Athens Meeting 8-10 October 2004, Contribution of
Philippine CP-1930
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From: SolidNet, Tuesday, October 19, 2004
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International Meeting Communist and Workers' Parties

"Resistance to Imperialist Aggressiveness. Fronts of
Struggle and Alternatives"
8 10 October 2004, Athens

Contribution of Philippine Communist Party -1930

Dear Comrades :

The Philippine Communist Party (Partido Komunista ng
Pilipinas, or PKP-1930) thanks the Communist Party of
Greece (CPG) for the CPG's great sacrifices in hosting this
Meeting, and in maintaining its very important initiative
of convening annual International Meetings of Communist and
Workers' Parties.

This year's theme of Resistance Against Imperialist
Aggressiveness, and the Strengthening of Fronts of
Struggles and of Alternatives, is very appropriate.
Communist and Workers' Parties are truly duty-bound to
organize and mobilize the masses - particularly the working
classes - in fighting imperialist aggressiveness anywhere
in the world, through various ways to demonstrate that
there are better alternatives to the imperialist system of
war and exploitation. The alternatives of course are the
different routes to socialism for the capitalist countries,
and the different routes to the transitional stage of
national democracy for the neocolonial countries.

In the Philippines, we have a very reactionary government
which is an original member of the "Coalition of the
Greedy", and which supported the imperialist war against
Iraq in the mercenary hope of profiting from the
post-invasion restructuring by imperialism of the Iraqi
economy. Our people's resistance against the sending of
Filipino troops to Iraq was enormous, and the Arroyo
government was forced to withdraw the Filipino troops from
Iraq last July. That troop withdrawal was not only due to
the threat by the Iraqi resistance to behead a Filipino
truck driver who was kidnapped by them in Iraq, but also
because of the widespread call by our people for such troop
withdrawal. Our Party had a modest role in propagating
among our people that demand for troop withdrawal from
Iraq.

Events have already exposed all the lies that Bush and
Blair made in justifying their invasion of Iraq, and this
exposure gave greater credibility to our call for an end to
Philippine participation in the imperialist occupation of
Iraq. Along with this call, we also launched a campaign to
boycott US and UK products and businesses in the
Philippines, and this boycott is gaining ground among many
mass organizations.

The impotence of the United Nations in the face of the
imperialist aggression against Iraq, as well as the
shameful role of the Philippine representative to the UN
--- who was even elected president of the Security Council
with US support, in order to defend US positions in that
body --- has laid the ground for the strengthening in our
country of the Campaign for A More Democratic United
Nations (CAMDUN). This campaign aims to repose real power
upon the General Assembly, to expand the composition of the
Security Council, to remove the veto power of permanent
members of the Security Council, and to give the
International Court of Justice --- particularly its
International Criminal Court --- real teeth in trying the
crimes against humanity that have been spawned by the
recent imperialist wars against Iraq, Afghanistan,
Yugoslavia and elsewhere.

Aside from the resistance against the imperialist wars of
aggression, another important front is the launching of
struggles against the economic crisis which is a result of
the imperialist stranglehold over our economy. The
imperialist drive for greater exploitation and profits from
a neo-colony such as the Philippines is driving greater
masses of our people to dire poverty, and even to hunger
and desperation. In this situation, we must direct the
anger of the impoverished masses against imperialism and
the neo-colonial system being maintained in our country.

The Arroyo government in our country has already admitted
that the foreign debt of the Philippines may no longer be
payable by next year. The increase in the prices of
imported fuel oils, and the devaluation of the Philippine
Peso vis-�-vis the US dollar and other leading currencies,
is making the continued payment of the foreign debt
untenable. The foreign debt of the Philippines is now
around $57-Billion, or more than double the figure two
decades ago when the Marcos regime was ousted.

The Philippine government itself has a total public debt of
$40-Billion, almost half of which is owed to foreign
creditors, and the rest owed to local creditors and
bond-holders. Of this total public debt, a little over
$10-Billion will mature (i.e., will become due and payable)
next year, with $5.8-Billion of this demandable by foreign
creditors.

It should be stressed however that most of the government's
foreign debt is due to the behest loans taken out from
foreign creditors by cronies of successive administrations,
all of which were covered by sovereign guarantees by the
Philippine government. When the private businesses of the
cronies folded up, their foreign debts were automatically
transferred to the government, and their repayment was
shackled upon the shoulders of the Filipino masses.

Despite the fact that the continued repayment of the
foreign debt is untenable, the Arroyo regime has been
assuring the World Bank, the IMF, the Asian Development
Bank, and the consortia of imperialist creditors that her
government will continue to pay through recycled
borrowings, through heavier taxation of the Filipino
people, and through the selling off of government land and
other resources. Even while tariffs on imported goods are
being reduced upon the dictates of the World Trade
Organization, internal taxes are being raised.

Public lands and institutions --- including hospitals and
grains warehouses needed for social services and food
security for the people --- are to be sold off under
various privatization schemes. Trust funds (or social
security pension plans) administered by the government are
also set to be transferred to the private sector, and are
expected to be plundered by transnational corporations and
banks. Fuel oil, electricity, water, communication and
transportation services are to be levied higher taxes. For
the first time in our history, people will have to pay
"legal fees" when filing criminal cases against suspected
wrongdoers (including grafters in government), thereby
making a mockery of the constitutional guarantee of free
access to the courts of justice.

All these plans for further privatization and deregulation,
and for higher taxation to pay for the foreign debt, are
being met with greater resistance by our people,
particularly the organized masses. New fronts are being
developed in demanding the repudiation of the foreign debt,
a large part of which was acquired through schemes tainted
with graft and corruption. This foreign debt, which first
ballooned during the dark days of the Marcos military
dictatorship, cannot and should not be paid. It is an
immoral debt and a profound human rights issue. The
campaign for a foreign debt default is a front of
anti-imperialist struggle that we have to broaden and
strengthen in our country.

However, a more pressing campaign that we have to nurture
in our country is the campaign to prevent a return to
martial rule. If the present Arroyo regime would appear to
US imperialism to be unreliable already in performing the
task of caretaker for imperialist interests in our country,
then the US imperialists may opt to use the Philippine
military in ousting Arroyo. It is the same military which
launched a coup against Marcos, and later deposed another
president, Estrada (Arroyo's immediate predecessor), and
the military's loyalty to US imperialism is conditioned by
their dependence on US military hardware, training and
vital communication facilities.

Already, the special agents of imperialism in our country -
the Islamic fundamentalists who are fomenting secession,
and the Maoists who are pursuing the illusion of an armed
takeover of the cities from the countryside --- are
stepping up their terrorist activities through bombings and
assassinations. While these terrorist activities have never
really been a threat to imperialist interests, the
terrorist strength is being exaggerated by US military
advisers who have been conducting the so-called
"anti-terrorist" trainings for the Armed Forces of the
Philippines. An "Anti-Terrorism" Law, patterned after the
US "Patriot Act", is also being pushed by US imperialism
through the Philippine Congress (parliament).

Being hidden is the fact that it was the CIA which nurtured
Islamic fundamentalism in the Philippines at the time (in
the 1980S) when the CIA needed foreign mercenaries to sow
terrorism against the Soviet-backed national-democratic
government in Afghanistan. Also being hidden is the fact
that it was also the CIA which spawned the maoist movement
in our country and elsewhere in the late 1960s in order to
divide the progressive movement and to help justify the
declaration of martial law in our country. The maoists in
our country, led by a clique based in Utrecht, the
Netherlands, have even organized an international maoist
movement (the so-called "International League of Peoples'
Struggles") in order to foment adventurism and splittist
activities within progressive movements in other countries.

We have to inform you about the murderous and terrorist
nature of the maoist group in our country, because a number
of our leaders and cadres have been murdered by this group.
Not all the foreign parties and organizations which have
lent support to the so-called "International League of
Peoples' Struggles" may realize the maoist control over
this league, and some well-meaning foreign solidarity
groups may simply want to have the goody-goody feeling of
supporting some struggle in the Third World such as in the
Philippines. But certainly, there are those who only want
to play out their own adventurist fantasies by supporting a
maoist insurgency in our country, driven by some
condescending desire to interfere in the internal affairs
of the anti-imperialist movement in our country. And
certainly, it is a shame if some of the resources
contributed by some anti-imperialist groups abroad have
been used by the Maoists in killing our comrades and the
leaders of some other anti-imperialist mass organizations
in our country.

Dear comrades :

In our campaign to help prevent a return to a military
dictatorship in our country, we are projecting the need to
defend civil and other democratic rights, at the same time
that we are attacking the reactionary policies of the
present regime, as well as the terrorist activities of the
maoists and Islamic fundamentalists who are playing a role
which is in line with the imperialist plans for the
perpetuation of its control over our country.

With greater militancy, and by gathering wider support from
our people, we are hoping to frustrate the imperialist
plans to install a new military dictatorship over our
country, which plan is aimed at forestalling the growing
anti-imperialist sentiment among our long-suffering people.

While we pledge to continue the struggle against US
imperialist interventionism in our country, and against the
US plan to reestablish US military bases in our country, we
also pledge that our Party will continue our
internationalist duty of propagating greater support within
our country for the main currents of the world revolution -
the defense of those countries which are steadfastly
maintaining a socialist path of development, the prevention
of the so-called "balkanization" of the former USSR,
support for all efforts for the reestablishment of the
socialist system in the former socialist community, support
for communist and workers' struggles in capitalist
countries, and support for national-liberation and
national-democratic struggles in occupied and neo-colonial
countries.

Again, we wish to thank the Communist Party of Greece for
their continued initiative in hosting annual International
Meetings of Communist and Workers' Parties, and for the
warm hospitality accorded to all the delegates here.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Note : Speech read in behalf of :
PEDRO P. BAGUISA
General Secretary
Philippine Communist Party
(PKP-1930)