty International, and human rights advocates led by the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP).
A soldier war-shocked from the Marawi City siege was shot dead at a police checkpoint. An evironmental activist was gunned down. People’s socio-economic and medical relief teams were harassed, arrested, and illegally detained. Those posting critical comments on social media like Facebook were arrested or, in the case of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), threatened with deportation.
Duterte used the lockdown to silence critics. In time with the lapse of a 25-year franchise this May, the government shut down ABS-CBN, the country’s largest broadcast network. The move was widely condemned by press freedom organizations and activists including the International Federation of Journalists.
Meanwhile, combat operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) intensified in rural communities. This prompted the New People’s Army (NPA) led by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to pull-out from its ceasefire declared to heed the United Nations General Secretary’s call for a truce amid the pandemic. The CPP-NPA has been branded by Duterte in 2017, following the U.S. line, as “terrorist organizations”. Soon after, hundreds of individuals and scores of organizations were red-tagged, including the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS).
The hundreds of billions of dollars extended to the Philippine government by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the China-led Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank and other credit facilities are not a “new normal” in the Covid-19 crisis. Fiscal and monetary measures can never save the Philippine economy but will only worsen its bankruptcy and indebtedness. The people are made to suffer extreme poverty, more inequality and injustices.
Duterte’s martial law is not a sign of strength but of weakness, both economic and political. His accommodation and concessions given to big comprador capitalists amid the pandemic are desperate efforts to save his sinking ship of state. His leniency towards China in the South China Sea dispute while maintaining U.S. domination and military presence in the country puts himself in dire straits as the US-China rivalry escalates.
In the last analysis, the Filipino people led by the working-class and bonded in unity with the peasants and other oppressed sectors, are placing into their own hands their liberation as masters of their own destiny. They deserve our steadfast international solidarity.
No to Duterte’s de facto Martial Law in the Philippines!
Support the Filipino peoples’ struggle for democracy, national sovereignty and social liberation! ###
Signed:
Len Cooper
Chairperson
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
08 May 2020
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