Insurgency: Tokhang Tactics vs Leftists

There are lots of new ways to fight the insurgency. No need to go out in the bush and hunt down the rebels as in the days of old. How about building a bridge?

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1151434

The opening of PHP250 million Jipapad Bridge within the highway that links Eastern Samar and Northern Samar to vehicular traffic on Monday is expected to curb insurgency in the two provinces.

Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Eastern Samar district engineering office chief Ma. Margarita Junia said on Tuesday the construction of the 240-meter bridge makes the town of Jipapad, Eastern Samar accessible to all types of vehicles.

The bridge forms part of the highway that will connect to Las Navas, a town in Northern Samar where New People’s Army (NPA) rebels are frequently sighted while the town of Jipapad is one of the areas in Eastern Samar affected by insurgents.

“We believe that infrastructure development is a key to ending insurgency. We have been working to connect Jipapad to Las Navas to help educate the people and give them work,” Junia said in a phone interview.

This brings the metaphor of "building bridges for peace" to life in a whole new way. Bridge building is very important in a communal sense. That is why in one province authorities will now be going door to door to plead with communists to drop their ideology.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1478238/anti-red-campaign-gets-new-name-in-cordillera

A controversial plan to implement the government’s anti-drug tactic “tokhang” (contraction of Visayan terms for “knock and plead”) on activists, journalists, and government employees in the Cordillera has been replaced with a similar anti-communist strategy called “dumanun makitungtung” (Ilocano for “visit and discuss”).

Resolution No. 6 issued by the Cordillera Regional Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee (RLECC) in July no longer targets journalists and state workers suspected of having links with communist groups.

Instead, the RLECC, an intelligence-sharing body, will send out teams from the police, civic and religious groups, and village councils to homes of suspected supporters of “communist front organizations,” and talk them out of backing the communist ideology.

The local chief of police is required to vet a list of suspected communists in a community, and all visits must be conducted “with utmost courtesy and respect for human rights,” the RLECC document says.

Should they succeed, the subject of the visit must be accompanied by a relative to the closest police station for “documentation and proper disposition.”

In the Cordillera Region the police will now be visiting suspected communists and asking them to abandon their ideology. If the suspect agrees he will be taken to the closest police station for "documentation and proper disposition." What does that even mean? How will they be disposed of? There are a lot of problems with this method. At first PNP Chief Eleazar was against this program.

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/08/24/2122319/pnp-chief-urges-better-ideas-tokhang-tactics-vs-leftists

The chief of the Philippine National Police called for "better ideas" to address the communist insurgency in the country instead of the "tokhang" reboot that Cordillera officials want to use against activists, organizers and rights workers.

Under the proposal, barangay officials are directed to visit supposed leftists to convince them not to be leftists anymore.

Neither being a leftist nor even a communist are actual crimes under the country's laws.

In a statement sent to reporters Tuesday afternoon, Police Gen. Guillermo Eleazar expressed his misgivings with the strategy, pointing to a "gray area" that he said could potentially violate human rights. 

"In fighting communist insurgency in the country, we in the PNP believe that we have to present better ideas that focus more on winning back the [people's] trust and confidence," he said. 

Eleazar claimed that the PNP is already doing so through its "aggressive support on information dissemination, community mobilization through police-community relations, and barangay development program."

"We will stick to these strategies," he said. 

"While I understand the genuine intention of the Cordillera Regional Peace and Order Council, I believe that there are some gray areas in this campaign that may compromise the commitment of your Philippine National Police to respecting and upholding the human rights of every Filipino citizen," Eleazar said. 

He did not mention what he felt these "gray areas" were, and it is unclear why anti-drug operations that employ the same template do not receive the same scrutiny from the PNP chief. 

One of those unnamed gray areas has to be the "documentation and disposition" of the subject. It is a fact that being a communist or a leftist is not a crime. Under this resolution the PNP now becomes the thought police. That is a scary proposition and opens the door to many abuses.

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/08/28/2123250/tokhang-campaign-vs-activists-seen-wreak-more-havoc-human-rights

Implementing “drug war” methods in the government’s counter-insurgency campaign is a “recipe for more human rights disaster,” the Human Rights Watch said on Saturday.

In this campaign, police and local officials visit the homes or offices of personalities the government accuses of working with or “fronting” for communist rebels. They “plead” with the activists to stop the communist cause.

But being a leftist is not a crime.

The government equates being left-leaning as support for and membership in the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People's Army. It is an inaccurate assertion that has been used to justify what activists call a crackdown on legitimate and legal organizations.

Conde said the campaign “sows fear and restricts the already constrained democratic space in the Philippines.”

"Being a leftist is not a crime." That's the whole issue here. And being a leftist or even a communist does not mean you support the NPA. Duterte has referred to himself as a leftist.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/563681/duterte-declares-he-ll-be-first-leftist-president/story/

"But I'm not a member of Communist Party or NPA (New People's Army). I cannot join them.... I am for democracy," said Duterte, who added that he was a member of Bayan.

Duterte is a member of Bayan? What!!?? Allegedly Bayan is a communist front group.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1151857

The formal surrender of a couple formerly engaged in activism and insurgency in Leyte has further established the ties between the Bayan Muna party-list and the New People’s Army (NPA).

The Philippine Army (PA) on Thursday reported that "Jerry" and "Dalia" (not their real names) walked into the headquarters of the 14th Infantry (Avenger) Battalion, 8th Infantry Division, PA in Barangay Uguis, Mahaplag on August 17 introducing themselves as "former NPA terrorists and as lie-low leaders of the Bayan Muna".

It was not the first time the two reached out to government authorities to leave the communist terrorist group.

"In reality, Jerry and Dalia have long wanted to abandon the violent life of communist terrorism. Having seen enough violence including the infamous Inopacan Massacre in their six-year active involvement with the CPP-NPA-NDF (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front ) from 1986 to 1992," the military said in a statement.

In 1993, the couple with a group of some 200 members and supporters of the NPA yielded to the local officials of Mahaplag, the military statement added.

The two recalled that in 2001, "they were already living a normal life when one Jun Salazar from Inopacan, Leyte, Provincial Coordinator of Bayan Muna, recruited them into the CPP-established party-list."

"Salazar designated Jerry as Bayan Muna municipal coordinator and tasked the couple to organize the farmers and the workers in the area, and to lead them in strikes and anti-government rallies until they went on lie-low in 2004," the military statement said.

"It is part of the NPA doctrine to recruit back former members and those on lie-low status," said Brig. Gen. Zosimo Oliveros, commander of the Army’s 802nd Infantry Brigade.

"Hence, their formal surrender is very much welcome as it would afford us the golden opportunity to help them. In the advent of Executive Order No. 70, there is now a mechanism that will ensure their effective reintegration into the mainstream of our society," Oliveros added.

EO 70, signed by President R. Duterte in December 2018, institutionalized a whole-of-nation approach in obtaining exclusive and sustainable peace-giving the country an effective solution against communist-terrorists.

“I welcomed the formal return to the fold of the law of the couple Jerry and Dalia as it would seal their departure from the communist terrorist group and prevent their recruitment again either in the armed underground movement or the open revolutionary mass movement. Moreover, the revelations of the couple gave credence to allegations on the link between the terrorist CPP-NPA and the Bayan Muna,” the military official said.

Surely this revelation will now sink Bayan Muna, right? Probably not. Despite their connections to the CPP and all the allegations logged against them by the AFP Bayan Muna remains a partylist with representatives in Congress. They are a private political group and are not a government bureaucracy. That means calls for the COA to audit them are unfounded.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1151348

A former cadre of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) has challenged the Commission on Audit (COA) to audit the funds received from the national government by the House of Representatives’ Makabayan Bloc.

Jeffrey “Ka Eric” Celiz, in SMNI program "Laban Kasama ang Bayan" on Aug. 20, said Makabayan party-list groups receive millions yearly from the government but they are used to advance the programs of the CPP-NPA-NDF (National Democratic Front).

“We are challenging, and calling, and appealing to the Commission on Audit. Make a very credible and incisive audit kung saan napunta ang pondo ng mamamayan at ng taong bayan na nilulustay at inaabuso ng CPP-NPA-NDF gamit ang kanilang Kamatayan Bloc na mga partylist (on where the funds of the people are being spent on by the Death Bloc and being used by the CPP-NPA-NDF),” Celiz said.

He issued the call amid the COA report on alleged deficiencies on the budget of the Department of Health and other government agencies.

The Makabayan Bloc, composed of Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Kabataan, and ACT Teachers party-list groups, is receiving a budget of not less than PHP70 million every year from the national government.

“(We would like to call on COA, if there are funds that you should look into, this is no other than those of the Kamatayan Bloc of the CPP-NPA-NDF, which have spent billions of government funds for the last 20 years),” he said.

Whatever the merits here might be, since Bayan does receive government funds, this is less about Bayan and more about shaming the COA for its audits of the DOH. 

What is the thread here that connects all these stories? It's that the government is NOT going after the NPA directly but is focusing on peripherals. Peripherals are important but whats more important is going after actual insurgents and terrorists. Being a member of the CPP is not a crime. Being a member of Bayan does not make you a member of the NPA. Duterte said so! 

It turns the whole war into a joke.