The leftist Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) on Friday assailed the “intensifying fascist repression” under the Duterte administration as it joined the country in observing the 31st anniversary of the 1986 Edsa uprising.
In a statement, Bayan said the arrest of Liberal Party (LP) Sen. Leila De Lima, one of President Rodrigo Duterte’s staunchest critics, should be seen in the context of a political crisis wrought by “warring factions seeking to weaken each other.”
“There is a very disturbing trend of political repression against critics of the Duterte regime,” it said.
But Bayan said De Lima should not be considered the first “political prisoner” of the current administration.
BACKSTORY: Lawyer congratulates De Lima as she’s set to be Duterte’s ‘first political prisoner’
“There are at least 15 political prisoners arrested and jailed under the current government, including activists from the legal democratic movement,” the group said.
Bayan said the practice of filling trumped-up charges and legal shortcuts was also not an invention of the current regime since these were prevalent during the regimes of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III.
The group stressed that the Edsa revolution was the culmination of years of “militant struggle by the people, highlighted by a determined revolutionary armed struggle in the countryside.”
“The real heroes of Edsa are the people – not just one political color, nor one family, nor the generals and politicians,” Bayan said.
The group said political oppression had been heightened in recent weeks.
READ: Robredo calls De Lima’s arrest ‘political harassment’
“The AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) is waging all-out war against the people. Human rights violations are on the rise in the cities and countryside,” it said.
“More than 400 political prisoners remain incarcerated on trumped-up charges, most of them arrested during the previous Aquino regime. Meanwhile, the peace talks between the GRP (government) and the NDFP (National Democratic Front of the Philippines) are now in limbo,” it added.
More than three decades after Edsa Revolution, the country remains beset by serious social problems, “mired in poverty, corruption, human rights violations, and the trampling of our sovereignty,” Bayan said.
“The mere changing of presidents – from [Ferdinand] Marcos to [Corazon] Aquino – was not enough to change the rotten system,” it said.
“What happened in Edsa in 1986 cannot be called a real revolution because it did not usher genuine change. The regime of landlords, big business and foreign interests remained. Bureaucrat capitalism remained,” it said.
Bayan said the people must protest and demand that the Duterte government fulfill its promises to the people.
“We must struggle against the regime’s anti-people and anti-national policies and push government to resolve the outstanding issues of the people. We must also demand from Duterte to stop the all-out-war against the people and to continue the peace talks to address the roots of the armed conflict. We must resist intensifying state fascism,” it said.
“Bayan salutes the Filipino people who joined the EDSA uprising. We call on the current generation to uphold the lessons of ‘people power’ and continue the struggle for national freedom and democracy,” it said.