Last week Duterte flipped his stance on peace talks with the CPP-NPA, muling the creation of a new panel headed my the military to oversee peace talks. The AFP, as they have done with every whim of Duterte from the creation of death squads to the necessity of martial law, praised the idea.
The proposed new peace panel that will oversee localized peace engagements is a welcome development in the government's efforts to attain just and lasting peace, an official of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said.
"Fifty years of deception, lies, exploitation of the IP (Indigenous Peoples) and extortion is enough. We are prepared to offer not only the hand of peace but the whole arm if need be," Col. Noel Detoyato, AFP public affairs office chief, told reporters in a text message on Monday.
"But first, Mr. Sison has to show sanity and coherence. He must also accept the fact that there are many roads towards peace but the road he has taken is not one of them. Let’s go local. Let’s help each other here in the Philippines. The problem is here, not in the Netherlands," he said.
Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez, Jr., earlier said through the new peace panel, the government will be “directly engaging the people on the ground to address the fundamentals of the problem”.
He said the new peace panel is in line with the whole-of-nation approach as embodied in Executive Order 70, which provides for the creation of a national task force to end local communist armed conflict, as well as the adoption of a national peace framework that will contain policies addressing the root causes of insurgencies.
Galvez said it is through localized peace engagements where the government can create an environment for the peace process to move forward.
They say they are prepared to offer the whole arm of peace but let's not forget they were also prepared for all out war under
Arroyo in 2006 and under Duterte in 2017.
“Yes, it’s an all-out war. Ano ba ang pinagkakaiba nila sa Abu Sayyaf (How different are they from the Abu Sayyaf)? They are there to terrorize people to get money. That’s extortion; we will hunt them down,” Lorenzana told reporters in a Palace brieifing.
How different is that rhetoric from: "We are prepared to offer not only the hand of peace but the whole arm if need be"?
What's with all this schizophrenic flip-flopping? What is the root cause? Not having a plan. The AFP has been fighting the NPA for fifty years now because they do not have a real plan to destroy them. Nor do they appear to understand their fundamental grievances and goals. The basic plan has been to scramble when an NPA camp has been found and engage in a shoot out while many rebels get away only to regroup and repeat. What systemic efforts have been taken to tear down front groups who recruit CPP-NPA members? How about eliminating their funding? LGU officials as well as national politicians fund the NPA and they are known but what has been done about it?
In a press statement, “Ka Nonoy” Alcantara, who said he was the National Democratic Front’s former liaison officer of its Electoral Unit, said among the politicians were incumbent Senators Grace Poe, Nancy Binay and Bam Aquino, former senators Serge Osmena, and former congressman Erin Tanada.
These lawmakers and three other “traditional politicians,” whom Alcantara did not name, were paying up to P20 million each to the Communist Party of the Philippines, its armed wing the New People’s Army, the NDF, the Makabayan party-list coalition and other “communist terrorist groups” (CTG) to gain their endorsement, he added.
These allegations could be fake and nothing but "black propaganda" since those named are not exactly Dutere allies and
Duterte is an admitted friend of the CPP-NPA even accrediting his election win to them but is the DILG lying when they claim 349 government officials are paying NPA fees?
“We now have a watchlist. We know you. So if you are supporting communist rebels in any way, you ascertain yourself as a supporter of terrorism and an enemy of the state, you establish yourself as an accomplice to their cause,” he said in a press briefing on Thursday.
Año said those included in the list are 11 governors, five vice governors, 10 provincial board members, 55 mayors, 21 vice mayors, 41 councilors, 126 village captains, 50 village councilors, and eight other village officials.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1088473/dilg-says-349-govt-officials-financing-npa
All that information should be old hat by now especially if you are reading this weekly series on martial law. What is new this week is the formation of a new plan.
Executive Order 70, mentioned above, ordered the creation of a National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict. Five months after the order was issued the task force finally convened its first meeting this week.
“President Rodrigo Roa Duterte today rallied all instrumentalities of government, the private sector, and the entire Filipino nation to actively work together in a Whole-of-Nation Movement to address violent conflicts, as well as build a culture of peace and development throughout the country,” Panelo said in a press briefing on Tuesday.
“At the first meeting of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict held in Malacañang, President Duterte approved a National Plan that would integrate and harmonize the various efforts of the whole of government and of all sectors of society in delivering goods and services, as well as in providing for peace and security, especially in conflict-affected communities,” he said.
Panelo said members of the Cabinet and other heads of agencies who were present at the meeting “agreed that the Whole-of-Nation Movement is not directed primarily at defeating the communist insurgency, but instead to demonstrate genuine good governance for the betterment of the lives of the people.”
“To effectively manage the Whole-of-Nation Movement, the President will assign specific Cabinet members to oversee the peace and development efforts in every region of the country. The designated Cabinet Officer for the Region will be supported by a unified and integrated Regional Development Council and Regional Peace and Order Council,” he said.
The Palace official said the government would also pursue the “fast-tracked” implementation of the National Wifi and 911 projects in all barangay nationwide.
“By effectively managing barriers and challenges to peace and development, the Whole-of-Nation Movement envisions to build resilient and robust communities that promote the welfare and well-being of the Filipino people,” Panelo said.
Already this task force is starting off on the wrong footing when they agree that their efforts will not be "directed primarily at defeating the communist insurgency" when that is the specific reason for the creation of the task force as per Duterte's own executive order.
Section 1. Institutionalising the Whole-of Nation Approach. The Whole-of-Nation approach is hereby institutionalised as a government policy for the attainment of inclusive and sustainable peace. Towards this end, the Government shall priotise and harmonise the delivery of basic services and social development packages in conflict-affected areas and -vulnerable communities, facilitate society inclusivity, and ensure active participation of all sectors of society in the pursuit of the country's peace agenda.
Section 2. Creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict. To ensure effect implementation of the Whole-of-Nation approach, a National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (Task Force) is hereby created under the Office of the President (OP).
Do you see how this approach and the defeat of the communist insurgency are intimately connected? It appears the members of this task force do not. Even the headline from the Manila Times is wrong. Reading through Executive Order 70 one sees that it is really just a framework for a committee to form committees to investigate the situation and make recommendations to the head committee on programs which need to be implemented by the various committees. Bureaucracy at its finest.
It does seem that what this task force is attempting to do is enact a back door policy of addressing the root causes of insurgency and implement polices which will end the insurgency.
How will providing free Wifi nationwide as well as a 911 emergency system address the roots of the insurgency? What are the roots of the insurgency? Is it a lack of Wifi? A lack of jobs? A lack of money? A lack of basic services and goods from the government? Or is it perhaps something else? From reading their own documents it becomes obvious the government either does not understand or appreciate the grievances and goals of the CPP. Let's take a look at their constitution:
The semicolonial and semifeudal system is in chronic crisis and is moribund. The socioeconomic crisis has been aggravated and deepened by the US-propagated neoliberal policy of unbridled greed. It wreaks havoc on the lives of the people and causes social unrest without let-up. The political crisis is worse than ever before despite the shift from open fascist dictatorship to a series of pseudo- democratic regimes of the big comprador-landlord oligarchy. The reactionary factions are more than ever severely split against each other and are more prone to inflict violence against each other. The broad masses of the people are more than ever determined to wage armed revolution against the reactionary state and build their own democratic power. pg. 11-12
As of July 4, 1946, the United States shifted from a direct to indirect colonial rule over the Philippines by granting nominal independence to a puppet neocolonial republic and allowing the political parties and politicians of the local exploiting classes of comprador big bourgeoisie and landlords to assume responsibility for national political rule and administration.
The Philippines is semicolonial, independent in form but subservient in fact to the United States. The United States has maintained its strategic and all-round power over the Philippines through unequal treaties, agreements and arrangements in all spheres of Philippine society — socio-economic, politico-military and cultural. pg. 60
The Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People's Army, the National Democratic Front and the people’s revolutionary government are invincible and victorious because they fight for a just revolutionary cause, which is the national and social liberation of the people from US imperialism and the local reactionary classes, because they are the instruments of the Filipino people for national liberation and democracy. pg. 69
The general program of the Filipino people and the Communist Party of the Philippines is a people’s democratic revolution. All Filipino communists must work and struggle to realize this long-term program and must be ready to sacrifice their lives if necessary in the struggle to bring about a new Philippines that is completely independent, democratic, united, just and prosperous.
US imperialism and the local reactionary classes of big compradors and landlords will never voluntarily give up their power to oppress and exploit the people. They use armed violence to guarantee and preserve the system of exploitation. To end the semicolonial and semifeudal system, the people have necessarily taken the road of armed revolution and they must persevere in waging a protracted people’s war until total victory is won. pg. 72
https://www.philippinerevolution.info/media/publications/pdf/constitution_and_program_of_the_cpp/2018/2016-CPP-consti-ppdr_en_PWhDg3o.pdf
From Stanford University's Mapping Militant Organisations database we read:
The CPP-NPA seeks to overthrow the Philippine government in favor of a new people’s democratic state led by the working class, and the group also seeks to expel U.S. influence from the Philippines. Its other goals include redistributing land to the landless poor and initiating a cultural revolution. The CPP-NPA primarily models its armed struggle on China’s Maoist movement, focusing especially on the idea of a protracted people’s war and mobilizing the masses in rural areas.
How is it that Stanford University understands the CPP and its roots and goals better than the Philippine government? Can it be any clearer that the CPP-NPA wants to liberate the Philippines from the intricate web of US imperialism which utilises the ruling oligarchs as their willing tools to keep the people in economic subjection? This same sentiment runs all the way back to the beginning of the party in 1968.
National sovereignty and democracy can never be obtained without the destruction of the forces of U.S. imperialism and domestic feudalism whose basic interests lie in the continued national and class enslavement and exploitation of the Filipino people. The overriding interest of the Filipino people now is to fight for national liberation and people's democracy.
http://www.bannedthought.net/Philippines/CPP/1960s/ProgramForPeoplesDemRev-681226.pdf
Will free nationwide Wifi or a 911 emergency system placate a group who's roots run much deeper than "gibsmedats"?
By the way if this anti-American rhetoric sounds familiar that's because even those outside of the CPP spout it. From modern pundits like Get Real Philippines and Thinking Pinoy to old horses like journalist Rigoberto Tiglao anti-Americanism is nothing revolutionary or new. How many times has Tiglao accused Rappler or the PCIJ of being CIA front organisations? How many times has Thinking Pinoy attempted to connect the dots between the CIA and Benigno Aquino? Duterte's whole foreign policy is based on the same kind of rhetoric in the CPP Constitution which is to say ridding the Philippines of US influence and enacting an independent foreign policy. (Though of course his actions and rhetoric in this regard do not match at all.)
Across social media one can read about any number of conspiracy theories regarding the US and the Philippines such as theft of resources, funding of ISIS, allowing China to take territory in the WPS, attempting to subvert the population through propaganda like Rappler, etc, etc. Remember the "blueprint to undermine Duterte" allegedly authored by former US Ambassador Philip Goldberg ?
Regardless of whatever truth is in these allegations the point is that anti-Americanism runs across the board in the Philippines and is based on both real and perceived meddling by the CIA and the US government as well as industry in Philippine affairs. Anti-Americanism is a major cause if not the root of the Communist insurgency in the Philippines and if the newly formed National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict will not address that issue or any of the issues in the CASER then the insurgency will not be ending anytime soon.
Now perhaps the CPP-NPA has lost its ideological foundation and is just a band of unprincipled terrorists who extort money from politicians and businesses and destroy factories and construction equipment thereby depriving the much vaunted proletariat of his ability to earn what little money he can. That is true too. Who can picture NPA soldiers out in the jungles at their camps deeply engaged in Das Kapital or Mao's Little Red Book? The thought is laughable and their continually violent actions speak much louder than their documents.
This is no place to thoroughly explore the deep seated roots of the revolution in the Philippines which has manifested itself in several groups such as the
Hukbalahap and the
PKP nor to examine their documents. There are plenty of places to read about that online like
here. It is just to stress that the Philippine government simply doesn't get it when it comes to the CPP-NPA despite the core thought of the CPP-NPA being mainstream even espoused by President Duterte.
In the Philippines life will go on. The AFP and the NPA will continue to clash and the government will continue to use taxpayers money to bribe NPA soldiers to lay down their weapons as if that will ultimately pacify them and localised peace talks will continue in an attempt to circumvent the party leadership which gives credence to the idea that many if not most regular NPA members have no idea what the party is fighting for. They only know what they are fighting for which is the vague idea of justice as well as for their stomachs.
“They (members of the localized peace panels) will talk to the local leaders of the NPA,” said Parlade, pointing out that the communities will also be part of the discussions.
He said the government has also been implementing key programs like livelihood, infrastructure and similar endeavors to find ways to solve injustices committed on the communities. “We want to reach out to the NPA in the hinterlands through the nuns, priests, local government (units) … you can line in the effort on the localized peace talks,” he said.
He said localized peace talks are better because local leaders understand the issues, but national leaders of the government must support this initiative as well as simultaneously provide services to the communities.
Are the issues of US imperialism and government corruption raised in these talks? What exactly are the issues they are discussing? Why is the AFP using nuns and priests to reach out to the NPA when the Church has been accused of being agents of the CPP and
working to oust Duterte? It's because the Philippines does not have clue or a plan about how to deal with their insurgent problem.
