Theater of War in Intensifying US-China Conflict

Volume V, Number 06. March 31, 2023.

As tension between the US and China continue to escalate, the Philippines is more and more being drawn into the growing maelstrom of inter-imperialist conflict. Both superpowers profess to be friends of the Filipino people, but in fact have utter contempt of Philippine sovereignty.

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Dancing with the Devil: On the Proposed Marcosian Cha-Cha

Volume V, Number 05. March 15, 2023.

Last March 6th, the Philippine House of Representatives hastily approved a resolution enabling changes to the 1987 Constitution through a constitutional convention (con-con). Should the companion legislation in the Senate push through, delegates of the Con-Con will be elected on 30 October this year and will start rewriting the Constitution as soon as November.

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#NeverForget: Relive the spirit of EDSA uprising!

On the occasion of the 37th year since the EDSA people power revolt, mass organizations of workers, peasants and the broadest sections of Philippine society in their thousands relive the spirit of a mass uprising that toppled a dictatorship. At the same time, the Filipino people remembers the horrors of martial law: a stark reminder of the current situation under the late dictator’s son and sitting President Marcos Jr.

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US Defense Secretary Austin visit bolsters Philippines’ role in the event of US-China War

Commitments made in the recent visit of US Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin served to reinforce the neo-colonial relationship between the US government and the Marcos Jr. regime. Marcos Jr. gave Austin assurances to allow the US to establish more military bases and facilities inside AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) military camps and allow “joint maritime patrols” with the US military, in exchange for new military hardware contracts.

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Of Cartels and Onion Tears

On 16 January, Merlita Gallardo shared the plight of onion farmers in Bayambang, Pangasinan in Northern Luzon. Her husband took his own life in 2021 after an armyworm infestation destroyed their crops and left them buried in debt reaching into the millions. Gallardo continued planting onions as she had in the past, but a series of storms in 2022 destroyed her crops. After she had replanted onions, yet another challenge came – this time, it was man-made: the arrival of cheap onion imports that would drive farmgate prices down just as they were beginning their harvest season. 

Gallardo’s case is just one of many similar stories of onion farmers constantly driven to desperation as cheap imported agricultural imports destroy the local agricultural market.

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