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The unthinkable seemed to have happened in Nepal.
Reports have it that the Maoists have won a clear majority in
parliament and are set to abolish the anachronistic monarchy.
People must be wondering about
something like this happening in the Philippines, which has long
been seen as a neo-colony of the U.S. run by surrogates from the
oligarchy. The question is: will the Philippine Left be able to
“seize” state power through multi-party elections?
Instructive is the lecture “The
Future of the Philippine Left” given by Prof. Roland Simbulan on
the occasion of the U.P. centenary. Simbulan is included, says the
American Civil Liberties Union, among those “distinguished
scholars who because of their ideas critical of US foreign policy,
have been banned by the US government from visiting the United
States.”
The professor was head of the
Nuclear-Free Philippines Coalition and political adviser of Sen.
Wigberto Tanada who led in the Senate rejection of the US bases
treaty in 1991.
The nationalist origins of the
Philippine Left may be traced historically to events leading to the
1896 Revolution, and the entry of socialist ideas in the writings of
Isabelo de los Reyes, Lope Santos, Crisanto Evangelista and later
proletarian writers involved in people’s struggles earlier in the
20th century. The sixties saw the resurgence of militant groups.
Simbulan sees the revitalization
of the Philippine Left “thirty nine years ago.” That would be
1968, with the founding of the “reestablished” Communist Party
of the Philippines, which “began to challenge the long entrenched
oligarchy in a nation long considered the United States’ political
and military stronghold in the Asia-Pacific.” Both armed and
political struggles have marked the decades that followed. Severe
repression has been the answer of successive administrations.
That the Philippine Left “has
survived the Marcos dictatorship, the vigilantes, the end of the
Cold War, the deep penetration agents, the crises and splits, and
the death squads of OPLAN Bantay Laya I and II” attests to its
resiliency. Simbulan says, having “survived these most terrible
repressions has made the Left into a formidable social movement”
that may be the “only alternative to the multi-party elites.”
Simbulan notes: “The Left’s
presence in our national life and politics continues not only to be
felt today, but is related to the struggles of our people for social
justice, human rights and consistent defense of our national
sovereignty.”
Organized sectorally in 90
percent of the provinces, the Left mass movement is at the front
line among the peoples’ struggles on “practically all issues
affecting the people’s livelihood, foiling attempts to
institutionalize tyranny and neo-liberal globalization” as well as
on issues that “impinge on the patrimony and dignity of our nation
such as the onerous Visiting Forces Agreement and the
Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement.” Simbulan
describes the Left’s engagement with the State today as that of
“fiscalizer, protagonist, and symbiotic partner in grassroots
programs that share largesse with the poor.”
This role is partly seen in the
progressive party-list representation in Congress–one of the
features of the 1987 Constitution that the ruling elites would like
to see removed. The Constitution also institutionalizes
participation of people’s organizations “at all levels of
social, political and economic decision-making,” with the State
obliged to facilitate setting up of “adequate consultation
mechanisms.” Simbulan says this “precious space” was the
result of sacrifices made by those who died fighting the Marcos
dictatorship and those who persevered despite detention and torture.
While it became risky during
martial law to openly espouse Left issues, activists thought of
raising consumerist issues involving pharmaceutical drugs, oil
companies, sale of soft drinks, safety of toys, etc. through the
Citizens’ Alliance for Consumer Protection (CACP).
The Nuclear-Free Philippines
Coalition started out as a desk in the CACP, and became a nationwide
campaign on the issue of nuclear energy unwittingly raised by Marcos
himself who warned of power shortage and had the Bataan nuclear
plant built. Corruption and safety issues marked the project and
thus was born nationwide resistance to it.
Simbulan cites many instances of
how the Left has developed a broader “civil society” (of NGOs
and people’s organizations) that seeks to “integrate previously
excluded groups and issues into local or national politics.” Even
as these groups are opposed to government, the socio-economic elite,
and its self-serving politics, they recognize government’s
capacity to redress grievances and bestow rights.
With Bayan Muna and allied groups
consistently leading in party-list polls, the party-list system, if
not restricted by the state, plus electoral reforms may provide an
answer to the question raised above.
(To be continued)
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