Two options left for NPAs

JOSE Ma. Sison is furious President Rodrigo Duterte had called it quits as far as peace negotiations with the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed elements, the New Peoples Army, is concerned. He is blaming the President for the failed talks claiming that Duterte wants to perpetuate himself in power as a dictator. Joma has run out of reasons he dabbles with the absurd. 

Oh well,  the government had wasted a lot of time, money, and patience for the last 30 years but the whole exercise was for naught. The Maoist ideology which Sison wants to implant in the Philippines has long been rendered irrelevant.  If there is anything the Chinese learned from Chairman Mao it is obedience, discipline, and industry.  Today, China stands tall and accomplished and it is on its way to becoming the economic super-power the west never thought can happen. It has evolved. The peasants have metamorphosed into entrepreneurs, it has a workforce that is skilled, well-compensated on the basis of efficiency and no longer on the basis of its needs. The new rich in this world comes from China. In the meantime the belt and road initiative of Pres. Xi Jinping cuts across continents bridging countries regardless of creed, political and religious persuasions in massive infrastructures that allow trade and commerce to flow. 

If some people thought the Chinese alone profits from this initiative, give it a closer look. Among the biggest investors in China are actually American companies. While there were knee jerk reactions from some US firms to the call of Pres. Donald Trump for these companies to relocate elsewhere, a majority have stayed foot dictated by astute business sense rather than what the American politicians are telling them. BRI kicked off with $4-trillion and by the looks of it China, with its economic successes, is prepared to pour more into the silk road of economic infrastructures once perceived to be a myth.  To American and European capitalists, business is business. 

Where is the communist ideology spoused by Joma Sison’s CPP/NPA amidst all these mind-boggling development? You have a leader who enjoys the opulence of the Netherlands while his rag-tag army is fighting a hopeless struggle in the mountains. Decimated by their futile armed encounter with government troops, they recruit impressionable young children of indigenous tribes and ideologues from university campuses.  Its legal fronts which enjoy the billions of amenities in the Lower House of Congress have been unmasked by their own belligerent reaction to “red-tagging”. But red is Joma’s favorite color.  Even their screaming banners and posters and the faces of the NPAs are oftentimes painted red. 

In the meantime, hundreds have returned to the folds of the law and instead of placing them behind bars to rot, they were given by the government lands and farm implements to cultivate, houses, and modest funds so they can live together with their families under one roof.  They have come home to roost.

President Duterte has declared that there will be no more peace talks for the rest of his remaining term.  “Destroy them!”,  a clear and direct order. This simply means that there are only two options left for the Red Army: come home and start a new life like the those who have laid their arms or waste a precious life for an ideology that had been consigned in books now gathering dust in libraries...if any.