Official Statement of the Katipunan ng mga Kabataang Kadre on the New Aquino Regime

Advance the Demands of the Youth alongside the Democratic Demands of the Masses!

As the smoke of the 2010 elections are settling down and the new Aquino regime is building up its government, the various Left Blocs and Movements in the Philippines are discussing on how to engage the new regime given its promised change and the vast mandate it garnered, the biggest in history, during the latest bourgeois elections. The attitude of the Left Movements varies, ranging from outright confrontation, to principled, some called critical engagement, which is generally characterized by actually entering government to initiate inside pressure supported by outside pressure of the allied mass movements. The former views the new regime as nothing different from the previous US backed reactionary regimes while the latter considers the Aquino regime “an arena of struggle“, where a space is opened to influence policies and programs in order to advance the basic interest of the people.

The KKK for its part maintains that there is no illusion that the Aquino regime could fully deliver the change it promised during the election campaigns, which is based largely on liberal-democratic ideals; much more the basic change desired by the masses. After all, the Aquino regime represents the victorious section of the elite of the Philippine society. The various groups, like the Makati Business Club surrounding Aquino, tells us that there is a strong force inside the regime that desires nothing else than to make Capitalism in the country run efficiently and perfectly in order to restore investors’ confidence, under the guise of the Anti-Corruption Campaign.

On the other hand the KKK takes the position to engage the new regime, but under a different and issue-based framework of engagement. The KKK believes, with no illusions, that the best way to engage the Aquino regime is to challenge it by putting forward the basic and democratic demands of the youth and the masses in general. It should also be challenged to declare its concrete programs and policies to give meaning to its broad campaign slogans. This does not mean that we are hopeful that these demands would be met, but this political exercise would test and expose the limits of this new regime, and could politicize the people. The vast number of people who voted for Aquino due to the promised change in governance could add pressure for the regime, to at least “do something”.

The challenge for the new regime is, in fact, being laid already. Some of these are: the undoing of what the previous regime have done including the punishment of those involved in unscrupulous deals, the problems of corruption in all levels which eats up to 40% of the national annual budget, the giving of justice to the victims of extra-judicial killings and the Maguindanao Massacre, the problem of unemployment of about 14 million Filipinos (34.2% of the labor force, this is aside from the labor force in the informal labor sector earning below living standard salaries), the continued contractualization, and laying off of the workers like the present struggle of the 2,600 Philippine Airlines (PAL) employees, National Power Corporation, Media Giant ABS-CBN, among others, the land reform struggle for several decades now, the decent housing and basic services problems, the problems with the peace process in Mindanao and the problem of migration especially among the young professionals. Adding to these is the raising of tuition fees of 399 Schools and Colleges ranging from 6%-13% this year, the inaccessibility of education to the rural and the urban poor children, and the inadequacy of the budget for education and related services. There is also the problem of warlordism in the provinces – intertwined with massive corruption and blatant abuse of power by the warlord-local executives.

The KKK is calling on the young people and the masses in general, especially those who have put their hopes on Aquino, to be vigilant and militant. Let the huge number of votes garnered by Aquino be translated into a pressure for this new regime to undo what the previous regime have done and to initiate the change in governance as promised in the elections. Let the democratic demands of the masses test the possibilities of the new regime. Let the spirit of the “People Power” which catapulted the Aquino Clan into political dominance, before and now, be the same spirit that would fuel the masses to struggle for Social Justice – the unfulfilled and betrayed promise of the EDSA People Power revolt.

– Central Committee of the KKK

The Katipunan ng mga Kabataang Kadre is an autonomous youth organisation that supports the RPM-M