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Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Rebel branding creates divisiveness: Tomas
Alienating some sectors by branding them as “communists” in the government’s all-out war against insurgents creates division and “will not do us any good,” Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said yesterday.
He hopes Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia does not share the same stance of anti-communist leader Pastor “Jun” Alcover of the Nationalist Alliance for Democracy (NAD).
Alcover has said militant groups like Bayan and Karapatan are legal fronts of the communist movement in the country.
“If we are going to take the stance of Jun Alcover, I think it is a serious mistake because they’re branding even those in the center along with left of center as outright terrorists,” the mayor said.
Capitol’s support
The Capitol last Friday drummed up support for its own war against local rebels by asking each barangay to follow its lead and come up with resolutions of support.
Of the 1,206 barangays in the province, 888 were represented in last Thursday’s general assembly at the Cebu Grand Convention Center, where the provincial anti-insurgency plan was discussed.
In the gathering, Alcover gave a three-hour presentation of the insurgency situation in the country, communist propaganda and their strategies in gaining support.
President Arroyo last July 14 signed an executive order giving active roles to police and barangay officials in her all-out war against insurgency.
The month before that, she ordered the budget department to release P1 billion to finance the operations of the Armed Forces and the police against the New People’s Army.
Barangay officials, in particular, are deputized to gather intelligence information on rebel movements and operations in their respective areas.
In signing the executive order, Arroyo paved the way for soldiers and policemen to launch together operations against rebels. Barangay officials will serve as their eyes in places where rebels operate.
Response
In response, Garcia last month issued an executive order creating a Capitol task force whose primary concern is to “eradicate” insurgency.
Her request for Capitol to establish two Citizens’ Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu) companies already got approval from the Department of National Defense.
Osmeña said he is not trying to impose his values on the governor. He said he knows that Alcover only see people as “either the good guy, or the bad guy”, and “you’re the devil, I am an angel.”
“I hope the governor is not taking the same stance,” he said.
“(It is) dangerous because you are alienating people. You’re really playing into the hands of extreme militants.... You don’t draw the line in the middle and then treat them all as one. Like the sick, you don’t give the same dosage. To me, that is what responsible government is. But I am not imposing my values,” he added.
He said he has no problem dealing with insurgents, and even volunteered to help arrange a meeting with Garcia for a dialogue. The governor earlier said she was not open to having one with the rebels.
The mayor reminded everyone that “addressing an insurgency cannot be handled by police or military action alone, if that is what it means by all-out war.”
This is one of the lessons of martial law, he said, “but we haven’t learned it yet.”
From 2,000 New People’s Army (NPA) regulars in the 1970s, the number grew to 22,000 after then president Ferdinand Marcos actively pursued them during his martial rule. (RHM)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 2, 2006 issue)
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