WHEN the universe is with you, everything just falls into place and in the case of this obsolete and irrelevant, 54-year-old communist insurgency now on its final death throes, the final nail to its coffin was finally put to place.
The final death blow to this dying communist insurgency comes in the person of current Vice President and Secretary of Education, Sara Duterte.
National Security Adviser (NSA) Eduardo Año announced recently that President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has ordered the recalibration of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), with Vice President Sara Duterte designated as the body’s co-vice chair.
Año, in a statement, said he made the motion which was unanimously approved for the designation of Duterte during the Executive Committee (ExeCom) meeting with Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin in Malacañang.
Año said the ExeCom welcomed Duterte’s designation as one of NTF-ELCAC’’s ranking officials. He and Duterte now serve as co-vice chairpersons of the agency led by the President.
“Her unstinting commitment to the cause of NTF-ELCAC will undoubtedly be very valuable and we thank her for accepting the challenge,” Año said.
And this designation of VP Sara as co-vice person of the NTF-ELCAC comes just in time; you can say the timing was uncanny. The dying 54-year-old communist insurgency has lost almost all its support in the countryside, particularly in terms of logistics and recruits to serve as cadres for the CPP/NPA/NDF.
So now they turn to the universities which serve as their base for “white operations” in the urban areas and source of gullible recruits.
It is in the universities, particularly the University of the Philippines (UP), where aging professors (remnants of the so-called First Quarter Storm) romanticized their dreams of being a revolutionary turning naïve, highly impressionable youths into what Lenin aptly called “useful idiots” only to be recruited as cadres and become cannon fodder for the CPP/NPA/NDF to die of starvation and disease in the hinterlands or in encounters with the authorities. These are supposed to be intelligent students, yet they’re shouting obsolete 50-year-old CPP/NPA/NDF slogans. Critical thinking, really, my ass.
As the current Secretary of Education, VP Sara Duterte is in the best position to address this stupidity in the universities and retake UP as an institution of higher learning and not as a base for the urban “white operations” of the CPP/NPA/NDF.
In a press statement, NTF-ELCAC announced a significant milestone and accomplishment: From the original 89 guerrilla fronts, they’ve dismantle 67, leaving only 22, with 20 of these severely weakened. This success is attributed to the whole-of-government approach.
Through initiatives and support programs, former rebels are transforming into peaceful, productive citizens. The CPP-NPA-NDF’s extortion activities were significantly curtailed, fostering trust in our government.
The Barangay Development Program (BDP) played a pivotal role, motivating many CPP-NPA-NDF members to surrender. In addressing the root causes of insurgency, real differences were achieved.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., through Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, called upon all government agencies to bolster the BDP’s limited budget. Regional convergence was also strengthened through Cabinet Officers for Regional Development and Security (CORDS).
And, NTF-ELCAC’s thrust will shift from being “warriors for peace” to “bringers of peace”” to rally the nation in fulfilling our shared ambition to end the local communist armed conflict./PN
