The suffering and oppression brought about by Rodrigo Duterte's five years of corrupt, treacherous and tyrannical regime is beyond comparison. More than ever, the people are fired with the determination to overcome all fear and apprehension to fight the utterly detested regime.
To establish his tyranny, Duterte's key policy is the relentless and unceasing campaign of mass murder using his police and military forces and his armed mercenary killers. This aims to engulf the people in fear and paralyze them in order to rule unchallenged and with absolute power and railroad everything he desires.
In his sham "war on drugs," anti-Moro war and war against the revolutionary movement, attacking the unarmed people is Duterte's main tactic. Civilians are subjected to all forms of abuses by the armed agents of the state.
Scores of thousands across the country are victims of extrajudicial killings, abductions, torture, unlawful arrests, red tagging, "narco-listing", "terrorist"-labeling, military occupation, harassment and intimidation of civilian communities, CAFGU conscription, forcible "surrenders," aerial bombardment, relentless shelling and evacuations. State terrorism has inflicted the worst suffering on the masses of peasants and minorities. Duterte's declaration that he wants to arm vigilante groups to augment his police and military will surely worsen these attacks against the people.
He took advantage of the pandemic since 2020 to further shackle the people and control their movements, take away their rights and place the government and the entire society under police and military power through the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict. The enactment of the "Anti-Terrorism Law" was bulldozed and now serves as weapon for intimidation and oppression against the patriotic and democratic forces.
Duterte bankrupted the people's coffers by his corruption, incessant borrowing, tax cuts for capitalists and overfeeding of military and police forces. He took hold of corruption as well as illegal drug trafficking in the country and operations of the largest criminal syndicates. He trampled on the welfare of workers, peasants, the unemployed, the teachers, nurses, government employees and the youth. Even amid the pandemic, there was a lack of funds for public health and economic subsidies for those who lost their jobs and livelihood.
The people's socioeconomic conditions worsened rapidly as a result of Duterte's additional taxes, rice and pork import liberalization, wage depression, land grabbing and use-conversion, encroachment and plunder of natural resources by multinationals in mining, plantations, energy projects and other bourgeois comprador operations. Millions have lost their jobs and sources of income in both the cities and countryside.
In five years, the erosion of the country's national sovereignty is unprecedented. Duterte betrayed the nation by allowing China to encroach on the Philippines' exclusive economic zone and extended continental shelf, build artificial islands to establish and expand its military facilities and claim the surrounding waters and its resources. It drove Filipinos away from their seas so they could completely plunder the fish supply and other marine resources.
On the other hand, he commodifies the country's rights in exchange for US grants or sales of arms and other war matériel. Duterte demands "payment" for the lopsided Visiting Forces Agreement which he has play-pretended to abrogate since last year. He has turned a deaf ear to the clamor for the abrogation of the Mutual Defense Treaty, the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement and other unequal treaties that give US military forces extraterritorial powers in the country.
Duterte's plan to cling to power is now evident, whether in the form of running for vice president with a chosen minion as president, o through his reserve plan of imposing a fascist dictatorship. Duterte seeks lifelong immunity from criminal prosecution and perpetual aggrandizement of wealth and power. Yet, by aiming to remain in power, Duterte undermines the alliances that props his regime and intensifies the determination of the forces that aspire to end his reign.
Thoroughly expose all the crimes of Duterte and his lackeys and partners. The people must act to make Duterte pay for all his transgressions against the people.
The Filipino people must firmly act to put an end to Duterte's tyrannical reign. Their courage and determination must be manifested in the streets and other avenues of struggle. All democratic forces must link arms to frustrate Duterte's evil plans.
Drenched in blood, the Duterte regime is evidence of the rotten ruling semicolonial and semifeudal system. The ruling class of exploiters and oppressors can only rule through armed suppression of the broad masses of the people. Duterte's dirty war has exposed to the people the correctness and necessity of waging revolutionary struggles to end their miseries.
The Party and the people's democratic revolution will surely outlast Duterte, even if he succeeds to stay in power longer. The longer he remains, the Party, the New People's Army and the mass organizations are able to arouse, organize and mobilize more people to wage mass struggles and armed resistance. In the end, the people's pent-up outrage will collectively explode in a powerful storm that will end and cast the Duterte tyranny to oblivion.
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