PRESS STATEMENTS & INTERVIEWS, 2001 - Present

5 November 2001

ELECTORAL PLAN OF MACAPAGAL-ARROYO WILL BE FRUSTRATED BEFORE 2004

By Jose Maria Sison

NDFP Chief Political Consultant

The coup rumors may not translate into a real coup attempt against the Macapagal-Arroyo regime soon or at any time before the end of its term in 2004.

But the coup rumors serve to underscore the failures and weaknesses of the regime. They help to undermine it and frustrate the electoral plan of Macapagal-Arroyo for the presidency in 2004.

Long before 2004, the Macapagal-Arroyo regime is already stinking in the following regard:

1. Servility to US policies of neocolonial and neoliberal plunder and aggression,
2. Failure to alleviate the economic crisis and meet the demands of the workers, peasants and lower-middle class,
3. Unbridled bureaucratic corruption and continuing complicity of military and police officers with criminal syndicates,
4. Rampant human rights violations by the reactionary military and police forces, and
5. Consistent sabotage of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations by diehard reactionaries headed by Gen. Angelo Reyes, secretary of national defense.

The coup rumors seem to benefit not only the oppositionists but also certain presidential hopefuls in the loose ruling coalition. All of these ambitious elements, including Gen. Angelo Reyes who wish to imitate Gen. Fidel Ramos’ rise to power, are capable of generating the coup rumors.

The regime’s stink can rise to a level that Macapagal-Arroyo’s rivals within her loose ruling coalition will begin to distance themselves from her within one or two years.

Aware of the real weaknesses and declining position of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime, the NDFP is not at all bothered by the question of whether or not the regime will continue to negotiate with the NDFP. The conditions are excellent for the revolutionary forces to stress the line of new-democratic revolution through protracted people’s war. #

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