Duterte plans to use Joma Sison to call for end to NPA struggle

But what about the willingness to negotiate with China over the latter’s claims in the South China Sea? Is Mr. Duterte really going to sever ties with the US and Australia? It turns out that his attitude to China reflects his attitude to the Communist New People’s Army.

“I will not waste the lives of Filipino soldiers and policement,” Mr. Duterte declares (Inquirer). Instead, he says in a televised debate, “We must establish the legitimacy of our claim,” through a favorable decision from international arbitration tribunals currently hearing the Philippine case. In an interview (Rappler), he proposes a joint exploration of the area under the South China Sea, rather than war, but China must “not insist on its supposed ‘ownership’ of the disputed areas”.

Where other see bravado, this blog instead sees a mature and realistic way of dealing with problems. The same can be said of his attitude to the NPA. There is no doubt that Mr. Duterte has Communist sympathies, that he has declared “I will be the first Left President of the Philippines,” and that he has more than once stated his willingness to establish a “revolutionary” government that includes communist rebels. There is also no doubt that this blog is violently opposed to Communism and rejects Marxism root-and-branch. But there is no denying that the Marxist insurgency has been going on in the Philippines since 1968. Fifty years of proletarian struggle is too long, even for die-hard opponents on both sides. A way must be found to lead the struggle to a satisfying end, in a manner both mature and realistic.

Mr. Duterte was one of the first students of Communist Party founder Jose Ma. Sison under the Kabataang Makabayan, and Mr. Sison has now promised to return from exile if Mr. Duterte wins. Critics warn that there will be violence instead, and a victory of sorts for the Communists when they join the Duterte Cabinet. But what is true instead is that President Cory Aquino’s government released Mr. Sison from prison in 1986 for the sake of “national reconciliation”, which is one of the reason why military leaders subsequently felt little loyalty to Mrs. Aquino. The fact is that Mr. Sison was released then without condition, but it is clear to this blog that Mr. Duterte plans to welcome Mr. Sison back to the Philippines in order to ask him to give a call to end the violence.

Is that a sinister plan, or mature and realistic? The problem is there, rebels are operating throughout the country, as they have been for nearly fifty years. They have been both opposed and used by politicians of all stripes.[1] Mr. Duterte simply wants to end the violence.

TheEconomizer is willing to give Mr. Duterte the benefit of the doubt, as a Duterte supporter. If Roxas supporters are not as willing, both sides should remind themselves that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Despite his Leftist sympathies, Mr. Duterte does not allow the NPA to extort money from Davao businessmen. That should be enough.

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[1] For instance, Senator Ninoy Aquino brokered a 1969 meeting between Commander Dante (Bernabe Buscayno) of ex-HukBaLaHap and Mr. Sison to form the CPP-NPA. Sen. Aquino of course had socialist sympathies, but he really wanted a base on which to launch his candidacy for president in 1972. He upheld his side of the bargain: when his Communist connections told him of Mr. Sison’s plan to bomb the Liberal Party’s senatorial proclamation rally in August 1971, he kept the secret and held back, keeping himself late for the rally. The deaths or serious injuries to prominent LP politicians in the Plaza Miranda bombing was blamed on President Marcos, which only boosted Sen. Aquino’s stock in the opinion polls.