THE New People’s Army (NPA) has taken great pains to explain or even justify its ambush on Gingoog City Mayor Ruth Guingona that seriously wounded her and a police escort and killed her two bodyguards.
But the truth really doesn’t need an elaborate explanation, only lies do. Let’s face it, as much as the communist NPA wanted to divert it to other issues, the ambush had everything to do with money.
For the longest time, the NPA has been asking politicians during elections for money in order to be allowed to campaign in areas supposedly controlled by the communist rebels.
The NPA doesn’t believe in the electoral process because it doesn’t believe in the democratic government or the Republic of the Philippines, and so this so-called permit to campaign fee is really just all about the money. It’s plain extortion, which the NPA has gotten very good at over the years.
In a previous editorial (Note to NPA, February 25, 2013), we wondered what kind of cause the New People’s Army is really fighting for now that it has become more known for burning Victory Liner buses, attacking cellular-phone sites of telecommunications companies and hitting construction firms and other business establishments both big and small in various parts of the country, all apparently over their refusal to yield to the rebel group’s demand for so-called revolutionary taxes.
Such extortionist activities certainly put the name of their revolutionary movement in a bad light. After all, a true revolution is not about destruction, nor about killing, maiming and violence. If these are all what it’s about, then the NPA rebels are no different from thugs, gangsters, terrorists and anarchists. They would be rebels without a cause.
By the way, where do their so-called revolutionary taxes go anyway? Does even a portion of the money they get from politicians and businessmen go to, say, financing livelihood projects or the construction of water wells, schools, hospitals or any kind of project to help the poor masses they are supposed to be fighting for? Because if it just lines the pockets of their cadres then, again, it is plain and simple extortion, a protection racket if you will. Pay us and you won’t have any unfortunate accidents.
The ambush on the 79-year-old Guingona’s convoy is quite despicable but it is just the latest in a long list of atrocious acts that surely hasn’t won the NPA any kind of sympathy from the people or solidarity to their cause.
The elderly woman mayor isn’t even running for re-election and her husband, Teofisto Guingona Jr., a longtime senator and former vice president of the Philippines, practically fought for the same nationalist causes that the NPA, the Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front used to espouse against the Marcos dictatorship.
If the NPA is really so tough and pro-people, why does it not go after those corrupt politicians who treat their local jurisdictions as their own personal fiefdoms? Indeed, in our previous editorial, we asked why the NPA didn’t even get back at an alleged big-time perpetrator of extrajudicial killings and human- rights abuser like former Army Major General Jovito Palparan, who even bragged once that those killed under his command were either members of the NPA or their supporters.
You couldn’t touch the likes of Palparan and local political warlords, but you could attack an elderly mayor, ordinary policemen, security guards and other civilians, buses, cell sites, construction firms and other business establishments. Really, that’s the best you can do?
The NPA keeps blaming the government for stalled peace talks but, like the late rap artist Francis Magalona said in one of his songs, you can’t talk peace and have a gun.
Its extortion activities have hurt the economy and have made investors and businessmen wary of operating outside the country’s urban centers where there is hardly any military presence because of the risk of insurgent attacks. Ironically, these are the poorest areas that need the most investment and development.
Could it be that the NPA wants to keep these areas poor so they could keep blaming—and fighting—the government and also justify their continued relevance and existence.
Again, please don’t burn our building down. We’re just asking.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.