“Running left-wing movements has always been the prerogative of spoiled rich kids. This pattern goes all the way back to the days when an overindulged and affluent young man named Karl Marx teamed up with another overindulged youth from a wealthy family, Friedrich Engels, to create the Communist ideology.” – Thomas Sowell
THIS MORE than 50-year-old communist insurgency nonsense seems to have shifted from the hinterlands where peasants and the “hoi polloi” were at the forefront. Nowadays the “revolution” is strategized in high-end coffee shops by the salted caramel macchiato-infused “wokes” and other social climbers.
This is not surprising as the icons of the CPP-NPA-NDF i.e. the late Joma Sison, Luis Jalandoni and Concha Araneta Bocala, were not exactly from the ranks of the “great unwashed”, rather the very opposite.
And this brings us to the current CPP-NPA-NDF “white area” operations – Congress, or the House of Representativesvia the party-list system.
The party-list system was borne out of a noble concept – giving representation to the marginalized sector of Philippine society in the House of Representatives. It was envisioned that the marginalized would organize themselves into party-lists with parties winning at least 2% of the national vote given a seat, with additional seats determined by a formula dependent on the number of votes garnered by the party.
Noble, indeed. But somewhere along the way something happened that politicized, weaponized and hijacked the party-list system. Now it is no longer what it was intended for but a shortcut for politicians to become congressmen, and likewise for enemies of the state using the democratic process to undermine the government using government funds and resources.
In short, the party-list system has become a backdoor for the rich and powerful to further entrench themselves in Congress, but that is another story. Let’s talk about enemies of the state.
The infiltration of CPP-NPA-NDF front organizations, i.e. the so-called Makabayan bloc, into Congress not only threatens our national security but makes a mockery of the intelligence of the Filipino people. These so-called party-lists all claim to champion the marginalized sectors; their presence in the Congress, however, raises serious doubts about the legitimacy of their intentions.
These leftist party-lists are experts at exploiting loopholes in the democratic electoral system. Their sitting representatives in Congress are card-bearing CPP-NPA-NDF urban operatives which allows them to gain funding and exposure at the expense of the government. These funds are funneled into their central committee to resuscitate an insurgency already in its death throes, manipulate the system, hijack taxpayer-funded proceedings like impeachment hearings, and grandstanding for free media coverage to maintain visibility. As I have been saying – undermining the government using government funds and resources.
It is a fact the Makabayan bloc and friends have repeatedly been calling to defund the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) like a broken record.
There is a deliberate effort to distort the public’s perception of the NTF-ELCAC, portraying it as a repressive entity when, in truth, it stands as one of the most inclusive and community-driven peace-building initiatives in our nation’s history.
Not only that. The Makabayan bloc is maliciously spreading lies that the taskforce is a state mechanism for harassing activists, which of course are just figments of their imagination conjured out of thin air like “red-tagging.”
Speaking of “red tagging”, a bill was recently filed in Congress seeking to criminalize “red-tagging.” Ostensibly a safeguard for democratic rights, this legislation risks becoming a shield for impunity, enabling those who exploit our freedoms to perpetuate violence against the Filipino people
This bill threatens to stifle the very institutions protecting the nation from the dangers of insurgency and violent extremism. It seeks to criminalize facts supported by years of intelligence operations, sworn testimonies of former rebels, and the lived experiences of communities once held captive by armed propaganda.
Take note, this bill is not about protecting civil liberties or human rights; it is about protecting the CPP-NPA-NDF and resuscitating the dying insurgency.
So there./PN
