The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) offers its sympathies and extends solidarity to the millions of people in the National Capital Region, as well as in Batangas, Mindoro, Bulacan, Pampanga and other provinces in large parts of Luzon whose homes and communities have been inundated as a result of several days of heavy rains and overflowing rivers following Typhoon Carina and the southwest monsoon.
The Party calls on all its members and revolutionary forces to exert their utmost to collect food, water and other essentials to help people tide over the calamity. They must mobilize their ranks and volunteers to bring these directly to victims of widespread floods, as well as landslides. There are a number of Party branches and members who live in these communities and are ready to coordinate relief and rehabilitation work. The Marcos government has yet again demonstrated its inability to quickly and effectively respond to a major disaster.
The Filipino people must hold Marcos and the Philippine government accountable for the continuing failure of its so-called flood-control projects. These have long been sources of corruption of big bureaucrats in collusion with big business cronies. Hundreds of billions of pesos have been wasted. The Marcos regime must also be held responsible for the ill-planned land reclamation and other infrastructure projects, which have worsened flooding in major cities. Worse, it has allowed mining and logging to continue destroying the environment, specifically in the critical areas of the Sierra Madre Mountains, leading to denudation of forests and siltation of rivers.
This latest calamity further exacerbates the grave living conditions of the people marked by high prices of food, utilities and services. The people must demand compensation from the Marcos government for the damages caused by its ineptness and anti-people policies, as well as press with their struggles for lower prices, higher wages and salaries and other urgent social and economic demands.