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Issue That Never Was, and Never
Will Be
Jan 2012
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Kapatiran Issue
That Never Was, and Never Will Be, January 2012
Speech
of Luis Jalandoni and Coni Ledesma for New Zealand
(Speaking Tour, Oct-Nov 2010)
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your invitation for us to share with you
our struggle for justice and liberation, our struggle for
a just peace. We wish to thank the organizers for this
forum and for our speaking tour in New Zealand .
May we first give a brief sketch of our country and the
Filipino people. As you can see from the map, the
Philippines is an archipelago in Southeast Asia . It has
more than 7,000 islands. However the 11 biggest islands
comprise 94 % of the population and the total land area
of 300,000 square kilometres.
Our population is now more than 90 million, 10% of whom
are overseas due to widespread unemployment and the very
bad economic situation in our country. That means about 9
million overseas Filipino workers in more than 160
countries throughout the world.
Our country has rich natural resources, mineral, marine,
and to a diminishing extent forest resources. It also has
rich human resources, a hard working, friendly and
hospitable people, with many capabilities.
We were colonized by Spain for more than three centuries.
Most of us do not speak Spanish because the Spanish
colonialists did not want us to learn about our rights.
They did not want us to protest against their human
rights violations.
But protests and revolts did arise. More than 200 revolts
of varying scales and duration. In 1898 the Filipino
patriotic forces defeated the Spanish forces and
established the Philippine Republic in 1899, but the
United States stepped in and annexed the Philippines .
This led to a nationwide resistance from 1899 to 1913,
which was brutally suppressed by the US , resulting in
the loss of 1.5 million Filipino lives.
Since 1899, the Philippines has been under the colonial
and semi-colonial rule of the US . After the grant of
nominal independence in 1946, the US has ruled through
local big compradors and landlords (compradors are local
big businessmen associated with foreign multinationals).
The Philippine population consists of about 75%
peasantry, 15% workers, 7% students, intellectuals, and
professionals; 2% middle and small entrepreneurs and 1%
landlords and compradors.
In the first months of the Marcos dictatorship, in April
1973, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines
was founded (Marcos imposed martial law in September
1972. This lasted until he was overthrown through
people’s power in February 1986). There was a broad
and militant opposition movement. It proclaimed its
10-point program as the basis of unity of progressive
forces resisting the dictatorship. In the course of time,
this has developed into a 12-point program.
The NDF P 12 point program presents in detail what we
wish to achieve and how to do it. We aim to attain
sovereignty and democracy. We wish here to give a summary
of its main points.
The Land Reform Program
At the very core of this program is the genuine land
reform that will adequately respond to the demand of the
peasantry which comprises the overwhelming majority of
the population. They are mostly landless peasants,
engaged in subsistence agriculture. A small landed elite
and foreign multinationals monopolize land ownership in
the country.
At present the revolutionary forces are carrying out its
minimum land reform program in many areas. This means
empowering the peasantry and improving their livelihood
through lowering the land rent they have to pay to the
landlords, in many cases from 2/3 of the harvest to 1/3,
or from 50% down to 20%. It means reducing or eliminating
usury. It also means raising the wages of farm workers by
100% or more. In addition, labor exchange and simple
cooperatives are set up. This has benefited millions of
peasants.
In a some areas, lands taken by landgrabbers and despotic
landlords, are recovered completely and distributed free
to the peasants. This is possible when the peasant
organizations are very strong and the people's army is
also strong enough to give its support.
The maximum program of confiscation of landlord property
and free and equitable distribution to the tillers is to
be carried out after nationwide victory. Support services
of credit, irrigation and the like will be provided.
Cooperatives will be organized and mechanization will be
introduced.
National Industrialization
Coupled with land reform will be national
industrialization. The colonial pattern of trade and
investments, based on the export of agricultural and
extractive raw materials, the importation of finished
goods and capital and the re-export of reassembled or
repackaged imported manufactures, shall be broken up.
The strategic industries will be nationalized. Special
privileges granted to foreign multinationals and big
compradors will be abolished. Impositions of the World
Bank, International Monetary Fund and the World Trade
Organization shall be abrogated.
Unequal agreements with the United States and other
countries, such as the Visiting Forces Agreements, will
be cancelled. No foreign military bases will be allowed
and no nuclear ships from foreign countries may enter
into Philippine waters. No foreign troops will be allowed
on Philippine soil. The people's government will uphold
and defend the national sovereignty and territorial
integrity of the country.
National industrialization will require the active
participation of the workers through their trade unions,
the peasantry, the professionals and intellectuals and
the middle and small entrepreneurs through their
organizations. Overseas Filipinos are encouraged to
return to their motherland to contribute their skills
towards rebuilding the country.
Loans incurred by past reactionary governments will be
subjected to scrutiny according to the national interest.
Huge loans like that for the Bataan Nuclear Plant which
are destructive of the environment, causing great damage
and danger to the people and incurred through corruption,
must be outright cancelled. Others may be subject to
renegotiation. In this way, the huge drain on the budget
caused by foreign debt payments will be drastically
reduced. The savings will allow the people's government
to provide needed services for land reform and other
social needs such as health care, education and housing.
The people's government will develop economic relations
with other countries that are equal and mutually
beneficial.
Health Care
Health care is a great and urgent need because
reactionary governments have neglected this in order to
favor the military and foreign debt payments. Moreover,
fraud and corruption eat up a big portion of the people's
tax money.
The revolutionary forces have been providing primary and
preventive health care in the areas they are operating
in. In the future, the people's government will give
priority to these types of health care. It will combine
traditional medicine such as acupuncture and herbal
medicines with modern Western medicine. Health
professionals will be motivated to serve the people's
needs and not the foreign markets.
Education
Education is a major point in the NDF P program. Right
now, the revolutionary forces are providing literacy and
numeracy as well as education in Philippine history and
basic problems in Philippine society. The people's
government shall provide universal free education for the
primary and secondary levels. For the tertiary and
graduate levels of education, the students of worker and
peasant origin in the state school system shall get free
education. Non-formal, special and adult education on
literacy, numeracy and appropriate skills training for
production will be carried out.
Culture
The people's government will promote and develop a
national, scientific and mass culture. This will be
promoted through the educational system, the arts, the
mass media and direct campaigns among the people.
Accounts of our history shall be rewritten from the
people's point of view, highlighting their role in making
history. Past distortions by the imperialists and the
local ruling classes shall be rectified.
Filipino shall be developed as the national language,
while local languages and dialects will continue to be
used and developed.
Emancipation of Women
The revolutionary emancipation of women shall be advanced
in all spheres. This is one point that was not in the
original 10-Point program. It was the women who insisted
that there be a separate point on women, because women
suffer more intense oppression and exploitation as women,
aside from gender oppression. In this point, the right to
divorce, the right of women over their bodies and
reproductive functions are guaranteed.
Even now, women play an active role in all spheres of the
revolutionary struggle: in the people's war as Red
fighters and commanders, in the Communist Party as cadres
and members at all levels, in medical, educational,
cultural work in the countryside and in the urban areas,
as cadres and members in the revolutionary mass movement,
in trade unions, human rights work, in parliamentary work
and in peace negotiations.
Rights of the Bangsamoro, the Cordillera people
and other national minorities
The NDF P upholds the rights of the Bangsamoro, the
Cordillera people and other national minorities to
self-determination and democracy. It recognizes their
heroic and sustained resistance to colonialism and
imperialism. It upholds their right to decide their own
destiny, to free themselves from national and class
exploitation, chauvinism and discrimination. They have
the right to achieve democracy, to rule themselves and to
pursue social progress in an all-round way and in
accordance with their specific conditions.
The right to self-determination includes the right to
secede. This right is a weapon against national
oppression. Under a democratic Philippines where the
equality of peoples and nationalities is guaranteed, they
shall be encouraged to take the valid and viable option
of regional autonomy
The NDF P likewise recognizes and upholds their right to
ancestral domain, with due consideration of historical
realities. Moreover, they shall be guaranteed equal
political, economic and social rights. Their way of life,
tradition and culture shall be respected. At the same
time, they shall be encouraged to interact with the
richly diverse cultures in the Philippines .
Overseas Filipinos
Due to lack of genuine land reform and national
industrialization and the impositions of the World Bank,
International Monetary Fund and the World Trade
Organization, there is widespread unemployment in the
Philippines . The reactionary government has adopted a
labour export policy which provides it with billions of
dollars in remittances. Though these billions of dollars
in remittances keep the Philippine economy afloat, the
Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are subjected to many
forms of oppression.
Numerous fees are imposed on them, while embassies and
consulates often treat them without respect. They are
usually denied any legal and diplomatic protection. OFW
organizations report that there are some 7,000 OFWs in
jails, 108 are in death row, and some 10,000 stranded and
in need of repatriation in the Middle East alone.
Yet the new Aquino administration has cut the budget for
OFWs in distress by half, while it has increased the
military budget by 81%.
The NDF P encourages the OFWs to build their
organizations to fight for their rights and welfare. In
the peace negotiations, the NDF P has brought into the
Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and
International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) the following
provision: “The GRP (Government of the Republic of
the Philippines) shall respect the basic rights ...of
migrant workers abroad in accordance with the
International Covenant on the Rights of Migrant Workers
and Members of their Families” (Part III Respect for
Human Rights, Article 11). The CARHRIHL was signed in
1998 and approved in the same year by the Principals of
both the GRP and the NDF P.
The NDF P supports the just demands and aspirations of
the OFWs. The NDF P recognizes the important role they
play in giving support to the people's struggle for
sovereignty, independence and democracy and their role in
uniting with other overseas workers from other countries
and with the people where they work.
In the long term, the revolutionary movement encourages
them to return to their motherland to help in the
rebuilding of the country with their many capabilities
and skills.
International relations
Our task of strengthening a worldwide anti-imperialist
united front shall remain a primary and continuing
concern. Within this frame, the people's democratic state
shall pursue an active, independent and peaceful foreign
policy.
The new people's government will develop relations with
Third World and other countries on the basis of mutual
benefit. In developing such relations we shall uphold the
principles of mutual respect for each other's
sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, mutual
benefit and the peaceful resolution of inter-state
conflicts.
We shall push for the prohibition of nuclear weapons and
foreign military bases in the region.
International solidarity
The NDF P shall contribute to the strengthening of the
international anti-imperialist movement and at the same
time garner the broadest international support for our
struggle for national and social liberation. We seek
diplomatic recognition in accordance with the fact that
the revolutionary movement is a co-belligerent in a civil
war and not a mere insurgent force.
We shall support the just aspirations and struggles of
other peoples and actively participate in the movement
for the establishment of a just international economic
order.
Need to Unite the People to Radically Change the
Unjust Social System
Finally, to achieve all this, we have unite the Filipino
people to accumulate all the strength possible in order
to change radically the semi-colonial and semi-feudal
system to one that is truly of the people, sovereign,
independent, and democratic.
For that we have to wage different forms of struggle,
learning from our long tradition of fighting foreign and
domestic oppressors.
Different forms of struggle:
Revolutionary armed struggle
For the last 41 years, we have been waging a people's
war. Starting with only nine rifles and 35 hand guns, the
people's army launched the armed struggle. Since then, it
has grown with the people's support. It is now active in
120 guerrilla fronts throughout the country. These cover
about 10,000 villages in over 800 municipalities in 70
out of 81 provinces. The New People's Army founded in
March 1969 by the Communist Party of the Philippines is
cherished by the people because it protects them and
their programs against attacks by the reactionary armed
forces.
In the future, the New People's Army will form the core
of the people's defence system which will ensure the
protection of the national sovereignty and territorial
integrity of the country.
The mass movement
In the length and breadth of the Philippines , the broad
masses of the people are being aroused, organized and
mobilized along the national democratic line. The
revolutionary mass movement is advanced through marches,
rallies, workers' strikes and other mass actions. These
were successful in 1986 in driving away the dictator
Marcos. For more than fourteen years, the progressive
resistance dealt blows against the dictatorship and was
the force mainly responsible for its overthrow. Then in
2001, the legal mass movement succeeded in unseating the
corrupt President Joseph Estrada.
Parliamentary work by independent progressive
parties
Progressive parties have also been doing parliamentary
work. They have gained more than three million votes in
the last elections and have seven representatives in
Congress. Though a small minority, they are able to voice
out the just demands of the toiling masses and
progressive organizations and expose the anti-people
policies of the representatives of the ruling class in
congress. They are also able to undertake pro-people
projects like mobile people's clinics.
Peace Negotiations
There are also the peace negotiations between the
reactionary government and the NDF P, which have provided
an opportunity to propagate widely the NDF P program,
achieve the signing of 12 agreements, the release of some
political prisoners, and push for negotiations on
socio-economic reforms which reflect the demands of the
peasants, workers and other oppressed sectors.
The signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for
Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law
(CARHRIHL) integrates the provisions of the Geneva
Conventions and other international covenants.
The NDF P has declared its readiness to resume formal
peace talks in accordance with The Hague Joint
Declaration of 1992 and other signed agreements without
preconditions. Despite the terrorist listing of the
Communist Party and the New People's Army by the US , the
European Union and Australia in 2002, the peace talks
continued with the Royal Norwegian Government as Third
Party Facilitator. The similar listing by New Zealand in
October 2010 is regrettable, especially because formal
peace talks are about to be resumed. Peace advocates in
the Philippines and abroad, together with the Norwegian
government, are strongly supporting the resumption of
peace talks.
Building the strongest and broadest unity among the
people is necessary in order to win victory against
powerful reactionary forces backed by the United States
and other foreign oppressors. The combination of the
various forms of struggle is needed to advance resolutely
step by step to attaining sovereignty and independence,
freedom and a just and lasting peace. The NDF P holds
that the people's army and armed struggle play a key and
necessary, a principal role in defending the people's
gains, their programs and areas, fighting the reactionary
armed forces, and winning political power for nationwide
victory. The people's army will also be at the core of
the people's defense system to defend the people's
democratic state and ensure the country's national
sovereignty and territorial integrity.
We hope that our presentation of our people's resolute
efforts to achieve national sovereignty and democracy
will be of help to develop further our solidarity. For
us, indeed, justice and liberation are the road to peace,
a just and lasting peace.
Thank you very much.
Coni Ledesma and Luis Jalandoni
Negotiating Panel for Peace Talks
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
October 2010
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