In the latest update to the government’s ‘Red October’ fantasy, a supposed ouster plot revealed through a “secret” document, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has red-tagged 18 Metro Manila universities, labeling these colleges as recruitment hubs of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA).
But, as ironic as it may sound, it is actually the Duterte regime— and not the CPP-NPA — that chiefly encourages the people to become revolutionaries. By aggravating the socioeconomic conditions of the country and by perpetrating anti-democratic politics, the state only provides more reasons to revolt and restructure society.
Fueling the people’s war
If the military is in urgent concern of any destabilization, then it should not so much busy itself in anticipating a ‘Red October’ ouster when the country is already destabilized due to a multitude of crises.
The inflation rate has boomed to 6.7% this September, which results to the unusual skyrocketing of the prices of basic commodities. This is worsened by the implementation of the Tax Reform Acceleration and Inclusion Law (TRAIN) which imposes higher tax on certain goods and services. These while the national minimum wage remains low and contractualization persists.
Adding to these is the rising number of extrajudicial killings, a result of Duterte’s War on Drugs that only targets the poor while the drug lords are being freed from jail. In the countryside, continued militarization displace our national minorities from their ancestral lands. And the problems of the Philippines only go further on from here.
Because of these intensifying social and economic conditions, it is no wonder that people, especially those who find no opportunity in this society, choose absolute dissent from the state and revolt to seek justice.
The antithesis of democracy
Through Proclamation № 374, the government has declared the CPP and the NPA as terrorists. Hence, by red-tagging students, the military is essentially identifying the youth, especially critics of the Duterte regime, as enemies of the state.
By continuing to dismiss critique and invalidate protests, which are legitimate assertions of civil and economic rights, as mere destabilization plots, the state positions itself in contradiction to the interests of the masses, revealing itself to be an antithesis of democracy.
This brandishing pronouncement by the military only endangers the youth. It would be used to justify surveillance and provoke discrimination against student activists and critical journalists. This, all, in an effort to crush the state’s critics and not any “destabilization.”
Addressing destabilization
If the state truly wants to quell any national destabilization, then it should stop dismissing its critics. In fact, it should face the reprovals and begin solving the fundamental problems of the country — problems that it either maintains or has created.
For example, instead of implementing an anti-poor War on Drugs, the state should organize a scientific and socialized rehabilitation program — one that actually accounts the science of drug addiction and address the economic roots of drug-dependency.
As another example, the government should also advance national industrialization, which is only possible by adopting anti-colonial and protectionist policies, and by nurturing a strong science and technology sector. The installation of national industries in the country would mean a country capable of providing its own needs and of processing its own technology. In addition, these industries will provide more than job security; strong industries will imply the elevation of the labor force to higher levels of technical competence.
The government should divert its efforts to address the many issues that actually destabilize the country rather than directing people’s attention to threatening distractions. Otherwise, by maintaining the status quo, the state will only provide the material conditions that jolt people to revolt. In that regard, the state, ironically, would remain as the prime recruiter of revolutionaries, the very conductor of its own defeat. #
