Laban Ng Masa leads in struggle for True and Genuine Change

Last October 29, more than a thousand leaders from the student, youth, labor, farmer, military, academe, Muslim, legal profession, small and medium sized entrepreneurs gathered together at the U.P. Bahay ng Alumni and took part in the re-launching of the Laban ng Masa.

Laban ng Masa is a huge political movement which sprouted at the height of the anti-Arroyo struggle. Led by UP professor Francisco Nemenzo, it now counts Prof. Walden Bello as one of the leaders in this re-invigorated ideological movement.

Bello says Laban ng Masa is once more leading the charge due to the perception that the Duterte administration is slowly morphing into a dictatorship.

Duterte has since been politically hurt by accusations from the Church and different civil society groups for influencing the conduct of state security agencies in relation to the anti-drugs campaign. Recent surveys show Duterte's ratings going steadily south and about 50% of people surveyed who now believe in increasing rumors of police killing innocent people.

Laban ng Masa came at the right time. It is now the third force which provides the ideological and logistical muscle for the continuing fight against the Duterte administration.

It is the only movement that espouses participatory democracy. Most members likewise pursue the ideal of a Socialist Philippine economy.

Laban ng Masa provides the correct interpretation of Philippine history and gives us what direction to take in the event of a sudden management shift in leadership sometime in 2018.

It is high time for us to really be guided by the correct line regardless of who heads the government. There must be a clear program of government which this country must follow as a Nation, instead of the existing practice of following the lead of a new Executive administration.

Shifting policy direction hurts our country every six years. It muddles long-term and strategic investment plans of both local and foreign firms. It affects diplomatic and trade relationships with other countries and it does not augur well for the Philippines to get that perception of being "unstable" every single change in the Executive leadership.

Let's change the mindset of our bureaucrats. There must be a mutually-agreed set of bureaucratic policies implementable within longer periods of time. If a policy is not responsive anymore, that is the time we change it.

This can only be done if the government follows a mass line which is not dependent on the whims, caprices, biases or political beliefs of the Chief Executive. Rather, the Chief Executive must be the chief executioner and model of the mass line.

Laban ng Masa, given the chance, is the best alternative we have that does not adhere to the pseudo-democratic and utterly liberal thinking of Tindig Filipinas and the collaborationist character of those involved in the Movement Against Tyranny.

Of course, if this state heightens regressive and repressive policies, there is simply no other recourse but for a strong front coalition of forces to emerge. There lies the victory.

The fight is clear. There's already a line drawn in the sand.

More than political, Laban ng Masa is fighting against pseudo-democratic forces that promote illiteracy, brutality, disrespect of human dignity, immorality, graft and corruption of our minds.

We fight this administration because it creates and perpetuates the poverty within our minds, making us willing slaves of a parasitic elite that sucks the blood and the marrows off our moral, political and economic bones.

We can only transform the state as a weapon against the Oligarchs by creating and forming ourselves as a political collective. Afterwards, we transition into a Nation, a group of people with shared values and thoughts on how best to move forward.

When we achieve Nation-hood, that should be the time when we strengthen and transform the state qualitatively, making it the hammer that smashes the system perpetuated by these elites for their own benefit. And from that point in history, we create a new system which reflect the true aspirations and values of the Filipino People.