Joma Sison: FOLLOW UP INTERVIEW ON AQUINO AND VILLAR

FOLLOW UP INTERVIEW ON AQUINO AND VILLAR

WITH
PROF. JOSE MARIA SISON

AS
CHIEF NDFP POLITICAL CONSULTANT

by

D. L.  MONDELO

Correspondent, Bulatlat

 

1. Our interview
on the 2010 elections last week attracted a great deal of attention from the
top mass media in Manila and elicited reactions from certain major political
quarters.  First of all, what do you
think of the reaction of the presidential spokesman Gary Olivar?  He said to the effect that because you had
expressed support for Manny Villar you accepted the existing ruling system and
that you would be amenable to a peace agreement without any revolutionary
change.

 

JMS: 
The presidential spokesman should read carefully  the full text of the interview in
Bulatlat.  I described the ruling system
as one in need of basic social reforms and revolutionary change because the
system is run by the oppressive and exploitative forces of foreign monopoly
capitalism, domestic feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.

 

I referred to the 2010 elections as one
dominated by the big compradors and landlords.  
I did not endorse the ruling system and I made clear that all the major
presidential candidates, including Noynoy Aquino and Manny Villar, are
competing to become the chief representative of 
the same rotten system,  which I
described as semicolonial and semifeudal.

 

I merely compared the two top
presidential contenders, Aquino and Villar, in answer to your specific
question.  Indeed, Villar offers the
relatively better program by promising  land
reform and self-reliant food production, expansion of local manufacturing to
generate employment, support for small and middle entrepreneurs, conservation
of natural resources, ecological protection, peace negotiations, respect for
human rights, indemnification of the victims of human rights violations, review
of the Visiting Forces Agreement and an independent foreign policy.

 

2. What about the reaction of the
spokesman of Noynoy Aquino, Edwin Lacierda?  
He said that because you support Villar he is therefore supported by the
Communist  Party of the Philippines, the
New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.  He went further to claim that you and therefore
the CPP, NPA and the NDFP were responsible for the protest demonstration of
peasants and farm workers in front of 
the residence of Noynoy Aquino.

 

JMS: 
The non sequiturs are plenty and amazing. The spin doctor of Noynoy
Aquino is as maliciously way off the mark as the spin doctor  of Gloria M. Arroyo.  I am just the chief political consultant of
the NDFP in peace negotiations with the reactionary Manila government.  I never said that I represented the CPP, NPA
and NDFP in making a comparison between 
Manny Villar and Noynoy Aquino.

 

The Nonoy Aquino camp should not dismiss
the series of injustices done to the peasants and farm workers of  Hacienda Luisita as the handwork of
communists.  Noynoy Aquino should not
hide behind cheap Red-baiting.  The
Cojuangco-Aquino family to which Noynoy Aquino belongs  has long exploited the peasants and farm
workers and has prevented land reform through the swindle called  stock distribution option.

 

Worst of all, the bodyguards of Noynoy
himself participated in the Hacienda Luisita massacre.  Noynoy has continuously used Red baiting tactics
to  cover up the murderous collaboration
of the Arroyo regime and his own security agency in the Hacienda Luisita
massacre and the subsequent murders in Tarlac. 
He aggravates his dishonesty by       
topping his consistent violent opposition to land reform with the
patently false promise of carrying it out in 2014.

 

3. Cory Aquino has been praised for
championing land reform and specifically for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program (CARP)?  Was she truly a champion
of land reform? How would you compare her land reform program with that of
Marcos? How important is the question of land reform?

 

JMS: Both Ferdinand Marcos and Cory
Aquino were engaged in bogus land reform programs in their respective
times.  Thus, up to now, the land problem
persists. Millions of tillers own no land. 
Land is concentrated in the hands of a few landlords and
agri-corporations. Feudal and semifeudal exploitation runs rampant throughout
the country.

 

Marcos pretended to use the police
power of the state in the name of social justice to carry out the expropriation
of  landlord estates producing rice and
corn.  But of course the bogus land
reform program of Marcos did not solve the land problem because the bureaucrats
and landlords combined against the tenants to raise the value of rice and corn
land and in the meantime the biggest landlords and agri-corporations continued
to accumulate land.

 

The bogus land reform program called
CARP was even worse than that of Marcos. Under the Aquino constitution of 1987,
the social justice issue of land reform was reduced to a  real estate business matter.  The issue of land reform was subordinated to
the malevolent principles of voluntary sale by the landlord,  current market value as the meaning of just
compensation and evasion of land reform through the stock distribution option
and conversion or reclassification of the land as non-agricultural.

 

I consider  land reform 
as decisively important. If genuine and thoroughgoing, it means the
socio-economic and political liberation of tens of millions of peasants and
farm workers. It is the fulfilment of the main content of the unfinished
democratic revolution.  It lays the
ground for a just and lasting peace. 
When combined with national industrialization, it paves the way for a
great advance in economic and social development.

 

4. Is it not good for the revolutionary
movement that Aquino becomes president so that it has a clear target for
arousing, organizing and mobilizing the masses along the line of fighting for
national liberation and democracy?  In
the previous interview, you indicated what are the policies that Aquino would
pursue against the Filipino people. Will you explain further?

 

JMS: I presume that in the first place
the revolutionary movement would like to see a president of the rotten ruling
system who is amenable to holding serious negotiations and making agreements on
basic social, economic and political reforms in order to address the roots of
the armed conflict and pave the way for a just and lasting peace.  But I also presume that if such a president
does not emerge, the revolutionary movement is more justified than ever in
pursuing  the people’s war.

 

Together with his vice presidential
candidate, Noynoy Aquino  is known to be
the candidate  most favored by big
foreign and local businessmen because he 
is most determined to pursue the same US-dictated policies of the Arroyo
regime, such as neoliberal globalization and the global war of terror.  In concrete terms, neoliberal globalization
means allowing the foreign investors to plunder the country and prevent
national industrialization and land reform. 
The global war of terror means allowing US military forces to  violate the national sovereignty and
territorial integrity of the Philippines.

 

Noynoy Aquino is surrounded by agents
of the US and the Arroyo regime who have been major partners of Arroyo in
adopting and implementing policies that are detrimental to the national and
democratic rights and interests of the Filipino people and that have plunged
the country into a grave crisis of high unemployment, extreme poverty, soaring
prices of basic commodities, deteriorating social services, ever widening trade
and budgetary deficits and ever mounting tax and debt burden.

 

Noynoy Aquino would be extremely
helpful to the revolutionary movement if he would become president and pursue
basically the same US-dictated policies of the Arroyo regime and thus become
the target of the people’s opprobrium. 
Probably, the mass movement that fell short of overthrowing Arroyo would
be further outraged and gain enough strength to overthrow the new puppet of US
imperialism.

 

5. You say that Manny Villar has a
relatively better program than that of Noynoy Aquino.  At the same time, you have pointed out that
it has been underplayed.  Can you guarantee
that if Villar would become president, he would fulfill the promises that he
makes in his program?  Do you incur any
liability by saying now that he has a program better than that of Aquino?

 

JMS: 
No, I cannot guarantee whether Villar will fulfill his promises or
not.  Manny Villar has his own free will
and political will.  He is responsible
for his own motivations  and actions.

 

As
a political observer, I can only compare what appear now on paper as the
programs of Villar and Aquino.  People
will respond to Villar accordingly, whether 
he fulfills his promises or not.

 

6. Is it true that Aquino is honest and
is not corrupt?

 

Noynoy Aquino is honestly  a rabid and violent defender of the big
comprador-landlord class interests of the Cojuangco-Aquino family.  But he is certainly dishonest  when he denies the extreme exploitation of
the farm workers and peasants in Hacienda Luisita,  the swindling done with the use of the stock
distribution option and the violence committed by the military and his own security
personnel.

 

People other than me have pointed out
the corruption of Kamag-Anak Inc. in which Noynoy has been a co-beneficiary and
which supports him now.  While his mother
was president, he got contracts from government agencies for his security agency.  While he was a congressman and senator for so
long, he filed only a handful of bills (none becoming a law) and collected huge
sums of public money.  This is a
manifestation of sloth, incompetence and corruption.

 

7. Who is more competent and more accomplished?
Villar or  Aquino?

 

In terms of service in the reactionary
government, Villar is by far more competent and accomplished.  He was active and productive  in legislative work and became  Speaker of the House and Senate
President.  Noynoy was a noynoy (no
accomplishment) in legislative work. 
Aquino was also a noynoy in business in comparison to Villar.  I need not repeat the rags to riches story.

 

8. Whom do you think will win the
presidential race?

 

JMS: It is difficult to say. And for
the moment I will not dare say.  It is
still either Aquino or Villar.  I have
just been informed that money has been flowing heavily to  the Aquino side from big foreign and local
businessmen for the purpose of stepping up anti-Villar propaganda and buying
those who deliver the votes at various levels. 
Villar does not have a monopoly on money.  There is more money from the moneybags in the
foreign chambers of commerce and the Makati Business Club.

 

9. Whoever shall be the president,
shall there be peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the
Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines?

 

JMS: 
Because of the worsening socio-economic and political crisis of the
ruling system, I presume that whoever shall be president of the GRP shall seek
peace negotiations with the NDFP.  It is
the lookout of the new president who would overestimate the strength of the
state and its coercive apparatuses and underestimate the crisis and the growing
strength of the revolutionary movement. But as I pointed out  in our interview last week, both Villar and
Aquino have already expressed their willingness to negotiate with the
NDFP.

 

10. Is the NDFP already preparing for
the resumption of the peace negotiations? 
But why is the New People’s Army intensifying its armed offensives?

 

The NDFP is already preparing for the
resumption of the peace negotiations. 
Consultations regarding this are going on among the NDFP panelists,
consultants,  the Philippine-based
leading organs of the CPP and NDFP.  The
NDFP negotiating panel is in frequent touch with the Norwegian government as
third party facilitator.  As soon as a
new president  is elected, whoever he is,
the NDFP is willing to receive his emissary,

 

The best explanations of why the NPA is
intensifying tactical offensives can be found in the messages of the CPP
Central Committee to the CPP rank and file last December 26, 2010 and to the
NPA Red commanders  and fighters  last March 29, 2010. These messages are
available in the website: www.philippinerevolution.net

 

The people’s war is going on precisely
because of the escalating oppression and exploitation of the Filipino people by
the US and the local exploiting classes.  
The revolutionary forces are thus striving to advance from the strategic
defensive to the strategic stalemate. ###