The Semi-Feudal Political System of the Philippines and the National

Democratic Revolution

by Dr. Edberto M. Villegas

Historical Background

Semi-feudalism in the Philippines means the persistence of landlordism and the tenancy system in the rural areas in combination with the commercial activities initiated by foreign capitalists in their trade relations with local landlords engaged in the export of agricultural products. This class of landlords known as the comprador bourgeoisie has increased the use of wage workers in their plantations , growing cash crops for export to foreign countries, notably the United States. Many of the farm laborers, however, are part-time tenants in other farms.. Starting in the mid-20th century, more and more cash crops in the Philippines had for their destinations other countries apart from the US, particularly to Japan and the European Union.

In Tsarist Russia before the October revolution of 1917, Lenin notes in 1899 that merchant and industrial capital were slowly transforming the mode of production in the Russian countryside and was Europeanizing the despotic feudal system of his country, which he calls “the Asiatic mode of production”.1 The difference in the emergence of semi- feudalism in the Philippines and Russia is that in the former it was foreign colonizers, the Spanish, and later the US, which introduced commercial capital through trade in the rural areas while in the latter it was the Russian bourgeoisie who were mainly responsible for its coming. The entry of capital into the Russian countryside increased after the Stolypin agrarian reforms in 1906 led to the building of market-oriented large farms which co-existed with the tenancy system. With this set-up, Lenin saw that the growing number of what he calls the “ peasant proletariats” or farm-wage workers would necessitate its alliance with the urban proletariats. Lenin states that “We whole-heartedly support to the very end the peasants’ struggle against semi-feudal landlordism and against the Asiatic political system in Russia.”2

1 “The Development of Capitalism in Russia”, by Vladimir Ilich Lenin, Progress Publishers, 1964, passim.2 Lenin on the “Asiatic Mode of Production”, by Taimur Rahman,

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Semi-feudalism emerged in the Philippines in the latter half of the 19th century when the Philippines was opened to foreign trade other than with Spain after the Spanish liberal revolution in 1821. Haciendas in the Islands began exporting cash crops, like sugar and tobacco to Great Britain and the US, which countries put up trade houses in the Philippine to increase their foreign trade. Most of these haciendas were owned by the religious orders, Dominican, Augustian ,Recollects, and Jesuits, who were granted the right to run them by a decree from the Spanish king in the latter 17th century. The religious orders relied on the Chinese merchants as middle men in their transactions with the foreign trade houses. The hacienda system, which was based on the feudal relationship between its tenants and the owners replaced the old encomienda system, which was a land grant by the Spanish monarch to soldiers, called the conquistadores, for their service to the Crown. Eventually, the haciendas hired seasonal wage- workers, called sacadas, who do not have a share on the crops they planted as was the case with the tenants who pay rent to the landowner. A famous case of the eviction of tenants from an hacienda to be replaced by wage-workers is that of the Hacienda de San Juan de Bautista in Calamba owned by the Dominican order. A victim of this eviction was the father of Jose Rizal, Don Francisco Rizal y Mercado, who was among those whose houses were demolished, some of them burned, when Governor General Weyler forcibly expelled the tenants from the hacienda on the charge of non-payment of land rent.3

The government during the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines was primarily dominated by Spaniards who were born in Spain (the penisulares) with the governor-general at its helm. However, subalterns at the provincial level were allowed to govern, drawn from the principalia or wealthy Filipinos, either natives or Chinese-Filipino mestizos. The principalia were mostly owners of huge tracts of lands or were inquilinos , hired managers of religious-owned haciendas. These wealthy Filipinos, however, were not given high positions in the national government and the most that they can aspire for was the post of gobernadocillo or mayor of a town. The highest officials at that time were Spanish peninsulares who did not possess huge property interests in the Islands as they only served for a certain period at the will of the Spanish monarch.

3 The Hacienda de Calamba Agrarian Problem(1887-1891), Robert John Donesa, MA Thesis, May, 2009.

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With the invasion of the Americans in 1898 and the transformation of the Philippines into a US colony, the confiscated lands of the religious orders undertaken by the Philippine revolutionary forces were taken over by the victorious American colonizers and sold back to wealthy insulares(Spanish born in the Islands) ,like the Elizaldes, Ortigas, Ayalas, and Aboitiz, and other wealthy Filipinos. Consequently, the refeudalization of the Islands occurred and the restored tenancy system worsened from 18% in 1903 of total peasants in the rural areas to 38% in 1948.4

The haciendas which were bought by rich Chinese merchants from the religious orders eventually became primary sources of sugar export to the US mainland. These haciendas, mostly found in the provinces of Iloilo, Negros and Cebu were owned by such families as the Ledesmas, Lopezes, Tuasons, and Osmenas, originally Chinese merchants who intermarried with natives and Filipinized their surnames. Filipino landlords in the Bicol and Tayabas (now Quezon} provinces who planted coconut and abaca, much needed export products by American businessmen, also became richer due to an intensified American trade in the Islands, facilitated by the establishments of US commercial banks such as the Bank of America and Citibank. These banks were primarily engaged in the extending of commercial drafts and bills of exchange to support American trade in the Philippines.

The Philippine Political Superstructure reflects its Economic Semi-Feudal Substructure

The emerging class of the Filipino comprador bourgeoisie or hacienderos who became partners of American traders became more entrenched in local politics. Soon it will be this class and other landlords, not engaged in the export of crops, who will be nurtured by the Americans to take over the national government and to continue to protect US vested interests in the Philippines, particularly in the export of agricultural products. Members of the classes of the comprador and landlords were trained by the US government to become congressmen, senators, vice presidents and presidents when the US shall have granted nominal independence to Filipinos in a Commonwealth government that will run for ten years eventually to become a so-called Republic of the Philippines 4 Statistics for 1903 from Victor Selden Clark ‘Labor Conditions in the Phililppines”, p.809 and statistics for 1948 from G.I. Levinsion, The Workers’ Movement in the Philippines, Moscow, 1957, p. 8.

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in 1946. The US colonizers imposed their version of liberal democracy on the Philippines, without dismantling its feudal structure because it is to their economic interests that this remains intact to assure cheap agricultural goods derived from the excess surplus labor of the peasant masses.5 The so-called democracy that they introduced was a farce because of the retention of the high inequality in the social relations of production prevailing in great parts of the Philippines, which is an agricultural economy.

Such big landed and comprador families as the Roxases, Osmenas, Laurels, Lopez, Montelibanos and others became high-officials from president, vice-president, senators down to congressmen during the American colonial period. Thus, the political system in the Philippines began to reflect the semi-feudal structure of its economy. The economic substructure asserted itself on the superstructure or the political set-up of Philippine society.

It was during the American colonial period that also saw the rise of warlordism in the provinces of the Philippines. Provincial politicians, coming from the former principalia, began to set up their own private armies, composed of their tenants or scalawags in their areas, to harass or even eliminate their political rivals in local elections. With the road open for members of landlord and comprador families to run for such offices as governors , congressmen and senators, feuds among leading family dynasties in the provinces became deadly, even leading to assassinations of political rivals. In Batangas province, for instance, the political dynasty of the Laurels, who own thousands of hectares of land and cattle farms, was known for killing their political enemies by burying them alive.6 This characteristic of Philippine politics follows the culture of the dominant feudal clans in the fiefdoms of Medieval Europe where private armies were drawn from their serfs to fight their wars. Warlordism has always been a feature of an economy based on the feudal ownership of land as was also manifested in the conflicts between the leading warlords in the provinces of China during the 1920’s and 1930’s before the unification of this country under the People’s Republic of China in 1946.

5 Clark, Ibid., p. 777.6 Interview with Atty. Jose Malvar Villegas, who was a close associate of Salvador Laurel, who became vice president in the Cory Aquino administration.

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The Continuation of Political Dynasties

Family dynasties in the Philippines has continued to be strong, even worsened at present, exacerbated by the passage of the Local Government Code of 1991 which gave more autonomy, particularly on tax collections, to local governments. It is to be noted that the World Bank lobbied strongly for the approval of the LGC as the revenues to be extended by the central government to local governments would be reduced as the latter would be given the power to pass their own tax ordinances. This would then increase the coffers of the national government to honor its foreign debt payments, particularly to the World Bank and its bank clients.

During the 1960s to the 1990’s, there emerged new political dynasties. Some of them are the Abads of Batanes, the Abayas of Cavite, the Villars of Las Pinas, the Dys of Isabela, the Alontos of Lanao del Sur, the Ampatuans of Maguindanao, the Angaras of Aurora, , the Binays of Makati City, the Climacos of Zamboanga, the Crisologos and the Marcoses of Ilocos Norte, the Escuderos of Sorsogon, the Ejercito-Estradas of Laguna and San Juan, the Gordons of Zambales, the Lacsons of Negros Occidenal, de Venecias and Ramoses of Pangasinan, the Pimentels of Cagayan de Oro, the Dutertes of Davao and the Zubiris of Bukinon.7 Some of them acquired their political power through bureaucrat capitalism or corrupt rent-seeking pratices in government like the Marcoses, the Estradas and the Binays , while some were supported in their rise to power by the comprador bourgeoisie as in the case of President Duterte. Duterte was handed P75 million for his campaign coffers by the Davaoeno banana magnate, Antonio Floirendo,8 and was aslo backed -up in his presidential ambition by the Marcos political dynasty, which favor he returned after assuming office by allowing the burial of the dictator Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Among the 12 presidents of the Philippine government put up by the US since 1946, eight come from political dynasties or established political dynasties through bureaucrat capitalism. These include Manuel Roxas,(from a comprador family,CF), Ferdinand Marcos (whose political dynasty emerged through

7 List of Political Families in the Philippines, Wikepedia, Internet.8 Inquirer. Net, Jan, 8, 2017.

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bureaucrat capitalism, BC), Cory Aquino (from a CF) Fidel Ramos (from a leading landed family who amassed more millions of pesos through BC while president), Joseph Ejercito Estrada (political dynasty established through BC), Gloria Arroyo(CF, whose clan became richer through BC), Benigno Aquino, Jr(CF)., and Rodolfo Duterte(supported by a CF and the Marcos political dynasty). Of the present(2017) composition of the 16th Congress, 56% of the 23 members of the Senate and 74% of the 292 in the House of Representatives hail from political dynasties. 9 With such a composition, one does not have to wonder why legislations passed in Congress more often favor comprador bourgeoisie, who are partners of foreign corporations, like the EPIRA law of 2001 and the Oil Deregulation Law of 1994,10 .

Family dynasties have established their strongholds firmer in their respective areas, in spite of a prohibition against political dynasties in Article 11, Sec. 26 of the 1987 Constitution. This is because the economic base of the political powers of dynasties in the Philippines has beome more formidable with their privilege of local taxations. This can very well be seen in the case of the family dynasty of the Binays in Makati which has accumulated billions of pesos by robbing the people of this city of a substantial portion of the taxes they pay to the local government. The pork barrel appropriation to congressmen and senators , though It has now been prohibited in letter by the Supreme Court, has resurfaced in the insertion of lump sums for the use of congressmen and senators in the national budget. This is made possible because of the continuing culture of political patronage, another feature of feudal politics, under President Duterte, who himself is the patriach of his own family dynasty in the province of Davao. For truly, Duterte is just a product of and thrives on the semi-feudal political system of the Philippines.

The practice of maintaining the political powers of family dynasties has become more blatant today with spouses and children inheriting the elective 9 Of the 23 members of the 2017 Philippine Senate Aquino, Angara, Binay, Gatchalian, Lacson, Gordon, Sotto, Cayetano, Recto, JV Ejercito, Pimentel, Escudero and Zubiri come from political dynasties. The rest are Honasan, Trillanes, Poe, Drilon, Pacquiao , Legarda, Villanueva, Hontiveros, de Lima and Pangilinan. For the members of the House of Representatives, refer to the Anti-Political Dynasty bill(HB 837) filed by Congresswoman Erlinda M. Santiago.10 The Epira Law allows the coming into the Philippines electric industry of foreign players, who tie-up with local political dynasties like the Lopezes, while the Oil Deregulation Act allows the continues rise of oil prices in favor of such political dynasties as the de Venecias and Lopezes, who are local partners of transnational oil companies in the Philippines.

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posts of the patriarch of the family or occupying sundry political positions at the same time. We have the cases of the Angaras of Quezon, the Cayetanos of Rizal, the Aquinos of Tarlac, the Binays of Makati, the Dutertes of Davao, the Pimentels of Cagayan de Oro, and the Estradas of San Juan, to mention only a few. Consequently, even quarrels among members of the same family dynasty often breaks out like with the Villafuertes of Camarines Sur, where the elder Luis Villafuerte, formerly a congressman, has feuded with his son Luis, Jr. over the position of governor of the province. 11And in the autonomous region of Maguindanao, the political war between two wa lords has become extremely violent with the 2009 massacre of 54 people done by the Ampatuan family against their political rival, the Mangudadato. As Nicolo Machiavelli says, the drive for personal power if made unbridled recognizes no values, whether moral or biological. In feudal England, for instance, an uncle vying for the throne placed his two young nephews in trunks which were then thrown into the river Thames .12

Leading comprador bourgeois families have extended their economic base into the manufacturing and financial sectors of society as in the case of Edwardo Conquanco, who besides owning more than 4,000 hectares of lands planted to cash crops in Negros Occidental, has further enriched his clan by investing the coconut levy fund squeezed from the taxes of coconut tenants in the San Miguel Corporation and the United Coconut Planters Bank. We have also the Ayalas of Makati, former insulares, who benefited from the sale of hundreds of hectares of lands by the religious orders in 1902 who are known as kingmakers in Philippine politics. The Ayalas supported the ouster of Marcos and the assumption of Cory Aquino as new president after Edsa 1. The Ayalas , besides owning vast tracts of lands in Batangas, control huge commercial centers and banks, particularly in Metro Manila. It has to be pointed out that the dictator Marcos, besides nurturing his own family dynasty, during his long reign contributed to the rise of new political dynasties, challenging the so-called traditional family dynasties like the Ayalas and the Roxases. These noveau-riche count among them such families as the Floirendos, plantation owners in Mindanao and financier of the current

11 Inquirer. Net. Jan. 6, 2017.12 The heir to the English throne, the young Edward V, and his cousin, Richard, duke of York, were first imprisoned in the Tower of London by their uncle, pretender to the throne, who later became Richard 111 They were then placed in trunks and thrown into the River Thames. (from the History of England, Encyclopedia Britannica.)

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president Duterte, and Lucio Tan, owner of the Philippine Airlines and PNB, who is known as another kingmaker in Philippine politics. It is to be pointed out that in a study undertaken by Ronald U. Mendoza, et al, shows that political dynastic districts compared with non-dynastic districts in the Philippines exhibit lower standards of living (as measured by average income), lower human development (measured by the Human Development Index) and higher levels of deprivation (measured by poverty incidence, poverty gap and poverty severity).13

Foreign countries, like the US and Australia, are vying for greater autonomy for provinces in Mindanao, since It is easier for a foreign company to obtain permits to exploit natural resources , like gold, nickel, copper, etc. in this island from local leaders than if one has to go through the national bureaucracy with more people to bribe. (Mindanao known as the last frontier of the Philippines is rich in metal and non-metallic minerals.) This is the reason why the American embassy was strongly behind the granting of greater autonomy to the Moros in Mindanao under the Bangsa Moro Basic Law which was not approved by the Philippine Congress due to the Mamasapano encounter of 2015.

The National Democratic Revolution

The growing strength of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and its political party the Communist Party of the Philippines with its army, the New People’s Army, which are now active in 71 of the 81 provinces of the Philippines, particularly in the countryside, has given hope to the greater masses of the Filipinos, living in the rural areas, that the rule of family dynasties will be finally smashed both in the provincial and national levels. The NDFP-CPP-NPA has established organs of people’s power, with its own rules of governance, over large tracts of land, numbering into hundreds of thousands of hectares, specifically in Northeasten and Central Mindanao. and Samar. It has also guerilla zones and bases in Northern, Central and Southern Luzon. In the liberated areas under the CPP-NPA, land reform has been launched and people’s cooperatives established, strengthening people participation or collective democracy.

13 “Inequalityo in Democracy: Insights from an empirical analysis of political dynasties in the 15 th Philippine Congress”, Philippine Political Science Journal, by Ronald U. Mendoza et al, Routledge Press, 2012, passim.. In this study, poverty incidence measures the proportion of families below the poverty line, poverty gap is the average amount of additional income necessary to bring a family above the poverty line expressed as a proportion of the poverty line and poverty severity is the squared poverty gap divided by the number of poor families..

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Even in areas, controlled by the present neo-colonial government set up by the US in 1946, the NDFP-CPP-NPA maintains underground local governments or barangays and even the so-called legal officials of the current dispensation secretly cooperate with these underground barangays. The putting up of underground barangays in what are called the white areas of the enemies follows the practice of the early Katipuneros, who had their secret balangays with their own people’s courts side by side with the colonial local governments during the periods of the revolution against Spain and the war with the US. The NDFP-CPP-NPA, since its founding in the late 1960’s to the early 1970’s consider itself the heirs of the Republic founded in July 7, 1892 by the Katipunan, called the Republika ng mga Tagalog, and the revolution it has launched since 1969 as the continuation of the Philippine Revolution of 1896. It looks at the so-called Philippine 1946 Republic established by the American colonizers as an illegitimate government. It is to be noted that the US invaders in 1898 frustrated the Revolution of 1896 and destroyed the Revolutionary Army of the Filipinos in the Filipino-American War which ended in 1902. The American colonizers then started a Commonwealth government in 1936 to train their surrogate Filipinos to take over the government they will establish in 1946. Meanwhile, the US conquerors have already established on Dec. 21, 1935 under the auspices of General Douglas MacArthur a neo-colonial Filipino military force, that included an army, an air force and a small contingent of torpedo boats. 14 The present government of Duterte, which is supposed to be the Fifth Philippine Republic with its 1987 constitution, is merely a continuation of the upstart 1946 government of the US with the same neo-colonial army created in 1935 under General MacArthur. This neo-colonial government with its military force, which is characterized by a semi-feudal political system as discussed above, is the oppressive structure that the NDFP-CPP-NPA aims to dismantle.

The enemy armed forces, under the guise of Oplan Kapayapaan, has attempted to penetrate the liberated territories of the NDFP-CPP-NPA, but with

14 A mockery of the 1892 Republic of the Katipunan done by the US colonizers is when they proclaimed their 1946 republic on July 4, the same date as the founding of the US government. Upon the lobbying of Diosdado Macapagal in 1962, the US than agreed to move the date to the current June 12, the date when Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed Philippine independence from Spain as a protectorate of the US in his house in Kawit Cavite. The US, however, did not even recognize this protectorate and did not send any representative to the occasion in Kawit, Cavite, .as it was intent in turning the Philippines into its colony. See John R. M. Taylor, The Philippine Insurrection Against the United States, vol. ii, Eugenio Lopez Philippine History Series, 1971.

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no avail. Using the cover of the unilateral ceasefire, proclaimed by the CPP-NPA, in conjunction with the peace talks, the neo-colonial army of the illegitimate Republic exerted effort to overrun areas already under the control of the People’s Revolutionary Forces. Realizing that the enemy has been taking advantage of the ceasefire, the CPP-NPA lifted its unilateral ceasefire and is once more on an offensive stance.

Collective democracy as against Liberal Democracy

The emphasis on governance in the liberated areas of the NDFP-CPP-NPA is on collective democracy or people participation in making decisions in rule and policy-making, even in military tactics and strategy. That is why in every squadron and platoon of the NPA there is a political officer, who contributes his/her knowledge on socio-political issues in the formulations of decisions. This practice of collective democracy is a continuation of the Katipunan tradition of Bonifacio and Jacinto15 and is antithetical to liberal or individualistic democracy perpetuated by the Americans in Philippine society, and molded into an intellectual hegemony by academics, particularly at UP.

Liberal democracy was once a progressive political ideology as used by the rising bourgeois class in alliance with the working classes in Western Europe to break the fetters on the forces of production of the outmoded social relations of production under feudalism. The rise of liberal thought in 17 th century Europe initiated by the petty-bourgeois intellectuals, supported by big merchants or the emerging capitalist class, is referred to by Western historians as the age of enlightenment. It accelerated the development of the scientific consciousness for it was against superstitious religions as perpetrated by the Ancient Regime in Europe. With the fall of the monarchical regimes in Western Europe and the unleashing of new forces of production by the First Industrial revolution, the bourgeoisie or capitalist class, which ascended into foremost political power, has then used liberalism as a convenient veneer to extract more profits from its former ally, the working class, with the slogans of the free exchange of labor, free enterprise and free trade. Now, capitalism which has grown into imperialism, its highest stage according to Lenin, has only brought greater miseries to the working

15 See Emilio Jacinto’s Samahan ng Bayan sa Pangangalakal and Sa May Nasang Makisanib sa Katipunang ito, in Jose P. Santos “Buhay at mga Sinulat ni Emilio Jacinto, published August 22, 1928. In these two articles, Jacinto discusses collective democracy as practiced within the Katipunan.

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class of the world, compared to feudalism, because of its more efficient and systematic methods of drawing more surplus value or profits from labor. It has even brought two world wars because of the rivalries of imperialist powers, the first predicted by Lenin, that killed tens of millions of the working classes , the highest number of people annihilated in the history of wars.

Late capitalism is at present accelerating the death of our planet earth with its ever greedy drive for greater profit. Its political ideology, liberal democracy, is now merely becoming a mask where behind it is slowly being revealed the true fascist face of capitalism, as is very well seen in the rise of the billionaire Donald Trump to power in the lead imperialist country of the world today, the US. Donald Trump has thrown off the new mask of liberal democracy, which is neo-liberal globalization, in the economic competitions of capitalist nations for the scarce resources of the globe and is threatening to plunge humankind into a new world war, particularly in his confrontation with Iran and China. And more and more capitalist countries are turning their backs to their former slogan, globalization, which was only a convenient cover after all to exploit the resources of the world, including human labor. They are becoming protectionist starting with the UK with its Brexit and with the growing strengths of the extreme right in the national politics of France. the Front National under Marine La Pen and the Party of Freedom of Geert Wilders of Netherland. Both parties have exploited the nationalist sentiments of the masses and have won increasing supports in poll surveys for the election this year (2017) with Le Pen leading other candidates. Like Hitler, the members of the bourgeois class, particularly Donald Trump, have created a false consciousness among the working classes as Marx said, diverting the blame for the miseries of the toiling masses as caused by other poor peoples of other countries, the refugees and immigrants, instead of by their very rapacious activities , which have brought extensive havoc and wars in the Middle Eastern countries in their drive for more oil.

The exploited working classes of the world must finally come into their own and collectively organize beyond national and religious differences and smash capitalism on the national and international levels before it is too late for humankind. Many of the working classes of the world must finally awaken from the stupor they have been in for so long this century brought about by the selfish and shallow culture of consumerism and materialism which are spread by

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capitalism through entertainment and the mass media. The working classes must be able to sacrifice their economic security, which after all has only been an elusive dream under capitalism with 201 million unemployed people in the world today, according to the ILO.16 If one includes the underemployed, which is usually higher than the unemployed, the figure would be greater. And according to the UN around 795 million people, mostly coming from the families of the toiling masses, do not have enough food to lead healthy lives.17 The families of those slumbering working classes of the world must finally be enlightened and support the emergence of the revolutionary consciousness of their kin which must be translated into revolutionary actions. It is among the youth, like in the Philippines, which has the greatest number of unemployed and insecure jobs worldwide, where radicalism must finally more prevail. In these tumultuous times with global capitalism wracked by one economic crisis after another, young people must disengage themselves from self-indulgent materialism, causeless rebelliousness and banter for It is the idealism of the youth that can see a better alternative future to the chaotic and irrational world order perpetrated by moribund capitalism.

Liberal Democracy in the Philippines

Liberal democracy, which did not come from the bowers of a society itself but was imposed from the outside, as the US did on the Philippines, when it turned the latter into its colony, is easier exposed as a means to hold a people at bay. The artificial grafting of liberal democracy into the semi-feudal political system of the Philippines has only exacerbated the rule of the few over the masses. As an ideology, political or democratic liberalism encourages individualism, self-aggrandizement and indulgence, endless debates and analyses that abet indecisions, and even social isolation among people, and is not conducive to the arrival at crucial actions through collective discussions and unity, which are very vital to a people faced with urgent social and political problems like the Filipino masses. Liberalism as a moral philosophy only promises theoretical freedoms (idealist freedoms) to the people and has been a grand failure in emancipating peoples from the exploitation of the few over the many. It has only created illusions among the masses to continue to participate and

16 From ILO’s World Employment and Social Outlook Trends, (WESO), 2017.17 UN World Food Programme

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hope for their liberations in the governance by the economic elites over their societies.

On the other hand, for instance, in the practice of collective democracy among peasants in their associations in the CPP-NPA liberated zones, they arrive at decisions of who can be considered as a despotic landlord with his/her land and property confiscated. For after all, it is the masses in a particular area who know what is going on in their community. Further, in the people’s courts they have established, more democratic than the corrupt courts we have been used to, it is a jury drawn from the masses who will pass final judgment on an accused after his/her case is presented by a prosecutor and a defender. It is to be noted too that the early Katipunans had their own secret people’s courts. 18

The programs for a people’s democratic government with special reference to its extensive land reform program in the people’s liberated areas can be gleaned from the following passage from the Comprehensive Socio-Economic Program of the NDFP:

“In the countryside where the People’s Democratic Government (PDG) are operative, a revolutionary agrarian reform program is being implemented and realized through the collective efforts of the organs of political power, the New People’s Army, the revolutionary mass organizations of peasants, rural women and youth, indigenous communities, and the support and participation of the broad masses of the people.

The program includes land rent reduction, increase in the share of farm produce and wages of farm workers, reduction of the hours of work, higher prices for their produce and the elimination of usury. In cases of despotic landlords, lands are confiscated and subsequently distributed to existing tillers of the land – the landless tenants and farm workers.

Under the program, various forms of cooperation in agricultural production among the peasants and indigenous communities are encouraged through, among others, the establishment of communal farms and marketing cooperatives. Additionally, indigenous communities are organized and assisted in

18 See John R. M. Taylor, The Philippine Insurrection Agaiinst the United States, Vol. II, Eugenio Lopez Philippine Liorary Series, 1971, pp. 276-280.

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promoting and safeguarding their rights and welfare and working with them in establishing basic social services.

The realization and success of agrarian reform and rural development rest not just on the political will of leadership but more so on the collective participation of rural men and women who are conscious of their equal rights as partners and are cognizant of their productive share in the rural economy and in the social and economic development of the country.”19

In the 80 pages Comprehensive Socio-Economic Program of the NDFP are also presented an extensive national industrialization plan with protection of the environment and the support and promotion of the democratic rights and welfare of all sectors of society, among other programs.

Concluding Remarks

It is the National Democratic Revolution based on collective democracy and waged against the semi-feudal and neo-colonial structure of the illegitimate Philippine Republic of 1946 that can smash its semi-feudal political system, characterized by a dictatorship of the landlords and the comprador bourgeoisie. Through the combination of extra-legal and legal methods can this successfully be accomplished.

For truly, the great multitudes will come from the hills, the mountains and the towns, overcoming the hordes of the enemies in their path. Then they will surround the Big House in the Big City where dwell the liars, the thieves and the murderers. And the lackeys of the White Oppressors beyond the sea will say?, “Did we not make laws to feed the poor?” “Did we not make roads and houses for them?”, “Did not our Leader protect the helpless and defy the White Oppressor from overseas?” But the people will not believe them and shall exact great retribution upon them and their Leader. And the people will finally establish a free government of their own where all are truly equal and dignity and prosperity shall reign in the land.

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19 From Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms of the NDFP, p.9-10.

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