Communist Party of the Philippines
The Filipino people oppose Benigno Aquino’s proposals for an extended or
second term. They oppose, as well, the plan to grant Aquino special powers to
enter into contracts to increase domestic power supply in a redux of the Ramos
IPP contracts that lead to increases in power rates.
In putting forward proposals for a second term, Aquino is engaging in megalomaniac fantasies of infallibility and purity. He is conjuring the illusion of deep-going support and widespread clamor for his perpetuation. Like all dictators, he portrays himself as self-sacrificing in planning to prolong his stay in power.
He endlessly weaves a fantasy of economic growth and of his regime’s incorruptibility. It is apparent that he is a firm believer in the fascist maxim that a lie repeated often enough will be accepted as the truth.
The reality of the socio-economic crisis, however, is extremely stark to be dressed-up otherwise. There is no way of fooling the unprecendeted number of jobless people and migrant workers that the domestic economy presents them with opportunities for employment and upliftment. Nor can the toiling masses of workers and peasants be made to think that the economy is improving when daily they suffer from spiralling prices of food, medicine and medical care, transportation and other basic costs of living.
No one is being fooled by Aquino when he claims there is widespread demand for him to extend or seek another term. For months now, Aquino’s yellow army of specialists in public opinion manipulation has been trying to generate “public clamor” for “one more term” but could only afford to come up with a poorly “liked” facebook page and scantily attended public activities.
There is an objective self-serving basis for Aquino’s desire to perpetuate himself in power. He is utterly terrified of the possibility of ending up behind bars like his predecessor Gloria Arroyo, especially amid intensifying demands for his accountability in the anomalous and graft-ridden Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
Beneath the false veneer of “good governance,” the Aquino regime has, in fact, brought the old bureaucrat capitalist system to new heights. The biggest beneficiaries of Aquino’s “economic growth” are a handful of close big business supporters including the Ayalas, the Pangilinan group, the Cojuangcos, the Consunjis, as well as the economic empires of Henry Sy and Lucio Tan. Aquino has openly usurped powers in order to redirect public funds to such projects and programs which have invariably served the interests of big business and aggrandized his political supporters.
Aquino counts among his political supporters the biggest DAP-fed senators, congressmen and local government officials. These are the people who are ever-willing to support Aquino’s presidential dictatorship as long as their pockets are lined up with funds whether from the DAP, the PDAF, the Bottom-Up Budgeting System aka the Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Process.
Last week, the ruling Aquino clique rallied these political supporters in a gathering at theMalacañang
Palace
Aquino’s vicious cycle of patronage politics is about to spiral up in the run-up to the 2016 elections. The Aquino regime is building up its political kitty in order to ensure its perpetuation in power. The 2015 budget is honeycombed with pork barrel and corruption—the Special Purpose Funds, the conspicuous increase in the irrigation and agriculture funds, large funds allocated to “various projects” of local governments, the further bloating of the dole-out CCT program from P63 billion to P78-100 billion and so on—in a bid to accumulate funds for the upcoming political battles.
Billions, as well, will be allocated to the “extension” of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program which has long served as a milking cow for the big bureaucrats.
Aquino is further seeking a redefinition of budget laws in order to continue and expand the practice of reallocating “savings” to whatever program he wants to fund.
He is also seeking “emergency powers” in order to allocate and spend billions of pesos from the Malampaya funds and elsewhere without oversight and accountability. Over the past four years, the Aquino regime has deliberately allowed the deterioration of the power industry by refusing to rehabilitate and improve the hydropower plants in Mindanao and other state-owned power plants inLuzon and elsewhere. The projected shortage of
electricity by next year has been artificially created by the Aquino regime to
serve as blackmail in his bid for special powers. In seeking to enter contracts
to purchase electricity at the last minute, the Filipino people are bound to
again be shortchanged. In these special presidential purchases of power
(without the benefit of public bidding), large amount of funds are bound to end
up in Aquino’s political kitty.
Behind the pompous speeches, declarations of seeking another term, display of strength and breast-beating, Aquino is leading a factionalized party and coalition that is set to implode as the 2016 election approaches. Aquino hopes to tame the intra-coalition antagonisms by putting himsef in the middle and portraying himself as a viable option for term extension or reelection.
Aquino, however, is succeeding only in further driving a wedge in the factional conflict within the ruling coalition. The non-dominant Binay group is not about to entertain the scenario of backing down in 2016 with hopes that they become the dominant faction. It appears that only the Roxas-led Liberal Party is willing to ride along with the scenario of an extended term for Aquino, although even a number of its stalwarts have already expressed disagreement with a “political cha-cha”. Whatever the option, neither camp is willing to trust the other that a post-Aquino scenario will have them in the favor of the other camp.
The crisis of the ruling political clique continues to worsen amid the reality of deteriorating socio-economic conditions and mounting demands for Aquino’s ouster. The Aquino regime is increasingly isolated from the people.
The broad masses of working people, the youth, small professionals and ordinary income earners are fed up with the lies and illusions being dished out by the Aquino regime. They continue to push forward with their democratic mass struggles to oppose the antipeople and pro-imperialist policies of the Aquino regime.
They must intensify their mass struggles to oppose budgetary cuts against education, health services, public transport and other public services. They must protest the increasingly tighter control of big business on public infrastructure and services. They must expose Aquino’s big PPP projects that milk the people and generate profits for Aquino’s big business partners.
The objective conditions favor the growth of the working class movement. Increasingly large mass struggles must be carried out in order to advance the struggle for wage increases and to demand an end to labor contractualization and job insecurity.
The peasant masses must tirelessly pursue the struggle for genuine land reform and reject the renewed extension of the CARP. Amid widespread landgrabbing by big landlords and foreign big agribusiness, the peasant mass movement must wage broad campaigns for land reform that will mobilize the rural masses in large numbers.
More and more sectors have become vocal and are standing up against the corruption, puppetry, mendacity, brutality and dictatorial thrust of the ruling Aquino regime. They demand the ouster of Aquino and his accountability for his myriad transgressions against the people. They seek Aquino’s removal before the 2016 elections which have been stacked up against any political opposition and are most likely to serve the perpetuation of the ruling Aquino clique.
Conditions favor building a broad anti-Aquino united front among the basic masses, the progressive and patriotic classes. This should be built on the basis of the demand to hold Aquino accountable for the usurpation of powers and the realignment of public funds to favor primarily his big business supporters and his political supporters. They must continue to expose every possible detail of the DAP and the continuing use of public funds for political patronage in order to reveal the corruption of the Aquino regime.
There is a widespread campaign to collect several million signatures to enact a law prohibiting the pork barrel funds. Such a campaign helps expose Aquino and his pork barrel regime. It holds him accountable for the DAP and other forms of pork barrel. Aquino’s use of pork barrel funds fuels the people’s demands for his ouster from Malacañang.
The reactionary opposition is wont to wait for the 2016 elections. It is not about to invest in a mass-based anti-Aquino movement and will exert efforts to dampen mass protests that weaken reactionary political institutions. However, Aquino’s political maneuvers towards 2016, especially his attempt to have his term extended or renewed, are bound to drive a section of the ruling coalition and opposition closer to the mass-based Aquino ouster movement.
The Filipino people demand the ouster of Aquino and the Aquino clique from power. They can succeed by waging determined mass struggles in order to isolate and weaken the ruling regime and force it out of power. The reactionaries, on the other hand, seek to draw the Filipino people into the election circus. Worsening socio-economic conditions, however, can push the people to carry out sustained mass demonstrations of large numbers that can drive Aquino from power.
The large mass demonstrations last July 28 during Aquino’s state of the nation address and last August 25 in the launching of the signature campaign against pork barrel indicate the potential of launching more massive mass actions in and outside Metro Manila. Massive education and propaganda campaigns must be carried out in college and high school campuses, urban poor communities, offices, markets and churches and other places in order to raise the people’s awareness of the issues and raise their determination to wage mass struggles to oust the Aquino regime.
In order to support the people’s campaign to oust Aquino from power, the CPP leadership has instructed all commands and units of the New People’s Army (NPA) to launch more frequent and bigger tactical offensives against the reactionary armed forces. Such tactical offensives will help weaken the ruling Aquino regime, inspire the people and allow them more space to wage democratic mass struggles.
http://www.philippinerevolution.net/statements/20140919_oppose-emergency-powers-and-aquino-s-push-for-a-second-or-extended-term
In putting forward proposals for a second term, Aquino is engaging in megalomaniac fantasies of infallibility and purity. He is conjuring the illusion of deep-going support and widespread clamor for his perpetuation. Like all dictators, he portrays himself as self-sacrificing in planning to prolong his stay in power.
He endlessly weaves a fantasy of economic growth and of his regime’s incorruptibility. It is apparent that he is a firm believer in the fascist maxim that a lie repeated often enough will be accepted as the truth.
The reality of the socio-economic crisis, however, is extremely stark to be dressed-up otherwise. There is no way of fooling the unprecendeted number of jobless people and migrant workers that the domestic economy presents them with opportunities for employment and upliftment. Nor can the toiling masses of workers and peasants be made to think that the economy is improving when daily they suffer from spiralling prices of food, medicine and medical care, transportation and other basic costs of living.
No one is being fooled by Aquino when he claims there is widespread demand for him to extend or seek another term. For months now, Aquino’s yellow army of specialists in public opinion manipulation has been trying to generate “public clamor” for “one more term” but could only afford to come up with a poorly “liked” facebook page and scantily attended public activities.
There is an objective self-serving basis for Aquino’s desire to perpetuate himself in power. He is utterly terrified of the possibility of ending up behind bars like his predecessor Gloria Arroyo, especially amid intensifying demands for his accountability in the anomalous and graft-ridden Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
Beneath the false veneer of “good governance,” the Aquino regime has, in fact, brought the old bureaucrat capitalist system to new heights. The biggest beneficiaries of Aquino’s “economic growth” are a handful of close big business supporters including the Ayalas, the Pangilinan group, the Cojuangcos, the Consunjis, as well as the economic empires of Henry Sy and Lucio Tan. Aquino has openly usurped powers in order to redirect public funds to such projects and programs which have invariably served the interests of big business and aggrandized his political supporters.
Aquino counts among his political supporters the biggest DAP-fed senators, congressmen and local government officials. These are the people who are ever-willing to support Aquino’s presidential dictatorship as long as their pockets are lined up with funds whether from the DAP, the PDAF, the Bottom-Up Budgeting System aka the Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Process.
Last week, the ruling Aquino clique rallied these political supporters in a gathering at the
Aquino’s vicious cycle of patronage politics is about to spiral up in the run-up to the 2016 elections. The Aquino regime is building up its political kitty in order to ensure its perpetuation in power. The 2015 budget is honeycombed with pork barrel and corruption—the Special Purpose Funds, the conspicuous increase in the irrigation and agriculture funds, large funds allocated to “various projects” of local governments, the further bloating of the dole-out CCT program from P63 billion to P78-100 billion and so on—in a bid to accumulate funds for the upcoming political battles.
Billions, as well, will be allocated to the “extension” of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program which has long served as a milking cow for the big bureaucrats.
Aquino is further seeking a redefinition of budget laws in order to continue and expand the practice of reallocating “savings” to whatever program he wants to fund.
He is also seeking “emergency powers” in order to allocate and spend billions of pesos from the Malampaya funds and elsewhere without oversight and accountability. Over the past four years, the Aquino regime has deliberately allowed the deterioration of the power industry by refusing to rehabilitate and improve the hydropower plants in Mindanao and other state-owned power plants in
Behind the pompous speeches, declarations of seeking another term, display of strength and breast-beating, Aquino is leading a factionalized party and coalition that is set to implode as the 2016 election approaches. Aquino hopes to tame the intra-coalition antagonisms by putting himsef in the middle and portraying himself as a viable option for term extension or reelection.
Aquino, however, is succeeding only in further driving a wedge in the factional conflict within the ruling coalition. The non-dominant Binay group is not about to entertain the scenario of backing down in 2016 with hopes that they become the dominant faction. It appears that only the Roxas-led Liberal Party is willing to ride along with the scenario of an extended term for Aquino, although even a number of its stalwarts have already expressed disagreement with a “political cha-cha”. Whatever the option, neither camp is willing to trust the other that a post-Aquino scenario will have them in the favor of the other camp.
The crisis of the ruling political clique continues to worsen amid the reality of deteriorating socio-economic conditions and mounting demands for Aquino’s ouster. The Aquino regime is increasingly isolated from the people.
The broad masses of working people, the youth, small professionals and ordinary income earners are fed up with the lies and illusions being dished out by the Aquino regime. They continue to push forward with their democratic mass struggles to oppose the antipeople and pro-imperialist policies of the Aquino regime.
They must intensify their mass struggles to oppose budgetary cuts against education, health services, public transport and other public services. They must protest the increasingly tighter control of big business on public infrastructure and services. They must expose Aquino’s big PPP projects that milk the people and generate profits for Aquino’s big business partners.
The objective conditions favor the growth of the working class movement. Increasingly large mass struggles must be carried out in order to advance the struggle for wage increases and to demand an end to labor contractualization and job insecurity.
The peasant masses must tirelessly pursue the struggle for genuine land reform and reject the renewed extension of the CARP. Amid widespread landgrabbing by big landlords and foreign big agribusiness, the peasant mass movement must wage broad campaigns for land reform that will mobilize the rural masses in large numbers.
More and more sectors have become vocal and are standing up against the corruption, puppetry, mendacity, brutality and dictatorial thrust of the ruling Aquino regime. They demand the ouster of Aquino and his accountability for his myriad transgressions against the people. They seek Aquino’s removal before the 2016 elections which have been stacked up against any political opposition and are most likely to serve the perpetuation of the ruling Aquino clique.
Conditions favor building a broad anti-Aquino united front among the basic masses, the progressive and patriotic classes. This should be built on the basis of the demand to hold Aquino accountable for the usurpation of powers and the realignment of public funds to favor primarily his big business supporters and his political supporters. They must continue to expose every possible detail of the DAP and the continuing use of public funds for political patronage in order to reveal the corruption of the Aquino regime.
There is a widespread campaign to collect several million signatures to enact a law prohibiting the pork barrel funds. Such a campaign helps expose Aquino and his pork barrel regime. It holds him accountable for the DAP and other forms of pork barrel. Aquino’s use of pork barrel funds fuels the people’s demands for his ouster from Malacañang.
The reactionary opposition is wont to wait for the 2016 elections. It is not about to invest in a mass-based anti-Aquino movement and will exert efforts to dampen mass protests that weaken reactionary political institutions. However, Aquino’s political maneuvers towards 2016, especially his attempt to have his term extended or renewed, are bound to drive a section of the ruling coalition and opposition closer to the mass-based Aquino ouster movement.
The Filipino people demand the ouster of Aquino and the Aquino clique from power. They can succeed by waging determined mass struggles in order to isolate and weaken the ruling regime and force it out of power. The reactionaries, on the other hand, seek to draw the Filipino people into the election circus. Worsening socio-economic conditions, however, can push the people to carry out sustained mass demonstrations of large numbers that can drive Aquino from power.
The large mass demonstrations last July 28 during Aquino’s state of the nation address and last August 25 in the launching of the signature campaign against pork barrel indicate the potential of launching more massive mass actions in and outside Metro Manila. Massive education and propaganda campaigns must be carried out in college and high school campuses, urban poor communities, offices, markets and churches and other places in order to raise the people’s awareness of the issues and raise their determination to wage mass struggles to oust the Aquino regime.
In order to support the people’s campaign to oust Aquino from power, the CPP leadership has instructed all commands and units of the New People’s Army (NPA) to launch more frequent and bigger tactical offensives against the reactionary armed forces. Such tactical offensives will help weaken the ruling Aquino regime, inspire the people and allow them more space to wage democratic mass struggles.
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