“The rebels have repeatedly turned exploratory talks with the government peace panel into a farce.”
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) have time and again proven their insincerity to talk peace with the government.
Clearly, the CPP-NPA and their allied groups have only one thing in mind which is to wrest power from the government.
Though decimated into ragtag guerrilla units, they have continued to mount treacherous attacks, the latest of which is the recent Masbate City ambush-landmine bombing that killed Keith Absalon and Nolven Absalon.
The CPP-NPA immediately admitted responsibility and publicly apologized for the killings of “wrong targets,” having mistaken the victims for policemen.
Keith, 21, a standout football player of the Far Eastern University (FEU) and his cousin Nolven, a labor union leader were shot to death at close range after being waylaid by the explosion of an improvised bomb while leisurely biking with five others.
The cold-blooded murders of innocent and unarmed non-combatant civilians earned international condemnation as a “crime against humanity.”
Still, CPP-NPA supporters and sympathizers, like Kabataan Partylist Rep. Sara Elago, have shamelessly demanded the government to revive peace negotiation with the communist rebels.
Why and for what should the government do so?
Elago, 31, must realize that the so-called peace talks had been going on long before she was born.
There never was a breakthrough between the government and the communists under the umbrella of the National Democratic Front (NDF) which demanded impossible preconditions to actual negotiations.
The CPP-NPA had repeatedly turned exploratory talks with the government peace panel into a farce and publicity stunt.
Since their goal is nothing less than to take over the government, the Armed Forces sustained an anti-terrorist drive against the communist rebels.
The NPA has since ceased to be a belligerent force to contend with except for the threat it poses against military troops involved in government efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Elago should instead urge the CPP-NPA to heed the call of Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief General Guillermo Eleazar to turn over those responsible for exploding a landmine and shooting the Absalons and their biking companions.
Some of those who figured in the bloody blunder killings of innocent civilians could be dropout students the NDF groups recruited in the campuses.
The Kabataan solon might as well ask her comrades to surrender to the authorities and turn over a new leaf — unless she supports the CPP-NPA’s murderous agenda.