How many more lives of our soldiers, police officers, and innocent civilians shall be wasted in a gambit that the present administration has naively taken with the wily Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People's Army, and the National Democratic Front?
Have they not learned that amnesty and peace talks had been used by this terrorist organization to conduct ambuscades on our troops, to regroup, rearm, and recruit?
Former president Rodrigo Duterte went the extra mile by inviting the CPP-NPA-NDF to participate in governance, appointing several of them to sensitive Cabinet positions to address their grievances.
But they undermined the government and escalated their armed attacks on the Armed Forces of the Philippines, inflicting casualties not only on our peacekeeping forces but on non-combatants, too.
President Duterte had enough of the CPP-NPA-NDF double talk and guile, finally scuttling the wasteful peace negotiations in Oslo, Norway. What followed was an unrelenting war against the terrorists who continued to pursue their goal of overthrowing the government.
He then offered them a guarantee of a peaceful and productive livelihood if they would give up their cause, surrender their firearms, and return to a normal life. To carry out this strategy, Duterte created the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, or NTF-ELCAC, alongside the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The AFP and NTF-ELCAC's action plan worked perfectly in battling the armed insurgents and the mass base over which the CPP-NPA-NDF had influence and control.
The Duterte battle plan succeeded, leading to the mass surrender of NPA combatants, the capture of hardcore commanders and ideologues, and the seizure of firearms, including the discovery of several hidden arms caches.
In less than a year, several regions were declared insurgent-free by the AFP.
In the words of Vice President Sara Duterte, "We are winning the war against the CPP-NPA-NDF terrorists!"
Malacañang, however, was not listening. At the House of Representatives, Speaker Martin Romualdez and his rah-rah boys, in concert with his Makabayan allies, praised the offer of amnesty on a silver platter and the resumption of peace talks. The communist fronts even had the gall to demand the dismantling of the NTF-ELCAC and the removal of the "terrorist" tag on their group.
VP Sara branded the negotiations with the CPP-NPA an agreement with the devil. She, in a way, was prophetic, for hardly had the peace negotiators warmed their seats in faraway Oslo than a horde of NPA combatants ambushed an Army detachment in Batangas, killing one soldier and wounding several others. Our soldiers fought valiantly and killed six terrorists in return.
The incident proves for the nth time the treachery of the CPP-NPA-NDF. Malacañang cannot remain stoically insensitive to what is happening on the ground in the same manner that the House of Representatives can watch with arms akimbo as the CPP-NPA combatants are attacking our soldiers.
As if that were not enough, the HoR detained Lorraine Badoy and Ka Eric Celis, former NTF-ELCAC and anti-communist commentators, while Malacañang through the MTRCB suspended their program, "Laban Kasama ang Bayan," and the program hosted by former president Duterte, "Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa." Both programs air over SMNI, which the House leadership wanted to be suspended and shut down.
