Since Friday, every day thousands of Philippine people took to the streets protesting the role US imperialism plays in their exploitation and oppression. Denouncing US imperialism’s influence and plans for their country, numerous marches and actions we carried out, often confronting the police, on occasion of Trump's visit to the Philippines coinciding with ASEAN Summit that ended today.
For the Philippine people, living in a semi-colonial, semi-feudal countries where bureaucratic capitalism is unfolding, the question of US imperialism's role as principal enemy of the people and global policemen of counterrevolution is not an abstract thing to consider: The US frequently deploys its troops in the Philippines, uses its harbors as refueling stations during their military exercises in the South China Sea and supports the current government that is serving its interests and commits brutal atrocities against the people.
In the call to action issued by Communist Party of the Philippines on the 4th of November it is explained:
"US imperialist chief Trump’s visit to the Philippines in line with the ASEAN Summit will further cement the master-puppet relationship with the Duterte regime. He will surely be pleased by the Duterte regime’s vigorous push for further economic liberalization, particularly with its rush to further open the economy to full foreign control by trimming down the “negative list” of areas of the economy reserved to Filipinos. Under the guise of “federalism,” Duterte is also rushing charter change in order to remove restrictions against foreign ownership of local enterprises, something which the US imperialists have long sought."
Hence, even before the arrival of US President Trump to Manila, popular protests erupted in the countries capital becoming more organized in the days to follow. In the demonstrations, many US flags and images of Trump were burnt to the people shouting “Down with US-imperialism”. More than once, demonstrations confronted the police in order to flatten their way towards the US embassy, forcing the Philippine riot police to be aided by the fire departments water canons and even deploying new weaponry tailored to dispersing protesters.
