Communists like Sara Elago object to being “red tagged” but continue to incite support for their failed “revolution”

Of the Philippines’ communist “movement”, national artist F. Sionil Jose poses this question in his PhilSTAR piece “Our people’s army” today: “Why then does Joma Sison and his aging cabal persist?” I believe the question should be rephrased: Why does the communist movement still have hypocritical leaders?

I’m not referring to the communist old guard who are effectively write-offs — old dogs that can’t be taught new tricks. I refer more to the young such as the party-list representatives in Congress and what stands as the leadership of leftist-militant groups in the mainstream; Teddy Casiño, Neri Colmenares, Sarah Elago, Tinay Palabay, Tonyo Cruz and the like. There are also their media allies such as the group of Inday Espina Varona and the liberal journalists who don’t label themselves as leftists but are friendly to them and don’t hide their bias against the present administration.

The hypocrisy is glaring. When any of their members are arrested or killed, it’s a human rights violation. When soldiers and policemen are killed, they’re casualties of the “revolution.” Then there are the youth who are recruited and separated from their families when they go underground. They wind up dead later in encounters with government forces. I cannot see the justification or the the moral ground where these leaders stand when it comes to the sacrifice of human life which should be sacrosanct if their rights are the priority.

In his piece, Sionil proposes a way forward;

As I already said, the young people today who are lured by idealism to join the New People’s Army should recognize that they cannot overthrow the state or sunder this nation anymore. What they can do is to join politics or organize themselves into nationalist cadres.

As for the 4,000 members of the New People’s Army, I hope the government will grant them amnesty and induct them into the Armed Forces where they can then illustrate the fullest depth of their idealism. We need a strong Army, and thank God ours has developed democratically.

The national artist for literature has made his stand known in a previous column; it’s time to put an end to the insurgency. You can’t have communists fighting a revolution and yet object to being tagged as such even if they’re obviously members of the movement. Isn’t this indicative of a lack of commitment to the cause? Public sympathy is obviously not on their side as a few of them have run for national office but lost miserably. If it doesn’t enjoy poplar support the cause is a lost one. The obvious reason why is that they enjoy the perks and privileges of being a power bloc in society. Witness how they provide the crowds during protests and rallies and votes during election day.

The truth is the communists are nothing but a bunch of intellectual, ideological and social prostitutes and pimps of the highest order. They will never admit that their revolution is a failure but they continue to be a thorn on the side of government. It’s about time that we do away with this pestilence and their protectors who benefit from them at the expense of the Filipino people.

Ramon Ortoll

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