By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
She is actually not the czar as it is the President who is the chairman of the NTF-ELCAC task force, but she will be. Much of the actions of that task force will fall on the two vice-chairs. The VP is much higher in rank being the second highest official of the land. So she will be practically calling the shots.
So how will the task force be? We can divine that from just one instance long ago when the VP was still the mayor of Davao City. A court sheriff wanted to demolish the houses of some squatters but the VP as mayor then arrived at the scene. From news accounts, the VP punched the sheriff. And the demolition did not push through. Can you imagine how the punching by the beautiful lady happened?
It would not be unreasonable to surmise that the task force will be iron fisted in dealing with leftist rebels. She coldly said the other day, “the insurgency must stop now.” And remember, a big part of her is German. Well, Adolf Hitler was not actually a German. He was Austrian.
Will a hard line approach be effective? Let us look at the past. Just before the declaration of martial law in 1972, the so called left appeared so strong. Thus, when martial law was declared, a lot of people loved it. As so many people said, the most peaceful time in this country was the few weeks after martial law was declared.
What followed was the mass arrest of activists and other so called communists who went all over the place alleging their having been tortured by the military and other agents of the state. Did the people rise up in their defense? A big fat NO.
Will the people rise up and stage a revolt if the task force will be iron fisted in dealing with leftists rebels? No. The reason is because the people do not see them as harbingers of real change. They are shouting for reforms but most of them cannot reform themselves. They are far from being models of change or virtue. A good humber of them are even living in luxury.
The more pertinent question is, does Communism really work? To the credit of local leftists, their analysis of what ails Philippine society is patially correct but Communism as a solution? Definitely not? It failed in the USSR and in China.
Will that Godless ideology work here? No. So why are people risking their lives for it? Your guess is as good as mine.
There is one thing though observed by a number of people on others who call themselves leftists. They can be arrogant as if they are the most intelligent people in the world. Yet what have they accomplished after so many decades of calling themselves revolutionaries? Their being good in exploiting their cadres who are sacrificing in the field?
It might do them well to study other more practical and more comprehensive ideologies such as the Progressive Utilization Theory (PROUT), also known as Progressive Socialism.**
