The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) conveys its firmest solidarity with the Indonesian people rising in waves of mass resistance against the fascist Prabowo-Gibran regime. We salute the courage of peasants, workers, youth, women, and all democratic sectors who have taken to the streets in Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, and across Indonesia. Their resistance against tyranny and corruption is a beacon of struggle for peoples everywhere.
Prabowo-Gibran, who succeeded the vicious Jokowi regime, has focused only on tightening its grip on power: forming an oversized and wasteful cabinet, securing dominance in parliament, and expanding the military and police. By granting higher salaries and privileges to the armed forces, judges, the DPR-RI (Indonesian Parliament) legislators, the regime feeds the ruling elite and big bourgeoisie who profit while the Indonesian people sink deeper into crisis. These shameless displays of privilege and corruption, set against worsening poverty and repression, have driven the Indonesian people to rise in protest, filling the streets in defiance of a regime that rules for the few at the expense of the many.
The death of Affan Kurniawan, a platform worker ruthlessly run over by a Mobile Brigade Corps (Brimob) vehicle, has become a symbol of the cruelty of the Indonesian state. His martyrdom, together with the attacks, mass arrests, and brutal repression inflicted on thousands, unmasks the fascist character of a regime that clings to power through violence while serving imperialist interests. Today, Jakarta and other major cities resemble a warzone, where police and military forces wage open terror against their own people. 10 people have already been killed, 1241 arrested, while around 800 have been seriously injured since August 25. Yet, despite bloodshed, the Indonesian masses continue to rise, proving that the people’s yearning for justice, democracy, and genuine change cannot be extinguished.
For Filipino peasants, we recognize this struggle as our own. Fascism is not confined by borders. Here in the Philippines, we face the same system of imperialist domination, feudal exploitation, and bureaucrat capitalist corruption. These three evils converge to rob us of our right to land, plunder our resources, and stifle the aspiration of the Filipino people for our democratic demands.
The recent flood control projects scandal exposes how deeply-entrenched corruption is within the Philippine ruling class. Billions of pesos, supposedly allocated for disaster preparedness and protection, were siphoned off through ghost projects, overpriced contracts, and collusion between contractors and politicians. Instead of safeguarding lives and communities from floods and calamities, these projects became milking cows for bureaucrat capitalists fattening themselves on public funds. Meanwhile, peasants in the countryside continue to drown: both literally in floods that devastate farms and figuratively in the flood of poverty, debt, and hunger.
The case of the Bicol region is an alarming example. Despite hundreds of flood control projects costing billions of pesos listed in Albay, Camarines Sur, and Sorsogon, the region remains among the hardest hit by widespread flooding from 2024 up to 2025. Many projects are incomplete, sub-standard, or repeatedly implemented in the same sites, such as the San Agustin Flood Control Dike in Libon, Albay, which allegedly had multiple “completed” projects amounting to hundreds of millions.
This is the same pattern we see in Indonesia: massive debts, parasitic economic policies, militarized governance, and corrupt elites enriching themselves while peasants, workers, and the poor suffer untold misery. Both the Prabowo-Gibran regime and our own local bureaucrat capitalists personified in the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. regime operate as compradors: loyal lapdogs of imperialist powers who bleed our nations dry to sustain foreign monopolies, while suppressing the people with fascist offensive whenever people dare to resist. Marcos Jr. who recently pivoted to divesting himself from responsibility of overseeing these flood control projects, remains to be the one to blame in the current landscape of widespread corruption. This is thoroughly evident in the rising infrastructure spending under the so-called “Build Better More” (BBM) program, with the government allocating P1.418 trillion in 2024–roughly 5.3 % of GDP–and P1.510 trillion (5.7 % of GDP) in 2024 outlays, set to be followed by P1.556 trillion earmarked for 2026.
We stand shoulder to shoulder with the Indonesian people in demanding an immediate end to fascist repression in Indonesia and the Philippines; justice for all victims of state killings, torture, abductions, and political persecution. Bureaucrat capitalists must be held accountable: from those behind Indonesia’s bloated cabinet and militarized rule, to those behind the Philippines’ flood control plunder and splurge of confidential funds. They must face prosecution and be made to return what they have stolen from the people. Genuine land reform and national industrialization remain to be the only real solutions to the crisis of poverty, unemployment, and landlessness in both our countries, towards peoples’ sovereignty and democracy over imperialist interest.
Prabowo-Gibran being pressured to have concessions on cutting benefits for lawmakers show that the Indonesian people’s fight is just.. Here, the Filipino peasants will continue to fight in solidarity with the Indonesian people and all oppressed peoples of the world. The lessons of history are clear: fascism and corruption are weapons of the ruling classes to maintain their power. But these also expose the cracks in the system and are signs of weakness. Every act of repression fuels the anger of the people, and when the masses rise in unity and struggle, no amount of force can hold them back.
