Red recruiter

The communist movement was at its strongest during the Marcos dictatorship. No one can tell how many actually believed in the ideology. What’s certain is that despotic regimes engender social injustice, exclusion and yawning income gaps – factors that breed discontent and fuel insurgencies.

It says a lot about the state of Philippine democracy and governance that we have what is often described as the world’s longest running communist insurgency, with several active fronts.

Jose Maria Sison’s Communist Party of the Philippines and its military arm the New People’s Army were already gaining many members when martial law was declared. With no avenues for redress, the abuses of the dictatorship sent desperate victims, their relatives and friends into the arms of the CPP-NPA or their front organizations.

Among the individuals attracted to the communist ideal at the time, by his own recollection, was a young man from Davao named Rodrigo Duterte.

The young Duterte must have been conflicted. His father was a member of Ferdinand Marcos’ pre-martial law Cabinet. Many members of the Catholic clergy were sympathetic to the causes of the communist rebellion, but Duterte developed contempt for them after he was (he said) sexually molested by a priest at Ateneo de Davao high school. The priest, identified by Duterte as Mark Falvey, was also accused of sexually molesting at least nine children in Los Angeles, California from 1959 to 1975, for which the Society of Jesus agreed to pay $16 million as settlement.

Perhaps the molestation helped shape the mindset that would create Oplan Tokhang and Double Barrel. There is disagreement in the exact death count so far in the ongoing war on drugs, but all the figures from different sources have a common element: they show that more people have been killed in less than two years in the anti-narcotics campaign of the Duterte administration than in the 20 years under Marcos, 14 of them under authoritarian rule.

This raises the question: if a peace agreement is signed by the CPP-NPA and its political arm the National Democratic Front (NDF) with the government, can the communists keep their peace in the face of the social injustices under the Duterte administration? The latest controversial anti-crime measure is the mass roundup of tambays – loiterers or idlers in the streets.

* * *

Duterte has described himself and Sison as “two lovers” often at war. The two have come down to questioning each other’s mental health as the fate of the peace talks hangs.

While Sison said he disagreed with the “lovers” description, it looks like at this point in the love-hate relationship, he continues to pin hopes for peace on Duterte.

From his home in Utrecht, the Netherlands, Sison and chief NDF negotiator Fidel Agcaoili talked by Skype to “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s One News channel the other night. At the studio with me and TV5’s Ed Lingao was NDF consultant Rey Casambre.

“There may be an exchange of harsh words, but if the two parties would talk to resolve the root cause of the armed conflict, then the exchange of harsh words anytime can be overcome by the agreements to settle the armed conflict,” Sison told us. “Only the closest of friends can talk harshly to each other and still continue to talk.”

* * *

Duterte is indeed proving to be the president most sympathetic to the communists since Corazon Aquino, who also initially reached out to Sison and his comrades. Duterte has appointed prominent leftists to his Cabinet and other agencies. And unlike Aquino, Duterte does not belong to the old rich with vast farmlands to protect. So there is some merit to his claim that for the communists, this is the “last chance” for peace.

Sison told us that it’s Duterte who may not last as president for six years. Not because of any ailment, but because Duterte would be ousted by who else but the CPP-NPA.

It’s revolutionary bluster, and you wonder if deep down, Sison agrees that it could be the last chance. For one, time is not on his side. Looking at them in Utrecht, Sison and Agcaoili look like avuncular senior citizens reviewing their bucket list, with no indication of the deadly violence that has figured prominently in their lives.

The communist movement has been considered moribund for some time now. Duterte in fact must contend with grumbling from his beloved military forces, who say that he is negotiating with a dying group with a discredited ideology, and that the better response is to treat NPA banditry as a law enforcement problem.

If NPA extortion and arson are treated as law enforcement matters, the perpetrators might even be subjected to tokhang and Double Barrel.

Which brings us back to some burning questions about the peace process: why are the communists negotiating with someone accused of gross human rights violations, and can the rebels live in peace in such an environment under Duterte’s watch in case an agreement is signed?

Since the rebels still want to keep talking, and Sison and Agcaoili consider it “good news” that they are currently engaged in backchannel talks with the government panel for the resumption of formal negotiations, we can guess the answers to those questions.

Hours after our talk on “The Chiefs,” government negotiator Hernani Braganza, who has been meeting since Monday with Sison and Agcaoili in Utrecht, announced that even backchannel talks were suspended pending the three-month review of the peace process.

Despite the stalled peace negotiations, the drug killings, tambay roundup abuses and other human rights and social justice issues could make rebellion an attractive option, and make the CPP-NPA-NDF stronger.

Even if Duterte admires Ferdinand Marcos, he should avoid turning, like the dictator, into the biggest recruiter for the communist movement.