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No doubt it was the survival imperative that made the President
speak glowingly about Jovito Palparan and promote him to the rank of
Army Major General.
He is notorious to human rights advocates and
journalists. They call him “the butcher” because in places where
he has been posted extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances
of militants started to happen or increased. (“Militant” is the
code word for suspected CPP-NPA member, propaganda-worker or active
sympathizer.)
The Court of Appeals agrees with complainants
that Major-General Palparan had participated in the abduction of
Reynaldo and Raymond Manalo in 2006. The CA says Palparan, “at the
very least … was aware” of the Manalo brothers’ being captives
of men under his command.
Some families of victims and Karapatan, among
other groups, have stories to tell about how they have established
that Palparan was the inspiration of militiamen killers of suspected
communists.
Good results claimed
The general, however, has been claiming that his
performance has reaped “good results.”
Human rights groups and left-wingers are
outraged by his claim. The good results he can point out are
precisely the death or disappearance of militant troublemakers and
NPA “tax collectors” who businessmen say pester and threaten
them.
Why do the generals of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines high command praise him? Because they share his vision
of what is good for this country. They have no objection to the
Major General’s definition of “good results” and his methods
of achieving these.
It is a established fact that the NPA insurgency
and leftwing marches and other activities cost the government
billions of pesos. There would be no overcrowding of Metro Manila if
the squatters returned to their homes in the provinces. They left
because their provinces are poor. Their provinces are poor in a
large way because of the communist insurgency that deters investment
and normal economic activity in the rural areas.
And why did President Gloria Arroyo exalt Major
General Palparan to the level of a national idol in her State of the
Nation Address? Because she cannot possibly go against the mentality
of her generals. The survival imperative was at work. And also
because, most likely, and based on her other pronouncements, she
really, morally and sincerely believes as her generals do that
dissenters who cause physical and economic harm must be subdued or
in other ways “neutralized” if necessary outside the regular
processes required by law and the Constitution.
Businessmen approve
But President Arroyo, who is supposed to be an
astute politician, did not have to give the military and the police
the unashamed signal that she gave at the SONA. She didn’t have to
say a word, as long as she had privately given her thumbs-up to
Palparan and the AFP and PNP commands.
Why she did so can only be explained by the
theory, advanced by some analysts here and abroad, that she is now
under the control of the men in uniform of whom she is officially
the commander in chief.
There is another reason.
Except for a very few, business and industrial
leaders would rather turn a blind eye to the abduction and murder of
rebel leaders, rowdy red-flag wavers who disturb commerce and cause
traffic snarls and extortionists who blow up warehouses, buses and
cell sites.
That outlook prevails among businessmen
everywhere—even in Western Europe. The businessmen of Singapore
cheered Lee Kuan Yew when he suddenly turned against his erstwhile
Barisan Socialis allies, rounded them up and jailed their leaders.
Most of the businessmen of Hong Kong—during the decades when it
was a British colony and now that it is a special administrative
region of the People’s Republic of China—did not/do not object
to the absence and curtailment of suffrage, press freedom and the
summary arrest and deportation of troublemakers.
Filipino and expatriate businessmen and bankers
here rose to congratulate the late Ferdinand Marcos for declaring
martial law.
Another Cha-cha attempt
I suspect—no matter what the bishops,
newspapers and broadcast stations, political science professors and
university deans, libertarian congressmen and senators say—that
President Arroyo and her considerably numerous allies will launch a
new drive to amend the Constitution.
Charter change is a must—a survival
imperative—for her and her allies.
Happy New Year.
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