By FIDEL V. AGCAOILI
Spokesperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel
In a recent interview, Atty. Alexander (Alex) A. Padilla, Chairperson of the Negotiating Panel of the Government of the Philippines (GPH formerly designated as GRP), made several provocative statements that have no place in the ongoing peace negotiations between the GPH and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
His claim that Facebook and the internet are “pushing Filipino rebels into oblivion” is totally out of touch with reality and only exposes himself as a mere disinformation mouthpiece of the Benigno (Noynoy) Aquino III regime.
Seemingly, Alex is ignorant of the numerous Facebook accounts, blogs and websites of people and organizations that espouse the national democratic aspirations of the Filipino people, such as the Philippine Revolution Web Central, the Paaralang Jose Maria Sison, the Facebook accounts of Marco Valbuena and Ang Bayan Community Page, the You Tube postings of allied organizations of the NDFP, and others.
For the information of Alex, these are manned by those whom he calls the “educated youth” who have not only shown proficiency in these medium but are also steeped in revolutionary theory and practice. One or two of them have become martyrs of the national democratic movement under the Noynoy Aquino regime.
Facebook and other social networks are some of the venues to bring the call for a genuine social change in the country. The efficient use of the internet and Facebook by the Philippine revolutionary movement as a means to propagate the national democratic revolution has even been reported on by local and international media.
Moreoever, the progressive youth leaders in the legal democratic movement such as Kabataan Party List Representative Raymond “Mong” Palatino, Renato Reyes of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), Dr. Giovanni Tapang of AGHAM, and many more would really be insulted by Alex’s mendacious claim.
Alex and Noynoy may not be as old as some members of the NDFP Negotiating Panel but the two GPH officials represent the old and reactionary semi-colonial and semi-feudal social system that is ruled by the few big landlords and comprador capitalists with the full support of foreign monopoly capitalists, specially the US.
Alex seems to be suffering from the same arrogant sickness as some of those who left the national democratic movement to join the GPH bureaucracy. Like them he thinks that the movement has stopped growing and recruiting from the ranks of the educated youth since he left 25 years ago!
25 years is such a long time for Alex to make speculations about the movement’s current strength or weaknesses. But having been with the movement for a time, he should have learned that the main issues before the peace negotiations now are genuine land reform and national industrialization and not communism!
Should the peace negotiations not end within his given time frame of three years, Alex should be asking his principal, Noynoy Aquino, why Hacienda Luisita cannot be subjected to genuine land reform instead of putting the blame on the NDFP!
It does not speak well of the GPH negotiating panel chairperson to declare publicly that the use of Facebook determines the course of the revolutionary movement of the Filipino people. The people's war will continue and advance for so long as imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism exploit and oppress the people and prevent the development of the Philippines.
