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Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Wenceslao: ‘Oplans’ against rebels
By Bong O. Wenceslao
When I read about the Arroyo administration’s Oplan Bantay Laya, a master plan (with confusing timeframes) to deal the final blow on communist rebels, I smiled. Like, how many times have I heard “Oplans” hatched against them rebels? Oplan Katatagan, Oplan Mamamayan, Oplan Lambat Bitag---you name it, they had it. And then what?
I mean, every Oplan always looks good on paper. Once an Oplan is conceived, there follows the hope it will succeed. Ferdinand Marcos thought he would with his Oplan Katatagan, so did Corazon Aquino with her Oplan Mamamayan and Fidel Ramos with his Oplan Lambat Bitag. Those presidents are gone but the rebels are still there.
Why? Consider the reality upon which the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) based its war strategy. Remember “from the countryside to the cities”? Or the three basic problems of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism? Those are not empty phrases or mere sloganeering. Those are well-studied approaches.
The countryside is this country’s weakest link---backward, neglected by the government, has a terrain that is vast and favorable for guerilla warfare and, most importantly, populated by millions of poor peasants. Until that situation changes, how can the Arroyo administration hope to flush out the rebels there in two, five or ten years?
In Cebu, for example, everybody knows that the mid-north area is rebel-infested. Go up the mountains and you will realize the difficulty of chasing a faceless enemy in such a terrain. And yes, the battle boils down to winning the hearts and minds of the people. But with government neglect of the area, where will the hearts of the poor be?
Which brings us to the other reality that can scuttle the best Oplans: corruption in the government bureaucracy. Let us say President Arroyo makes good her promise to allot P1 billion to strengthen the military’s capability to fight the rebels. How much of that will end up in the pockets of corrupt government officials?
Among the three Oplans I mentioned, Ramos’ Lambat Bitag reduced by more than half the number of armed regulars of the New People’s Army. That can be mainly traced to the infighting within the CPP then. But there was also no denying that under Ramos, the country’s economy started to move---until the Asian financial crisis hit us.
Was that coincidental or essential to the issue?
TEXTREAX. I remind again TextReax contributors that messages not tackled in this space are passed on to the TextForum section. Check them there. (khanwens@yahoo.com/0915-9228651/my blog: cebuano. wordpress.com)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 21, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
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