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Press Statement
27 February 2002
MASS MOVEMENT MUST PAY ATTENTION TO ISSUES OF BOTH
PUPPETRY AND CORRUPTION
Jose Maria Sison
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
It is fine that the mass protest actions continue to condemn
the US military intervention and puppetry of the Macapagal
regime.
Gloria Macapagal knows no bounds for her puppetry. She is a
far more shameless puppet than Marcos who never called for US
combat troops to fight the MNLF, a far larger force in his time
than the small bandit gang Abu Sayyaf.
We must uphold the principle of national sovereignty of the
Filipino people against the military intervention of the biggest
terrorist force in history, US imperialism, which killed 1.4
million Filipinos from 1899 to 1916.
Macapagal underestimates the patriotism of the Filipino
people and overestimates her own demagogic attempts to
capitalize on the military campaign against the despicable Abu
Sayyaf, which in the first place is a creation of the US CIA and
AFP puppet officers.
We can frustrate the calculation of Macapagal that by serving
as drummer girl and camp follower of the US combat troops, she
can distract the attention of the people from the outrageous
corruption of her administration and the rapidly worsening
economic and social conditions.
Let us call the attention of the people to the corruption of
the regime to sharpen the people’s awareness of the
exceedingly exploitative and oppressive character of the ruling
system. Let us arouse, organize and mobilize the people for
protest mass actions against cases of corruption, such as the
following:
- Payoffs from Eduardo Cojuangco for his continuing control
of San Miguel Brewery Corporation and other assets acquired
with the coconut levy funds. The government has been reduced
to having only seven out of fifteen in the SMB board of
directors and the government shares will be diluted upon the
entry of Kirin. Finally, a big portion of the government
shares will be sold. As a result of the deal with Cojuangco,
Gloria Macapagal and Mike Arroyo are reported to be at least
worth 30 billion pesos more. They have also gotten the
promise of Cojuangco to support the electoral bid of
Macapagal in 2004.
- Scam involving the so-called PEACE bonds amounting to 1.8
billion pesos. This is a racketeering operation by Macapagal’s
"socdem" cronies, including Norberto Gonzales,
Dinky Soliman, Ging Deles and Vicky Garchitorena. They have
imitated Eduardo Cojuangco’s old trick of using state
power to transfer public resources to a private entity
called CODE-NGO. The loot is comparable in magnitude to the
jueteng collection of Estrada.
- Bribes for pushers of the resolutions to allow Estrada go
abroad. A slush fund of two billion pesos from Estrada’s
financiers was used to pay off a powerful couple and a
number of the senators and congressmen who signed the
resolutions to let Estrada escape prosecution for plunder
under the guise of going abroad for medical treatment.
- Repeated milking of IMPSA. IMPSA has been milked by one
regime after another from Ramos through Estrada to
Macapagal. Under the Macapagal regime, the first gentleman
and second gentleman collaborated in making the approach to
IMPSA. The Argentinean company readily yielded to the
milking because the funds come from a World Bank-led
syndicate of banks and the ultimate debtor is after all the
Philippine government.
- The thriving jueteng racket. Estrada was toppled after
being exposed for receiving jueteng money. But the jueteng
racket is thriving more than ever before. It is now run by
gambling lords closeto the Macapagal regime. In many
provinces, the jueteng collectors double as drug pushers.
The avowed reason of Macapagal and Mike Arroyo for collecting
funds at so rapid a rate is to prepare for the 2004 elections.
But at the rate that they are collecting funds, the two shall
have become too exposed as corrupt and too discredited as to
render futile Macapagal’s electoral plans for 2004. #
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