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Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Nalzaro: Not the solution
By Bobby Nalzaro
The Arroyo administration has announced the release of P1 billion as additional budget for the Armed Forces to buy military hardware to crush the communist insurgency within two years. The government has viewed the insurgency as hindrance to economic development, especially in the countryside.
That’s true. No foolish investor will pour money in an area where the peace and order situation is bad.
But the communist insurgency, like the Muslim rebellion in Mindanao, does not pose a threat to the national leadership. Rebels could not match the might of the military. For as long as the Armed Forces remains loyal to the duly constituted government, whoever the president and commander-in-chief is, there is no way these “misguided forces” can take over the national political leadership.
The insurgency has pestered the government for more than three decades. It already resulted in the loss of several lives. But it is limited to the countryside and rebels only occasionally stage terrorist activities in urban areas.
Insurgents are armed and dangerous. They are willing to kill fellow Filipinos and die for their cause. Thus, it is but natural for the government to also use force to stop them from further creating havoc by harming innocent people and destroying government facilities and infrastructure. Those engaging in armed struggle should also get a dose of their own medicine. A balance of terror, so to speak.
But let me remind our political leaders that arms and bullets are not the ultimate solution to the insurgency problem. Only few took up arms when the Communist Party of the Philippines organized their armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA) in the late ‘60s. In 1987, NPA membership rose to 25,000. Military estimates now peg it at 7,000.
But why have these people remained in the underground movement despite the amnesty program and the peace negotiation offered by the government? It’s not because they believe in the ideology of communism. They are there for various reasons, foremost of which are poverty and military abuses.
If you ask a hundred NPA members why they joined the armed struggle, I think only one or two of them will say that the reason is the communist ideology. The rest will say they were victims of abuses and injustice committed by people in power like the military, police and landlords. Others will use poverty and government neglect as reason.
Then you have the lack of education. Three “amazonas” caught by government forces following an encounter in the northern part of Cebu a few years ago claimed they were promised by their NPA recruiter that they will own the land they are tilling if they win.
So the right approach for the government is to address first the problems in the countryside through the delivery of basic services and fundamental economic and political reforms. Like, say, an honest to goodness implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and assistance to and protection for our mountain folk.
With this kind of approach, there is no reason we cannot buy peace.
(bgnalzaro@gmanetwork.com/ 0918-2198333)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 21, 2006 issue)
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