by Diego Morra
The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) is celebrating its 40th founding anniversary on Jan. 14, 2026 at the IBG Theater in UP Diliman, with hundreds of participants expected from its regional chapters, along with guests from foreign lands who have assiduously supported the struggle of the Filipino people for social justice and genuine economic development.
(Meanwhile, in response to an appeal for help issued by the family and friends of long-time activist and consultant for the peace process Lu S. Roque, all those heeding the call are advised to send assistance through the GCash account of her son Karlo R. Baylosis at 0977-071-4320.)
Bayan Chairperson Teddy A. Casino said the organization, established in 1985, was compelled to delay its celebration owing to the flood of serious issues confronting the nation, from graft and corruption that stripped the infrastructure budget, specifically for flood control projects (FCPs) of no less than 60% of the approved allocations, and called for nationwide mobilization to denounce the private appropriation of public funds and expose the criminal conspiracy of lawmakers and bureaucrats, from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Commission on Audit (COA) and Malacanang to spend taxpayer money like there is tomorrow and divvy up the cash for the benefit of political dynasties.
In promoting the people’s welfare, Bayan took the cudgels of millions of Filipinos who have suffered from the depredations of military and police forces that continue to implement the brutal policy of militarizing rural communities in Bicol, the Samar provinces and Negros island under Memorandum Circular No. 32 issued by the unlamented detained ex-president Rodrigo Duterte that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. hasn’t thrown to the waste can, as well as fought the Red-tagging and covert operations of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), another Duterte creation under Executive Order No. 70, which has been blessed by the current regime with a budget of P8.09-billion for 2026 for duplicating the functions of local government units (LGUs) and other government agencies as the Philippine Daily Inquirer recently slammed in an editorial.
As Bayan acts to safeguard the people’s interest, it paid heed to the mounting complaints about wholesale injustice, from the cavalier treatment of indigenous communities which saw their own schools being shuttered by paramilitary forces and harassing teachers and pupils in indigenous communities, as what happened in Talaingod, where those who came to rescue the beleaguered students and pupils were charged criminally for child abuse and convicted posthaste, never mind if the defense was denied the opportunity to contest the illogical and tweaked testimonies of state witnesses. Those who wielded guns and terrorized the victims were never haled to court while those who provided help to the victims were convicted surprising international observers and lawyers who monitored the case.
For pursuing its commitment in the past four decades to struggle for democracy and national liberation from the throes of poverty and exploitation for the benefit of elites that have been swimming in superprofits, with rent-seekers and special interests gobbling up farm land, weaking havoc on denuded mining tenements and quarrying deeper into remote parts of the country that suffer landslides, recurrent collapse of tailings ponds, pollution of waterways that used to thrive with marine life, Bayan and its leaders have been pilloried, harassed and subjected to fabricated criminal charges, abducted and even murdered.
Despite these constraints, Bayan forged on to push its campaign for government to respect human rights, cease the weaponization of laws to defund, decapitate organizations and destroy the exercise of basic freedoms and civil liberties as well as the right to organize to seek redress of grievances and the right to exercise press freedom for the many publications that have supported the cause of justice and peace. Bayan has also supported the campaign to secure justice for many journalists who have been murdered, the commentators who assailed local political warlords and corrupt bureaucrats, as well as rural communities resisting mining operations by companies that never sought, and got, their permission to extract natural resources.
Speaking of the delayed celebration, former Bayan Muna Rep. Casino said “Naantala ang selebrasyon bunga ng pagkaabala ng Bayan, sampu ng mga kaanib na organisasyon nito, sa walang humpay na kampanya’t pakikibaka sa nakaraang taon lalo na sa mga isyu ng korapsyon, paglala ng kalagayang pangkabuhayan, matinding mga paglabag sa human rights at international humanitarian law at sa isyu ng genocide sa Palestine.” The fact that Bayan has marked 40 years of struggle is not a matter of its longevity but proof that it confronts an entrenched and intractable foe, blind to the basic problems of the Filipino people and viscerally opposed to improving the lives of citizens. “A leopard never changes its spots,” the idiom goes, and remains true long after it was written in the Book of Jeremiah.
