Statement of NDFP Consultant Roy Erecre on the 5th SONA of Pres. BS Aquino III Delivered on July 28, 2014

Roy Erecre

29 July 2014

The vast majority of the Filipino people suffer from chronic poverty and destitution while high officials of the Aquino regime are living in luxury by plundering government funds and financially gaining from favors given to big businesses, big landlords and foreign investors.

The plunder of government funds through the pork barrel system has become worse than in the past. Zero implementation of projects has become the norm so that BS Aquino and his cohorts can acquire more funds for themselves. The present administration violated the constitution and created different forms of pork barrel funds the biggest of which is the DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program) that nearly amounts to P200 billion. Disbursement of funds under the DAP is solely under the president’s power and discretion. Because of this brazen act of corruption, huge protest actions are launched by different concerned groups, the largest of which comes from the national democratic mass movement. During BS Aquino’s 5th SONA yesterday, the composition of class and sectors who took to the streets to protest and call for the total abolition of the pork barrel system and the impeachment of the president, was broader and bigger not only in Manila but in the Visayas and Mindanao as well. They criticized the president for refusing to adhere to the Supreme Court’s decision declaring the DAP as unconstitutional.

Because of the crisis of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial Philippine society which is aggravated by the world capitalist system, natural and financial resources that the various factions of the local ruling class used to divide up among themselves have become scarce. Whatever profit the foreign investments have produced in the Philippines are repatriated to their mother country. The scarcity of resources in the Philippines resulted to sharp political contradictions. The BS Aquino faction of the ruling class wants to control the whole system through a dictatorship and one manifestation of this is the DAP.

Ninoy Aquino fought against the Marcos dictatorship but his son, BS Aquino the present president of the country, has become a dictator. Cory Aquino, freed political prisoners despite her bloody counter-insurgency program, but her son BS Aquino, has not freed even one. Instead, the president keeps on adding up the number of political prisoners that includes NDF peace consultants who are supposed to be protected under the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) signed by both GPH and NDF.

The GDP increase and purported development projects bragged about by the president in his SONA yesterday were not felt by the Filipino people especially among the ranks of the workers and farmers. In fact, victims of typhoon Yolanda in Leyte interviewed by the media said that they did not believe what the president claimed in his SONA about the giving of aid and relief goods for the calamity victims because they did not receive any.

It was outrageous seeing BS Aquino mount a drama by crying and saying that he was hopeful the next president would continue what he started. What meaningful progress has he initiated that needs to be continued? The unemployment rate in the country is still high. Worker’s wages and the people’s income in general, remain very low and insufficient to provide for their daily needs. The situation is exacerbated by the non-stop price increase of basic commodities including rice and even garlic. There is no genuine social progress instead, the number of odd-jobbers increased. There is no genuine land reform under the extended bogus CARP and no national industrialization that form the foundation for nationalist development.

On the other hand, the “Asean Regional Economic Integration” under the trade liberalization concept is set to be implemented on 2015. There will no longer be tariffs for foreign products pouring in our country. Foreign investors will already be allowed to acquire 100% ownership of businesses in the Philippines. Definitely, our backward local products cannot compete with the quality of foreign finished products. Yet again, the profits obtained by foreign investors here, will be repatriated to their mother countries. Poverty will become more widespread.

In that situation, another period of crisis will again occur. Certainly, the various forms of protests and revolutionary struggle against the oppressive and exploitative social system will reach newer height and strength and eventually, will put an end to the semi-feudal and semi-colonial Philippine society.