I SEE Major General Jon Aying of the 3rd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army not as a military commander but as a close family friend. The Christmas just before he left for his new assignment, Jon joined the family Christmas party.
Earlier this year, Jon praised Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañón Jr. and several NGOs for assisting the rural poor with livelihood opportunities.
Jon is the type who heeds the advice of the Chinese general Sun Tzu: “For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”
In other words, he eyes the ball in the anti-insurgency campaign as more than a military conflict, but with economic social, cultural rights dimensions. I totally agree with him and support him on this.
So while in October 2017, his subordinates in his former command the 303rd Infantry Brigade arrested two New People’s Army (NPA) leaders in Barangay 1 Poblacion, Kabankalan City, Negros.
Captured alive was Louie Antonio Martinez, of the national military staff, and Aurora Cayon, of the national finance commission of the communist movement. They will have their day in court.
And now we get this: calls for the establishment of a revolutionary government. Early this month, about 3,000 supporters of Duterte joined the launching of the revolutionary-federal campaign at the Bacolod Pavilion Hotel.
Surprisingly, even Alfredo G. Marañon Jr. said, “I will support it, but there should be a guarantee that there will be change.” He said the overhauling of the system should be done down to the village officials.
He added that “As long as it is implemented correctly and if everybody will cooperate, it is possible to run a revolutionary government.”
I’m not sure that the Governor knows the implication of what he said. Assuredly, there will be changes. After all, Cambodians were assured of changes under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
Unfettered by constitutional law, the Khmer Rouge abolished money, free markets, normal schooling, private property, foreign clothing styles, religious practices, and traditional Khmer culture. Public schools, pagodas, mosques, churches, universities, shops and government buildings were shut or turned into prisons, stables, reeducation camps and granaries.
I’m not assured of President Duterte’s statement “I hope there will never be a time that I will be compelled to call for it. I am a lawyer and we follow the Constitution].”
No, there will be no time to set aside the Constitution. Never. As Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff General Rey Guerrero keeps his eyes on the ball to battle calls for a revolutionary government that will give President Rodrigo Duterte powers to suspend the Constitution.
“The talk about revolutionary government is not doing the country any good.”
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(Email me at bqsanc@yahoo.com)