Press Statement by Jose Maria Sison
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
April 13, 2019
In a full month before the May 13, 2019 elections, we can expect an avalanche of propaganda from the Duterte regime to conjure the illusion of Duterte’s perpetual popularity, foretell the “victory” of its senatorial and local executive candidates and cover his secret orders to the Commission on Elections and the military to rig the elections.
The propaganda drive of the regime to spread lies involves the frenzied use of government agencies and resources, paid opinion poll surveys, red-tagging of opposition candidates and parties, planted news stories and columns, TV and radio broadcasts, the troll armies in the social media, tarpaulins and posters, herded paid crowds, and so on.
The Duterte regime is overspending public and private resources and over-exerting itself in trying to create the false illusion of popular support in order to pave the way for election rigging in favor of the regime’s candidates and for the charter change to a bogus kind of federalism by which absolute powers are concentrated in the hands of Duterte as fascist dictator on top of his regional and provincial agents among his fellow oligarchs, dynasts and warlords.
The Duterte ruling clique intends to draw attention away from the widespread indignation of the people over the regime’s tyrannical, treasonous, mass murdering, plundering and inflationary policies and acts; and to overshadow the groundswell of support for the opposition candidates from Catholic and other Christian voters, the patriotic and progressive organizations and other people offended by the crimes of the regime.
The broad united front of patriotic and progressive forces and all other opposition forces are therefore challenged to do do their best to arouse, organize and mobilize the broad masses of the people for the electoral struggle to defeat the anti-national and anti-democratic Duterte regime and make evident their victory with far larger electoral rallies and mass protest actions than the meetings of the paid and herded crowds of the regime.
Unless he steps back from his evil scheme to rig the elections and ensure charter change to bogus federalism, Duterte unwittingly prepares for his overthrow in the same manner that Marcos was overthrown by urban mass uprising after his fake electoral victory in 1986 or creates the combustible conditions for an unprecedented nationwide intensification of people’s war to counter the escalation of fascist attacks on the people.###