THE NEWS on Thursday that Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. is determined to have the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) outlawed was both surprising and not.
Surprising because after years of amnesty and participation in the democratic process, it seems odd to want to re-criminalize and push the communists back underground and to the hills, instead of challenging them in the open arena of public opinion.
On the other hand, with national elections just around the corner in a month and half from now, an increasingly desperate Arroyo administration, faced with the obvious popularity of left-wing party-list groups such as Bayan Muna and Gabriela, is lashing out in an indiscriminate fashion.
While it is true that Malacanang Palace has several times told Esperon that outlawing the CPP was not going to happen, the mere fact that he keeps repeating the threat points to the probability that some in Arroyo government must be pushing this and are using Esperon to test public opinion on this issue.
The recent arrest of Rep. Satur Ocampo and the attempt on Monday to forcibly transfer him to Leyte to face accusations of allegedly having ordered the killing of CPP members whose bodies were found in a mass grave there last August, looks like pure harassment of a leftist icon and the many followers that he and his party have.
Leftists have decried the recent formation of at least 10 party-list groups that want to take part in the May elections as being front groups set up by the Arroyo administration to challenge them in the polls. These new groups, unsurprisingly, have denied being puppet groups funded with government money.
But there is no doubt that the Arroyo administration has taken note a long time ago of the huge popularity of the leftist party-list groups among the masses, and the ability that flows from this for them to easily call huge anti-Arroyo rallies at whim.
Thus the timing of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s offensive against the CPP and its members, just before an election that all opinion polls show the administration losing badly, is highly suspect.
Not only that, but coming on the heels of vigorous accusations last month by the UN rapporteur on extrajudicial killings that the Philippine government was not doing enough to arrest and prosecute those responsible for the slew of killings of leftist activists and journalists over the past five years, it seems obvious that the Arroyo administration is just trying to divert attention from its own misdeeds.
And how better to do this, and distract public attention at the same time, then to accuse the ones who are claiming repression (i.e. leftists) of murder themselves? While the CPP has not denied that it has undertaken purges of its ranks in the past, Ocampo denies having ordered the killings in Leyte in the 1980s.
Ocampo was granted amnesty that allowed him to come in from the hills, swapping a life of guerilla warfare for one of political battles in Congress. That cannot be a bad thing and the Philippine government cannot go back on this amnesty now. You can’t have it both ways: Ocampo was given full amnesty and thus cannot be held liable for any alleged crime committed before the amnesty. End of story.
What the Arroyo administration is doing now is pure political harassment of the lowest kind and those behind this should be ashamed of themselves. We pundits can see right through this charade, and you can bet that the masses see right through this too.
IPSJ Graduation
I WAS graciously invited by the International Philippine School in Jeddah to be their guest of honor and commencement speaker at their graduation ceremonies this Thursday. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts I was not able to attend.
IPSJ, founded in 1981, is the oldest Philippine school in the Middle East. At its height of enrollment, more than 1,000 students attended the school. Then troubles came with parents fighting among themselves, accusations of corruption and even violence on the campus. This led to an exodus of students from the school which helped fuel the boom in new Philippine schools in Jeddah. Now there are a handful of schools that Filipino parents can choose from to send their children to.
Nilo Lucena, who handed me the invitation on behalf of the IPSJ’s Principal Reinita Respicio, Assistant Principal Bae Tabao, and Administrative Officer Zobair Macabanding told me that the school has a new board of directors and has begun paying off its debts that had been crippling the performance of the school. Although student enrollment has dipped to around 500 students, Lucena told me he was optimistic that with the new leadership in place, as well as new teachers and new students, the future of IPSJ looks bright.
I would like to salute all of the 2007 graduates of IPSJ and hope that they will take with them the unique experience they have had studying at a Philippine school in Saudi Arabia, and use that knowledge to improve Saudi-Philippine relations and help make a difference back home.
Comments or questions? Email me at: [email protected]. Visit my blog at: http://rasheedsworld.blogspot.com.
