Experts: Leftists should exploit Duterte ‘space’

From the Daily Tribune (Jul 3): Experts: Leftists should exploit Duterte ‘space’

The left of center in the nation’s political spectrum should take advantage of  the space afforded to it by President Duterte to make major inroads in the social mainstream instead of engaging in its traditional revolutionary agenda, political and economic analysts said.

Duterte’s appointment of leftists in his government poses a challenge to the usually underground groups to prove to Filipinos the value of their proposals for the country, analysts said.

With some of the left-wing appointees in posts that go along with their supposed advocacies, London School of Economics fellow and UST Prof. Ernie Gonzales said its about time for militants to shine.

“They shouldn’t waste their time and maximize the opportunity given to them to practice the efficiency they promise all these years,” Gonzales told the Tribune in a phone interview.

“Now that they’re in government, they can do their best to push for the reforms that deserve to materialize instead of taking up arms that has been apparently futile and has been regressive,” he added.

Duterte designated four prominent personalities from the left in his Cabinet, namely, Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano, Social Welfare and Development Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, Labor Undersecretary Joel Maglunsod and just recently the National Anti-Poverty Commission chairman Liza Maza.

In fact, the new President’s Secretary to the Cabinet Leoncio Evasco was a former member of the New People’s Army (NPA) in the 1980s.

Duterte himself admitted that he is a socialist, with political beliefs and practices that accordingly belong to the left political spectrum.

“I am a socialist. I belong to the Left dimension or the way we think. That is not my fault. I am a son of a poor man,” the President said in his speech before the Philippine National Police (PNP) last Friday.

Even as Commander-in-Chief, he told members of the military that he does not deny the influence of his professor during his college days, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison.

But for political analyst and UST professor Edmund Tayao, the left should avoid their notoriety for “double-talk.”

“The important thing here is trust. Leftists has this reputation to have fronts that deal amicably but they retain their anti-government activities and propaganda on the ground,” Tayao told the Tribune in a separate phone interview.

“The challenge apparent here is whether or not they pursue the peace deals for good without double talk,” he added.

Experiments with the left

After the post-Marcos era, it has been apparent that administrations that followed began adopting leftists in their government which did not stop the communist movement’s 50-year protracted people’s war.

Former President Cory Aquino released political detainees including Sison that paved the way for the regrouping of NPA forces in the late 1980s while peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front (NDF) were ongoing.

Former NDF chief negotiator and former Bayan Muna Partylist Rep. Satur Ocampo admits that their most productive dealings with the government was during the administration of Duterte’s idol former President Fidel Ramos as it was during the term of Ramos that “meaningful pacts between (both panels) were signed” such as the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for International Humanitarian Laws (CARIHL).

Appointing leftists in the government was also initiated primarily by then President Joseph Estrada, who’s now Manila Mayor, with Boy Morales and Karina David being in his Cabinet while Gloria Arroyo maintained ties with militants after the EDSA people power 2 that toppled Estrada.

Towards the end of her regime, however, she apparently severed her ties with the left and even recommended the placing of the CPP-NPA in the US government’s terror groups list.

Meanwhile, former President Noynoy Aquino was more identified with the social democrats that, for critics, only capitalized on their posts to earn popularity and money.

Actually Kabayan Partylist Rep. Harry Roque, in a separate interview with the Tribune, slammed Aquino’s ties with the “pseudo leftists” belonging to Partylist group Akbayan.

“Akbayan only served as Aquino’s apologists, capitalizing on the posts given to them to gain popularity but never brought change,” he said.

With President Duterte’s attempts to forge peace with communists and the two Moro rebel groups, Roque says that he’s totally supportive of it.

“I could even nominate President Duterte for a Nobel Peace Prize if (the) peace deals (he is pushing) succeed,” Roque quipped.

http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/experts-leftists-should-exploit-duterte-space