Building on gains

The other weekend I went to Montalban (now Rodriguez), Rizal and could no longer recognize the neighborhoods along the way from UP Diliman.

But I was pretty sure the park where my car stopped, near a dead-end road going up to Mount Binacayan, was the same clearing where my senior high school class set up camp for our Citizen Army Training, in the days when CAT was still required for all students, like ROTC in college.

I remember the park well because I hated that camping trip. Loose soil got into the back of my CAT pants after we hiked up and then skidded down a hill. I threw up from a diet of canned food that no one advised us to heat before eating. And what passed for the toilet and bathroom facilities, in a small building near the cliff overlooking a river, worsened the retching.

It was depressing to see the same building still there, looking decrepit. It was closed on a Saturday so I couldn’t inspect the toilet. But otherwise it was fun to revisit a scene from my youth. It was like walking into a dream, and the toilet facilities notwithstanding, the scenery was mainly pleasant. I enjoyed the natural landscape – the trees in the park, the river that leads to Wawa Dam. The winding mountain road in the drive to the park was also picturesque, with the narrow town streets dotted with old houses.

Even the drive through the Payatas dump on the way to San Mateo was interesting, with the old dirt road now fully paved and garbage segregation in full swing. As a young reporter I saw plastic bags newly washed and hanging out to dry outside huts in Payatas (yes, Juana, the bags are recycled and sold to manufacturers of plastic products). Today the bags plus other discarded plastic containers are collected and kept in fenced off lots or warehouses along the road. Other areas house bottles, paper materials and scrap metal.

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On Binacayan I was happy to be able to hike up a steep dirt path, slippery from the rain, with the help of a resident who said he was a trekker guide of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – and he put on a shirt to prove it.

Above a private subdivision is the top of the mountain, with much of the area owned, I was told, by the Ayalas. For some time now, there have been reports that the Ayala group is planning to develop the area into another Tagaytay, possibly with a cable car or zip-line. The Sierra Madre, the country’s longest mountain range, which stretches along Luzon’s eastern seaboard from Cagayan to Quezon, has great potential for tourism development. The side of the range facing the Pacific Ocean is particularly breathtaking. Ecotourism can help preserve the forest cover, which is being depleted by logging and charcoal making.

We all know what has held back that kind of development. The warning given to me by a long-time resident near the area was typical: Montalban, he reminded me, is rebel-infested. And so is much of the Sierra Madre.

The possible end of the threat posed by the communist New People’s Army (NPA) is one of the bright spots in the six-month-old Duterte administration. The President’s serious effort to forge peace with the communists and Islamic separatists has been one of the factors behind the muted criticism (so far) of the drug killings coming from governments that put a premium on human rights.

President Duterte should build on such positive moves, instead of allowing the early gains of his administration to be chipped away by his ruthless war on drugs and his penchant for putting his foot in his mouth.

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This being the season of hope and joy, we can focus on the positives in the Duterte administration. After all, it’s been just six months, and as surveys indicate, the President continues to enjoy considerable public support.

Among other things, he may consider opening himself to the idea, heretical in his administration, that his vicious war on drugs is exacting too steep a price in terms of his political capital, and may even threaten his peace initiative with the communists.

The Left has long championed social justice and human rights, which was why the communist movement was at its strongest during the Marcos dictatorship. Today in the season of Oplan Tokhang, silence on the mass killings, which target mostly the hampaslupa, can cost the Left its credibility.

Already cracks in the Duterte-communist friendship could be discerned over the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. People are waiting to see who among the representatives of the Left will be the first to quit the Duterte Cabinet over his open alliance with the Marcoses, apart from concerns over Tokhang and Double Barrel. What happened to the chants against fascism?

With the government closer than ever to forging a peace deal with the communists, Duterte could ask the rebels to give way to development and anti-poverty efforts in the countryside. This means stopping NPA harassment of private business enterprises, including torching of offices and compounds, vehicles, heavy machinery and installations such as utility towers. Those attacks have been major deterrents to attracting investments that can generate jobs and livelihood sources where these are most needed.

Du30 has already openly asked the rebels to stop collecting “revolutionary taxes,” which is just euphemism for armed extortion. Anything involving money is always a sticking point, especially for a movement whose funding sources overseas largely dried up after it was classified as a terrorist organization.

The rebels’ response to Du30’s call will test their sincerity in forging an enduring peace. Supporting social justice should include fighting the injustice of poverty and underdevelopment.

With a genuine peace deal, I may even live to see the day when tourists can enjoy a cable car ride to the top of Mount Binacayan.