A few weeks ago the top rated presidential candidates, when asked how they would deal with the insurgency, brought up the specter of reviving the peace talks. Ka Leody Guzman, who ranks at the bottom of all the polls, says he would also push for land reform.
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| https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/02/04/22/ka-leody-npa-will-lay-down-arms-if-social-services-injustices-addressed |
The New People's Army (NPA) will lay down its arms if social services and injustices in the country are addressed, Partido Lakas ng Masa presidential aspirant Leody De Guzman said Friday.
Asked how will he address the communist insurgency in the country, De Guzman said that one of his top priorities is to push for a genuine land reform based on the armed rebel group's proposal.
(I will respond to all the demands of the New People’s Army that are written in their document and I have read them all, it is very reasonable.)
(Their demand for real land reform, all of that was recognized by Ferdinand Marcos, by Cory Aquino, by all the presidents but not implemented in reality. I will implement real agrarian reform.)
The document is he is talking about is the CASER (Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms.) This document is 173 pages of broad and general calls for reform in industry, culture, agriculture, and other areas of the government and Philippine life. The one thing lacking is there are no methods of implementing these reforms. There is nothing exact. It's as vague as the term "social and economic reform." After listing the various reforms sought for a particular area there is a schedule of implementation that gives a timeframe of three months which is impossible for such a sweeping program.
The CASER is a non-starter. The government claims it is highly flawed and calls for a surrender of the Philippines' sovereignty.
The Philippines’ sovereignty would be put at a disadvantage if the government gives its nod to the communist movement’s “flawed” Comprehensive Agreement on Social Economic Reforms (CASER), Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. said on Friday.
Galvez said there is no need for CASER, as it would only benefit the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) since the proposed deal is “irrelevant” and simply a “copycat of the programs” of the communist insurgents.
“CASER is based on an obsolete framework and is no longer relevant since it is largely based on the pre-industrialization and pre-globalization era. It is a formula for the surrender of the national government’s integrity, as well as the state’s sovereignty,” he said in a press statement.
“The CASER insists that the Philippine government surrenders its sovereignty and tramples on its own integrity by forcing upon the state outmoded and erroneous concepts that were conceived more than half a century ago,” Galvez added.
https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2020/01/insurgency-not-worth-it.html
But if wanting to implement an irrelevant and outmoded program of social reform is not bad enough how about repeating Duterte's mistake of welcoming the CPP into the cabinet?
Presidential candidate Ka Leody de Guzman will push for "Genuine" peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) if they are to win in 2022-apart from being open to include them. in his Cabinet.
The labor leader and Partido Lakas ng Masa standard bearer shared that in "Bakit Ikaw?" DZRH presidential job interview this Wednesday.
"I will hold peace talks. I agree to talk to resolve the long-term problem of insurgency," De Guzman said yesterday about the communist rebels.
"I believe that those who are armed ... they are not just happy to be armed ... There is a historical request that has not been resolved like the injustice happening in our country like [lack of] land reform. "
"I think real peace talks and an end to armed conflict will take place when the problem is resolved, the problem is addressed, which is very legitimate," said Ka Leody, stressing that it did not happen before because of the collusion of previous presidents with the rich and oligarchs.
It will be recalled that President Rodrigo Duterte also posed as a "socialist" when he was still running for the presidency in 2016 and talked to the CPP-NPA-National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF).
Although Digong was friendly with communist leaders such as Luis Jalandoni and then CPP leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, the president permanently suspended peace talks in March 2019 due to "terrorism" he said by revolutionaries and land confiscation. .
When De Guzman was asked yesterday if he would include CPP-NPA members in his Cabinet, his answer was brief: "It depends on whether they want to be in our Cabinet."
Some of those he is pushing to be part of his possible Cabinet are economic expert and IBON Foundation executive director Sonny Africa, Dr. Tony Leachon for the Department of Health, PLM chair Sonny Melencio for the Department of Defense, University of the Philippines Prof. Ed Tadem of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, etc.
"I will make sure ... these are the people I have been with and have a track record of unquestionably serving the people," he added.
Duterte has previously placed some progressive activists in his Cabinet such as Judy Taguiwalo in the Department of Social Welfare and Development, former Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano of the Department of Agrarian Reform, etc. but also deleted.
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| https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/9/27/Rodrigo-Duterte-Left-CPP-NPA-Congress-Cabinet.html |
Imagine being so stupid as promising to commit the same mistakes as Duterte did when it comes to the insurgency. At least Ka Leody does not have a track record of giving the CPP-NPA millions in cash or in telling others to pay their extortion taxes.President Rodrigo Duterte expressed relief that Congress rejected the appointments of leftist leaders to his Cabinet.
Duterte said the widespread presence of communist insurgents in society enabled them to enter government.
[Translation: For me, in my desire really to just extend a helping hand maybe I can succeed talking to them, I was able to let them in. It's good that Congress rejected their appointments.]
He said the communist rebels did not want to pursue peace negotiations, adding that he is also not ready to talk to the Reds right now.
"For as long as there is an objection from the military and the police na they called — pinag-ipon nila lahat 'yung mga [They gathered]various agreements: JASIG (Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees) , humanitarian rights, it would now appear that more or less there is a sharing — hindi [and not a] coalition — but sharing of governmental powers which we cannot concede, I cannot give because we do not own sovereignty," he said.
Last year, Congress rejected the appointments of Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo and Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano. Both were activists and leftist leaders, and were appointed after Duterte had offered government posts to members of the Communist Party of the Philippines - National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF) in 2016.
Labor leader and progressive presidential aspirant Ka Leody de Guzman said he would push for the scrapping of the government's anti-insurgency task force and the Anti-Terrorism Act if elected into office.Since President Rodrigo Duterte created it through Executive Order No. 70 signed in 2018, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict has repeatedly accused people of links to communist rebels.
Over the coronavirus pandemic, its targets have ranged from activist groups, universities, media organizations, to celebrities. It has also been documented to have spread disinformation, prompting the Presidential Communications Operations Office to review its procedure for vetting ang reposting social media content.
Speaking at the Pandesal Forum sa Veritas on Monday, De Guzman said that the P28.1 billion budget that the Duterte administration proposed for the task force's 2022 budget would instead be reallocated to afford medical frontliners better benefits.
His 25-point program with the Partido Lakas ng Masa also aims to cut the size of the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines by half, along with "radically [raising] recruitment standards [and punishing] all who have engaged in extrajudicial killings."
He also vowed to "turn over President [Rodrigo] Duterte, Sen. [Ronald] Dela Rosa, [Former NTF-ELCAC spokesperson] Gen. Antonio Parlade, and all authors and key enforcers of the war on drugs and the red-tagging campaign" to the International Criminal Court "while also prosecuting them in the national judicial system."
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief, Gen. Andres Centino, urged all military units in Northern Mindanao to exert all possible efforts in defeating the communist insurgency before President Rodrigo R. Duterte ends his term this June."Give your best. We will make sure you have resources. We want to end this insurgency, to capture its top leaders here. More importantly, we want to honor the heroism of our comrades who made the ultimate sacrifices in this decades-old fighting," he said during his visit to the Cagayan De Oro-based 4th Infantry Division on Wednesday.
These resources include the necessary equipment, aside from the enhancement of skills of the soldiers so that they are prepared for the challenges of fighting and neutralizing these threats.
Centino also lauded the 4th Infantry Division for its successes against the communist terrorist group (CTG) in the past months.
The 4th Infantry Division was responsible for neutralizing high-ranking communist terrorist group personalities in Northern Mindanao and Caraga regions, including the head of the New People's Army (NPA) National Operations Command Jorge "Ka Oris" Madlos.
He said this feat demoralized the NPA nationwide, resulting in the mass surrender of communist rebels.
"I am confident that we can comply with the deadline of President Rodrigo Duterte. I take confidence in my experience here at 4th Infantry Division and its recent accomplishments that saw the demise of the CTG's top leaders in Northern Mindanao," he added.
The Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) is no longer significant in Panay with two of its top leaders being among the 12 ranking officials in Western and Central Visayas neutralized by government troops in 2021.
“When neutralized it could be killed, it could be surrendered, it could be apprehended or captured. They could no longer go back to their movement,” said Capt. Kim L. Apitong, officer-in-charge of the 3rd Infantry Division (3ID) Public Affairs Office, in an interview Wednesday.
The spokesperson credited the support from the community which provide relevant information for their successful anti-insurgency.
He said that the terrorist group could no longer find an ally in Panay as it has lost control of barangays where they used to have sympathizers.
“We have already cleared the barangays. There are only some sitios (zones) and parts of some barangays where they threatened and harassed residents,” he added.
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