Tear down the rebels?

There is something ominous in the vow of General Hermogenes Esperon Jr., an extendee AFP chief, to “tear down” guerilla fronts of the New People’s Army in the next few months. Coming from the highest official of the military, this statement simply means one thing: An all-out war against communist insurgents.

Expect therefore this scenario in the days to come (that is, if the general makes good his promise): Troops swooping down, guns blazing, on supposed NPA outposts. Helicopter gunships (including the decrepit ones) firing rockets at rebel areas. Mountain folks fleeing for their lives from war zones and seeking shelter elsewhere. Footages of casualties would of course get played up in tv screens – those of the soldiers and those of the alleged insurgents.

How many of the dead rebels would be really rebels and not innocent folks? The so-called collateral casualties will as usual figure in the encounter and as usual too the military would count them for publicity as enemy casualties.

We are tempted to cheer General Esperon for his hawkish approach in trying to stamp out the country’s 40-year rebellion problem. The trouble is bullets do not buy peace. Bullets may wipe out those who turned against the authorities. But these cannot annihilate the cause underlying the movement, and so the problem remains because there will always be others who will continue the struggle.

What is the rallying idea of the current insurgency in the country? Is it plain and simple Marxism, or enduring social injustice? Years ago when Communism was in its high water mark in the former USSR and China, this problem could be said to have had an ideological basis. But now that this movement has been discredited, in fact, actually abandoned by its major proponents, it’s hard to imagine that it’s still the rallying cry of Filipino rebels. Perhaps to the brain-washed leaders, it may be so. But to the rank-and-file it could be something else.

This “something else” is no other than grinding poverty borne out of the government’s failure to work out a credible anti-poverty program. There simply are too many poorer than poor in a country where only 10 percent own 90 percent of the resources.

There is a sizeable middle class to be sure, but as long as so many can’t afford three decent meals a day – and these are mostly the marginal farmers, the sidelined fishermen and the army of unemployed in city slums – the temptation to go to the hills will always be there.

Land reform – this is the stock response of the government every time this problem is brought to light. Land reform is good, of course. But in the half-hearted way we are doing it, this program is nothing but a lollipop answer to the problem.

Years ago I was with a group of Negros Oriental government officials who dialogued with the farmers in the hinterland of that province. The farmers’ common gripe: There was no way they could pay the parcels of land given them, nor did they have the resources to develop these productively. The result: They had to borrow money from their former landlords who ended up getting back the land because the farmers could not pay their debts.

The Somilao farmers’ long march to Manila was triggered by a land reform policy which was viewed as unfair because it robbed them of their very source of subsistence. But the government seems to wash its hands – or is it just being biased toward the corporation which has staked its claim to the land?

People like these farmers who feel short-changed by the government’s land distribution program as well as its kid-glove way of fighting poverty are the ones who get attracted to the insurgency movement. They feel hopeless. The alternative: Fight the establishment.

And the government’s response: Fight the rebels! Alas, we have been doing this in the last forty or fifty years but the problem remains. Are we that hard of head – and heart? Can’t we find an alternative approach to win back those misguided brother Filipinos?

More than three decades ago a Filipino leader showed us the way. He ran after communist die-hards, but enticed the rank-and-file with offers of land and better life. This was when the Edcor settlements in Mindanao were set up where former insurgents were given parcels of land to till. More than this, the government worked closely with the returnees to look after their basic needs, thus ensuring their integration into the mainstream of society. But this initiative has not been sustained.

Tear down the rebels? It will take more than military hubris to do this.

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