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Bongbong Marcos is right – this country needs unity. Indeed, unity will decide the 2022 elections. 

But, Marcos, Jr.’s unity is plunderous. To vouch for unity cannot be that of killers, cowards, and crooks; it must be the unity of their victims hungry for justice. When some of the country’s biggest fascist families join forces for six more years of exploitation, the only proper response is a genuinely united opposition. 

Forecasts for the May elections do not paint a promising picture. The Marcos-Arroyo-Duterte-Estrada (MADE) alliance is strong, and the vast machinery at its disposal will only make them harder to beat.

In a recent survey by Laylo Research, three out of five Filipinos support Marcos — almost twice the electoral percentage the elder Duterte won by in 2016. Meanwhile, in local races, candidates covet the Marcos-Duterte blessing and are afraid of the consequences of endorsing anyone else. 

However, Marcos Jr.’s latest tirades against Robredo may suggest a threat to such colossal machinery. Even though Marcos Jr. runs on the message of unity, Robredo’s rallies and the sprouting of “for Leni” groups tell us that she is able to unite people banking on the message of hope and clean government—an anathema to Duterte’s six years of draconian rule.

In spite of positive changes in the Robredo camp, perhaps most importantly, despite Marcos’s lack of developed platforms and his cowardly refusal to debate, his supporters on the ground continue to be as zealous as ever. It is undeniable — another six years of Marcos and Duterte encroachment is a big possibility.

Accepting this difficulty, however, is not grounds for losing hope; it is a resounding call to forge better and stronger unities. 

The Marcos-Duterte tandem is a serious threat, so instead of denying the truth and remaining preoccupied with petty squabbles within the opposition, we must stop wasting time. It is high time to put up a broad united front committed to stopping the real problem at hand: a Marcos-Duterte return to Malacanang. 

History has shown that even the strongest enemies cower in fear when the masses march in solidarity and challenge their reign as Marcos did in February 1986. 

We did not find freedom from Spain by pointing fingers and relying on a single group. We found freedom because of centuries of revolts across the islands. As Reynaldo Ileto talks about in his book Pasyon and Revolution, our country was built on a shared dream of “salvation” from oppression. 

Peasants raged against their feudal lords. Religious leaders brought their flocks to the mountains and preached against injustice. The Katipuneros waged relentless guerilla warfare on Spanish forces.  The illustrados were just the tip of the iceberg. The revolution would not have happened without solidarity and collective struggle of the people against Spain. 

The Japanese fell for the same reason. We are not damsels in distress waiting for US forces to save us. Their records show that Filipino guerillas controlled more than sixty percent of the archipelago. Huk fighters armed farmers in Luzon. Filipino commanders led battalions in Visayas. 

Around 38,000 guerillas refused to surrender in Mindanao. These were not trained men; they were warriors of all colors and classes that refused to bow down to Japanese exploitation. We stood firm against the Japanese because of these bonds formed in the crucible of struggle for freedom and democracy.

Most importantly, we know that unity works against the Marcoses. Bongbong’s father did not fall because of some magic yellow miracle. His dictatorship was toppled because everyone -– from the peasants in Pampanga to the marketing executives in Makati — rejected and opposed the corruption and human rights abuses. 

By then, the dictator had built billion-dollar bank accounts and threw critics in jail at the slightest hint of opposition. He seemed untouchable then too, until the people forced him out of Malacañang to go hide out in Hawaii with five to ten million dollars from our pockets stolen.

He faced an unlikely alliance too -– liberals enjoying US support, communists waging a war from the countryside, military men breaking away from Marcos, and even the Catholic Church in the Philippines publicly condemning the sitting president.  

Most importantly, millions of Filipinos were sick and tired of a worsening economy, rising national debt, and dead democracy. 

Now, under Duterte, our economy has yet again taken a nosedive, our national debt has risen to new heights, and democracy is nearing death. As the old adage goes: history repeats itself. We have defeated a Marcos-led axis of evil before and we must do it again for ourselves, for the future.. 

Uniting does not mean forgetting our differences and setting aside our principles. It just means realizing that there is a bigger task at hand: preventing the Marcos-Arroyo-Duterte alliance from seizing power. This is not just a difference in policies. It is a matter of life and death for the Filipinos that would die directly or indirectly from their hunger for power and disregard for human life. 

Our unity is the only thing that will stop their march back into Malacañang. 

While they talk about their own plunderous unity, at the end of the day, the Marcoses, Arroyos, Dutertes, and Estradas will discard their allies as soon as they are no longer useful. There will be no talk of unity when they no longer find its utility. They will dismantle barren ties and leech on to their next sources of their power. 

There is no honor among thieves – much less among these fascist mass murderers and genocidal maniacs. 

The challenge for Robredo and all progressive individuals and organizations is to translate Robredo’s image of hope into warm bodies. They should arouse, organize, and mobilize the masses by exposing and opposing the Marcos-Duterte clique and forwarding the banner of national democratic struggle.

With less than 60 days left, the fight to defeat Marcos-Duterte is just the beginning. It does not end on May 9. But it continues as long as the social basis for fascists like Marcos and Duterte continue to produce the likes of them. Democracy does not end in elections for the spirit of democracy lives when the masses unite.

Our advantage is that there is no true unity in their unstable alliance post-elections. But there must be solidarity amongst the struggling. We must unite and cast down the mighty from their thrones, delivering them into the jail cells they deserve to rot in for the rest of their lives via the justice of the people’s wrath unleashed in the streets, in the countryside, in Malacañang.

In this struggle, it is certain: United we shall stand. “United” Uniteam shall fall.

#NoToMarcosDuterte

#Makabayan4LeniKiko

Featured image by Koalisyong Makabayan