Demonizing Sara

Those who lived through the atrocities of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its ferocious New People's Army during their reign of terror in Davao City in the late 1970s up to the mid-1980s, know how then-mayors Rodrigo Duterte and Sara Duterte had to deal with the double-headed monster.

While the NPA's urban operatives and their liquidation squads were routed overnight by an overwhelming peoples' uprising popularly dubbed "alsa masa," the rural guerrillas continued to harass communities in remote areas, waging ambuscades on police and military forces.

For years, they managed to sustain themselves by imposing a "people's tax" and extortion.

They were decimated during the government armed forces' operations, but they continued recruiting, especially among indigenous tribes and on school campuses.

Tired of the fruitless peace negotiations where government panels had to seek out the chieftain of the CPP-NPA-NDF, Jose Ma. Sison, in faraway Netherlands, former President Duterte declared an all-out war against the armed insurgents.

I must mention that the creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, or NTF-ELCAC, had a colossal impact on the successful two-pronged campaign against the communist forces. In time, Davao City and the rest of the Davao Region were declared insurgent-free. Thousands of NPA combatants surrendered and turned over their weapons, even leading the police and military peacekeeping forces to where the rest of their arms cache was hidden.

The success did not come as easy as eating pie. The government had to allocate money to help those who returned to the fold of the law. ACT Teacher Partylist Rep. France Castro and Senator Risa Hontiveros know how intelligence and confidential funds were used to search for the lairs of the NPAs and how the recruitment and indoctrination of indigenous peoples was averted.

Castro herself knows this as she and Bayan strongman Satur Ocampo were apprehended by the military while escorting indigenous peoples' children under cover of darkness from the tribal town of Talaingod in Davao del Norte to a Salugpungan school run by the ACT Teachers in Maco, Davao de Oro. It was intelligence funds working.

Joma did not survive the defeat of his forces and died along with his utopian plot drawn in the blood of his countrymen.

The legal fronts of the communists, however, are neither sleeping nor slipping from their job. It is a job, yes… to be a member of Congress. Losing their mass base and the rural communities they used to have influence and control is a death knell for their jobs in Congress.

Ergo, they resort to the desperate move of demonizing VP Inday Sara Duterte, whom they know has the gumption to deal with the CPP-NPA and the courage to face the legal fronts in Congress.
They know that every centavo of the confidential and intelligence funds at Sara's disposal was well spent.

The stable peace that prevails in the Davao region, in Mindanao, and now in most parts of the country is a testament to how the vital funds were spent.

They wail about how quickly Sara spends the intel and confidential funds.

But look at how the several decades of communist insurgency were quickly decimated. So why rest and procrastinate?

The dawn of victory over the country's remaining terrorist group is at hand. The voices of commie dissent in Congress, on the streets, and school campuses have become feeble. They are so scared of Sara's presidency that they have to demonize her this early.