LET’S TALK about this seemingly never-ending insurgency problem that has plagued our country for more than half a century. Let’s zero in on what I believe is the main reason why this insurgency doesn’t seem to run out of “cannon fodder” — or as Vladimir Lenin famously described them, “useful idiots.”
Contrary to popular belief, the root cause of the insurgency is not the government’s failure to provide basic social services or livelihood in far-flung barangays. That narrative has already been effectively addressed by the Whole-of-Nation approach and the Barangay Development Program under the NTF-ELCAC — despite relentless efforts by the so-called Makabayan bloc and their friends in Congress to defund this very important task force.
What continues to fuel this insurgency is the influence of misguided and restless youth, particularly those in universities and colleges who fancy themselves as “woke.” Lacking direction in life but brimming with hormones, these young people are easily manipulated by their aging professors to live out their revolutionary fantasies — pushing an obsolete and irrelevant ideology: communism. Ironically, it is an ideology long abandoned by the very country that birthed it, in favor of capitalism.
Prowling about in our college and university campuses are lackeys of Joma Sison and his ilk, ever on the lookout for gullible youngsters to abduct for their bankrupt cause. Hieing their victims off to their mountain lairs, they wreck their future and shatter the dreams of their families, making of each of their recruits hardly anything more than brigands like themselves sought and wanted by law enforcers and agents of the state. (Ranhilio Aquino The Manila Times 11/72022)
It is quite pathetic that these “useful idiots” — who find it trendy and fashionable to support the insurgents — don’t even realize that the democratic space and lifestyle they now enjoy would vanish the moment the CPP-NPA-NDF actually takes over.
Ahay, no more Frappuccino or Salted Caramel Macchiato for these woke social climbers. Instead, they’ll be marched into re-indoctrination camps to purge themselves of their bourgeois attitudes and self-indulgent mentalities.
The communists have so much at stake at UP.
For one, communists use the UP campuses for recruiting young, gullible college students to do away with their schooling and join the local communist movement. Recruitment is done stealthily through campus organizations, dormitories, and boarding houses.
In many instances, faculty members themselves pave the way for the recruitment of unsuspecting students.
The new, brainwashed recruits are then directed to fight it out with military operatives in remote areas of the country. Many are killed and return home in makeshift coffins.
UP campuses offer a haven for anti-government rallies and radical symposia. Most of these activities do not require a permit and are often done using UP facilities free of charge. Holding an activity inside a UP campus also gives that activity a disputable semblance of intellectual respectability.
Communists in UP also bask in the knowledge that the UP administration does not allow pro-government rallies, events, and gatherings inside the UP campuses.
UP campuses also host many “safehouses” for communist cadres, Communist influence among many UP students is obvious. (Daily Tribune 11/16/2022)
What is perhaps needed now is a complete reboot of the University of the Philippines — a purge of all the aging remnants of the First Quarter Storm, the pseudo-communist professors, and the so-called liberal left: the woke and the social climbers.
To think all of this is happening under the guise of “critical thinking.” Clearly, the kids are not alright.
Finally, here’s a thought — why not just defund UP and use the money instead to finance the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? Now that would be money well spent./PN
