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Friday, January 13, 2006
Ledesma: The Reds must heed
By Jun Ledesma
Sunbursts
"The Balikatan is several hundreds of kilometers away from Davao but as master propagandists they will time it with ATF with the hope that their statement will get media mileage."
LET me address this piece to our foreign guests. It is likely that a motley group, remnants of Maoists communists, will be staging a rally and street demonstrations at the height of the ATF forum.
Ignore them. As you see, we have our own share of Maoists as some of you have yours. Call this democracy at work although their armed partisans--the New People's Army--are very much alive in the hinterlands inflicting casualties on our government peace keeping forces and civilians with the use of landmines.
Their legal fronts have been allowed participation in politics with the hope that they can be drawn to the center and forget about their dead ideology. Maoism is as dead as its chief ideologue and China itself is the prime exhibit of Capitalism. The NPAs are not happy with that and had branded the leaders of China as "revisionists."
We handle our share of commies with kid gloves. While their military arm pillage private properties owned by establishments refusing to yield to their collection of "revolutionary tax," which the military say is euphemism for extortion, these legal fronts are largely a nuisance. They mouth anti-government propaganda of course and true to form assail any hint of US presence in the country.
But there are not a few of them who dream of going to the US or Europe to visit, to live or to escape prosecution here. A classic example is the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines New Peoples Army--Jose Maria Sison. We call him Joma.
The CPP-NPA ranks among the first 10 in the list of "terrorists" which includes Al Qaeda.
The NPAs however are not into the brand of terrorism as Al Qaeda. Not yet anyway.
They said that they will stage a demonstration to protest a Balikatan Exercise, a military training for Philippine army conducted by American specialist team on how to combat terrorism among others.
The Balikatan is welcomed even in Muslim areas and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is not averse to the presence of US soldiers. But the CPP-NPA abhors it and this, expectedly, will be the centerpiece of their legal fronts' demos here in Davao City.
The Balikatan is several hundreds of kilometers away from Davao but as master propagandists they will time it with ATF with the hope that their statement will get media mileage.
What they will do is actually an affront to the leadership of our City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who has been extremely tolerant with the leftists.
Truth to tell, city residents are patient even as in the late 1970's the communist partisans ruled the city with might and terror. In the early 80's the masses turned against them and they were decimated and driven out of the city overnight. That mass revolt is known here as "Alsa Masa."
Our mayor has appealed to them, for the first time, not to disturb the fiesta atmosphere that he has personally and painstakingly established.
For whatever reason, we cannot accept that they will time their activism with pour efforts to build an atmosphere of peace and hospitality to our guests. They have their own economic theories which had been shelved by the giant communist states as they are considered banal and backward, however, they should not stand in the way of the city authorities strategy to put Davao City in world tourism map.
Now, if they are stubborn and would continue to reject the appeal of the mayor, then that is their call.
They should remember that Mayor Duterte is the prime exponent of freedom to the extent that at times he would endorse some of the reasonable issues raised by activists. But there are no valid issues presently that would justify public demonstrations.
Duterte himself has made public his stand against staging Balikatan exercises in Davao City and that posture has not changed.
To march in the city streets now abloom with lanterns and welcome banners and mar these with fiery streamers and shatter the festive mood with incendiary although boring rhetoric is totally wicked.
We assure our guests moreover that this red showcase has lost its appeal. So go on, let's fiesta!
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (January 13, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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