NPAs in Samar

A group believed to be proliferated by leftist elements convened a meeting at the gymnasium of the Eastern Samar State College (ESSC) in Can-avid last October 11, 2002 (Cf. Samar Times, October 21-November 3, 2002, p. 3). Initial reports say that the Mayor of Can-avid was unaware of the event, which was attended by about 70 participants. Reliable sources, however, claimed that the mayor was sighted at the meeting together with some local government officials. Hardcore NPA members were also seen in Can-avid and were even escorted, or so say witnesses who refused to be identified, by members of the PNP.

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NPA sympathizers who denied that the meeting actually happened theorized that the reports might have been cooked up by the military in view of painting falsely a scenario that leftists are intensifying their presence in Samar in order to augment the budget for anti-insurgency campaign. This theory is plausible. The fact, however, stands that some local government officials have been building alliances with leftist elements. During the previous local elections, for instance, it was common knowledge that local candidates has allocated financial budget for the NPAs in order to assure an avalanche of votes. Of course, the highest bidder got the upper hand. In the past, poor candidates have expressed dismay over an unconfirmed policy that an “entrance fee” has to be paid to the NPAs before a political campaign could be held in upstream barangays.

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Of late, national dailies have reported that the Communist Party of the Philippines have resorted to unconventional fund raising methods due to its isolation from foreign fund sources following its being classified by the U.S. as a terrorist group. The revolutionary tax, which, admittedly, has been there for ages, is much of a burden especially to poor farmers who could hardly earn their keep. But time has managed to live with it given the rationale that somehow even the poor has to support financially the protracted revolution of the masses in pursuit of a political agenda that will liberate them (hopefully) from unjust structure of a corrupt government which still have the traces of an earlier fascist Marcos regime. Thus the continuance of the denunciation of a corrupt government, its imperialist foreign policies and its fascist inclinations—-and hence, the raison de etre of the CPP despite the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the fragmentation of the United Soviet Socialist Republic, and the coldness of the Maoist ideology that until today is still seeking, albeit desperately, concrete results.

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The traditional ten points of attention of the Maoist doctrine could be admirable. But by what logic should the NPAs make alliances with corrupt government officials they have been rabidly denouncing in the first place? Vote buying is the mother of corruption. Rather than perpetuate, should not the Communists instead help to put an end to election anomalies if they really are for the cause of the masses? The CPP and its militant fronts used to help the oppressed. There may not be any greater oppression for now than help elevate a corrupt government official to an office that in the end will milk the masses through graft, corruption and incompetence.