"Sison: Kill more people for the sake of peace."
The usual fireworks celebration last New Year’s Eve was, again, more subdued than from years ago. But a renewed sense of hopefulness was palpable in the air, confirmed in the latest surveys. It seemed that people no longer needed to make as much noise to announce their hopefulness, so deeply has it taken root in our hearts with the good news about vaccines following a year of hopelessness.
The advent of the vaccines later this year, from whichever source, is the only way by which confidence can truly be restored in the public. This is at least as important as the actual immunization of our people against what is, after all, just an ordinary flu virus on steroids.
The return of confidence allows consumers to start buying again. This in turn revives business confidence in investing again. This in turn means monetary policy will no longer be “pushing on a string,” as banks deploy their additional liquidity to restore credit to those investors and consumers. This in turn relieves pressure on our fiscal reserves and sovereign borrowing capacity.
Even with the vaccines, because the virus could mutate or return at any time, the health protocols to which we’ve become used will remain: face masks (though not the cumbersome and unnecessary shields), social distancing, hand hygiene. And there are other positive legacies we may also expect to come out of the pandemic: a stronger healthcare system, more working from home, new online business models.
It isn’t just a corner that’s been turned. It’s a whole new road that’s opened up.
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Unfortunately, some things still won’t change. Last week, the country’s yellow broadsheet trumpeted the headline “Justice sought for 9 slain in Panay raids,” referring to members of the Tumandok community who were killed in a shootout in Capiz by a joint PNP/AFP force.
Out of a total 31 paragraphs, the Inquirer story allowed just one paragraph for the government side, which explained that firearms, ammunitions, and explosives had been found in the casualties’ homes. Among them, according to the PNP:
Twenty-six caliber .45 pistols and one caliber .38 revolver. Twenty-six rifle grenades and 12 hand grenades. Seven home-made 12-gauge shotguns. One 9-mm submachine gun. Ammunition magazines and bandoliers.
These Tumandoks were affiliated with Sandugo, an alliance of indigenous peoples that in turn is affiliated with Bayan. Since Bayan is ostensibly a peaceful political organization with its own party-listers in Congress, they owe us an explanation why their members were violating Republic Acts 9516 and 10591, which prohibit illegal possession of explosives and firearms respectively.
For violent law-breakers such as these, does justice still need to be “sought”? Or has it in fact already been served?
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Bayan might also be able to explain the latest statement from Jose Maria Sison, the “principal consultant” of the NDF—although of course Bayan is not, has never been, and would never be a part of that communist-led alliance.
In his latest diatribe, Sison threatened to revive the sparrow (“sparu”) units of the NPA. These are small guerrilla teams—no more than half a dozen each–set up in our cities and assigned to assassinate the usual long list of suspects for “crimes against the people.”
It can’t be a coincidence that Sison’s tough talk comes in the wake of government’s decision to freeze the bank accounts of the CPP-NPA-NDF, cutting off the lifeline of money flowing in especially from dim-witted NGO’s abroad. As well, the heightened pressure on Makabayan party-listers in Congress—led by the indignant parents of activists turned guerrillas—may lead to their delisting from next year’s elections.
As this other corner is turned, the question for the likes of Bayan is this: How do you square Sison’s new aggressiveness with his continuing condemnation of red-tagging and calls for peace talks? Is it because he loves peace so much that he’s willing to have more people killed for it?
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Today’s first Mass reading (1 John 4: 7-10) is just the kind of Bible passage that Sison’s addled religious allies might misappropriate. The apostle reminds us: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God.” Communist idealists—yes, that breed still exists—would claim that they, too, love humanity and thus can be trusted to work with.
But the rest of the passage also reminds us: “In this is love: that God sent his Son as expiation for our sins.” This offers no grounds at all for common cause with communists, for whom Jesus is at best nothing more than another radical activist, an ancient comrade remade by them into nothing more than their own image.
For that matter, how does all of this square with Sison’s latest order to again let loose assassins on our city streets? With his cassocked fellow travelers condoning this kind of “love” from him, who needs enemies?
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