Seize the day

Jose Maria Sison was reportedly serving mainly as a consultant of the Communist Party of the Philippines upon his death last Friday in the Netherlands. Still, the loss of the CPP’s founding leader and inspiration of the world’s longest running communist insurgency is inevitably seen as a weakening factor in the rebellion.

Sison’s death at 83 followed the report that couple Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, commanders of the CPP’s military wing the New People’s Army, might have died in a pump boat explosion off Catbalogan in Samar last August.

The inevitable question following Sison’s death is what happens now to the communist movement.

President Marcos, whose father used the communist rebellion launched by Joma Sison as one of the pretexts for declaring martial law in 1972, has said nothing about the insurgency.

BBM’s security officials have issued conflicting statements on the approach to the communist rebellion. He himself has been silent on the peace process with the CPP and its political arm the National Democratic Front (NDF).

Bagong Alyansa ng Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes told “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s One News last Monday that it’s time to resume the peace process.

If BBM believes in the wisdom of negotiating from strength, perhaps he would take up Reyes’ proposal.

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The past three elections have shown the political Left being weakened. It recorded its worst performance this year, with the combined forces of Rodrigo Duterte and the only son of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. decimating its ranks.

Some members of the progressive bloc who lost their seats in Congress have blamed the poll defeat on what they deem to be the demonization of the Left by Duterte throughout his presidency.

But surely the reasons must be more complicated than that. Among all the presidents since the ouster of the elder Marcos in 1986, Duterte was in fact seen to be the most genuinely sympathetic to the communist movement. He could legitimately claim an attraction to socialist ideas in his youth, and he appointed several known leftists to his administration.

In the early stages of Duterte’s presidency, when he was trying (as all his post-EDSA predecessors did) to revive the stalled peace initiative with the CPP-NDF, he had one key request to the rebels: stop attacking government forces.

This looked like a condition set by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, which handle counterinsurgency and counterterrorism.

The communist insurgency, however, seems to consider even a suspension of armed struggle a form of surrender. There was an attempt to observe a truce in the first year of the Duterte administration. But both sides began swapping accusations of breaking the truce. Duterte, who has a known soft spot for the military and police, believed his security officers, and aborted the peace initiative.

Everything went downhill from there. Duterte’s verbal tussles with Joma Sison spilled over into harangues against Left-leaning organizations. The anti-Red tirades were often inserted into his regular national briefings on the COVID situation in the country.

Were the harangues mainly to blame for the dismal showing of the progressive groups last May? They must have played a role. But Duterte also openly heaped insults on someone he described as a cocaine-using weakling seeking the presidency, and look where that got the country.

So there must be something more to the disaffection shown by the people – as this year’s vote indicated – toward the Left.

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The progressive groups have been raising valid issues, highlighting the inequalities and other social injustices that need fixing in our country. A study last month showed that income inequality in our country is among the highest in East Asia.

The communist movement was at its strongest during the first Marcos administration, and it wasn’t simply because Joma Sison was personally leading the rebellion. The oppression, large-scale corruption and other state abuses during the Marcos dictatorship served as the most effective recruitment tools for the CPP-NPA.

Many of the injustices and other social ills that Joma fought against are still around, festering like a cankered wound.

Like the political opposition at this point, however, the Left can use better messaging. Other people, among them allies of the administration, are championing the same issues, and presenting solutions or moving to address them.

The government has far more resources and capability than any fringe group to address public grievances. Opponents of Joma’s forces and sympathizers have had some success in painting the Left as people who are full of rage – mga taong galit sa mundo – with no solutions offered.

The regular distribution of ayuda also works for the government, even if many beneficiaries must be aware of the palliative and unsustainable nature of cash doleouts.

Needy people will prefer ayuda to the “revolutionary taxes” and “contributions” that they are forced to give to the NPA. I’ve talked to househelpers, drivers and other blue collar workers who said they decided to leave their homes and families in their villages and try their luck in Manila because they were tired of NPA demands for “contributions” of rice and other supplies. They said they feared being seen as NPA sympathizers and being killed by government forces.

Such “contributions” to the communist cause may be willingly given if people know exactly what the cause is. But what’s the CPP’s endgame? Communism has no showcase at this point to clearly illustrate its objectives. North Korea, Russia and Cuba are hardly inspiring models. China and Vietnam, while still communist politically, have embraced capitalism.

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The deteriorating performance of the Left in the elections must have put the insurgency problem low in the order of priorities of Marcos 2.0.

Instead the government seems content with pursuing localized peace talks, under which rebels are encouraged to emerge from the underground and rejoin the social mainstream.

Bayan’s Reyes, when asked if there would be non-negotiables in case BBM decides to restart the peace process, says the rebels cannot be asked to “surrender” – meaning to give up the armed struggle.

Reyes describes the localized peace initiatives as tantamount to encouraging rebels to surrender. He stresses that localized peace efforts will not bring lasting peace; a formal agreement is needed for this.

With the CPP-NDF-NPA weakened by the loss of its leaders, BBM might want to seize the day.

Joma Sison launched his rebellion during the first Marcos presidency. It would be a coup for Ferdinand Marcos Jr. if he could put a decisive end to what was started during his father’s regime.