During the 31st anniversary of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in Quezon City, Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte asked the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to finish the war we have against communist insurgency for 51 years since the founding of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on Dec. 6, 1968. The President also added saying, “I do not think that we can afford to wage a war another 53 years so I am telling the military, ‘Can we end it now?’ We cannot afford to pass it on to the next generation. Baka hindi na nila makaya. It has to be now.”
What can I say, but I fully support the move of Pres. Duterte. I’ve been an anti-communist for a long time now, since my Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) days when the CPP was still in its birthing stage. But we did not realize that they would grow into a larger fighting force that will take on the AFP. But 50 years ago, the AFP wasn’t trained for guerrilla warfare nor the military capability or training that it has today.
If you ask me, the AFP showed us its great capability on May 23, 2017 when Muslim Maute terrorists with the ISIS flag attacked Camp Ranao and took Marawi City hostage. Five months later on Oct. 23, 2017, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana announced that the fight to retake Marawi City was over. The taking of Marawi City was an urban warfare that the AFP was not trained to fight… but it did with courage and bravery.
This is why for me during the National Heroes Day, I proposed to declare Private First Class Dhan Ryan Bayot to be a national hero because on June 8, 2017, he infiltrated the front lines of the Muslim terrorists and found himself surrounded. Knowing that it would take time to rescue him and sensing that the Maute terrorists were already near him, he radioed his commanding officer saying, “Just bomb my location sir.” With this the house he was in was bombed, killing more Maute terrorists. Later PFC Bayot’s father Sergeant Bayot recovered his son and brought him back to Zamboanga Sibugay for burial.
I’m writing this to remind our readers that the Marawi City conflict was something that the CPP or New People’s Army (NPA) never achieved or even tried when their forces were in an all time high. The best they ever did was to occupy a police station for a few hours, but fled after the military arrived to neutralize them. Years ago, we had the Anti-Subversion Law that then Pres. Ferdinand Marcos used to quell the communist insurgency to a point that CPP Chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison was arrested and tried for his crimes. Unfortunately, when the Marcos dictatorship was removed, then Pres. Cory Aquino ordered the release of Joma Sison without anything in return. Why did Pres. Cory release Joma from prison is a speculation being talked about even today.
Surely many people already know that communism worldwide is on a decline, especially with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain in the 1980s. Hence the only major communist nations are the People’s Republic of China and the communist state of North Korea. If you examined closely their respective leadership profiles, North Korea has been ruled by only one family since the 1950s and China is ruled by the politburo and this is why Filipinos would not accept their form of governance. In short, if you put into a democratic vote on what kind of government we should embrace, Filipinos would never chose a communist government.
This is why the style of the CPP in recruiting people to fight for the New People’s Army (NPA) is through deception and intimidation… and if you question their methods even if you are already a full pledged NPA, they would purge you to your grave. So now, why is Pres. Duterte asking the AFP to finish the job of destroying the CPP and not give them a chance to shift it to the next generation.
Actually, things began to unravel during a hearing of the Senate committee on public order, panel chaired by Sen. Ronald dela Rosa who launched an investigation into leftist groups’ supposed recruitment of minors from colleges and universities. In that Senate hearing we saw mothers who lost their daughters during their high school years recruited by leftist organizations, who eventually passed them on to the NPA.
One mother, Mrs. Relissa Lucena’s daughter, was allegedly recruited by militant youth group Anakbayan while she was studying as a senior high school student at the Far Eastern University. How many more mothers, parents, lost their children to fight for the CPP rather than help their parents getting work after school to help the family’s financial needs. This is why the Philippine government should work hard to make laws to stop this insurgency nonsense that continues to plague our countryside for the last 51 years.
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Email: vsbobita@mozcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com.