February 3, 2009

Students led by the League of Filipino Students (LFS) held a lightning rally at the United States Embassy in Manila today to call for an “end to US imperialist intervention in the Philippines.”

“As the effects of the global financial crisis shift into high gear, it shall be the Philippines and other neo-colonies that shall be dealt with the heaviest blow. Years of foreign control and intervention has bound our economy, making it dependent on foreign investments,” said Terry Ridon, spokesperson of the LFS.

“As foreign investments continue to crash, they take along with them the livelihood of Filipino workers here and abroad. The recent closure of Intel in Cavite alone has left 1,800 workers without a job and a means to bring food on the table and despite the assurances of the Arroyo government, we know that the worse of the crisis is yet to come,” added Ridon.

Ridon added that the lack of basic industries coupled with backward agriculture has made the country’s economy underdeveloped and unable to achieve genuine development.

“The government’s ‘economic zones’ are merely for the semi-processing and manufacturing of foreing companies. Our lack of even the most basic industries like steel and chemical has made our country unable to absorb our own labor force and use its own resources. Thus, our government resort to the cheap export of workers and raw materials,” said Ridon.

“These are the economic blocks that impede our development. But instead of addressing these issues, the government would rather boast of knee-jerk and band-aid solutions such as the P330 Billion ‘economic stimulus fund’ which sounds good, costs much, but will not do much good for our economy in the long run,” added Ridon.

Meanwhile, Ron Villegas, Vice Chairperson of the LFS pointed out that the crisis is being aggravated by government policies which were pushed by “US controlled entities” such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

“The Value-Added Tax, the Oil Deregulation law, continued trade liberalization and other anti-people policies being implemented by the government were all ’solutions to the crisis’ presented by the US. Years of their implementation has made our condition go from bad to worse,” said Villegas.

The protesters, who carried placards blaming the US as the “root of the crisis” warned that they shall not tire of holding protest actions in the US embassy until they see an end to foreign intervention in the Philippines.

“We know that the US shall never grant genuine independence to the Philippines and Arroyo’s government shall always remain subservient to the demands of her foreign master. The task of asserting independence therefore falls on the people and we shall never waver in our militance and struggle for genuine independence,” said Ridon. ###

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