The PEOPLE’s AGENDA for CHANGE People’s Summit University of the Philippines June 29, 2016 People’s Agenda for Nationalist and Progressive Change Cover artwork for People’s Summmit by: Voltaire Guray 3 People’s Agenda for Nationalist and Progressive Change Table of Contents: I. Introduction to the People’s Agenda for Change II. 15 Point Program for a Nationalist and Progressive Change III. People’s Agenda for Nationalist and Progressive Change a. People’s Economic Agenda b. People’s Agenda for a Progressive and Pro-People Social Policy c. People’s Agenda on National Sovereignty and Foreign Policy d. People’s Agenda on Peace and Human Rights e. People’s Agenda for Governance and Fighting Corruption IV. Annexes A. Sectoral Agenda Adyenda ng mga Magsasaka sa Administrasyong Duterte Moro People’s Demand for the New Administration’s First 100 Days Kagyat na Panawagan ng mga Katutubong Mamamyan Para sa Unang Isandaang Araw ng Goby- ernong Rodrigo Duterte Workers’ Demand to the Duterte Administration Ang Kahingian ng Maralitang Lungsod sa Administrasyong Duterte Adyenda ng Kawani sa Pamahalaan Mandato ng Sambayanan: 8 Agenda sa Edukasyon The People’s Environmental Agenda to the Duterte Administration The People’s Health Agenda: A Demand for a Free, Comprehensive and Progressive Healthcare Founded on Equity, Social Justice and People’s Right POWER’s Energy Agenda A People’s Program for Change and Development in the Philippine Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Sector Science and Technology for the People The Children’s Agenda 2016 FQSM Agenda The Change Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) Want in a Duterte Presidency Culture and the Arts Agenda B. Regional Agenda Agenda ng Mamamayan sa Gitnang Luzon Project Metro Manila: The First 100 Days Southern Tagalog Agenda Bagong Alyansang Makabayan – Bicol CARAGA Agenda C. Contributing Papers Towards an Independent Philippine Foreign Policy: Is Change Coming? by Roland G. Simbulan 4 People’s Agenda for Nationalist and Progressive Change Introduction to the People’s Agenda We, the participants of the National People’s Summit 2016, after conducting nationwide consultations among different sectors of Philippine society and buoyed by the hope that the Duterte administration will be serious in its promise of achieving real change for the benefit of our people, hereby affirm this People’s Agenda for Change. Through the efforts of participating organizations and individuals, we collectively defined the key issues and formulated the related demands and proposals that require urgent atten- tion and concrete response from the new government. The corresponding proposals and programs are contained in the 15-Point Program for Nationalist and Progressive Change and in the more detailed Agenda for the First 100 Days. The latter is divided into five areas: Economy, Social Policy, Governance, Peace and Human Rights, and National Sovereignty and Foreign Policy. The participants of the National People’s Summit (and all the preceding sectoral and re- gional pre-summits) present these pressing issues to the Duterte administration with high expectations that it will engage the people in consultations and discussions, through various means, towards achieving these much-needed reforms. The People’s Agenda calls for upholding and asserting national sovereignty that the Fili- pino people may determine their own path towards national development. The People’s Agenda envisions the Philippines to be a vibrant, self-reliant and industrialized country, no longer abjectly dependent on external economic factors to survive. It reflects the aspiration for the peasant majority to be finally free from centuries-old feudal bondage. It embodies the desire for a just and lasting peace to be achieved in our lifetime, by addressing the root causes of armed conflict. The National People’s Summit is not just a one-day affair. The People’s Agenda will form part of widespread discussions and mass mobilizations after the Summit. The People’s Agenda will be submitted to the executive and legislative branches of government as well as the Philippine government and National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace panels. We shall continue fighting for these basic reforms as our unbreakable commitment to achieving a better life and future for our people. 5 People’s Agenda for Nationalist and Progressive Change 1. Uphold national sovereignty and territorial integrity Treaties, agreements and arrangements that are unconstitutional and carry unequal terms at the expense of the Filipinopeople must be reviewed, renegotiated or outrightly abrogated. Domestic laws that embody such unequal terms must be amended or repealed. Military agreements such as the Mutual Defense Pact, Mutual Logistic and Services Agreement, Visiting Forces Agreement and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agree- ment must be abrogated in consonance with our national sovereignty and territorial integri- ty and the constitutional prohibition of foreign military bases, troops and weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, biological, chemical, etc.). The Philippines must stand for its exclusive economic zone and extended continental shelf under the UNCLOS whether the ITLOS or its assigned mechanism make a totally clear cut decision in favor of the Philippines or carries any fuzzy provision. In any case, the Philippines binds itself to use peaceful means of holding on to what rightfully belongs to it, including prohibition of any economic and political activity by any hostile power or agents thereof inside Philippine territory. 6 People’s Agenda for Nationalist and Progressive Change 2. Respect human rights and give full play to democracy In all circumstances, human rights must be respected in all aspects—political, civil, economic, social and cultural. Even under conditions of war, respect for such rights are required by International Humanitarian Law. The Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHIHL) are in force and effect. Democracy must be put into full play by en- couraging and enabling the full participation of the workers and peasants in the political life of the country. In the process, they must empower themselves and realize their rights, both sub- stantively and procedurally. The electoral system must not be a system of deceiving them and per- petuating their oppression and exploitation. The current automated electoral system allows pre- programming of results and must be rejected. 3. Reassert the economic sovereignty and conserve the national patrimony. We must reassert our economic sovereignty and conserve our national patrimony. We must repudiate and oppose the neocolonial and neoliberal policies that have been imposed on us to perpetuate economic underdevelopment, aggravate the unequal ex- change of foreign manufactures on one hand and raw materials and semi-man- ufactures on the other hand, bound us to import-dependent consumption and sink us in perennial trade deficits and foreign indebtedness. We must reassert our economic sovereignty and conserve our national patrimony. We must repudiate and oppose the neocolonial and neoliberal policies that have been im- posed on us to perpetuate economic under- 7 People’s Agenda for Nationalist and Progressive Change development, aggravate the unequal exchange of foreign manufactures on one hand and raw materials and semi-manufactures on the other hand, bound us to import-dependent consumption and sink us in perennial trade deficits and foreign indebtedness. The Philippines has the natural resources, including nearly all mineral resources, in order to industrialize itself. But mineral resources are being taken out of the country by the shiploads in raw form, unprocessed and unaccounted. Our forest and marine resources have also been plundered by foreign interests. We can protect the national patrimony as well as the environment if by ourselves we use our resources wisely at the proper rate and benefit the people far more greatly by processing the mineral, forest and marine resources. 4. Carry out national industrialization as the lead factor of economic development and as the key to solving unemployment, poverty and underdevelopment. We must engage vigorously in national industrialization. This is the only way we can generate employment in a big way, overcome the conditions of widespread po- verty and underdevelopment and prevent a large part of our labor force from lea- ving the country and separating from their families. The government and private sector can cooperate in establishing major industries and encouraging tens of thou- sands of small and medium enterprises around every major industry as suppliers to the main industry, product distributors and service providers to the communities. We need to establish and develop major industries in metallurgy (basic and alloyed mineral pro- ducts), energy exploration, development and generation, machine tools, precision instruments, elec- tronics, means of transport, home appliances, construction equipment and materials, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and so on. We have plenty of scientists and technologists. And we can avail of expertise and tech- nology from various countries, instead of those few that have kept us underdevel- oped. We must improve on the few types of enterprises at which we are already good, like food and beverage manufac- turing, mining, quarrying, fishing, forest- ry, animal husbandry and construction. The public and private sector can raise capital for industrialization from savings re- sulting