Reds just getting dose of own medicine

Communist Front Organization (e.g., Bayan, Gabriela, Anakpawis are protesting against the antiterrorism law as well as the killing of their militant members. They claim that the human rights of their slain members have been violated. They portray the "victims" as innocent and helpless.

The fact is, they are not that innocent or helpless. They have a 7,000-strong private army, the New people's Army, which operates outside the law. When militants infiltrate a barangay to preach rebellion, recruit members and supporters, and agitate the residents, the barangay officials opposing their activities are immediately liquidated by the NPA.

The NPA has been declared by almost the entire world as a terrorist organization. Surely, the militants, although identified with "above-ground" organizations, are secret NPA members. They share the same objectives, that is, to take over the country. When militants join front organizations, they are fully aware that they become part of a terrorist organization that sanctions the killing of people and the violation of civil rights. Why would the government bother about the militants' human rights?

When arrested or doing something illegal, militants say that it is for the courts to decide on their innocent or guilt. But we all know that our prosecutors and judges are totally terrified to prosecute militants.

"Human rights violation" became a common phrase in the United States mainly due to the abuses committed by the police against blacks. However, invoking human rights for members of a terrorist organization which has 7,000 armed defenders is an entirely different matter.

While the communist militants denounce the violation of their rights, they want to want to put up a dictatorship that will not respect human rights. If you denounce human rights abuses in communist countries, you are likely to land in jail, or worse, get a bullet in the back of your head. So it is pure hypocrisy that militants denounce human rights violations.

The militants are really ant-Filipino. They make no bones about engaging in activities that will keep the people poor. They drive away investors from the country side with their extortion activities. They agitate against industries like mining which can employ hundred of thousands of our people.

After Edsa I, They engaged in wildcat strikes which forced many factories to close shop, thus causing the layoff of hundreds of thousand workers and frightening foreign investors.
The communist want our people to be mired in poverty since it is the only way they can take over our country. No rich country has ever turned communist.

The overwhelming majority of our people do not want our country to fall into the hands of communist who, once in power, will probably slaughter millions of Filipinos, as what happened when communists giving the militants a dose of their own medicine.

By: Danilo Alvero, Pasig City

The Irrelevant Pinoy Communists

Let me say, first of all, that I find it unseemly for the AFP chief to be talking about restarting the peace process with the communists. He is, after all, not the civilian authority nor is he the actual head of the armed forces. Their commander-in-chief is still the president, not the chief of staff.

The chief staff takes orders from the commander-in-chief. Yet, in this case, the reaction of Malacañang to General Hermogenes Esperon is that they are leaving it up to him to declare all-out war against the inhuman killers who beheaded the Marines that they had killed in a firefight. He is obviously also left to make whatever pronouncements he wants to make about anything else such as suing for peace with the communists. There seems to be a reversal roles here with the military taking the upper hand, probably because of an intended vacuum caused by the civilian authority's unwillingness to lead the military.

On the other hand, the reaction of the Communists to General Esperon's peace overture also shows up the irrelevance that the Communists struggle has become. Why are they bombing communications tower and burning bulldozers and making pests of themselves in what would otherwise be a peaceful country?

Jose Maria Sison hides behind a designation of "consultant" even when heis the actual head of the Communists rebellion. He lays down pre-conditions to talking peace. These are for the government to do three things:

"1. It must stop the extrajudicial killings, abductions, tortures, mass displacement of more than one million people and other human rights violations perpetrated by the reactionary armed forces.

"2. It must declare that it is against the "terrorist" blacklisting of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People's Army (NPA) and the NDF chief political consultant.

"3. It must indemnify the victims of human rights violations during the Marcos fascist regime."

That's it? Actually, we would like to do all that ourselves but what makes it difficult to do so is that the NPA is in a shooting war against us and is into terrorizing those who do not pay them "revolutionary taxes." If only the communists would go away, perhaps, we could have a much more peaceful and progressive country.

Jose Luis Jalandoni, the spoke person for the NDFP Negotiating Panel that would sit down with the government in the event of peace talks had this to say:

"General Hermogenes Esperon speaks with a forked tongue. He pretends to be for the resumption of peace talks but says his recommendation is "to crush the insurgency in forms of peace and negotiation." So, his proposal for a three-year-cease-fire as a pre-condition for the resumption of formal talks is mere cheap propaganda."

He restates Sison's three points and then adds:

"General Hermogenes Esperon does not care to address the root causes of the armed conflict. He shows utter disrespect for GRP-NDFP peace agreements which stipulate addressing the roots of the armed conflict through fundamental economic, social and political reforms before coming to a prolonged ceasefire or cessation of hostilities.

"He wants only the pacification of the revolutionary movement."

It is clear that no one needs to talk to the Communists. We do not need them and their armed force to get these things for ourselves. As a matter of fact, the Communist's armed presence may precisely be among the pressures that cause extrajudicial killings and disappearances as well as the continuing non-resolution of the "root causes of the armed conflict."

What needs doing is to rout the Communist in the battlefield; then, we can begin the "fundamental economic, social and political reforms" which are difficult to do while we are in a shooting war.

The Communists have become irrelevant. Communists are no longer a vehicle to the reforms that need to be done and which all of our leaders already accept as necessary. They may actually be unwittingly delaying these reforms by insisting that they can get it through the power that their guns give them.

There are no more Communists in this world except in name only and only in such desolate places like Cuba, Laos and North Korea. China and Vietnam are still also listed as Communists countries but these two look more and more capitalist in their pursuit of economic progress and personal wealth.

These countries used to be Communists but are no longer:

Formerly part of the Soviet Union: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

In Asia: Afganistan, Cambodia, Mongolia and Yemen.

Sovier-controlled eastern bloc countries: Bulgaria, Czech republic, Germany (East), Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia.

The Balkans: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, rep of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.

Africa: Angola, Benin, Dem Rep. of Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and Mozambique.

There are only five countries left that still continue to call themselves Communists. And the Communists here want to turn this country Communists? Maawa naman sila.
Should we also, perhaps, go back to using the Betamax?

written by Ducky Paredes