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This E-Seminar hosted by the Indonesia-Korea Friendship and Cultural Exchange Association and the Indonesia Sukarno Foundation for Education is based on the Appeal of the Asia-Pacific Regional Committee for Korea's Peaceful Reunification to form Memorial Committees for President Kim Il Sung on the national and regional level.
In the Philippines, on the national level, we are having such an on-going memorial and tribute to the legacy of President Kim Il Sung. For us, it is not enough to extol his revolutionary achievements and praise an everlasting friend of humankind. It is also imperative upon us that we denounce, fight and smash our common enemy to the end -U.S. imperialism. Only thus can we truly pay sincere homage to President Kim Il Sung as a great revolutionary leader.
I visited the DPRK in April 2012 to participate in the grand celebration of the 100th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung. I saw countless memorials to the great leader and the heroism of the Korean people. I was impressed by the economic successes, scientific breakthroughs and cultural advancements made by the working people. All these would not have been possible if General Kim Il Sung did not lead his people to fight and defeat U.S. imperialism and establish socialism in his homeland.
Visitors in my country point out that we, Filipinos, always smile even if we are hungry or a super typhoon ravage our homes and that it is "more fun" in the Philippines. I did not see that in the DPRK. I saw genuine smiles from the people. I saw real happiness in the people.
Why is it so? As I myself had seen, what really matters in Socialist Korea are the relations of people not money relations, the public good and not private profit. It is the complete opposite of what is happening today in the crises-laden world capitalist system - global land-grabbing, plunder of resources, environmental destruction, privatization of state assets, financialization of the economy, bursting of bubbles, joblessness, mass poverty, cultural decay, state repression, militarization, foreign intervention and wars of aggression.
The brilliant leader Kim Il Sung lived by the principle of serving the people as the true masters. He stood for independence in politics, self-sufficiency in the economy and self-reliance in national defense. Hence, not even the U.S. or its lackeys in the United Nations can bully the DPRK.
Today, the U.S. has shifted into Asia for its plunder and aggression, peddling a Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), a regional Asian integration and more military intervention with its rebalancing to Asia-Pacific.
The people can never be true masters and practice independence and self-reliance with U.S. hegemony and client states, such as the Aquino government in my country.
We shall oppose the TPPA, the APEC, the US-led Asian integration to further control and subjugate the Asian countries. We shall oppose and demand for an end to the US-led aggression and sanctions against the DPRK, the US-Japan and the US client state south Korea's tripartite military alliance, the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement and the latest Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement of the US-Aquino regime.
President Kim Il Sung worked tirelessly until his death to achieve the reunification of the Korean people and nation and for peace in the Korean peninsula. We shall strive harder to support the reunification of Korea by the Koreans themselves and all anti-imperialist movements worldwide with our solidarity.
We expect the struggle and legacy made by President Kim Il Sung to continue ever more vigorously not only in Korea and in the Philippines but throughout Asia and the world. More and more peoples and nations are applying his wisdom and counsel that all countries and nations must firmly maintain full independence, fight against domination and subjugation by the imperialists, establish an equal international order based on independence, oppose imperialist aggression and war, and safeguard world peace and security.
The cause of freedom, democracy, and socialism is what the heroic Kim Il Sung taught us. We must not forget. We remember this now, a score of years beyond his death. We shall remember this towards victory, and for all eternity.
Long live the ever-victorious revolutionary leader Kim Il Sung!
Long live the principled, resolute and brilliant leadership of President Kim Il Sung!
Long live the Korean working people and the struggle for Korea's reunification!
Down with imperialism and long live international solidarity!***
Rafael V. Mariano
President, Philippines-Korea Solidarity Committee for Peace and Reunification in the Korean Peninsula
