Lost cause

Communist insurgents are apparently fighting for their last gasps of air as the campaign of Rody for localized resolutions of the problems posed by the communist movement has achieved success.

In a documentary that appeared in cable news network Al Jazeera, President Rody Duterte is again portrayed as having launched a new war against the communist rebellion, where mass killings again are expected as it harped on the “extrajudicial killings (EJK).”

In a recent visit to the Daily Tribune, National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC) spokesman Major Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., Armed Forces of the Philippines Deputy Chief-of-Staff for Civil-Military Operations, said the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) are running out of funds after the success of the information campaign on foreign donors to stop the flow of funding to rebel fronts.

Parlade said European and other rights organizations in other continents are “unwittingly” providing billions of pesos to the insurgency movement yearly through the many communist fronts that slice up the funds they secure 60-40 for the purchase of arms and equipment for the NPA.

The strong foreign network of the insurgents allows them to convince foreign institutions to funnel in money supposedly for civic work. Parlade said such influential contacts include Filipinos in the United Nations.

These links of the underground movement also boast associates in the local and foreign media who are fed with derogatory information, which is welcomed by the news outfits which are always hungry with anti-Duterte narratives.

For instance, Al Jazeera swallowed entirely the account that “The President is waging another bloody war — this time against a communist rebellion,” while the insurgency problem posed by the CPP-NPA and its founder Jose Maria Sison has been going on for the past 51 years.

Parlade said it was only during Rody’s presidency that the problem has been addressed in full.

“Many allege the victims have not just been rebel fighters. Rights organizations say they have documented more than 80 alleged extrajudicial killings of farm workers, human rights advocates and lawyers on Negros since Duterte came to power in 2016,” according to the documentary.

The spin is remarkably similar to what has been alleged in the signature war on drugs, which indicate that those killed are EJK victims.

The communist rebels may have sounded the alarm after Rody sent in his reliable sentinel, former Ozamiz City police chief Maj. Jovie Espenido, to head the Bacolod City Police Office.

Espenido gained national attention after leading the operations against suspected narco-politicians, such as Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa and Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog.

Rody had declared a determined campaign to end the insurgency before he steps down in 2022 and identified Negros as a hotbed of the communist movement.

Brig. Gen. Eric Vinoya, commander of Joint Task Force (JTF) Negros, had pledged to make Rody’s vow a reality.

Vinoya said the CPP-NPA-National Democratic Front support from Negrenses has been degraded after cities and municipalities of Negros Island have declared the rebels persona non grata.

The communist insurgents are apparently fighting for their last gasps of air as the campaign of Rody for localized resolutions of the problems posed by the communist movement has achieved success.

After five decades, Joma and his followers should get a fresh perspective since even China and Russia, where the brand of CPP’s communist ideology originated, have already evolved to embrace the modern era of globalization.