Volume III, Number 20. 31 October 2021.

Try following the trail of public funds in the Duterte government. Billions of pesos traverse expansive multi-lane highways leading to the pockets – or secret overseas bank accounts – of President Rodrigo Duterte, his cronies and the highest government officials. Meanwhile, some pesos and cents trudge narrow muddy roads to eventually trickle into the country’s derelict educational system, healthcare, agricultural sector and social services.

Already notorious the world over for the murder of tens of thousands of Filipinos in its ‘war on drugs’ and ‘war against communism’, the Duterte regime is equally culpable of plundering the nation’s coffers and patrimony. Threads in the regime’s web of corruption are currently unraveling in the Philippine Senate, involving the anomalous government purchase of US$833-million overpriced face masks and medical equipment from a Chinese dummy corporation having close ties with Duterte himself. Unravel the threads further and Duterte’s deals for 41.6 million overpriced Sinovac vaccine doses will also be revealed.

Such is the cold-blooded brutality of the Duterte regime, fleecing the ailing and impoverished Filipinos during the pandemic! Duterte’s pretenses of ‘simple living’ are being unmasked by the massive corruption favoring his cronies and other high officials, safeguarding Duterte’s wealth in dummy corporations and secret bank accounts overseas.

All these anomalies in public funds expose the rottenness of bureaucrat capitalist operations in the Philippines. They expose how officials accumulate wealth through bribery and cuts in government contracts, as well as protection money for gambling, drugs and other criminal syndicates.

In stark contrast, public funds of the People’s Democratic Government are spent entirely for the interests and well-being of the Filipino people. Taxes and other resources raised within the territories of the revolutionary government are allocated for free education for young and old, maintaining and promoting public health, strengthening community self-defense and the people’s army, boosting agricultural production and other programs for the benefit of the impoverished and oppressed people.

Officials of the various organs of the People’s Democratic Government, New People’s Army and Communist Party of the Philippines are models of simple living, self-sacrifice and arduous struggle. Pocketing public funds for personal gain is anathema to the revolutionary government. The Filipino people cherish their revolutionary government. The Filipino people detest the murderous, treasonous and corrupt Duterte regime.