Volume III, Number 24. 31 December 2021.

It is extremely saddening to receive reports that more than 400 have died, several hundreds have been injured and at least 60 more are missing from the destructive effects of super typhoon Odette (Rai). Millions of Filipinos, mostly poor fishers, peasants and farmworkers, have lost their homes, properties and livelihood. The Duterte government estimates damages to infrastructure at US$326.35 million and to agriculture at US$77.53 million.

The devastation, if not the death toll, is reminiscent of super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in November 2013. We note with revulsion that, then as now, the Manila government’s response has been slow, inadequate and plagued by corruption and showboating. The millions of dollars of foreign assistance do not end up helping the impoverished survivors. Then as now, the Filipino people can only truly rely on their collective strength to rise up and recover from the devastation.

Their solidarity and resilience is needed even more for the impending storms of 2022. The pandemic has already resulted in deaths, severe illness, bankruptcies, ever-rising joblessness and hunger. These extreme difficulties are expected to continue through 2022. Meanwhile, Duterte’s security forces are senselessly focused on ‘finishing off’ the armed revolutionary forces before the tyrant’s term ends in June. They will cause more death and destruction while utterly failing in their avowed goals.

Compounding these disasters is the May 2022 elections and its potential aftermath. The Duterte ruling clique intends to stay in power beyond 2022. It has forged an alliance with the unrepentant tyrants and kleptocrats Marcoses, Arroyos and Estradas to back up the election of Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and Sarah Duterte as president and vice president.

The Commission on Elections is already packed with Duterte’s friends and associates. Ballot counting machines are supplied and operated by Duterte cronies. Money from this unholy alliance will push ‘public opinion’ surveys and social media chatter to ‘validate’ the rigged Marcos-Duterte elections.

As ominous and threatening as these may seem, however, the Filipino revolutionary forces and people will rally together and resolutely weather these storms. We must mobilize to expose and frustrate the plot to rig the 2022 elections and to install the Marcos-Duterte tandem. And in case it’s installed, the people must prevent it from consolidating power, challenging its reign from day one until its ouster.

As brutal and tyrannical as the Duterte clique may seem, it is rotten to the core. It is despised by the people because of its oppression, exploitation, treachery, corruption and viciousness. The collective strength of the Filipino people shall surmount the hardships and obstacles, forging ahead in 2022 to gain greater victories against tyranny and oppression, carrying forward the people’s democratic revolution to greater heights.