Opportunistic troublemakers

Rebels from the New People’s Army (NPA) have attacked several mining sites owned by one corporation in Surigao del Sur, destroying equipment and even torching some of them. According to their spokesman, the attacks served as punishment for the corporations continued ravaging of the environment, non-payment of the right taxes to the local government, bribery of local and government officials and oppression and displacement of indigenous people. But according to the AFP and the company itself, this was punishment for their refusal to pay “revolutionary taxes” to the NPA. The NPA is known to extort these kinds of taxes from big corporations operating in their area.

But exactly who is the NPA to become judge, jury and executioner at all? By what right do they operate and claim an area as their own. These are armed rebels, who have been at it against the government for decades. And the last time I looked, they have no right enforcing any kind of law in the Philippines! The AFP recently said that the NPA no longer has the capability to mount a sustained, armed rebellion against the government. For years the organization has suffered from desertions and lack of funding to continue a substantial armed struggle. With their leader in exile in The Netherlands, the NPA have metamorphosed from an armed group driven by an ideology, to simple bandits sporadically terrorizing the countryside. In other words, criminals!

If indeed the NPA no longer has the men nor the machines to make war, then by all means unleash our dogs of war to once and for all crush this rebellious pest from the countryside. The time for talk is over. You cannot talk peace while committing crimes. Whatever the sins in the eyes of the NPA the mining industry have committed against the nation, the NPA simply do not have the right to carry out punishment in whatever form. This, of course, is giving credence to their claims. But what if they were extorting money from the companies? What if it was plain unsuccessful banditry that prompted them to carry out such attacks? Whatever it is, it is clear that these opportunistic, communist troublemakers must go. The Philippines is still a democracy, and not a socialist, communist or whatever it is called nowadays!

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On another note, it is good to know that the flood waters in Bulacan have started to recede. The people of Hagonoy, Calumpit and Malolos deserve a respite from all that the two storms have brought upon them. Once the clean-up and repairs are over, I believe it is time to review protocols regarding the release of water from dams in the presence of storms. The finger-pointing has not stopped as to the real reason for the flooding, which actually got worse when the storms were already exiting the country. Coordination among the dam operators and town officials must be done at all times. Since the three towns cannot exactly be relocated, these protocols must be in place to prevent a repetition of what most have said as the worst flooding in decades, even worse than the ones brought about by Ondoy.