Tamil Tigers are gone. What about the CPP/NPA?

Our friends in Globe Telecom were in Cebu yesterday to launch its newest product they call the “DUO” Landline and Mobile in One. How technology has advanced these days. In the past you needed two telephones to have two lines or need two SIM cards. Enrolling with DUO means your cellphone can now handle two lines - one mobile, the other a landline using only one cellphone.

Of course nothing on earth is free. Getting a DUO number means paying a monthly rate of P399, a flat rate that cost an average of P13.3 per day. But calling a landline from your cellphone means your DUO automatically uses your landline number and you get no mobile charges within the island of Cebu. With a DUO number, anyone calling you via your landline number doesn’t have to pay to call your DUO landline number. For mobile users that call landline numbers, this is great news!

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I salute the officials of Sri Lanka led by its President Mahinda Rajapaksa because its military establishment made a make-or-break, all out final offensive against the Tamil Tigers to put an end to the 26-year-old insurgency that has killed hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankan soldiers and Tamil rebels and countless more innocent civilians. This final push against the dreaded Tamil Tigers resulted in the untimely death of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the titular leader and founder of the Tamil Tigers, one of Asia’s longest rebellions that used all sorts of military tactics and terrorism.

The end of the Tamil insurgence was greeted by street dancing in the main streets of Colombo because finally this armed conflict is over and Sri Lanka (formerly called Ceylon) can now look forward to a better future with the prospects of peace in the region. I’ve been closely watching the Tamil Tiger’s insurgency and thought at one time that they could achieve some kind of parity with the Sri Lankan military. I guess the reason why the Tamil Tigers lasted that long was because of the support of the Tamil regions in the southernmost part of India, which is very close to Sri Lanka.

Indeed the Tamil Tigers were one of the most creative insurgents, using video footages of their assassinations and publicly showing it on tv. They even had their own airfield with helicopters and small aircraft to bomb the Sri Lankan military. I just learned that their last two light aircraft flew on a suicide or Kamikaze-style mission, but it never reached its intended target and was still shot down by the Sri Lankan military. It was the only Kamikaze attack by anyone since the end of World War II.

That Mr. Prabhakaran fought and lost his life in this final battle is the principal reason why Pres. Rajapaksa was confident that the Tamil Tiger insurgency was finally over. The fighting dislocated hundreds of thousands of civilians, but the end of the fighting means, these refugees can now go back to their own homes. Now Sri Lankans can look forward to an era of peace and prosperity now that money for the insurgency can be channeled to projects that can help the poor. 

With the Tamil Tigers insurgence finished, the Philippines now has the sole distinction of having the oldest insurgency in Asia with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing the New People’s Army (NPA). While I agree that the Philippine military should conduct a similar push against the CPP-NPA insurgents/terrorists, the major difference between us and Sri Lanka is that, we are an archipelago, while Sri Lanka is a huge island. Perhaps the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) should conduct a similar push island by island, just like the way Gen. Douglas MacArthur recovered the Philippines island by island.

Of course the big difference between the Tamil Tiger insurgency and the CPP-NPA is that its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was a brave man who fought and led his Tamil Tiger fighters to fight to the bitter end. Compared to Prabhakaran, CPP’s titular head, Jose Maria “Joma” Sison is a coward who is fighting from his safehouse in Utrecht, Netherlands. This is why until now, I cannot understand why some people still join the CPP/NPA.

But the good news up in North Luzon is that Jovencio “Ka Rudy” Balweg and his wife Carmen “Ka Dumay” were nabbed in Baguio City and he will be tried for the murder of his own cousin Fr. Conrado Balweg, whom I interviewed with Sir Max Soliven 15 years ago. This is a big catch by the Cordillera Regional Police. It is a hope that the CPP-NPA insurgency there will collapse. Here in Cebu Province, many CPP-NPA have already surrendered, opting to rejoin the mainstream in society. Under the leadership of Gov. Gwen F. Garcia, we have not heard any more skirmishes between the military or the police against the CPP-NPA.