AS I said before, the Left’s support of President Rodrigo Duterte lacked Marxist enlightenment. The report that the Makabayan bloc has bolted from the administration’s “super-majority” in the House of Representatives seems to boost that point. The reasons the bloc presented for severing its ties with the Duterte camp are the same reasons it should not have downplayed when it helped Duterte win the 2016 presidential elections.
The Makabayan bloc groups together representatives of militant party-list groups Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT-Teachers), Anakpawis and Kabataan. They are seven in all: two from Gabriela, two from ACT and one one each from Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Kabataan. Ranged against the House membership of around 300, that is a rather puny number. But there are instances when its support and voice matter.
In a way, the militant lawmakers also helped the “hated” Pantaleon Alvarez win the post of speaker because they supported him when he sought it.
“As representatives of the poor and marginalized sectors in Congress and as nationalist and progressive legislators, it would be a violation of our duties and principles to remain with a majority that enables and defends the fascist, pro-imperialist and anti-people policies of the Duterte regime,” the Makabayan bloc’s statement read. Contrast that with it’s reason for joining the House super-majority: President Duterte’s “promise of change.” Note the word “promise.” Na-Duterte.
The Makabayan bloc’s move, though, should be taken in the context of recent developments that showed the Duterte administration’s continued drift to the right, providing the Left with reason to break the “tactical alliance” it forged with Duterte. First, the president scuttled the peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF). Then the Commission on Appointments rejected the appointments of Judy Taguiwalo as social welfare secretary and Rafael Mariano as agrarian reform secretary.
I say the Makabayan bloc’s decision to bolt the House super-majority is symbolic of the full severance of its ties with the Duterte administration (no more one foot in the government and the other foot outside of it). Interestingly, when the decision was made, Malacañang also announced the appointment of former Gabriela party-list Rep. Luz Ilagan as undersecretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. But the positions activists now hold in government are minor ones.
With the burden of ensuring that its moves won’t affect its alliance with Duterte already thrown away, the Left is now in a better position to lead the opposition to government’s objectionable policies, notably its war against illegal drugs that has spawned extra-judicial killings. This is timely considering that the Duterte administration is on the defensive following the killings of minors Kian delos Santos, Carl Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman and presidential son Paolo Duterte and the Davao group being linked to the smuggling of illegal drugs.
The new setup will be tested on September 21, the anniversary of the declaration by former dictator Ferdinand Marcos of military rule in 1972, when a major protest action will be held.