New People's Army Fights U.S. Imperialism


by MIM

The President of the Republic of the Philippines, General Fidel Ramos, boasts that his Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP) is the magic formula which will eliminate poverty from the Philippines and industrialize the country by the turn of the century. In reality, the MTDP will only bolster the exploitation of the Filipino people by U.S. and other imperialists.

The U.S.-Ramos regime has also intensified its military attacks on the Filipino people. The numbers of reported massacres and forced evacuations by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) more than doubled in the first two years of the Ramos presidency. The AFP continues to pursue its strategy of "total war"--striking at the New People's Army (NPA) by eliminating the people who support it.(5)

Philippines 2000

The MTDP--also known as the "Philippines 2000" plan--calls for removal of nationality restrictions on ownership, unlimited profit repatriation, unabated foreign borrowing, and the suppression of workers' rights in order to maintain the "industrial peace". The idea is that with the right incentives imperialists will build "regional growth centers" and bring industrialization to the Philippines.

"Philippines 2000" is really the continuation of the semi-colonial policies of Ramos' predecessors, Corazon Aquino and Ferdinand Marcos. These policies created the illusion of development by using huge foreign loans to finance unproductive industries like the tourist industry or unnecessarily increase the capacity of raw-material processing mills. But industries producing basic metals, chemicals and capital goods remain conspicuously absent from the Philippines, and light industry remains completely dependent on imported components.

Unlike Marcos and Aquino, though, Ramos has shed all pretensions of agrarian reform. His policies protect big landlords and industry and emphasize export crops over food crops. Under the MTDP over 118,000 hectares of irrigated land are slated to be converted into "industrial corridors"--displacing 130,000 families. The amount of land planted with rice and corn has shrunk from 5 million hectares to 1.9 million. These crops have been replaced by export crops like rubber, mango, cassava and cotton.(3)

Ramos' plan has done nothing to relieve poverty in the Philippines. Accumulated unemployment (which takes underemployment into account) remains at at least 40% of the labor force. Seventy-five percent of the population lives below the (government determined) poverty line; 40% cannot afford to eat three meals a day, and 78% of children below school age suffer from malnutrition.(3)

U.S. economic interests in the Philippines

The Philippines has long been a dependable semi-colony for U.S. imperialism, providing raw materials, cheap labor and a market for U.S. goods.

U.S. imperialists directly control enterprises in the Philippines worth over $1.66 billion and account for more than half of the foreign capital invested in the Philippines. U.S. companies regularly repatriate more than 80% of their earnings.(2)

The U.S. gave the Philippines $557 million worth of loans and grants in 1990.(1) The Philippines also receives large loans from U.S. front groups like the International Monetary fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. The total accumulated foreign debt of the Republic of the Philippines is $34.4 billion. Annual debt service alone amounts to $4.4 billion--8.8% of the Philippines $52.6 billion GDP. In effect, every Filipino is mortgaged for $529 in order to prop up an economy which does not serve them.(3)

These loans come with strings attached, of course. In 1994, the IMF asked Ramos to raise the price of oil products and transport fares in order to transfer the costs of restructuring the Philippines' debt onto the impoverished people. Ramos complied, but was forced to back down in the face of a nationwide "welgang bayan" (people's strike) protesting the price increases (5)

The United States and the AFP

The United States has had a large military presence in the Philippines protecting its interests there and throughout Southeast Asia for more than 100 years. Until recently, when a nationwide mass movement forced the Philippine Senate to evict them, 15,000 U.S. troops had been permanently stationed at the Clark and Subic Bay military bases. During the Vietnam war, these bases served as the staging ground for the sorties which dropped 25 million tons of explosives on Southeast Asia.(2)

Although the official closing of the bases means direct U.S. intervention in the Philippines has declined somewhat, indirect intervention remains high. The United States continues to support the AFP as the main force implementing the U.S. strategy of "total war" against the Communist Party of the Philippines and the NPA.

"Total war" targets the peasants and farm workers who support the NPA and its serve-the-people programs. As one NPA member put it, "Because the people's army were like fish and the masses like the water they could swim in, the ... regime aims to drain off the water and to kill the fish."(6) The Ramos government has carried out more village bombings and forced evacuations in Ramos' first two years in office than occurred during the entire Marcos dictatorship. Over two million peasants have been displaced by the AFP since the "total war" was launched.(5)

From 1987 to 1990 the United States gave the Republic of the Philippines $1.3 billion in military aid.(1) U.S. aid accounts for 83% of the AFP's budget, and the AFP depends almost completely on the United States for its heavy equipment.(2)

Virtually every high-ranking officer in the AFP has undergone advanced training in the United States. The Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG) trains Filipino officers in the use of the U.S. supplied machinery and also in counter-insurgency tactics. JUSMAG also recruits Filipino allies for the U.S. in the armed forces. As one JUSMAG officer put it, "We're building relationships, making friends that will last a lifetime. And these are the people that will be running the AFP for many years to come."

In 1986 the U.S. spent $2.2 million on such programs for 460 officers.(2)

The people's resistance is resolute and vigorous

U.S. imperialism and the U.S.-Ramos regime remain paper tigers. They cannot relieve the economic and political crisis in the Philippines because they are the source of the crisis. The open and underground resistance of the people against U.S. domination and the pro-imperialist and anti-people policies of the Ramos regime continue to grow.

"Through the open mass movement, the people are educated about the roots of their basic problems which are imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. Participation in the mass movement empowers the people to struggle politically for their just demands...

"Meanwhile, the armed revolutionary movement for national liberation and democracy under the leadership of the working class is forging ahead. The Communist Party of the Philippines, the NPA, and National Democratic Front are in the forefront of the people's protracted war.

"Various types of mass organizations are being built in the guerrilla fronts and are carrying out various types of mass campaigns for benefit. Chief among these campaign is the campaign for genuine land reform. Organs of democratic power are being established to supplant the power of the reactionary government.

"Despite the terrorism of the U.S. sponsored-Marcos fascist dictatorship, the Aquino regime and now the Ramos regime, the revolutionary movement of the people continues to march on, firmly and perseveringly, until national freedom, genuine democracy and peace are achieved."(8)

Notes:
[This article is an edited version of an article which first appeared in MIM Notes 94, November, 1994.]
1. The Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1992.
2. James Goodno, "The Philippines: Land of Broken Promises," London: Zed Books, 1991.
3. BAYAN International--Philippine Institute for Global Liaison, Advocacy and Solidarity (PIGLAS), "The Truth About the Ramos Regime," 1994.
4. Jose Maria Sison, "The Continuing Struggle in the Philippines," New Progressive Review, 1988.
5. Liberation International, Jan-Feb 1994, p. 11.
6. Liberation International, Sep-Dec 1993, p. 20.
7. See MIM Notes, 1/94, 2/94.
8. "The Truth About the Ramos Regime," pp. 23-25.