Reds Told to Expand, Launch More Attacks

However, the broad united front against the corrupt and brutal Arroyo regime is resilient and becoming more vigorous mainly because of the resoluteness and militance of the forces of the national democratic movement. The opposition forces headed by those expecting to replace Arroyo from the presidency are wary that if she were ousted and her vice-president would take over the presidency in her interest and would have enough time to consolidate power for running for the presidency in 2010. But if the broad united front fails to discredit, isolate and put Arroyo always on the brink of downfall she could recover to some extent and gain the position of choosing her successor in order to protect herself against criminal prosecution.

The long running division among the reactionary military and police officers into political factions and criminal syndicates is a major manifestation of the rottenness and weakness of the ruling system. However, certain patriotic military and police officers have emerged to denounce and oppose the Arroyo regime and a number of them have been imprisoned since 2003. They are inspiring the military rank and file to uphold the principle of civilian supremacy, to respect the people’s right to speak and assemble and to withdraw support from the Arroyo regime. They are eagerly awaiting the protest mass actions to reach the level of at least 100,000 at Edsa or before the presidential palace in order to make a dramatic act of withdrawing support from the regime.

The broad masses of the people are seething with outrage over the Arroyo regime’s puppetry to imperialist interests, its unbounded corruption and its gross and systematic human rights violations. They are determined to wage protest mass actions in the national capital region and on a nationwide scale until the Arroyo regime is ousted from power. The demand for the ouster of the Arroyo ruling clique rings loud in the factories, farms, communities and institutions like the schools and churches, and in various types of gatherings of whatever size. All forms of mass media are being used to expose and oppose the Arroyo regime and call for its ouster from power.

The people are rallying to the calls of the organized forces of the toiling masses of workers and peasants and the middle social strata and the issue-based organizations and movements. The people are being mobilized by an echelon of alliances: the basic alliance of the workers and peasants, the progressive alliance of the toiling masses and the urban petty bourgeoisie, the patriotic alliance of the progressive forces and the middle bourgeoisie and the broad united front that includes the anti-Arroyo reactionaries who are temporary and unstable allies.

It is the immediate aim of the people to oust the Arroyo regime from power before 2010. All efforts are being exerted to achieve this aim. But if the regime persists and tries to puts its own successor in power, the people’s outrage will become even sharper. The weaknesses of certain allies in the broad united front do not discourage the patriotic and progressive forces but encourage them further to use their independence and initiative to enlarge the mass movement, determine its course and accelerate its advances. The growing protest mass actions have compelled the Arroyo regime to deploy more military and police personnel in urban areas. At the same time, the New People’s Army has been intensifying its tactical offensives in the rural areas.

The prospects for resuming the formal talks in the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) are dim or nil. The Arroyo regime is unwilling to do away with the many obstacles it has put up and even demands the capitulation of the NDFP as precondition to mere exploratory talks. The main and essential thrust of the Arroyo regime is to seek the destruction or strategic defeat of the revolutionary movement before 2010. It is opposed to peace negotiations within the framework of The Hague Joint Declaration of 1992. Instead, it tries in vain to use deceptive tactics, such as so-called “localized peace talks” and “amnesty and rehabilitation” as adjuncts of the military campaigns of suppression. These tactics are all calculated to mislead and divide the people and at the same time allow the regime and its military agents to enrich themselves by fabricating fake lists of amnesty beneficiaries.