Deep whip wounds on Duterte

IN the concrete condition of the Philippines at the moment, two main threats to the country's peace and security are those coming from, on the one hand, the persistent Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) insurgency, and on the other, the unceasing maneuvers of the United States to get the Philippines embroiled in a war with China through intensification of the South China Sea conflict. This is a ploy the US must make to justify its military intervention in the Asean region.

Before the entry into the picture of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), the communist terrorists exercised strong influence — in some cases actual control — in most barangay throughout the country. And as retired Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. uncovered during his tenure as spokesman for the task force, the communist terrorists have infiltrated many influential sectors of Philippine society: the academe, business, religious, the government itself for that matter if we are to take Parlade's assessment of the Makabayan bloc in Congress as CPP-NPA legal fronts.