CPP predicts a short-lived Rody dictatorship in the offing

October 21, 2017 Metro BLISTT

The outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) is predicting a dictatorship in the offing, but is sure it could not last long.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s avowal to establish a “revolutionary government until the end of (his) term,” the CPP said, is meant only to quell “all dissent and arrogate the power to remove every one in government and appoint only those people who will not criticize his rule”. What Duterte essentially wants is to seat himself as a dictator with absolute powers unconstrained by the GRP constitution or any other law, the group said.
Duterte’s threats, the CPP claimed, “are indications of his growing desperation to cling to power.”   But, “(it) cannot drown the rising clamor for his ouster and the demand for him to account for all the crimes perpetrated in the course of his triple war.”
By indications, the CPP said, “Duterte is rushing to strengthen and consolidate his control of the military and police in order to mount a dictatorship and defend it by force through suppression of all forms of dissent and resistance.”
The President, the outlawed group also claimed, “is seeking the imprimatur of US imperialist chieftain Trump and the US security and defense establishment by giving all leeway for US military intervention in the Philippines and power projection in the South China Sea.”
The CPP also claimed Duterte it turning “increasingly impatient to impose new taxes as guarantee for new loans from the World Bank and the AIIB and for Japanese ODA.”   ”(He) wants to rush the overhaul of the 1987 GRP constitution to pave the way for all-out liberalization and his plan to establish a federal form of government and allow him an extended rule.”
But a dictatorial drift, the CPP believed, will not last long.  “Amid the deep-going economic and social crisis of the ruling semicolonial and semifeudal system, a Duterte dictatorship will most probably not last long, even if Duterte could afford to extend his life.” Contrary to his aim of wresting complete control of the state, a Duterte dictatorship will surely deepen fissures among the ruling classes and within his regime, especially in the AFP and PNP, whose corrupt officials maintain fealty to anti-Duterte political factions, it explained.
While threatening to mount a so-called “palace coup”, the President had declared a “full-scale” war against the New People’s Army (NPA).  Though the CPP said, ”in fact the AFP has not slowed down in waging its nationwide all-out war since last year,” citing Duterte’s order to “flatten the hills,” the AFP has carried out “aerial bombardment campaigns against peasant communities endangering the lives of civilians”.  These have resulted in widespread violations of human rights across the country, the CPP lamented.
Though Duterte vowed he is ready to wage another 50-year war against the NPA, the CPP retorted, “given the acute crisis of the ruling system, this is more than enough time for the NPA to defeat the AFP.” The AFP and the reactionary government failed in their attempts to quickly end the people’s war through successive all-out war campaigns, the CPP laughed.  “They also cannot deny the fact that for several months now, the AFP could not even decisively finish its limited war in Marawi City to quell an armed Moro uprising.”
A so-called “Duterte coup” to establish a dictatorship, the CPP further claimed, “will succeed only in uniting the Filipino people in a broad anti-dictatorial front with the national democratic forces serving as the strong core,” taking cue from lessons from the Marcos dictatorship. ”The Filipino people are determined to resist Duterte’s plans to establish a fascist dictatorship.” The people are unperturbed with his threats to “arrest all of you,” the CPP said. ACE ALEGRE / ABN