Fight Back News Service is circulating the following June 29 statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Boldly struggle to end the scourge of Duterte’s tyrannical rule at the soonest possible time. Every moment he remains in power, the people’s burden and suffering worsen. Almost three years under his rule, people’s lives have worsened and the economy deteriorated.

Unemployment has worsened, taxes have become more burdensome and prices have soared, while people’s wages and income re- main low. The drug menace has escalated, as the government itself has morphed into the number one syndicate.

On the other hand, Duterte’s wealth of Duterte and that of his bureaucrat capitalist and oligarch cohorts continue to grow from government contracts and plundering the people’s money. He is subservient to foreign powers and surrenders the country’s sovereignty and patrimony.

Duterte is aunting his power across the country. He employs the entire armed force and state resources to subject the people to violence and deception. He silences his critics, activists, lawyers and the media. He suppresses the people’s resistance. Killings, attacks against entire communities, arrests and imprisonment are rampant.

Duterte controls the entire bureaucracy, the armed forces and government branches. To escape culpability for his crimes, he seeks to perpetuate beyond 2022 the power and privilege he enjoys with his family and accomplices.

Still, however powerful Duterte appears, he can not forever suppress the people’s aspiration to be free from tyranny and fascism. Their demand for justice and democracy will not be silenced.

It is the right of the Filipino people to resist and overthrow a government that op- presses their common interests and relentlessly suppresses them. Just as the Marcos and Estrada regimes were overthrown, there is nothing more just for the people to do than oust the brutal, corrupt, oppressive and treasonous Duterte regime.

To the Filipino people: steel your selves in the difficult struggle against the fascist regime and to correct the course of the country’s history. If the people will unite and march as one, they are an invincible political force and impetus of change.

Build the people’s organized strength. Open their eyes to the real situation of the country. Tear off the blindfold of Duterte’s lies and distortions. Persevere to unmask, understand and expose the social realities, the absence of democracy and freedom, the rule of a few oligarchs, bureaucrat capitalists and fascists, and the oppression and exploitation of the toiling masses.

Pay attention to people’s issues and questions of state. Repudiate indifference. Grapple and comprehend the roots of everyday problems and grievances. Be students of history, politics and economics.

Firmly unite. Reject self-interest. One’s well-being is linked to the welfare of all. Give everything to build and broaden mass organizations. Strengthen or establish fac- tory unions. Build and strengthen various mass organizations that unite the majority in schools, of ces and communities.

Act as one and express grievances over local, sectoral and national issues. Struggle for wage increases and workers rights, to reduce land rent and loan interests and for fair prices of palay and other products, against tuition increases and state abandonment of education, against demolitions, against unjust fees and other urgent demands. Link these with the bigger national issues and with the struggle to end Duterte’s tyrannical rule.

Mass activists must arouse, organize and mobilize hundreds of thousands of people in the cities and countryside. Be the engine of mass study and mass propaganda. Lead discussions, speak before assemblies, hand out leaflets in the streets and paint and post urgent calls on walls. Convince everyone to join mass actions and resist. Bring the Party’s message and calls to the masses.

Duterte aims to drive a wedge among the people in order that evil forces such as he and his cronies and cohorts can continue to rule. If millions are organized and will act collectively, there is no power that can stop the people from ousting Duterte, advancing change and determining the country’s destiny.

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