IT HAS been a standard operating procedure for the Philippine military to call on the New People’s Army to avail of the government’s amnesty government package.
Generous offers of livelihood assistance are given to the takers. For the middle intellectuals, inducements of peacefully taking part in the political process, especially during elections when these cadres take part in the elections.
On the part of the rebels, the CPP-NPA in Negros Occidental and elsewhere claim “revolutionary victory” when its forces reject these government offers “to surrender and capitulate and avail of the amnesty and livelihood programs that they are offering.”
It is a battle to win the hearts and minds of the rebels. The government wins if they win the trust of the rebels and supporters.
I find it disconcerting though that hard-won victories can just easily be negated by a single wrong move.
A case in point is Malacañang’s reaction to Judge Andres Soriano’s denial of a justice department motion for an arrest warrant against Senator Antonio Trillanes, Malacañang asserted that the 2011 dismissal of the case has no legal effect.
Let the courts decide on the legal merits of the case.
As a court-annexed mediator, I always emphasize to my parties and their counsels not to lock horns on the legal but on the interest-based issues.
The issue has gone beyond Trillanes. What is sauce for the goose is the same with the gander.
What’s amnesty for Trillanes goes for the communist rebels. If the State cannot be trusted on the Trillanes, how can it be trusted with the amnesty for all rebels?
After all, former Customs chief Nick Faeldon, Trillanes’s co-conspirator in the Oakwood mutiny was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte to the Office of Civil Defense last December despite being implicated in the smuggling of P6.4 billion worth of shabu into the port of Manila.
It seems the law is not blind. The State should head what Jesus in the Bible, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’s seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do. For they preach but do not practice. (Matthew 23:2-4)
The world is watching. The rebels are keenly observing Malacañang ’s next move. Can it convince the doubting Thomases among the rebels when it says peacemaking and reconciliation with its amnesty program?
(bqsanc@yahoo.com)