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By Len Espinosa, Central Luzon Bureau
and Francis Lagniton, Senior Editor
Conclusion
TARLAC CITY—After 36 years of rebellion, the
communist movement in the Philippines is now facing the greatest
“dialectical” challenge in its history: finding relevance after
failing to deliver the alternative it promised to its supporters in
the 1960s.
For a while, at the height of the Marcos
dictatorship in the 1980s, it nearly met the challenge when the
communist New People’s Army was considered by many the people’s
only recourse to justice.
But in challenging the “thesis” of the
Marcos dictatorship, the communist “antithesis” of the 1980s has
“synthesized” into the more sincere (if still faulty) vision of
“people power.” It is this new thesis that the communist
rebellion needs to confront.
Retired and active communist rebels admitted,
however, that the leadership of the NPA and the Communist Party of
the Philippines has shown that it has yet to find the acceptable
response to the new challenge.
“Mga biktima rin ang mga kasama [Our
comrades are victims too],” said Ka Arby, a member of the NPA in
Central Luzon. “Naloko sila ng mga lider ng NPA sa pagsali
sa pakikibaka [They were fooled into joining the struggle].”
Loyal communist apparatchiks claim that the
rebellion remains valid because the socioeconomic issues that gave
birth to it remain unresolved despite the promises of reform of
national leaders, like former President Corazon Aquino.
Similarly, corruption in Philippine politics has
pushed many impoverished Filipinos to join the rebellion.
Because there are no jobs and no alternative sources of income,
these individuals are easily lured into joining a cause that
promises reforms to benefit the majority.
Jose Agtalon, spokesman for the Josepino Corpuz
Command, an active NPA unit that operates in Central Luzon, said the
lack of government support for farmers is an example of a basic
issue that the rebel movement is dealing with.
A case in point, Agtalon said, is the
involvement of farmers in illegal logging in Aurora, Quezon, Bulacan
and in the northern provinces of Luzon.
Agtalon cited the devastation that wreaked the
areas of Central Luzon owing to the typhoons that hit the country
early this month. “Because of indiscriminate logging, our
mountains and forests were stripped down, and this led to the death
of hundreds of residents in affected areas,” he said.
“There is not enough agricultural support from
the government so the people were forced to go into this kind of job
even if it has bad effects on many people,” Agtalon added.
Besides the socioeconomic issues, she noted, the
government has also failed to help former rebels return to the fold.
When a rebel surrenders, a colonel from the
military’s Northern Luzon Command said, he usually undergoes
tactical interrogation by the military before his papers are sent to
the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the National
Amnesty Commission.
Military officials, however, who have guided a
rebel return to the fold said the DSWD and NAC usually take too much
time before they release the documents that would lead to the
release of funds that the returnee badly needs to live a normal
life.
“The military can only do so much,” said one
Army major who asked not to be named. “We can give a returnee only
P18,000 if he turns over his gun to the military. But we can give
him nothing if he leaves his gun with his comrades.”
In the meantime, the major said, the returnee is
left to his own devices while his former comrades hunt him down for
“betraying” the cause.
“Ang hirap ng sitwasyon namin dahil wala
kaming malapitan [Our situation is difficult because we cannot
approach anyone],” said Ka Arby, who surrendered to the military
in September, five months after he abandoned his rebel unit.
“I know that many of my comrades are thinking
of coming down. But they are having second thoughts because they
first have to make sure that their families will be physically and
financially secure before they do,” Ka Arby said.
The young Army lieutenant who facilitated the
surrender of Ka Arby and his comrade, Ka RJ, said it would work
wonders if the government can fund a serious program to encourage
rebels to surrender.
“If the national or local government has a
program that would make it easier for rebels to rebuild their ruined
lives, I’m sure we will see them surrender in companies,” said
the lieutenant.
But he said government officials are
deliberately cooperating with the communist movement because of
shared vested interests. He cited the case of a Tarlac provincial
legislator who is consorting with rebel leaders, one of whom is his
uncle.
Ka Arby also confirmed the apparent modus
vivendi between the rebels and government officials. He had wanted
to approach the mayor of his hometown but changed his mind when he
remembered that the mayor had paid the NPA a “permit-
to-campaign” fee in the last election.
“Ibebenta ako ng mayor sa NPA kung malaman
niya na bumaba ko [The mayor will sell me out to the NPA if he finds
out I came down from the mountains],” he said.
If President Arroyo wants to end this rebellion
on her watch, Ka Arby suggests that she carry out a serious rebel
reintegration program that would deal with the economic issues
confronting each member of the New People’s Army.
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