I represent three parties that merged only two years ago - Partido ng Manggagawang Pilipino (PMP) which is identified with Popoy Lagman, Sosyalistang Partido sa Paggawa (SPP) which was founded by Sonny Melencio, and Partido Proletaryo Demokratiko (PPD) which we founded after the CPP split. These three parties have a common root, the CPP. We were all raised on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought but after the split, we all reevaluated our theory and praxis, separately and sometimes jointly, and reached an affirmation of Marxism-Leninism. For various reasons Mao Zedong Thought was dropped as part of universal revolutionary theory, although all three parties continue to recognize and study the Chinese revolution and draw positive lessons from it. These parties underwent a process that lasted these past ten years.

In 1999 and 2000, contradictions in Philippine society intensified before EDSA 2. These conditions created an opportunity for the three parties to touch base, relate with and help each other. This led to an exchange and deepening of discourse that eventually was consummated in a merger in 2002. As such, the PMP merger, as a Marxist-Leninist party, stands squarely for the realization of socialism. Our concept of socialism is derived from the Marxist-Leninist guiding theory and therefore, as a party, our central duty is to organize, broaden and strengthen the revolutionary capacity of the working class to wage the struggle against capitalism in the Philippines and in the world and build socialism.

PMP is a Leninist party, and corollary to its central duty, it is mainly based on the working class. PMP believes that the Philippine working class is composed of all toiling masses, including the semi-proletariat and the different sections of the proletariat and semi-proletariat that have emerged in our country, including those from the service sector and rural proletariat, etc. Even with PMP’s central task, and even though it is based primarily on the working class, this is not the sole and entire scope of its work to strive to form organizations and alliances, based on its view that the road to socialism is through an uninterrupted (tuloy-tuloy) revolution that is based on the concrete conditions of Philippine society and will pass through two phases - democratic revolution and socialist construction.

As one speaker remarked, socialism cannot be established without a thorough democratization of the whole society. The PMP has minimum and maximum programs. The minimum program takes on the form of democratization or democratic people’s struggles. We are trying to strengthen working class organizations so that they can fulfill their role in the democratic revolution, by seeking to take the lead in democratic struggles of the working class and the rest of the toiling masses and the democratic forces belonging to the other classes. Because of this, united front work is very important; the united front is that is class-based and based on a democratic platform. At the same time, we believe there is no China wall between the democratic and socialist programs. Our democratic platform mirrors our socialist aspirations.

The agrarian question became the outstanding question in our merger, because central to the program of a socialist party is the abolition of private property. The debate on this question was lively and ongoing, and our unity was formulated this way: PMP will espouse and support in its minimum program, the democratization of the ownership of the means of production including land versus the landlord’s monopoly of land ownership and new landlords such as transnationals and other companies in the countryside. At its maximum program, the PMP will promote and advocate socialization of the means of production. Based on unity that will be and is being promoted by democratization, the PMP will strive to convince the peasants that private ownership of land is not necessary to institute a more efficient and productive system of production. The PMP will promote a collective system of production among the peasantry via consultations through which we hope that we will be able to reach a consensus with the peasantry.

Other outstanding issues include our discussion of strategies. We basically agree that the character of the forms of struggles is through mass forms of struggles. The different forms, including armed struggle, are viewed as subsidiary to the promotion of mass struggles unlike PPW where the principal form is armed struggle. We leave it to history to show which form is principal. That said, the concrete forms of organization and struggles would be based on the concrete forms that will arise in the process of workers’ and people’s struggles. We say this, with recognition of the forms of organizations and struggles that have already been used and validated in the past. We will strive to participate, together with workers, in the creation of new forms that will strengthen their struggles.

The armed form of struggle is one possible form of struggle, based on the nature of the state and society. It has been proven to have an important role in past revolutions and struggles, especially when facing the state apparatus. Our discourse in strategy is whether strategy is a priori and can be defined based on the concrete situation, in the way Mao Zedong Thought has put forward the protracted people’s war as strategy in a country like the Philippines. The discourse is ongoing and we have reached a level of recognition that strategy (tactics and line) can be defined based on existing conditions under globalization, when we can define the givens in a certain struggle, and the conditions created by globalization in our country and in the world.

These are arenas where the working class can gather its strength and democratic forces towards weakening, undermining and smashing the reactionary state. The PMP recognizes its responsibility to build up women’s’ struggles and the peculiarity of race. In PMP, one of the outstanding topics of discussion concerns women. Unfortunately, we have not been able to consummate the process, but someone already advocated the recognition of patriarchy as a distinct system in our society, and this question will be faced in the coming conference. The Unity Congress position is that the struggle against class and gender oppression is interlinked and cannot be separated. They go hand in hand even as we recognize that our efforts in women’s work should be redoubled because this is one section that has lagged far behind in the struggle against class oppression. We will update you in the development of the discourse.

We have a very healthy and enthusiastic attitude towards other parties and forces who are fellow travelers, currently pushing for socialism in various ways and we would like to serve notice that we are very open to everybody in developing struggles, and in the present crisis conjuncture and the possibility of an upsurge of the democratic revolution, ready to join hands in working for the agenda of the Left in advancing struggles for democracy and socialism. We do recognize the right to self-determination, including the right to secede, and the right to form factions (but not factionalism) inside the organization.

PMP and Sanlakas are not back-to-back. Not all Sanlakas members are socialists. It is a democratic coalition with a democratic platform. It will hold its congress and a broader democratic coalition will emerge. Its principal members are the BMP and the KPML. There are other organizations and alliances that are members of Sanlakas, including youth and homeowners’ associations. Sanlakas is also a partylist organization. Is it multitendency? It is undergoing a process, and will emerge as a multi-tendency party at its coming Congress.