Dear Editor,

This principle from a 19th-century Act prevents the US armed forces from using its power against its citizens. They can fight their wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Philippines, but not on US soil.

Their threat is EXTERNAL. This principle cannot be applied in the Philippines, to the AFP because our lingering threat is INTERNAL.

Thus, this question — Why can't our AFP soldiers have the same support from our fellow citizens like these Americans support theirs?

Is it because they don't have talent? No.

Is it because they're not as good-looking? No.

Is it because they're not adequately paid? No.

So why?

Because they're asked to fight the wars that their politicos create. It is not in distant lands across oceans but in our own remote villages where people are so marginalized because of CORRUPTION in the highest offices.

Because these wars create divisiveness in our already fractured and fragmented society aggravated by a corrupt political PATRONAGE system. Because the same politicos nurture HATE for our soldiers fighting to secure our people from all threats.

The same politicos CUDDLE the very same enemies of the state who have been killing our children, our livelihood, and our democratic way of life.

The same politicos SLEEP with the enemy in the hope that they will get some political support from these DUPLICITOUS evil clothed in sheep's wool.

Insurgency is propaganda war. It is political in nature, and it cannot be won through the barrel of the gun.

This is the reason why the NTF ELCAC was created through EO 70. It enhances GOOD GOVERNANCE at the grassroots level and up. It educates the people about the evils of the CPP-NPA-NDF threat and how they lurk in our midst. In our schools. Our place of work. Our church. Our highest offices. In CONGRESS.

The AFP has already reached the peak of its trust rating. It has become the most trusted agency of the government. But it will never be able to achieve anything higher because people hurt by this internal war will never clap for them.

The politicos holding the levers and benefiting from their alliances with the enemy will always bring them down.

Insurgency is protracted. To end it, we should be witty and quick to discern how it is being REVIVED by the same politicos and generals we thought could grasp the nature of this war.

The sooner we understand these dynamics, the quicker we will be able to protect the gains that we missed in the last 54 years.

URGENCY is key to this protracted war, and it smacks right into the insURGENCY situation we are in.

Understand it, lest be SILENCED by it.

Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr.

(Retired)