"Everything has become porous when it comes to ideological identification."
"Everything has become porous when it comes to ideological identification."
To quell the insurgency movement, the country needs to identify our enemies by the ideology they are advancing to wage a revolutionary war to overthrow the duly constituted authority. This is asked because the Communist Party of the Philippines and its front organizations, despite their commitment to the Marxist-Leninist Mao-Zedung Thought, have lately become more anti-China than being anti-imperialist in their struggle. This assessment is intended to let us understand the enemies of the state if the Duterte administration is truly committed to eradicating the CPP/NDF and its front organizations.
One must remember that to entice followers, it has to openly adhere to certain political doctrines as guide to their ideology. Admittedly, all of them are committed to improving the welfare of the people and society, and their ideology is supposed to be above politics. Because of the intensifying US-China geo-political competition in this part of the globe, the local insurgency movement has become more political than ideological. We are saying this because joining the race to politically isolate China is to reduce their followers to one advocating political platforms not intended to sustain the needs of changing to our society and social system. The shift in the local communist movement‘s attitude towards China is telling of a radical modification to the tenet Maoism.
One must bear in mind that once a political party descends to involve in parochial issues, it opens itself to all forms of subjectivism, bigotry from nationalism and populism. For whatever reason the leadership of the party would deny this fact is to deviate from raising the banner of being an anti-imperialist firebrand that today is posturing to fight for our freedom and democracy. Today, the CPP’s anti-China rhetoric is a gambit to make the party relevant. When the CPP through its National Democratic Font wing dropped in the early 70’s the slogan of down with cleric-fascism after they reached an unholy alliance against the Church, it needs the Left to help it against the inroads of state power seeking to implement the Constitutional provision of taxing the Church while the Left wanting to keep the flickering movement alive.
The CPP and its front organizations, on the surface, still appear to be a revolutionary movement. But for the fact that it has aligned itself on issues determinative of its quest for survival, the classic slogan of one step backward to make two steps forward have not achieved what it wants for our people and society. Once a social upheaval intensifies, there is a likely possibility the NPAS could find itself supported by the US like what is going on now in Mindanao where some of the armed Islamic separatist groups are supported by it.
Everything has become porous when it comes to ideological identification where terrorist organizations like ISIS is now acknowledged as being financed and supported by US intelligence services. It is no longer a question of ideological affinity characterized by the polarization of ideology but individual commitment by states to preserve its empire from possible collapse. In fact, China is not even demanding the removal of the US bases but it is showing signs of insecurity because of its inability to provide economic assistance to its once formable ally in Asia.
This is a repetition of the earlier polarization that occurred in the early years of martial law. The communists, the yellow oligarchy, and the Church all sided with the US against Marcos although the Left insist in styling itself as anti-imperialist. The variation is that today they are all anti-China and the USA has more stakes to defend its enclave than in wanting to economically develop this country. This prosaic alliance of the communists with the various interest groups collaterally coagulates as an anti-Duterte alliance. The same elements are banking on the Armed Forces to decisively tilt in their favor just as what happened in 1986. They hope a repetition could again happen as a way to save them from political extinction.
The CPP and its front organizations are more virulent than their counterpart in their alliance against China without them considering that most of the arms supplied to kill them came from the US. The shift in the CPP’s policy pronouncement has connected many of the political loose-ends that find themselves coagulating in on the issues of anti-dictatorship. US support for human rights has become their common denominator. This issue is hastened today by President Duterte’s policy of seeking an independent foreign policy. The strategy is for them to skewer Duterte’s support of China’s policy even concocting a big lie that Duterte has openly sold out or abandoned our claim over some of the islands in the South China Sea. Objectively the purposely is to put the Duterte administration on the defensive.
The weird accusation that China is about to invade us is intended to consummate the propaganda to find justification to US gunboat presence in the Philippines. The anti-China drumbeating is intended to challenge future plans of the Philippines to enter into a joint venture with China to explore, develop and exploit the mineral resources in the South China Sea which is close to the Philippines. This joint venture agreement could effectively edge out the US in the South China Sea. The alliance of the Left, the Church and the oligarchy is pivotal for once the US vacates this part of the world, their control and dominance in our society which they have been lording it over for centuries will finally come to an end.
The Church has to consistently provide support anything that would serve to preserve the status quo. For instance, it is to the interest of the Church to orchestrate anti-Duterte rallies because of his anti-clerical stand to amend the Constitution and revive the provision of taxing the Church of its properties and businesses as what the 1973 Constitution did. The church have come business partners of the oligarchy which reason why the poor have been totally aliened from them. Despite the rightist initiative, the Left and the CPP continue to receive support on the theory that it will eventually isolate the Duterte administration. In other words, they still rely on the old anti-Marcos strategy.
The awkward position of the CPP to take a stand against China is the reason why there has been a remarkable increase in insurgency movement. The problem is more difficult to understand because the AFP remains indoctrinated to the belief that the CPP is a Chinese supported revolutionary organization engaged in a protracted war unmindful that some of its funder are themselves allies of the US and of the Philippines. Many have not reconciled to the reality that the tax generated by the underground movement is partly consented to by the oligarchy and the by Church. The greatest irony is that Filipinos would deny outright that the CPP is possibly funded by the CIA, and the AFP fighting an enemy not what they have in mind.
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