Hating martial law more than the insurgency

Yesterday The Philippine STAR wrote this piece, in a statement released during the 50th anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said that the rebellion only resulted in the loss of lives and destruction to property. Panelo claimed CPP founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison, who has been in self-exile in the Netherlands since 1987, “remains ensconced in his ivory tower of comfort and luxury while his comrades die for a lost cause.” Secretary Panelo added: “The 50 years of Joma Sison’s rebellion speaks for itself. It’s a failed rebellion. It only resulted in loss of lives of Filipinos, especially the numerous young students who were killed in battles, skirmishes and in sickness in the hills, who could have served their country well in pacific and productive means, as well as destruction of properties.” I do not dispute this observation and support this view against the communists.

The problem that continues to hound the nation is that many of our politicians often use the communist insurgency for their political gains. The late president Ferdinand Marcos fought the communist insurgency to the point of even declaring martial law. But what do the politicians who hate the Marcoses tell the Filipino people? To hate martial law, but not the communist insurgency!

We must recall that our so-called hero the late senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. was one of the politicians who benefited from his cooperation with Joma Sison. Which is why despite the spread of the rumors that Ninoy was spared the Plaza Miranda Bombing, the only major political icon of the Liberal Party who wasn’t in the “miting de avance.” People did not believe in what the Marcos intelligence people were saying and believed instead in Ninoy Aquino. More so when his political ambition got the best of him and he came home to the Philippines despite the obvious danger to his life, and he was assassinated in the process. In the end, most of us believed that Ninoy was a hero for being killed during the Marcos martial law.

In short the Filipino nation hated the Marcos martial law more than it hated the communist insurgency. This is a fact that continues to be believed today that somehow many politicians romanticize the communist insurgency. Just take a good look at Jose Maria Sison. We have long known that Joma became known in the mid-1960s as co-founder of leftist Kabataang Makabayan (Patriotic Youth). Joma is a co-founder of the CPP’s guerrilla-military arm the New People’s Army (NPA), which now still wages an insurgency in various regions of the country.

Joma Sison was finally caught and jailed by the Marcos regime for nine years during the Marcos martial law era which for me was one of the best things that the former president did against the communist insurgency. However, when Joma was freed in 1986 by President Cory Aquino supposedly for the sake of national reconciliation and for his being part of the anti-Marcos forces, he continued his anti-government activities. But now the truth has surfaced that the Aquino political family owed a lot to Joma, hence he was released without any promise to help the nation or stop the communist insurgency.

Joma later went into exile in the Netherlands to seek political asylum. The government of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had lobbied for Joma to be labeled a terrorist by US and European governments since the September 11, 2001 terror attack on New York’s World Trade Center. At present, Joma Sison is officially the chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front (NDF).

No less than President Digong Duterte has also accused the communists of not being sincere in seeking peace because of the NPA’s attacks against state forces and civilians. President Duterte also said the CPP-NPA has to be “destroyed” to maintain law and order in the country. President Duterte did not declare a Christmas truce with the CPP-NPA despite the rebels’ unilateral ceasefire for the holidays; after all, the CPP-NPA has been waging war against the government since 1968. Their rebellion is one of Asia’s oldest insurgencies.

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