No peace this Christmas

We were hoping that the spirit of Christmas would prevail this year. We were hoping that there would be peace on earth and goodwill to all men. But going by the recent developments, that will not be the case.

In Zamboanga, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels are mustering their troops in central Mindanao and our Armed Forces are on a red alert. It will be a big setback if the ongoing peace process comes to a halt. The New People’s Army (NPA) has announced that there will be intensified attacks this holiday season and Malacañang has taken a firm stand on having no ceasefire agreement with the NPAs this coming Yuletide. It is bad enough not to have peace during Christmas, but to use it is the season to escalate violence is definitely out of place.

In Isabela, the NPAs destroyed P60 million worth of equipment belonging to a logging firm for its refusal to pay P6 million in "revolutionary taxes." In the case of the Abu Sayyafs, what they want is ransom money for their hostages. In the case of the NPA, you either pay their demand for "revolutionary taxes" or you get your properties senselessly destroyed. Both are pure terroristic acts.

We believe that it is not too late to have a joint ceasefire agreement for the Christmas season. But we agree that a unilateral truce would just encourage the other side to do its worst. We can understand when the NPAs move against military targets. They are an armed force established to cope with the government’s armed forces. But when they pick on businessmen who refuse to pay "revolutionary taxes" then, they become purely an extortionist group. They are supposed to be a People’s Army, how come they have not shown any concern for the people who have lost their jobs in the Philippine Aggregates Timber Export Co. following their destruction of valuable equipment? Is this their concept of nation-building? What we must do is to provide people with job opportunities.

The first job of any army that calls itself a People’s Army is to defend the people. When all they do is attack peaceful communities and senselessly destroy trucks, bulldozers and forklifts that provide poor people with jobs simply because the owners would not give them P6 million as "revolutionary taxes", they should be properly labelled as an Anti-People Army.

Our job as citizens is to contribute some form of service to our country. Anyone can destroy. Only positive people can build. The NPA is not a political group or army. Like the Abu Sayyafs, they are plain bandits. They are there strictly for the money. They are armed not for a cause, but to extort money from helpless victims.