The Communist Insurgency: The Marcos-Aquino Curse on the Nation

The Philippine elite and all Presidents after Marcos left it alone to grow.

There are several unique features of our unlucky country that distinguish us from the rest of booming Southeast Asian nations, among them:

A weak sense of nationalism reflected in the fact we are the biggest migrant nation in the region; an exploitative Spanish- and Chinese-descended elite that does not really see itself as Filipino; a feeble state that is easily manipulated by the oligarchy; and a nation in inane awe of foreign capital that it allows foreigners to dominate telecoms and other public utilities even if the Constitution prohibits such.

The Philippines has another unique feature that a single administration could have corrected if only it had the political will: We have the longest standing communist insurgency, not only in Southeast Asia but in the whole world. Last December, the Communist Party of the Philippines celebrated its 48th anniversary.

Other Southeast Asian nations were of course not immune to communist insurgencies, especially since China under Mao Zedong tried to foment Marxist revolution in the region in order to construct a wall of communist client states around it to keep out US hegemony.

Click on the image above to read Rigoberto Tiglao's full article for the Manila Times.