Wednesday, March 21, 2007 Editorial: The Ocampo blunder
THE latest episode involving Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo is so unfortunately laughable for the national government that they should have proceeded with the charges against this partylist lawmaker after the elections and not before the election campaign season is in its mid-stream period.
The way we understand it, the national government is determined to crush the communist insurgency, which it perceives to be the biggest threat to the country's security in three years' time. The flaw with that objective is that these communists have entrenched themselves in various aspects of society, notably in government and civil society that crushing them won't involve any clean, clear-cut operations which is needed at this time.
Maybe the Arroyo regime recognizes this and so either allows or orders or both the execution of suspected allies of these communist groups and orders a crackdown on them in hopes of meeting the deadline. But unfortunately for them, this "communist cancer" has taken a hold on society and government that simply cutting them out may not do. Nor would it be beneficial if they proceed with their current course of actions.
The Ocampo "joyride" that's supposed to take the lawmaker to Leyte to face charges of ordering the massacre of suspected double-agents in the "Operation Kahos" that will forever be the murderous legacy of the communist rebels here but instead he was brought back to Manila where he and his Bayan Muna cohorts enjoyed instead a propaganda windfall. Lest it be said that they deserved it, it should be remembered that this is part of their strategy to provoke government into going after them.
The same strategy being employed by the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front-New People's Army (CPP-NDF-NPA) as part of the overall strategy of their so-called protracted "(their) people's war" in hopes of seizing power altogether. They are even praising the US to high heavens for their Senate inquiry into the killings since it suits their communist agenda.
The fallout from the Satur Ocampo episode, precipitated of course by the arrest warrant which gave the lawmaker the chance to play fugitive ala Gregorio Honasan, would be felt of course for days and would even play up to his party's advantage but there are bigger things to consider and worry about.
Again, the national government should take pause and re-consider their strategies in dealing with the communist threat. They should re-evaluate the insurgency and plan for their own "protracted war" against these communist rebels and their allies by winning public confidence and exposing them as nothing more than bandits and ideological dinosaurs who wish to create their own political "Jurassic Age" where only those who worship the mighty survive.
