Roland G. Simbulan » The Future of the Philippine Left

By Roland G. Simbulan

THIRTY-NINE YEARS AGO, a revitalized Philippine Left began to challenge the long-entrenched oligarchy in a nation long considered the United States’ political and military stronghold in the Asia-Pacific. The seeds of people’s empowerment were deeply planted, and rooted. The Philippines was never to be the same again. The Left’s presence in our national life and politics continues not only to be felt today, but is related to the struggles of our people for social justice, human rights and consistent defense of our national sovereignty. Its influence continues to increase largely as a political struggle that articulates the voice of the poor majority long marginalized and disempowered by the oligarchy from Philippine political and economic decision-making.

It is a testimony to the resilience of the Philippine Left that it has survived the onslaught of the Marcos dictatorship, the vigilantes, the end of the Cold War, the deep penetration agents, crises and splits, and the death squads of OPLAN Bantay Laya I and II. That it has survived these most terrible repression has made it into a formidable social movement. For despite the most insidious and virulent attacks against the Left by the oligarchy which fears the empowerment of the poor and the genuine democratization of our political system, it continues to advance a pro-people agenda that may be the only alternative to the multi-party elites. Again, it is thwarting another OPLAN & timetable for its demise made by another Philippine president - now the fifth commander in chief since Marcos. State violence to crush the Left, a cornerstone of many administrations, cannot succeed if these are employed by those who work against the the poor and oppressed.

Time and again, even the United States has made us into a laboratory of some sorts for its most repressive tactics against our people’s movements. And while U.S. counterinsurgency manuals now claim that crushing our independence struggle and the peasant struggle in the ’50s was its most successful counterinsurgency experience in the world, U.S. special operations forces today still continue to be deployed in various parts of the country, still trying to achieve what they tried to do more than a century ago.

Today, progressive mass movements of the Philippine Left are found in all parts of the archipelago, from the grassroots communities to the national level. Organized territorially and sectorally in 90 percent of our provinces, they continue to articulate the hopes and struggles of the Filipino masses. As sectors, they are organized diversely as federations of peasants, workers, indigenous peoples, women, students, teachers, health professionals, government employees, professionals, artists, media, church people, overseas contract workers, environmentalists, etc.. The progressive Philippine Left is at the front line among the struggles of our people on practically all issues affecting the people’s livelihood, foiling attempts to institutionalize tyranny and neo-liberal globalization, as well as issues that impinge on the patrimony and dignity of our nation such as the onerous Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). The Left’s engagement with the Philippine state today can be described as that of fiscalizer, protagonist and symbiotic partner in grassroots programs.

Unlike progressive forces in other countries of Asia that saw their demise with the waning of the Cold War and upheavals in former socialist countries, the Philippine Left’s continued resilience reminds us that the people’s struggle here was not exported from outside. That it arises from the conditions and policies of exploitation that the local ruling oligarchy, foreign interests and the U.S.-supported government inflicts on the people. Historically, it draws its strength from peasant unrest in the countryside fueled by the horrors of social inequality and abuses by the state’s security forces. In the international NGO community today, we are regarded as a superpower when it comes to people’s movements and NGOs, thanks to the painstaking political work of egalitarian and selfless cadres of the Left. What the Left direly needs is to project not only its alternative national development program but also its own credible leaders who can excite and capture the imagination of our people.