Youth movement in the Philippines fights on many 
fronts for national democracy

August 2001 -- Eleanor "Lengua" de Guzman, 
National Vice-Chair of Anakbayan, a militant youth 
organization in the Philippines, spoke across 
California about the state of the youth struggle 
in her country. In the Philippines 23 million 
young people, or more than 50% of school age 
youth, are not in school. Anakbayan organizes 
young peasants, young workers, out-of-school 
youth, students and young professionals. This 
struggle obviously includes a broad range of 
issues relevant not only to the youth but to the 
majority of Filipinos. The economy and government 
of the Republic of the Philippines serve u.$. 
imperialists and the local reactionary classes, at 
the expense of the welfare of most people. 

Anakbayan was among the first organizations to 
call for the ouster of the corrupt President 
Estrada in 1999. Joined by revolutionary and other 
legal mass organizations, the movement culminated 
in a massive uprising in January of 2001 forcing 
the Estrada regime from power. 

Now, with the new 
regime of Macapagal-Arroyo, former vice-president 
to Estrada, the same policies threaten the 
livelihood of the Filipino people. The Macapagal-
Arroyo administration continues to open the 
Filipino economy to cheaper crops from industrial 
countries, destroying the agricultural economy. 
She is also privatizing hospitals, colleges and 
universities, deregulating social services and 
price mechanisms, and raising tuition. When the 
new administration came to power, the youth 
organizations, led by Anakbayan, presented it with 
several demands: Stop the increase of tuition fees 
in the schools; increase the budget for education; 
release all political prisoners; and uphold 
education rights. 

While giving lip service to the 
youth's education demands, Macapagal-Arroyo 
increased tuition in 376 private schools and 10 
state universities. She increased the military 
budget while ignoring the education budget. The 
government has already committed 10 billion pesos 
(about $200 million) for modernization of the 
armed forces of the Philippines in the 2002 
budget. The government also acquiesced IMF and WB 
and agreed to put a large portion of the budget 
towards foreign and local debt service. This is 
money that will directly serve the imperialists 
and their lackeys in the Filipino government and 
directly harm the people of the Philippines. 

The military wages low-intensity war on the 
revolutionary movement in the countryside led by 
the Communist Party of the Philippines. Debt 
service just amounts to paying back imperialist 
financial institutions for money the corrupt 
Philippine government used for its own purposes. 
So it is no wonder the Filipino government decided 
to raise tuition in the schools. Rather than spend 
money on education, the government has decided to 
raise the price and exclude more working people 
from school.


Filipino law requires schools to hold 
consultations with students before increasing 
tuition. Most schools did not do this before the 
recent tuition increases. Those that did never 
reached any agreement with the students. When 
schools opened in June, students held protests 
demanding to be heard and declaring the tuition 
increases illegal. "The profit-hungry capitalist 
educators with the collaboration of the Commission 
on Higher Education and the present administration 
abandoned every little hope of the youth for 
education," Anakbayan said in a statement released 
at the pickets. In mid- July three thousand youth 
protested the tuition increases at the 
presidential palace. Another three thousand youth 
set-up a barricade at the gates of a comprador 
capitalist -owned university in Caloocan.

The youth are also focusing their fire on mandatory 
ROTC participation for male students. The Armed 
Forces of the Philippines directly controls the 
ROTC. In April, a student named Mark Chua and 
another AB member Romulo Yumul filed complaints 
protesting the ROTC corruption at the University 
of Santo Tomas ("a bastion of clerico-fascism," 
says one Anakbayan member). Evidently ROTC 
officers would charge outrageous prices for 
uniforms etc. and pocket the profit. The complaint 
reached top-brass AFP officers leading to the 
relief of the UST ROTC Commandant. Several weeks 
after... Chua was found dead in a river This 
apparent murder increased the student's outrage at 
the program. Anakbayan is calling for walkouts and 
boycotts from ROTC training throughout the 
country. It also filed a bill along other youth 
organizations to congress to abolish the ROTC. 

Throughout July and August walkouts were 
successful in many schools across the country, 
gaining participation of a majority of the cadets 
in some places. Anakbayan opposes the illegal 
occupation of Filipino land by the u.$. military 
and the Filipino military is clearly answering to 
it's u.$. masters. Macapagal-Arroyo on the other 
hand has made it clear she welcomes u.$. military 
presence. One of the first things she did after 
the January uprising was to authorize the 
resumption of joint u.$.-R.P. military exercises. 

A statement released during ROTC walkouts read in 
part: "ROTC serves the thrust of the military in 
defending the corrupt and rotten government and by 
distorting the youth's sense of nationalism and 
service. The skills, values and orientation of the 
youth can be enhanced through socio-civic work, 
and not by subjecting them under the scorching 
heat of the sun and curses from their commandants 
and officers. Military training is not necessary 
for the youth to understand nationalism."(1) 

Another important issue Anakbayan is campaigning 
around is a minimum wage increase. The current 
minimum wage in the Philippines is 250 pesos a 
day, about $5. Activists are demanding an increase 
of 125 pesos. This campaign underscores the 
economic differences between the majority petit-
bourgeoisie in imperialist countries like the 
united $tates and workers in the Third World. This 
is one reason why MIM calls for an international 
minimum wage rather than fighting for higher wages 
for the already bloated labor aristocracy in the 
imperialist countries. Those living within u.s. 
borders and benefiting from the exploitation and 
oppression of the Filipino people have an 
obligation to support Filipino demands for higher 
wages, education access, and ultimately the 
overthrow of the ruling system of compradors and 
landlords under the control of u.s. imperialism. 

Lengua spoke in Santa Barbara, San Diego, Los 
Angeles, and San Francisco during the last two 
weeks of August as part of a tour organized by 
National Democratic organizations allied in BAYAN 
- International - USA. MIM and MIM-led 
organizations helped in southern California. The 
Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League worked with 
the anti-imperialist student group ASIAN!, 
Kapatirang Pilipino and the Queer Student Union. 

Studies for the Liberation of Aztlan and Latin 
America was key in putting the San Diego event 
together, hooking up with Groundwork books, which 
provided the venue and did good outreach work. 
Organizers raised several hundred dollars at the 
events just by passing the hat. Campus chapters of 
RAIL and ASIAN! also contributed several hundred 
dollars. This concrete expression of 
internationalism is "right on time," as Anakbayan 
needs resources to establish a national office.

Notes: 
http://www.inq7.net/met/2001/jul/21/met_3-1.htm