The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) again called on the Filipino people to put a decisive end to the rule of all corrupt officials by repudiating the “semicolonial and semifeudal system” in the country.
Following revelations of corruption by former representative Elizaldo Co, the CPP said the solution to the festering problem of government corruption is a “thorough-going national democratic revolution” and “a people’s democratic government.”
In a statement Saturday, CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena said Co is “a lower rung bureaucrat capitalist who could have only carried out his large-scale plunder of the people’s money since 2016, with the direct authorization from the top of Malacañang under both the Rodrigo Duterte and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administrations.
In at least two videos, the former Ako Bicol congressman said he delivered billions of pesos worth of kickbacks to Marcos Jr. and his cousin, former House of Representatives Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez.
Co added the monies were delivered in the president and Romualdez’s respective houses in Forbes Park in Makati cities in 2023.
He further revealed that Marcos Jr. had ordered the insertion of P100 billion worth of funds in the 2023 national budget but has now become a sacrificial lamb in order for the current administration to save its neck from various investigations.
Malacañang denied Co’s accusations, saying the president did not have to order the insertions when such amounts could have easily been included in the budget proposal way before the bicameral meeting its former ally said the inclusions were introduced.
The CPP however said Co’s revelations confirm what the Filipino people have believed all along, “that Marcos, himself, is the King of Bureaucrat Capitalists and Lord of Thieves.”
The revolutionary group said Co is an experienced “thief” who held the reins of the House appropriations committee in most of the years since 2016, both under Duterte and Marcos Jr.
“Like all the lower rung bureaucrat capitalists, Zaldy Co could only have carried out his large-scale plunder of the people’s money since 2016, with the direct authorization from the top of Malacañang–Duterte then, Marcos now,” Valbuena said.
Other revelations — such as those revealed during Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing by the likes of Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, Department of Public Works and Highways engineers and contractors – are sending shockwaves through the Marcos regime, he added.
“It has further roused the Filipino people already outraged by the massive corruption involving top officials of the Marcos government,” Valbuena said.
Attempts by government and Marcos supporters to minimize the impacts of Co’s bombshell are bound to fail to placate the people, the CPP said.
Huge anti-corruption rallies were held nationwide last September 21 and another is being organized on November 30.
Duterte supporters — led by groups such as the Iglesia ni Cristo, Jesus is Lord, Kingdom of Jesus Christ and others – meanwhile are holding a three-day rally to “expose the deeds of evil.”
Their political patrons, such as Vice President Sara Duterte and Rep. Paolo Duterte, are themselves accused of misspending public funds. Former president Rodrigo Duterte meanwhile is languishing in a Dutch jail awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
The CPP said the Filipino people are demanding that all the corrupt thieves in government be made to account and punished for all their crimes.
“Calls for the ouster of Marcos, Sara Duterte and the entire corrupt government are set to reverberate in protest actions across the country, as more and more sectors are convinced that the entire government must go, even as they reject talks of a US-sponsored civilian-military junta or other non-democratic rule,” Valbuena said.
He added that that the overthrow of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism shall the reign of thieves in the country be put to a close. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
