The government’s current tactics are taken right out of a fascist's playbook: we are allies if you agree with me, but enemies once you dissent. Unity in economic failure and illimitable corruption seems to be the executive slogan of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his right hand in tyranny, Vice President Sara Duterte. The people’s inevitable resistance to the administration’s neglect is met with the state’s artillery and oppression.
It has barely been over a year, but the Marcos-Duterte administration already perpetrated a string of human rights violations and enforced disappearances, amid economic turmoil and food insecurity, among other societal issues.
Until now, indigenous peoples’ rights defenders Dexter Capuyan and Bazoo De Jesus have yet to be surfaced, after being abducted by the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG). Just this month, Jude Fernandez, a senior labor organizer, was reported to have been brutally killed by the CIDG, while peasant advocates Job David, Peter Del Monte, and Alia Encela are illegally detained by the military.
Because they advocated for the rights of different sectors to have sufficient earnings and humane working conditions, they fell victim to the state’s familiar yet hideous tactics to suppress disquiet and rage through red-tagging, killings, forced disappearances, and trumped-up charges.
In Marcos’s campaign and State of the Nation Address promises, the forefront of his platform was to prioritize food security and sustainable production in agriculture. But the reality is farmers still do not own their land, their mechanizations are still underdeveloped, and they receive neither financial help nor protection from the government in drought or storm. Because they remain unprotected from harmful laws, farmers' net income per hectare was P32,976 in 2018. However, three years after the implementation of the rice tariffication law, their income fell to P19,680, according to think tank IBON Foundation.
On top of such grave issues, the administration has still chosen to execute two big scams: the deceitful Maharlika Investment Fund and the bloated confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) by Duterte last year. The vice president even went as far as saying those who question the CIF are enemies of the state.
A drop in approval for the administration has been reflected in Pulse Asia’s survey–from Marcos’s 80-percent approval rating in June, and Duterte’s 84 percent, to 65 percent and 73 percent, respectively, in September.
With a declining economy, increasing dissatisfaction, and overwhelming crises that beset us, advocates and activists have all the reasons to join the peoples’ struggle in opposing the state’s horrible neglect. With empty stomachs and burdened hearts, different sectors have been clamoring for an increase in salary and a decrease in the prices of essential goods.
But as advocates and defenders stand firm for the rights of all Filipinos, the state's foot soldiers also continue to attack them on all fronts. The state tags them as targets so they can subdue the people's struggle and undermine the gross political climate in the country. Under Marcos, there have been over 778 political prisoners, 60 extrajudicial killings, and eight enforced disappearances, as documented by human rights group Karapatan.
The police and military remain tight-lipped about these human rights violations despite public accounts of disappearances and killings. They view civilians with contempt and have no regard for our rights because they see us as mere collaterals to the state’s corruption. To inject fear into our systems, they deliberately enact deeds of terror in broad daylight.
Militancy in the face of sheer oppression comes with grief, terror, and death. But it also reaps incremental changes. The people's dissent achieved some small triumphs in the past year: after the nationwide strike, the jeepney modernization, for instance, was pushed back. Through collective action and sustained struggle, calls and campaigns made by people’s organizations can be achieved.
Progress, however minute, is still an indicator that the people have the agency to push for change and topple undemocratic systems and laws. The state breeds terror within our ranks and wants us to fear asking for responsibility in addressing social injustice. Despite the state’s impunity and attacks, in the end, the people will attain victory as long as we carry on with our fight. ●
