Crisis continues to deepen
THE CRISIS threatening the Philippine regime is slowly deepening. Despite the belated accord with the IMF and the drop in the inflation rate from 50% in 1984 to perhaps less than 20% in 1985, the country's economy remains stuck in recession. Falling industrial and agricultural exports have a considerable social impact.
The workers movement, whose backbone is the Kilusang Mayo Uno [May 1 Movement] has to wage its struggle in very difficult conditions. Over the first quarter of the current year, 130 strikes were officially reported. Workers involved in struggles are still being killed by the repressive forces.
The crisis in agriculture is having disastrous effects. With the prices of fertilizers, pesticides, and the other essentials for "green revolution" agriculture reaching absolutely prohibitive levels, the peasants are falling back on the traditional crops and methods. This is notable in particular on the southern island of Mindanao.
While the internal market is contracting, the reorganization of the declining sugar industry threatens to leave hundreds of thousands of agricultural workers jobless in a country where the unemployment rate is already 20% of the economically active population, and where more than 50% are underemployed.
The guerrilla forces led politically by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP) are growing steadily in such different regions as Mindanao in the south, Negros — the sugar kingdom, in the center and Bicol, in the northern island of Luzon.
On the political level, despite the pressures brought to bear on it, the Marcos regime continues to show an incapacity for reform. Accused of complicity in the case of the assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino in August 1983, General Fabian Ver will probably return to his post as chiel of the General Staff after a token trial. Washington reportedly wanted him replaced permanently by Lieutenant General Fidel Ramos, who has been serving as temporary chief of the General Staff.
President Marcos has, moreover, just tightened his control of Comelec, the commission in charge of supervising the elections. Under these conditions, the parliamentary. opposition has remained essentially impotent.
It is probably significant that a "reform" movearmed forces (AFP). The origins of this «Re owe ment has declared itself for the first time in the armed forces (AFP). The origins of this "Reform the AFP Movement" (also known as the Belong Movement") supposedly go back four years. Since the end of 1984, it seems to have really gotten some wind in its sails, perhaps 1,500 officers, many of them lieutenants and lieutenant colonels, out of the 13,000 officers in the armed forces.
These officers seem to be no more than luke warm about General Fidel Ramos (who is greatly estimed by the Americans for his professionalism but is still a cousin of Marcos). At the same time they are very worried about the rise of a coterie of officers close to the president and his wife, Imelda, such as the Philippine army commander Major General Josephus Ramas.
International Viewpoint 16 September 1985
The international implications of this great crisis of the regime are magnified by the fact that the Philippine islands_occupy a vital strategic position. On the island of Luzon, the US has two immense military complexes around the Subic Bay and Clark bases.
Clark airbase, the headquarters of the US Thirteenth Air Force, is the most important in Southeast Asia. It can accomodate every sort of plane, including B-52 bombers and C-135 air tankers. The Sub Bay naval base can meet two thirds of the needs of maintaining the US Seventh and 10,000 men. It is the largest base of its tres, outside the US. The American military establishment in the Philippines (which extends throughout the archipelago) offers a communications center of the first importance, along with very extensive observations facilities.
The Philippines are one of the pivots of US imperialism's military deployment around the world. It faces Vietnam. It serves as backup for the bases in Japan. It is a key link in the chain of US forces in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, and a coordinating center for the operations zone covered by the Seventh Fleet - from the West Coast of the US to the eastern coast of Africa.
This military network means that the US is directly involved in the archipelago. The dangers of direct US intervention against the Philippine people's movement are, thus, very real, very immediate.
The activists of the anti-intervention movement, the antimissile inovement, and the international peace movement have to make an effort now to forestall such an intervention and to demand dismantling of these bases, which are capable of accomodating and directing nuclear forces (including Polaris submarine missiles).
We interviewed Roland Simbulan, Who represented the Nuclear Free Philippines Coalition (NFPC) at the European Nucear Disarmament campaign conference held in July in the Netherlands. The author of a book on the US bases, a professor at the University of the Philippines, and a trade-union activist, he explains in the following interview what is at stake militarily and strategically in the archipelago, and the struggle that is being waged in the country against the putting into operation of a particularly dangerous nuclear power plant.
This power plant, built by Westinghouse, has a reactor of the Harrisburg type (notorious after the Three Mile Island accident). It is located in an active earthquake zone. Still worse, it is at the toot of a dormant volcano - Mount Natib - and not tar from others, one of which has been active recently. According to the International Atomic Energy Authority, "the irruption of Mt. Natib is a credible event."
The population of the region, Morong, on the peninsula of Bataan, near the free-trade zone of Nariveles and facing Manilla, were alarmed. They staged a general strike June 18-20, which paralized the region.
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Question. What groups are involved in the NFPC?
Answer. I represent the teachers' sector. I am with the Alliance of
Concerned Teachers - ACT-Phil. There are also representatives from other sectors, such as labor, through the KMU (Kilusang Mayo Uno -May 1 Movement); students, through the League of Filipino Students, as well as church groups, peasant organizations, and territorial coalitions such as Bataan Anti-Nuclear Alliance. There are also youth organizations and the women's group GABRIELA, as well as the Concerned Women of the Philippines. Today, 83 organizations are represented. When the NFPC was founded in 1980, there were forty.
Q. How did you come to be involued in the NFPC?
A. We have a union of teachers at the University of the Philippines. It is called the United Teachers and Employees of the UP. Actually, it's an alliance of faculty organizations. The acronym is UNITE UP. I am the secretary of that. It functions more or less as a union, although as public employees we are technically not allowed to belong to unions. Our alliance is affiliated to ACT Phil., a national organization of teachers. Since we are in ACT Phil., we are involved in the teachers movement and other multisectoral efforts in which the ACT Phil is involved. That is how I came to be involved in the NFPC, through the ACT Phil.
Q. How did you come to participate in the END conference?
A. The peace movements, especially the Pax Christi, the IKV -Interchurch Council, the main Dutch peace coordination - and Novib, who were active participants in the END convention, invited me, as well as other Third World representatives, to discuss "North-South" issues. This is the first time our coalition has had dealings with the European peace groups.
We have had close ties with the US peace groups, especially with the Nuclear Freeze movement, and also with the Japanese, Pacific Islands, Australian, and New Zealand peace movements.
Q. What do you think the convention accomplished?
A. Well, no concrete actions were planned. But I think that it is significant that they introduced Third World issues. It showed that the organizers of the European movements are open to linking up with the Third World movements concerned with similar issues. I think that is a turning 12 point for the European peace movement. We feel that ultimately the success of the struggles here in Europe, as well as in other Western capitalist countries, depends a lot on their linking up with Third World struggles. To a large extent, the victories in the Third World, especially in the fight for independence and self-determination will determine the success or failure of the struggles in the advanced capitalist countries.
Q. So far the main Third World issues introduced in the peace movement have to do with Central America and South Africa. These are, of course, very important. But given what is happening in the Philippines, it seems that should also be injected. From what you know, is the Filipino question becoming an issue within the US peace movement?
A. Since the US is the power directly involved in the Philippines, the peace groups there are putting this question high on their agenda. This was pointed out by a speaker from the US on the second day of the convention, for example.
Q. What does this US involvement in the Philippines amount to?
A. The US maintains five major bases in the Philippines: Clark Air Base, Subic Naval Base, the Wallace Air Station, the San Miguel Communications Center, and Camp John Hay. In addition, they have more than twenty identified minor facilities scattered all over the country. I say "identified," because there are other unidentified ones in strategic places.
The US maintains no less than 15,000 combat troops, mostly Marines, Air Force, and Navy troops permanently in the Philippines. These are US combat troops in uniform. In addition, there are around 3,000 so-called civilian employees, who are in fact with the CIA or the National Security Agency. Organizationally, they are part of the US Defense Department. On top of this, there are always another 5,000 US navy servicemen in the country at any one time, because their ships, which are part of the US Seventh Fleet, dock at the Subie base. It provides some 70 percent of the entire supply and repair requirements of the US Seventh Fleet east of Hawaii.
After the US debacle in Vietnam, the Philippine bases took on a greatly increased importance. Washington now considers them as its frontline facing the Soviet bloc. We also have some of the most important C31 facilities in the US system. This stands for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence facilities.
This involves us in the US nuclear war strategy. You do not have to have nuclear weapons on your soil bu to be a target in a nuclear war, wl because the US C31 facilities are part th of the American nuclear infrastructure.
TI
These facilities will pinpoint any
US strikes on the Soviet Union. So, if you were the Soviet Union, they in would be one of the first things you would hit.
is th
Q. So, what are you doing to fe get rid of these bases and other facilith ties?
In
A. We think that the campaign be against the bases is part of the broader struggle against US domination. We do m ie separate these two aspects, not
TI because we feel that the bases will never be dismantled until there are th substantial structural changes in Philipin pine society. But the campaign against
UI the bases has to be a specific one. So, we have to provide technical information. It is not enough just to attack be the infringement of national soverth eignty. As we inform, we mobilize m people.
Some people start their involvement
W by working on this issue. But unlike th the Western movements, that are er mainly single-issue coalitions, we have to link up this issue with other aspects
W of American economic, political, and cultural domination. Most of our ex affiliates, for instance have comprehensive programs, political and economic programs. They look at
I the base question as one aspect to campaign on at specific times. I say specific times, because we have just waged what we called a "Welgang sp
," or people's general strike, in
Bayan,
Bataan province, where a nuclear power plant is supposed to start operations next February. Originally, it was supposed to start operations in 1982, but so far we have managed
W to delay it with massive campaigns and mobilizations.
S tl h h
Ferdinand Marcos
Our coalition decided to wage a people's strike to dramatize
F the people's protest. So, on June 18-20, tl no less than 45,000 people particitl pated in the action, totally paralyzing the province.
Most of those who participated
Were workers. Out of twenty large factories in the Battaan Export Proces sing Zone (this is a concentrati of foreign factories), only continued to operate, and fourths of the workers participated
Also many communities, organized by the Bataan Anti-Nuclear Alliance which is affiliated to us, mobilized
Out of 12 towns in the provinc eight were completely paralyzed. Th
International Viewpoint 16 September 1985
were human barricades, most of the businesses were closed. For three whole days, the people stayed on the barricades, despite hard rain. There were some tense moments.
Q. Are new forces still coming into the movement?
A. One big recent development is the politicization of the union of the workers on the bases. This is the federation of civilian employees in the US facilities in the Philippines. In the past, these workers have been an obstacle to any antibase movement because the base authorities have paid them relatively well. That doesn't mean that they got a fair wage, but their pay was higher than the average in our country. So, in the past they acted like a company union.
However, recently, they have become very militant. This is one of the biggest unions in the country, moreover. There are now 25,000 Filipino full-time civilian employees working on the US bases. This makes the bases the second biggest single employer in the country, after the Philippine government. Most of these workers belong to the union.
Another important issue is our exposure recently of the use of these facilities to intervene in internal developments in the country. What I am talking about specifically is the deployment of two units of Special Operations Forces.
I exposed these deployments in a speech on June 12 to the Rotary Club of Angeles City. The day after, it got into the papers, and the day after that the US embassy issued a statement confirming the presence of these units but denying that they were being used for the purposes I mentioned.
I identified the First Operations Squadron, deployed at Clark, and the Naval Special Warfare Group, based at Subic. I was able to get hold of the US military construction plans that had to be approved by Congress, and I found out that while in the past the Special Operations Forces troops there were sent there merely for R and R or in transit, they have now deployed two units there permanently.
Last May 31, the Paris-based Gamma TV did an interview with Marcos, in which the latter said that if things got out of hand in the Philippines, he would invite American combat troops. Top officials have begun insinuating that another superpower is helping the NPA guerrillas. These are danger signs.
Q. What is your assessment of the present stage of the Filipino people's struggle?
A. It has now become more nationwide. Before, the problem they had was expanding. Now it is more consolidating. The conflict is reaching a critical stage, because the capability of the people's movement is coming more and more to match that of the other side. In such a situation, many things could happen, and one of them is US military intervention.
The revisions in our base agreement with the US in 1979 give them the right to operate outside the bases in order to maintain the security of their facilities. Moreover, the 1947 Mutual Defense Agreement allows the US to intervene if there is an external threat or aggression.
Q. To what extent have you been able to unite the opposition on this issue?
A. Well, the traditional leaders of the opposition are what you might call the disenfranchised section of the Philippine oligarchy. That is, when martial law was declared in 1972, Marcos assumed a monopoly of power. This group is purely antiMarcos, and very pro-US. These people, like Laurel and Kalaw would maintain the present setup, including the American military, economic, and political domination. They are trying to court US support. They don't want to talk about the bases or about the IMF.
What the US wants is to reconcile the disenfranchized oligarchy and Marcos in order to meet more effectively the challenge of the popular opposition. Even after the Aquino assassination, American policy has two sides. It supports Marcos while promising the oligarchs concessions, pressuring Marcos to give some concessions so that there will be one solid Philippine oligarchy like before martial law.
Q. We are seeing a tendency in Europe now for Social Democrats and the unions linked to them to look to Social Democratic forces in the Philippines, although the Social Democrats in the Philippines, with their links to the church, look more like Christian Democrats. What is their role?
A. Their viewpoint is manifested in some political organizations like the PDP-Laban. I don't know how much strength they have. Their potential base is the Roman Catholic church. But many elements of the church are more identified with the grassroots opposition than with the Social Democrats. In fact, Defense Minister Enrile once said that no less than twenty Roman Catholic priests and nuns have joined the guerrillas.
As for the US bases, the PDP-Laban is against dismantling military bases and against stopping the storage and deployment of nuclear weapons.
I don't think the Social Democrats have much influence today. They are part of the opposition, however, in the sense that they participate in some organizations.
The Philippine people's movement encourages initiatives from various sectors. It is not really homogeneous in as much as there are so many sectors, classes, etc. in Philippine society. It is only natural that certain sectors or interests manifest their own feelings through their independent organizations. We encourage these initiatives, including by businesspeople. But while we encourage this, we think it is important that people organize not just for the sake of organizing their own organization but to be part of the larger struggle of all Philippine society. They may have their own links in Europe. That is not something to be discouraged.
However, it should also be understood that the organizations of what we call the "basic masses," the peasants and workers organizations should have the upper hand. That is a problem in alliance work. Sometimes the traditional politicians demand equal say with representatives of large labor organizations. The people will not allow that. Organizations of peasants and workers are not fighting for these people to be placed in office - they are fighting so that the needs and aspirations of the majority of Filipinos will be put first.
For example, certain business people wanted Jaime Ongpin president of one of the country's largest mining concerns - to occupy an important position in the broader front. The labor unions, especially the KMU, refused. Ongpin didn't even want to recognize the KMUaffiliated union in his company. It had to strike to get recognition. In any coalition, it is natural to have struggles. They are manifestations of different interests.
Even in our coalition we have representatives of various groups. The Board of Director's emeritus is former senator Tanada, the chair of the board is Bishop Nepomuceno.
If people are really sincere, you can thrash out differences. There is nothing that cannot be settled. I think that in the Philippines, -we have been very successful in coalition work. We have been able to attract the Church's progressive elements into the broader front. Some people say the Church cannot work with Marxist groups. But we have seen this happen in the Philippines.
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International Viewpoint 16 September 1985