Duterte: a rabid warmongering dog

In his two years, President Rodrigo Duterte has shown nothing but utter contempt and disregard to the plight of the poor and the marginalized. He has institutionalized suppression with the help of his corrupt local cohorts and minions in the Philippine military in the face of Oplan Tokhang, Oplan Kapayapaan and martial law in Mindanao. These wars of suppression will escalate to heightened terror through the planned amendments to the Human Security Act of 2007 and the implementation of Oplan Galugad. With all these fascist attacks, it is obvious that he is desperate in centralizing all political powers with the help of Charter Change in the guise of pushing for a federal government.

Instead of providing the basic social services of the millions of poor Filipinos, Duterte has incessantly bastardized the socio-economic spheres of the country by preserving policies that will serve the needs of capitalists, landlords and foreign countries. He has protected the personal whims and capcrices of the ruling class which aggravate the systemic oppression and exploitation happening in the country.

Amid his anti-United States rhetorics, he has continuously surrendered the country’s sovereignty by selling Philippine land, labor and resources. Duterte cannot even take a strong stand on China’s incursion in our own territory. He has displayed amiability to China to attract investments and secure funds for his grandiose Build, Build, Build projects.

Duterte is also a blind follower to the neoliberal policy proposals imposed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. He has implemented the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law designed bh American-funded lobby group Arangkada. This resulted in a heavy increase in prices of basic commodities and services. Along with that, he implemented schemes engineered to intensify cheap labor only to attract foreign investments and to maximize profits of big businesses.

Meanwhile, his vicious bluster has perpetuated a neocolonial rule in the country, heeding to the peremptory requests of his imperialist masters to protect the systematic plunder and oppression. He has granted extraterritorial rights to the US military forces in the Philippines by constructing several military facilities inside the bases of the Armed Forces of the Philillines in Tarlac, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Palawan, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga and other provinces in the country.

Under the supervision of his imperialist bosses, Duterte has ordered the deployment of almost 70 battalions of the AFP in Mindanao. This resulted in relentless offensives, occupation of peaceful rural barangays, aerial bombardment and other attacks. Through the state-perpetrated counterinsurgency program Oplan Kapayapaan combined with the existing martial law rule in Mindanao, Duterte is vehemently crippling the strong resistance of Filipinos against his tyrannical regime.

Clearly, the Duterte regime is now a step forward in achieving his murderous dictatorial ambition. Through the ammendments to the HSA, he aims to legalize suppression even more bh equating resistance with terrorism. This is happening while his fellow warmongering cohorts like Delfin Lorenzana and other militarists in the cabinet lay a pretext for the formal declaration of a nation wide martial law. They are shamelessly fabricating lies of a Duterte ouster supposedly plotted by the Filipino communist when in fact it is Duterte himself who has repeatedly terrorized the Filipino people and tripped the peace talks to resolve the root cause of armed conflict.

The coming State of the Nation Address of Duterte will be an excruciating play of rhetorics and drama. It will be devoid of what is really happening in the country: high rates of unemployment, contractualization, landlessness, widespread state-perpetrated killings, and so much more. However, the Filipino people knows the truth and they are not ill-fated to suffer under these circumstances.

Duterte may be bound to follow the footsteps of his idol, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. At this pivotal moment in our history, we have no other option but to resist and revolt. The Filipino peoole have proven to rise above a fascist dictstorship and they will not hesitate to do the same to overthrow a rabid imperialist lapdog and a drug-crazed warmongering tyrant who is drunk in power.