NDF-EV calls for scrapping of Leyte Landing commemoration for fostering the historical lie of "liberation" by the US*
Fr. Santiago "Sanny" Salas
NDF - Eastern Visayas
October 20, 2010
The National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas today said the Oct. 20 yearly commemoration of the landing of US troops in Leyte in 1944 should be ended. “No nation can be genuinely sovereign when it accepts the myth of liberation by another nation,” said NDF-EV spokesperson Fr. Santiago Salas. “The Leyte Landing commemoration celebrates the invasion and reoccupation of the Philippines by US imperialist troops from Japanese imperialist troops. This is not liberation at all but the imposition of a foreign power on the sovereign will of the people. Since 1944, the US has cultivated such colonial mentality supporting its continuing interests and interference in the Philippines.”
Fr. Salas added Eastern Visayas remains one of the poorest regions in the country because of unequal relations between the Philippines and the US. “While posturing as liberator and friend, the US in reality dominates the Philippines in the economy, politics, culture and military. The Philippine economy is tied to imperialist globalization, through whose policies the US and other rich countries extract superprofits from neocolonies that are kept underdeveloped, backward-agricultural and pre-industrial. The Philippine government is a servant to US patronage and foreign policy. Culture in the Philippines is also heavily influenced by the US that keeps it colonial, feudal and anti-people. The Philippine military meanwhile relies not only on weapons from the US, but also on indoctrination such as the US Counterinsurgency Guide, and is thus used to suppress the people’s patriotic and democratic aspirations.”
The NDF-EV spokesperson called on the people to reject the historical lie of “liberation” by the US in the Leyte Landing commemoration and continue the fight for national liberation. "For government officials to turn the Leyte Landing commemoration into a yearly gala event is like telling the people to rejoice for being beggars. In the same manner does official rejoicing at the $200 million "development fund: from the Millenium Challenge Corporation attempt to disguise its real, US-backed “counterinsurgency” purpose. Thus, selling out the country’s sovereignty is presented by US imperialism and its lackeys as praiseworthy, while those who aspire for national liberation are maligned as insurgents and unheroic. But it is in supporting and joining the national liberation struggle that the poor and downtrodden reclaim their dignity, respect and hope so long robbed from them by US imperialism and its puppet government. No historical lie like the Leyte Landing, or the violence and deception foisted by the US Counterinsurgency Guide through the Millenium Challenge Corporation, can sway an awakened people from their patriotic path."
*http://theprwcblogs.blogspot.com/2010/10/ndf-ev-calls-for-scrapping-of-leyte.html
