WITH the recent rash of defections from CPP-NPA and subsequent revelations on the alleged inner-core involvement of the Makabayan bloc in the communist conspiracy to bring the government down via an armed revolution, a glimmer of a prospect appears in the horizon of finally closing the books on the communist insurgency.
However, before we get too excited over such a prospect, we ought to realize that an end to the CPP-NPA rebellion does not necessarily result in the Filipino people’s liberation from existing exploitative systems of production and distribution which are the root causes of the continued poverty, hunger, ill health and ignorance of the country’s poor millions.
Offhand, it only means that the ruling oligarchs who control our economy would be rid of their most pesky enemies and could then maintain the status quo without anybody running violent interference. If the government could soon end the communist insurgency, it would simply relieve the privileged ruling oligarchs and their political allies of the anxiety over the possible loss of their exclusive control of the country’s wealth.
Moderate right and left activists must bear in mind that the massive poverty caused by exclusive economic and elitist political structures does not disappear in the wake of the CPP-NPA’s loss to government forces. The fight for more equitable patterns of production and distribution must go on but this time by non-violent, even if at times extra-legal, means.
Whether the CPP-NPA is in or out of the way, middle forces must still organize and move in to work for a peaceful but radical overhaul of the country’s divisive and elitist political, exclusive and exploitative economic, and oppressive cultural structures.
Middle forces must help organize the marginalized sector so they acquire the needed political clout to promote economic policies that are fair, just and inclusive. After the pandemic and with or without the communist party we cannot just move on to an abridged edition of the old abnormal. The new economy must be inclusive, the new politics proportionately participative, and the new culture creative and liberating.
Essentially this means moving en masse for a new constitution that has three essential democratic provisions: effective ban on political dynasties, proportionate sectoral representation, and thoroughly overhauled election system with individual wealth totally factored out and people voting for genuine political parties not exclusive clubs for big boys.
N. B.: Excessive individual spending for political ads and votes is a mockery of democracy. It is what makes our elections the exclusive hunting grounds of the already rich and must, therefore, be totally eliminated.