Nearly two years of illegitimate rule, Marcos Jr has become a staunch puppet of US imperialism. He established a fascist and weak neocolony that utilizes state terrorism to perpetuate and further expand the imposition of neoliberal economic policies in the Philippines.
These neoliberal policies include the depression of wages, destruction of job security, reduction of taxes of big foreign corporations, liberalization of business and capital, privatization of profitable public assets, removal of regulations protecting labor, women and the environment, and placing the Philippine economy under the control of foreign monopoly corporations. Destruction of local productive forces, deprivation of the people of their means of production especially land, and weakening of the local economy are the results of such.
Marcos Jr brags about the development of Philippine economy through his various travels to different countries for “economic deals” that only serve to solidify liberalization, privatization, and deregulation schemes. On the other hand, he deliberately destroyed the lives and livelihoods of the majority of the Filipino people—the farmers and workers. The mercenary Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) are the ones who ensure that nothing will hinder the implementation of the interest of US imperialism and its powerful allied countries.
Neoliberal projects bring devastation to the people and the environment. In Negros Island, destructive mining operations in Sipalay City, Negros Occidental and Santa Catalina, Negros Oriental have displaced peasant communities in search of precious minerals. In the long experience of farmers who were victims of big mining companies, due to destructive mining, the once fertile lands were destroyed, forests were denuded and rivers became polluted and contaminated. Several quarry projects throughout Negros Island have also damaged rivers and resulted in flash floods.
Reclassification and land-use conversion from agricultural to commercial use, solar farms, eco-tourism, plantations of crops for export and other non-productive uses have also resulted in widespread land-grabbing of peasant land and destruction of their livelihoods.
The oil palm plantation in Candoni, Negros Occidental is forcing farmers to abandon rice and corn, instead plant oil palms. It promises big profits to farmers, but behind it is a bankrupt future and infertile land. Meanwhile, the Tamlang Valley Zone of Peace targets thousands of hectares of forests in Santa Catalina and neighboring towns for eco-tourism and mining operations which will also affect many peasant and indigenous people communities.
Reclamation projects in the island’s urban centers (Bacolod City in Negros Occidental and Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental) will displace tens of thousands of Negrosanons and ruin coastlines and seas that fishermen depend on for their livelihood and are home to many marine life. Moreover, privatization and commercialization of public services such as water, electrictiy, and public transport “modernization” are interconnected with the plan to establish a Super City in Bacolod. The PUV modernization program that small operators and drivers continue to resist is utterly anti-poor and pro-big business.
The oppressive and exploitative system of the monocrop sugar economy has particularly burdened Negrosanons for a long time. It has further squeezed farmers and farm workers through the importation of thousands of tons of sugar and the hoarding of sacks of sugar by cartels to manipulate market prices, creating an unsolvable crisis.
The aforementioned neoliberal objectives have made Negrosanons suffer, whether in the cities or the countryside. State terrorism that caused countless human rights violations delivers neoliberal projects especially to the countryside.
The campaign of suppression and counterrevolution of the AFP, PNP and National Task Force (NTF)-Elcac, much like neoliberalism, spreads unprecedented harm to the people through air strikes, bombings, strafings, massacres and killings, torture, illegal arrests, theft, setting fire to forests, and others. These are intended to silence the people’s struggle for their rights and drive them away so that businesses of big landlords and compradors in cahoots with foreign corporations is unrestricted.
Due to this, the collective resistance of Negrosanons is necessary against neoliberal attacks on Negros Island. The thousands of farmers and farm workers, industrial workers, fisherfolk, church people, human rights and environmental defenders, urban poor, vendors, drivers, youth, professional, and other affected must be continuedly aroused, organized, and mobilized to stifle imperialist interests of plundering the country’s resources and exacerbate the semi-colonial and semi-feudal system. Anti-feudal and economic campaigns also need to be linked and raised alongside anti-fascist and anti-imperialist campaigns to intensify the fight against all-out attacks of the puppet and fascist Marcos Jr regime.
The New People’s Army should even more invigorate its determination to make the enemy bleed from a thousand cuts to the body and occasional blows to the head to prevent the entry of foreign and local big companies in militarized areas. Arm Red fighters not only with guns, but with the capacity for ceaseless and painstaking revolutionary propaganda and organizing to aim the people’s rage towards the onslaught of the AFP and PNP in the countryside.
The strength of the masses and the entire oppressed and exploited people must be mustered to advance the revolution and achieve national and social liberation. Revolution is the only real and lasting solution to the worsening economic, political, military, and cultural crisis generated by the hegemony of US imperialism in the country in complicity with the local ruling class.
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