The Philippines is fighting a war on several fronts. Aside from the war on drugs, the Armed Forces is stretched on military operations against the terrorist kidnap for ransom Abu Sayyaf group and the communist New People’s Army.
All this is going on even as a tenuous peace agreement is still hanging fire with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. With the aborted Bangsamoro Basic Law, a modified framework accord is yet be worked out by legislators. Then there is the external threat posed by China’s aggressive moves in the West Philippine Sea.
It does not take a rocket scientist nor a former defense secretary to tell the government that economic community development should also be implemented to pacify the restive elements of society. A military solution alone won’t solve the problem of insurgency from the communists nor the Muslim secessionists. But where will the government source the funds for a complementary social melioration program if it plans a total ban on mining which generates an estimated P73 billion in revenues?
The civil war in Syria is still raging without a peace settlement in sight because of the hard -line stance of the Bashir al-Assad regime and the rebels. Multilateral involvement of Russia, the United States and the United Nations so far have failed. Because of Vladimir Putin’s vested interest that Syria does not fall into the US-backed rebels, the carnage in rebel stronghold Aleppo continues with women and children as collateral victims. This was what drove a flood of refugees and migrants into Europe. They fled the daily bombing, drone attacks and the savage treatment when captured by Assad’s loyalist troops. As hard as it is to believe, the man has a following. Who knows the fate that awaits them if the revolutionaries win?
There is, however, a ray of hope that even the longest and most bitter civil strife in a divided nation can be achieved through patience, perseverance and compromise. This was the case in the bloody civil war between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland.
The decades-long struggle between government forces and the communist New People’s Army continue to this day even as the two sides across the negotiation table huddle and haggle. The government accuses the NPA of violating the truce by attacking soldiers on patrol while the rebs claim government troops entered rebel-held territory.
From Oslo, Norway, the peace talks between the GRP and the National Democratic Front-Communist Party of the Philippines shifted to Rome where it was suspended because of disagreements on demands by the NDF-CPP. Now it’s on again— but for how long will these talks last before a final and enduring peace accord is reached.?
We have a competent government panel headed by Chief Negotiator Jess Dureza, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello. But the NDF-CPP side is still composed of an aging group of Jose Ma. Sison and Luis Jalandoni. Their intransigence and hard-line positions are as old as they are. Flexibility and compromise are the two key elements needed in reaching a settlement. The stumbling blocks to a peace settlement remained elusive, but then it’s better for both sides to be talking than shooting.
Amid this backdrop of conflicts that confront the country, Deputy Speaker Romeo Acop is proposing the revival of the Reserved Officers Training Corps, the military training program that used to be a component of college education. Our young men these days cannot even handle a rifle. The nearest they get hold of a weapon is a loose firearm used in barkada brawls.
Back in the day, ROTC officers taught us how to disassemble and reassemble rifles. Firing a rifle at a shooting range a requisite. Preparing our men in the event of war is necessary. Although a conventional ground war has become obsolete with the advent of missiles and nuclear arsenal, military training is still a must so if conquered by the enemy, a guerrilla war can still be waged. This, the Viet Cong proved when they defeated French forces and then American troops in the Vietnam war. North and South Vietnam laid the foundation for a strong unified nation. The Philippines, occupied by Spain, the US and Japan still has to emerge united . Internecine politics and cursed with corrupt leadership, the Philippines remains behind the rest of stable countries in the region.
While the economy has shown signs of robust growth, political stability still has to be achieved. The underlying reason for this malady, according to political observers, is that the Filipino electorate still keep voting for the wrong leaders and basing their choices on the candidates’ popularity instead of their competence and vision to lead the nation.