Vol. VII, No. 03 - February 15, 2025

The Philippine ruling classes are undergoing acute crisis. This is manifest in the increasingly antagonistic split between the top national political dynasties in the ruling coalition -- the Marcoses and the Dutertes. This instability is a cause for worry for US imperialism because the country is in the front line of its first island chain strategy of warmongering against China.

The latest offensive of the Marcos Jr.’s clique against the Duterte faction is the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte by the Marcos--controlled House of Representatives, setting the stage for a trial before the Philippine Senate.

A guilty verdict will effectively box out the Dutertes from the 2028 presidential contest and pave the way for a perpetuation of the Marcos dynasty  in power. The impeachment petition was hurriedly passed by the Marcos’ supermajority in Congress in the last day before sessions are suspended.  Earlier, the 3 previous petitions for impeachment of the vice president were sat on by the Congress’ leadership for two months, in the aftermath of Marcos Jr.’s declaration that the “impeachment of Duterte will not benefit the nation”, fearing that this would ignite a bigger political crisis while the ruling system is rocked by a deep-seated economic crisis.

The impeachment came amid growing clamor of broad democratic sectors to hold Duterte accountable for corruption over the anomalous use of hundreds of millions of “confidential and intelligence funds,” as well as her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, for crimes against humanity. It is a victory for the democratic mass movement, whose protests over the past weeks added to mounting pressure on Marcos and the House of Representatives to push the impeachment.

The impeachment of Sara Duterte marks a significant escalation of the conflicts between the Marcos and Duterte cliques. It further exposes the deep divisions within ruling reactionary classes, where rival factions and cliques jostle against each other over spoils of bureaucrat capitalist privilege and power.

The move follows efforts of the Marcos regime to consolidate political power, especially within the military, police and defense establishment, through “loyalty checks” and the reorganization of the National Security Council. Marcos further secured the support of the US imperialists by further heightening anti-Chinese propaganda and collaborating with the US government and military in naval operations in the West Philippine Sea, under the guise of “defending Philippine sovereignty.”

The Filipino people welcome the impeachment of Sara Duterte as the first step to hold the vice president accountable and remove her from office by way of meting out justice for her crimes of corruption. However, the impeachment was secured and transmitted to the Senate just as congress was set to adjourn its sessions. As such, the people must further intensify and expand their mass actions to compel the Senate to convene promptly as the impeachment court and see the trial of Sara Duterte commence at once.

The impeachment of Sara Duterte also serves to heighten the urgency of the people’s demand for the arrest of Rodrigo Duterte and trial before the International Criminal Court, where he is facing charges for having ordered the wave of killings under his sham “war on drugs” and brutal counterinsurgency campaign.

The impeachment, furthermore, emboldens the Filipino people to hold Marcos himself accountable for even bigger crimes of corruption. The Filipino people are outraged by the even greater amounts of confidential and intelligence funds that Marcos has allotted to himself in the 2025 budget. In addition, they protest the Php26-billion pork barrel fund under the guise of the AKAP “cash-assistance program,” the Php500-billion Maharlika Investment Fund, the anomalous remittance to the national treasury of Php60 billion Philhealth funds, the dismissal of ill-gotten wealth cases against the Marcos estate worth at least Php202 billion and other anomalies.

The worsening socioeconomic conditions of the Filipino people are rousing them to more vigorously resist the anti-people neoliberal policies and corruption of the Marcos regime and protest against the oppressive bureaucrat capitalist system, that serve to perpetuate the semicolonial and semifeudal system. Steady efforts to build and strengthen their organizations are bound to result in even greater protests in the coming future.