LIKE your classic schoolboy bully calling people names, the leftists or the pseudo-communists have this penchant for coming out with utterly meaningless but catchy phrases which they use to espouse their obsolete and irrelevant ideology. So let’s appropriate one to take a swipe at them.
They use phrases like “useful idiots” in the Philippines. Particularly, they have this penchant for using the phrase “red tagging” as their catch- all “victim card”.
They also like to use the word “purge” which is how the pseudo-communists justify “cleansing” their ranks.
Purge is the abrupt removal of a group of people, which is exactly what we’re saying about the party-list system in Congress.
No. We do not say we remove some people in Congress and shot them in the back and bury them in shallow graves in the hinterlands. The “purge” here is just a figure of speech but yes, we do want some groups of people removed from the party-list system in Congress.
The intention of the party-list system is noble. It aims to give representation in Congress to marginalized groups so their representatives can craft laws that will benefit these marginalized sectors of society.
Unfortunately, there are some groups that use the party-lists system to get into Congress and use government resources to undermine the government. It is also public knowledge that these party-list groups are not only enamored but head over heels in love with the CPP/NPA/NDF whose only purpose in life is overthrowing the legitimate government through a violent insurgency.
They are the party-list groups in Congress who fancy themselves the “Makabayan Bloc” but are aptly called KABAG –an acronym for Kabataan, Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, Alliance of Concerned Teachers and Gabriela.
Fortunately for us, from six seats in the 18th Congress, this Makabayan Bloc or KABAG was reduced to just three seats in the current 19th Congress.
So now that they’ve been reduced to just three seats, they’re aptly called KAGAT, the acronym for Kabataan, Gabriela and Alliance of Concerned Teachers.
Hopefully by the 20thh Congress it will be “purged” or “cleansed” of these vermins.
Thanks largely to the Filipino people finally seeing through the lies and propaganda of the left a.k.a. the CPP/NPA/NDF and the very successful Barangay Development Program and the Whole of Nation approach of the NTF-ELCAC.
With universe on the side of the Filipino people, we have this very timely development in Senate (excerpts from an Aug. 5, 2022 article in The Manila Bulletin):
Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa has filed a measure that would allow the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to disqualify or refuse the application of a party-list group that participates in attempts to overthrow the government or is connected to the rebels.
In filing Senate Bill (SB) 201, Dela Rosa aims to add more grounds for the Comelec to cancel the registration of a party-list group.
On top of the existing grounds stated under the Republic Act (RA) No. 7941 or the Party-list System Act, the Comelec may also disqualify a group if “it seeks the participation of children, youth and members of other disadvantaged sectors in committing violent and unlawful acts”, the measure said.
Further, the poll body may choose to disqualify if the party-list group “directly or indirectly participates in acts detrimental to the best interest of the government, to overthrow the government or diminish its powers, or to be associated by any means to rebels or proscribed terrorist persons or groups under Republic Act No. 11479” or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.
If Senate Bill 201 becomes a law we will finally be seeing an end to these opportunists in Congress who uses government resources to undermine the government under the guise of the Makabayan Bloc.
As expected, the remnants of KABAG or as we now refer to as KAGAT, particularly the Alliance of Concerned Teachers representative France Castro, accused Senator Dela Rosa of what else but “red tagging”. So what else is new?
Finally, some words of wisdom from Vice President and Secretary of Education Sara Duterte:
“I always have time for Makabayan bloc. The laugh that I get reading Makabayan bloc’s hypocritical and dramatically rehashed statements — while thinking about how the Filipino people rejected the bid of Bayan Muna and two other Makabayan bloc partylist groups to once again infiltrate Congress and legitimize their existence while pretending that we do not know about their ‘love affair’ with the NPA, the NDFP and the CPP — is a way to de-stress from all the challenges the Department of Education and the government need to address without the help of Makabayan bloc, of cours.” So there./PN
