Duterte and the Left: A marriage made in heaven?

Duterte and the Left: A marriage made in heaven?

Malcolm Guy shared insights from his interview with President Duterte in Davao City at a community forum held in Montreal.

MONTREAL FORUM

By Joyce Valbuena

Asexciting as any newly formed relationships or marriages, the newly elected Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been open in expressing his support to the progressive movements.

“There will no doubt be many more surprises in store under President Rodrigo Duterte. He could be the best, or the worst, President the Philippines has known,” said Malcolm Guy, a Montreal-based film maker and activist, in a forum held at the Immigrants Workers Centre in Montreal, Quebec last July 15.

Indeed, even progressive groups here in Canada are anticipating on the outcome of the peace talks between the Philippine government and the New People’s Army (NPA) which is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

At the forum, entitled Duterte and the Left: Marriage Made in Heaven, Guy revealed that Duterte admits he is more comfortable being known as the first left “mayor” of the Philippines. Duterte served as mayor of Davao City, in the south of the Philippines, for 20 years.

Guy’s presentation was based on an interview he had with Duterte in Davao City a few weeks after the election. Malcolm said that Duterte was tired and had a migraine when he arrived for the interview coming from a dinner party and marathon two-hour press conference. Nevertheless, Malcolm said Duterte was still ready to talk for over 40 minutes. The interview is part of the film that Malcolm is working on about a legendary leader of the revolutionary Philippine Left, Prof. Jose Maria Sison, who it turns out was Duterte’s professor in political economy the Lyceum University in Manila.
The forum was attended by about 40 people and was organized by three progressive organizations in Montreal. Guy is one of the founding members of the Centre for Philippine Concerns while the other speaker, Olga Ulanov, represented Anakbayan-Montreal and Women of Diverse Origin.

Guy’s presentation was also based on a paper he wrote for Alternatives International Journal. In his paper (Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte: A Socialist in Disguise?), Guy stated, “However, behind the crass law and order bluster of the new President lies a more complex character. Duterte refers to himself as a “socialist” and “the first Left President of the Philippines”. In the heart of the election campaign he conducted a widely publicized Skype exchange with Prof. Sison, founding chairperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The CPP and the armed revolutionary force it commands, the New People’s Army (NPA), is present in scores of guerilla fronts in 71 of the 81 Philippine provinces and has been waging a people’s war for the past 47 years – drawing support from millions of people in all parts of the country.”

Guy also discussed Duterte’s intention to release all political prisoners including the 18 NDFP peace consultants who were illegally arrested by previous governments despite protection under the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). Guy said that during the interview, Duterte seemed to backtrack somewhat on the promise of general amnesty for political prisoners, saying that this will start with the release of the “leaders” involved in the peace talks. On the other hand, Human Rights advocates have started to bring up the demand to release all political prisoners, especially those who are sick, women and elderly for humanitarian reasons. There are currently over 560 political prisoners in the Philippines, according to the principal human rights organization, Karapatan.

Peace talks will begin between the Duterte government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in the coming weeks in Norway. In his first State of the Nation Address last July 25, Duterte announced the unilateral truce with the CPP-NPA. This pronouncement is one of the highlights and perhaps the most controversial one in his speech. However as of this time of writing the article, this relationship between Duterte government and CPP-NPA on the issue of ceasefire is being put into test already.

Since the start of his presidential campaign, president Duterte has been outspoken about his friendly ties with the Leftist movement. He spoke about himself as supporter of organizations that are connected or sympathizers of CPP-NPA. In several media reports, Duterte has showed enough indication that he is not anti-communist, that he has friendly ties with NPA, and that he tries to continuously reach out to the revolutionary Left. He even assigned cabinet posts to nominees of the CPP, specifically in the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the Department of Agrarian Reform.

Olga Ulanov and other members of Anakbayan tried planting rice in
La Carlota, Negros Occidental.

Another speaker at the forum shed light on the issues of poverty, peace and order, and landlessness in the Philippines – where she questioned whether President Duterte can deliver to uplift the situation of poor Filipino people.

“I think he (President Duterte) has good intentions towards the masses but we must not completely trust what he is saying because he is also supporting the elite. The masses have now more options to be heard in the peace talks which is great and the secretary generals are interested in a change for the workers, peasants, fisherman and students,” said Olga Ulanov, an engineering student who recently went to the Philippines with other members of Anakbayan youth group in Montreal. Olga was born in Russia and lived in Israel for 11 years before she migrated to Canada in 2010.

Ulanov presented her experience from her exposure trip in some of the communities that the progressive women’s group, Gabriela, organizes. For several years, Ulanov has made friends with lots of Filipino youth in Montreal. She has been involved in many activities of the Filipino community groups and has become member of Anakbayan, Women of Diverse Origin and Centre for Philippine Concerns.

According to Ulanov, she witnessed poverty and injustices in her visit in Manila and several towns in the province of Negros Occidental. The stories she heard from her friends and from the forums she attended in Montreal were confirmed to be sadly true.
She said that in Negros Occidental, sugar cane farmers are landless even though they are tilling the soil in their ancestral land. She witnessed how these farmers are organized to reoccupy the land, however, with many struggles from the landlord’s divide and conquer tactics. Ulanov said, “Those who join to assert their rights on the land are dismissed and those who give up their land are provided with jobs that pay so low.”

Ulanov narrated, “In this situation, when the sugar industry temporarily stops milling and farmworkers are left without any stable income, families of fishermen and farmworkers do not have enough food on the table, children suffer malnutrition. To help their family, the kids pick up woods and garbage washed away by the storm to the shore, to sell.”

Ulanov also described stronger resistance she had witnessed in other communities. She said that there are farmers in Negros who were able to assert their rights to the land through land cultivation area where they occupy an idle land and plant food crops.

For Ulanov, she considers her experience enriching and she gained deeper understanding of the Philippine struggles. She hopes to continue her work with the Filipino youth in Montreal and expects that the new President will be able to make a big change to the lives of Filipino people whom she has already kept close in her heart.

But reality bites. Duterte has six years term as President. Majority of the over 100 million Filipino population remain poor. The question remains, what is the outlook for development and peace in the Philippines?