This week, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivered his 5th State of the Nation Address to the Filipino people.
He peddled false promises and “accomplishments” in stark contrast to his reign of fascist state terror and repression of the Filipino people, who are clamoring for change against foreign subservience, plunder, poverty, and corruption.
Marcos Jr. claims “economic growth” while Filipinos are faced with rising prices, stagnant wages, contractual labor, environmental ruin, and forced migration overseas.
Overseas Filipinos feel these consequences directly. Millions left because decent jobs do not exist at home. Their remittances prop up the economy, yet they face exploitation, discrimination, family separation, and dangerous conditions abroad, sometimes in active conflict zones. The government’s reliance on labor export reveals its failure to build an economy that can employ its own people with dignity.
The same agenda driving these crises extends into economic policy. Initiatives like Pax Silica and the Luzon Economic Corridor tighten foreign control over Philippine resources, and drives the Filipino people into the US-led war against China. Minerals, infrastructure, energy, and labor are being restructured to feed global supply chains owned by foreign monopolies, especially for semiconductors and AI technologies tied to military use.
Communities bear the cost through mining, land conversion, displacement, and ecological damage. US influence remains the dominant foreign force over Philippine politics, military, and economy.
Widespread human rights violations and war crimes continue across the Philippine countryside, including indiscriminate bombings and attacks on communities in Negros, Panay, Bicol, Mindoro, and other regions. Counterinsurgency operations have resulted in widespread abuse, and those who organize against injustice face violent reprisal.
The US-backed and funded Philippine military commits war crimes in the countryside like the Negros 19 massacre, which claimed the lives of civilians including journalists, peasant advocates, students, and 2 Filipino Americans, Kai Sorem and Lyle Prijoles.
As Marcos enters his last 2 years in office, the organizers of the Kapit Bisig conference amplify the Filipino people’s demands to hold the Marcos Jr regime accountable for fascist state terror and crimes against the Filipino people, an end to foreign intervention and support for the Marcos regime.
Join the movement to support the Filipino people in their fight for just and lasting peace! On Sept. 25-26, join us in Toronto for the Kapit Bisig: Linking Arms Across the World Against the US War of Suppression on the Filipino People.
