Jaime "Ka Diego" Padilla, spokesman of the NPA's Melito Glor Command, strikes a pose as he meets with media for the first time in a rebel camp in the Sierra Madre. (photo by Bernard Testa, InterAksyon.com)
SOMEWHERE IN THE SIERRA MADRE -- His threat to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and allowing the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani are signs that President Rodrigo Duterte “wants to follow in the footsteps” of the late dictator, the new spokesman of the New People’s Army in Southern Tagalog said.
"Ang buong rebolusyonarong kilusan ay suklam na suklam sa ginawa ng gobyernong Duterte sa pagpayag sa paglibing ni Marcos. Alam ng lahat ng buong mamamayang Pilipino, lalo na ‘yung may mga edad, kung gaano karahas ang rehimeng Marcos nang kanyang ipataw ang batas militar (The whole revolutionary movement is revolted at the Duterte government for allowing the burial of Marcos. Every Filipino citizen knows, especially the old, how brutial the Marcos regime was when he declared martial law)," Jaime “Ka Diego” Padilla of the Melito Glor Command told reporters in his first meeting with media.
Melito Glor command spokesman Jaime "Ka Diego" Padilla with a young NPA commander.
"At ang isang masakit dito ay gustong sumunod ni Duterte sa yapak ni Marcos. Sa kanyang pananakot, panimulang pagsasabi na ang habeas corpus ay kanyang sususpindinhin, ay isang bagay na nagbibigay hudyat sa pagiging pasista ni Duterte sa hinaharap (And what is painful is that Duterte wants to follow in Marcos’ footsteps. His threat, voicing his thoughts about suspending habeas corpus, is something that signals Duterte might turn out to be a fascist in the future)," Ka Diego added.
Meeting selected journalists in a forest camp, Ka Diego said Marcos took the same route before declaring martial law in 1972, marking the start of a 14-year dictatorship marked by massive human rights violations and plunder, countered by a growth in the communist revolutionary and the legal protest movement, until his ouster in the 1986 People Power uprising.
He saw Duterte’s statement on suspending the writ of habeas corpus in the guise of the administration’s war on drugs as “testing the waters.”
Melito Glor Command spokesman Jaime "Ka Diego" Padilla arrives with NPA fighters to meet reporters.
Clad in a fresh “Type A” uniform and a cap emblazoned with a red star, Ka Diego blasted the “treacherous” Libingan burial of the dictator last Friday, calling it “pagbubudbod ng asin sa sugat na hindi kailanman maghihilom (sprinkling salt on a wound that will never heal)” just so Duterte could fulfill a promise he made to the Marcos family.
He said he had boyhood dreams of becoming a soldier but the atrocities committed during martial law made him choose to be a “people’s warrior” instead.
Duterte, who has described himself as a "socialist" and "leftist," has allowed the resumption of formal peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, which represents the communist rebels. He has also appointed known leftists to his government.
However, the rebels have increasingly become more critical in the face of alleged military violations of the government's unilateral ceasefire, what they see as Duterte's wavering positions on foreign policy, as well as on human rights under the current administration, whose war on drugs has seen more than 4,000 killed in police operations as well as summary executions.
For more than a decade since the 1980s, the NPA’s Melito Glor Command’s public voice and face was Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal. A staple of media interviews, Rosal went on to become spokesman of the Communist Party of the Philippines until his death in June 2011.
Fighters of the NPA's Melito Glora Command present arms as they sing the communist anthem Internationale
http://interaksyon.com/article/134605/duterte-wants-to-follow-in-marcos-footsteps---melito-glor-command-spokesman
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