Gloria must beware: Those clenched fists spell more trouble - BY THE WAY by Max V. Soliven

HONG KONG – Let’s stop kidding ourselves and the innocent public by calling the first batch of ten hardliners just released from prison "political prisoners." Why don’t we simply identify them by their proper name, "Communist rebels" and agitators? Everybody will then be forewarned that the released detainees were Communists out to overthrow the government by force or subversion.

The late Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson said it right: "I believe in calling a spade a damn dirty shovel."

No sooner did President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo set free those detainees than they posed for photographers with their clenched fists raised on high, defiantly and threateningly. This reiterated, more eloquently than words, that they are unrepentant and determined to return to the struggle. We’ll hear from them soon enough, and we pray it isn’t through bullets, sabotage, and other forms of violence. What’s more, they immediately started demanding that the government release their "comrades" still in jail. Translation: Give us reinforcements.

To be fair to President GMA, the idea of setting loose jailed Communists and other Leftwing radicals was inherited by her from former President Joseph E. Estrada, who initiated the offer of amnesty in a desperate last-ditch effort to curry favor among the Leftists in his struggle to survive the impeachment process. La Gloria, for her part, was surely pressured by the Leftwing and cause-oriented groups who had participated so loudly at EDSA Dos (so you see, the Erap ploy had not mollified them nor won their hearts). President Arroyo is, obviously, still saying her "thank-you" to just about everybody. But beware of letting those Red Guards back into our midst. The military and Philippine National Police exerted great effort, utilized all their intelligence skills, and some of them sacrificed their lives to corner and arrest those Communists and radical troublemakers. Now, our soldiers and policemen will have to brace themselves, I fear, for a wave of retaliation.

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Remember the over-publicized funeral of the "former" Communist enforcer and labor mobilizer Filemon "Popoy" Lagman a few weeks ago? Lagman was eulogized fulsomely as though he were a saint who had led a life of idealism without blame, although his murder had climaxed a career of revolt no less bloody than the manner in which he was exterminated. The Communist cadres and Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB) hitmen who were the logical suspects in the assassination of the "rejectionist" Lagman were quick to chorus, "no, no, not us!" and piously tried to pin the blame on rightists, or even ex-PNP chief Director-General Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, or even Erap (on whom all blame is now being concentrated) as a means of destabilizing the situation. And yet, it’s clear to all that his erstwhile kapatids were the ones with the greatest motivation to kill Lagman.

Be that as it may, Popoy was given a grand burial in a procession which snaked across parts of Metro Manila. His coffin was paraded under a hammer-and-sickle flag, the symbol of Communist struggle. What was the most chilling sight were the Red Guards who marched alongside as his pall bearers and escort. They were garbed in red, with their faces masked, just as the terrorists of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) or the Palestinian suicide squads of Hamas or the Shiite Hezbollah guerrillas do when burying one of their dead in order to disguise their own identities.

The Communists and the New People’s Army are, indeed, on the march in our country. Where they used to hide, NPA guerrillas now walk in the open, in some towns of Pampanga, and in the Bicol region. This is disquieting. If President GMA shows any more signs of weakness or appeasement, they’ll begin to believe they have the government on the ropes.

This is the time to demonstrate firmness, not a limp policy of weakness and temporizing.

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So, Lieutenant General Diomedio Villanueva, the Philippine Army commanding general, has been anointed the incoming Armed Forces Chief of Staff, replacing Gen. Angelo T. Reyes, who is formally retiring on March 17. It’s just as well that the matter has been decided, and I hope that Villanueva will be able to re-unify the military and end the squabbling among the top-echelon officers.

However, it’s early days yet. The clash of contending ambitions and the maneuvers to seize the AFP plum of supreme command have opened many wounds and they are still bleeding. There continues to be a seething current of unrest within our military.

As for Rear Admiral Guillermo Wong, whose brave statements and revelations have exposed the deep-seated culture of corruption and "conversion" (ghost deliveries) in our armed forces – not just in the Marines, mind you – there’s no way his military career could have been saved. He spoke out in such an honest and courageous manner that he made many enemies in the AFP establishment. For having breached the seal of omerta, Wong became a martyr to the cause of reform and the warrior’s code of integrity and honor. We salute him. The report we got is that he’ll be named an Ambassador. But to where?

I don’t believe Wong sought the "honor" of being named a diplomat, although that’s a fitting reward for a soldier home from the "wars." The more significant reward for his valor would have been for the Commander-in-Chief, President Arroyo, to have set in inexorable motion a full-dress investigation into corruption in the AFP – and, if you ask me, also in the PNP.

Will placing an "ambassador’s sash" around the shoulders of ex-Admiral Wong be the end of it? His gesture should not be in vain. But it will be rendered futile if the entire smelly affair is – sanctimoniously – swept under the rug.