ANTI-IMPERIALIST PLATFORM OF MANILA DEMONSTRATORS
Con January 25 a mass demonstration was held in Manila to : protest the role of U.S. imperialism in the Philippines and to call attention to domestic problems linked with American domination. In conjunction with the demonstration the National Co-ordinating Committee issued a manifesto, which we reproduce below. The text is taken from the February 5 issue of Laging Una, published in Los” Angeles, California,
[at the January 25 demonstration, a crowd of some 5,000 gathered before the American embassy where they burned an effigy of "imperialist Uncle Sam." The demonstrators also placed 32 blackdraped coffins before the embassy to represent the 32 Filipinos .
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slain by guards on U.S. military bases in the past twenty years. ]
Workers led by Lapiang Manggagawa, youth led by Kabataang Makabayan, students led by the National Students! League, peasants led by Malayang Samahang Magsasaka, the unemployed led by AKSIUN, individual businessmen belonging to the Philippine Chamber of Industries and the Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, and diverse individuals and groups of individuals united in the spirit of nationalism, will congregate in front of Congress in the afternoon of January 25th, on the occasion of the Opening of Congress, and thereafter march to the U.S.Embassy, to demonstrate their common will and -aspirations for national freedom, for greater civil liberties and for social upliftment. .
The January 25th demonstration will be fully. representative of the major national forces in Philippine society and will, therefore, assume the patriotic duty of expressing the long-repressed demands of the entire Filipino people.
The January 25th so pons tration will make the following concrete and specific demands: .
FIRST, the Parity Amendment should be immediately abrogated in order to stop once and for all the alienation of our national patrimony by our bankrupt and subservient national leaders in our conservative parties, and the Laurel-Langley Agreement should likewise be immediately abrogated in order to erase the anomalous parity rights of American citizens in all businesses and to stop preferential trade with one industrial power, the United States, which has kept our economy agrarian and colonial in character ‘and direction.
This first demand is made in order to liberate the Philippine economy from alien domination and to make possible the establishment of a stable basis for a Filipino-controlled industrial development. Such a stable economic basis shall serve to support the independent political development of a modern nation-state.. No state is politically free that is not economically free. The Philippines, by being traditionally a mere source of raw materials and a dumping ground for American surplus products and surplus capital, has been unable to grow under the oppressive weight of neo-colonialism,
SECOND, the US-RP Military Bases Agreement should be immediately abrogated in order to effectively assert once and for all the sovereignty of the Filipino people over their own territory and to put an end to the coercive influence of such foreign military bases against our own people and government. ,
; Even during this period of peace and friendship with the United States, American servicemen have killed in cold blood our Filipino brothers and abused their extra-territorial rights in so
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many ways. These military bases, which have long been rendered obsolescent by the development of modern missilery, are at present nothing more than the continued institutionalization of American violence and aggression against our sovereignty, The Filipino people should now protect themselves from those who pretend to be their protectors, .
THIRD, the Retail Trade Nationalization Act should be fully implemented in the form and substance it has been passed by Congress, signed by the President and declared as constitutionally valid by the Supreme Court.
In answer to the neo-colonialist pressures and demands for watering. down the term "retail" and making more loopholes in the law, the Philippine Congress should now take the next logical step in pushing - forward the cause of Filipino business by passing a law nationalizing the wholesale trade.
FOURTH, the Agricultural Land Reform Code should be fully implemented for the benefit of Filipino peasants and, in this ree gard, the Philippine Congress should pass a law prohibiting land monopolization, especially by foreign plantation corporations.
The Filipino peasantry, composed of small landowners, the landless tenants, the-displaced tenants, the settlers and agricul=tural workers, still remain unsatisfied. If their problems are not radically met by our national leaders, there is no stability for the peace and order that has been so far achieved - through police measures and palliatives.
FIFTH, the American advisory system imposed by the U.S. Government on the Philippine military and civil service within the framework of the JUSMAG and AID should be immediately eliminated by abrogating the US-RP Military Assistance Pact and the Quirino-Foster Agreement, in order to stop once and for all the infiltration of undue American influence in our administrative system and prevent the manipulation of our limited and precious resources to further American, as distinguished from Filipino, policy.
By allowing American advisers to dictate our military and civil leaders and institutions, we cannot truly say that we are independent administrators of our own government. American puppetry has been maintained through this advisory system in so many parts of the world,
SIXTH, proper respect for the civil liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights of our Constitution should be made by all branches of our government.
The government should encourage the widest possible political discussion to enlighten the masses on the true meaning of democracy.
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The government should see to it that none of its agencies, especially the CAFA and the police, is manipulated by foreign agencies like the American Embassy, JUSMAG, CIA, USIS, Asian Foundation, and the like to undermine the civil liberties of Filipino citizens.
SEVENTH, the right to work should be made a constitutional right of every Filipino citizen.
In this connection, all measures towards the creation of jobs for productive and industrial purposes. be taken by the government in order to stave off the fast rising unemployment and discontent of the Filipino youth,
EIGHTH, the amended Minimum Wage raising to P6.00 [$1.54]. the daily wage to alleviate the workers! financial difficulties caused by skyrocketing prices generated by the neo-colonial policy of decontrol and "free enterprise" should immediately be passed, By. virtue of the same reason, the salaries of government employees should also be raised in pursuance of the standards already set | by the WAPCO,. .
NINTH, the ‘bight credit squeeze against Filipino businessmen should be put to a stop and fresh sources of funds should be opened by seeking credit from all sources which are sympathetic to the cause of Filipino nationalist industrialization. :
The tight credit squeeze against our businessmen “ts the direct result of the neo-colonial policy of decontrol which has been designed and implemented without safeguards in order to starve our Filipino entrepreneurs and deliver them to the selfish terms of American financing institutions which are out. to maintain American supremacy over our economy.
TENTH, the Philippine government should widen its diplomatie and commercial relations with all countries in place of its narrow. and neo-colonial "special relationship" with the U.S. government .
This step should be taken in relation to the abrogation of the treaties which bind us subserviently to American power; and it should be taken with the view of forestalling American blackmail and retaliation in the process of the assertion of our own freedom as a nation.
All these demands are made in pursuance of the objective of Filipino nationalist forces to liberate the nation from the .oppres-= sive chains of American neo-colonialism,
National Coordinating Committee
January 25th Demonstration
FRENCH CP INTELLECTUALS