CPP/NDF-Southern Mindanao: LESSONS FROM THE SOUTH: Mobilize broadest united front to demand justice, accountability and Duterte’s ouster in the wake of Typhoon Rolly!

Propaganda article posted to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Website (Nov 5, 2020): LESSONS FROM THE SOUTH: Mobilize broadest united front to demand justice, accountability and Duterte’s ouster in the wake of Typhoon Rolly!

RUBI DEL MUNDO

SPOKESPERSON

NDF-SOUTHERN MINDANAO

NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FRONT OF THE PHILIPPINES

NOVEMBER 05, 2020

Rodrigo Duterte, fascist and derelict head of the reactionary elite, has finally run out of chances to redeem his rotten regime. Four years into his presidency, he has managed to militarize the reactionary bureaucracy, appropriate unto himself and his cronies the biggest portion of bureaucratic loot, sell out the nation’s sovereignty to imperialist economic aggression, antagonize all peace advocates by unceremoniously throwing away the developments in the peace process, relentlessly ramp up state fascism, and cement the country’s unenviable status as one of the worst Southeast Asian nations in terms of response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Duterte’s ineptitude in the face of the havoc wreaked recently by Typhoon Rolly has elevated his regime to the horridly highest heights of criminal negligence, considering there was sufficient time to have otherwise prepared and executed a decisive plan of action which could mitigate the effects of the natural calamity. Notwithstanding his regime’s disastrously delayed advisory, Duterte provided no explanation of his absent critical command hours before Typhoon Rolly’s landfall. As a result, the masses who were hardest hit had to grapple with non-existent or very limited government guidance or assistance.

In the wake of Typhoon Rolly, the US-Duterte regime was widely criticized for its wayward predisposition, especially in its refusal to prioritize disaster preparedness in favor of its anti-people war on drugs and counter-insurgency, infrastructure programs and rampant corruption. In its 2021 national budget, disaster response trails deplorably behind military spending, infrastructure and debt servicing. Duterte deems it more convenient to claim with no proof or accountability that public money is being spent on “counter-insurgency” than on solving concrete problems such as landlessness, subhuman wages and conditions of work, health services and education.

Meanwhile, we commend the Communist Party of the Philippine’s leadership and timely release of order to mobilize its forces to prepare for Typhon Rolly and extend aid to all masses set to be affected by the natural calamity. We reiterate the Party’s call to our forces and allies in the region to gather resources and undertake relief actions for the victims. Revolutionary forces in Southern Mindanao must likewise help in the rehabilitation program by imparting the lessons they have gleaned from addressing the challenges brought by previous calamities such as Typhoon Pablo in 2012.

Revolutionary forces in the region have proven that disaster response is an opportune time to raise the political awareness of the masses, strengthen their revolutionary organizations and mobilize them for concrete political and economic gains. Natural calamities must be linked as a direct result of the indulgent economic interests of the ruling class and their imperialist masters. Organs of political power and revolutionary organizations must be discreetly established in order to facilitate and safeguard the political and economic gains of the mass movement. Protest actions must not only serve the immediate needs of the relief and rehabilitation programs but also demand justice and accountability for the US-Duterte regime’s criminal negligence.

If the country is to ever rise above the quagmire of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial system aggravated by the occasional destructive typhoons and the present Covid-19 pandemic, Duterte’s ouster from the presidency is certainly a step towards the right direction, or at the very least an enabling environment.

https://cpp.ph/statements/lessons-from-the-south-mobilize-broadest-united-front-to-demand-justice-accountability-and-dutertes-ouster-in-the-wake-of-typhoon-rolly/