Dan Borjal, NDFP Political Consultant on Political and Constitutional Reforms
10 November 2020
In 2016, the Great Pretender boasted that he would be the first Left and “socialist” president. Not having a crystal ball to foresee the future (as some critics would probably wished it had), the NDFP obliged him in order to test if what he dared to say in public was for real by engaging him in serious peace negotiations.
The NDFP leaders are level-headed people who would take risks as long as something can come out that would benefit the people. The NDFP had already been very patient in talking to previous GRP presidents who did not keep their word and who it turned out were not really interested in real peace negotiations.
So talking to Duterte was nothing new. Nevertheless, Duterte had shown in the past some friendly gestures to the revolutionary movement when he was mayor of Davao. In 2012 when he was still a vice-mayor, he landed on NPA territory in a helicopter with an unspecified amount of money for the victims of typhoon Pablo which he announced he was handing over to the NPA because he was sure the money would really be spent to help the typhoon victims. He did not hide his friendly relations with the legendary NPA Commander Leoncio Pitao aka “Kumander Parago” who is fondly called the “Beloved Warrior of the Masses.”
It did not take long for Duterte to show his true colors. He was neither red nor even pink. Starting as a small-time bureaucrat in a provincial city, he had now risen to become top dog in the government structure of the rotten Philippine ruling system. Feigning a lack of funds in his campaign for president, it turned out later that his rise to power was brought about with a lot of help including dirty money from such despicable oligarchs as the Marcoses, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and another great pretender former actor Joseph Estrada.
When he could not succeed in getting the NDFP and the revolutionary forces it represented in the peace negotiations to surrender without meaningful reforms, he went berserk by announcing the termination of the peace negotiations and issuing an order to his hatchet-men to criminalize and run after the CPP-NPA-NDFP and their leaders.
But because he followed the same failed social and economic policies of his reactionary predecessors, the same ills such as widespread poverty and all the social sores that go with it have festered.
His fake war on drugs that mainly victimized the poor turned out to be a grand scheme to eliminate other drug lords in order for him to become the top mafiosi with his son Paolo as chief lieutenant. His fake war on corruption has worsened corruption enriching himself and his family to boot. His incompetence and callousness in handling the Covid-19 crisis earned him the people’s wrath. His subservience to China which his lapdogs pass off as proof of an independent foreign policy is actually a device to enrich himself and his cronies with lucrative deals in the “Build, build, build” racket in exchange for giving away to China the Filipino people’s sovereign rights to a part of Philippine territory including its resources. We can go on and on in citing examples of the Great Pretender’s shenanigans.
As a result of all this, Duterte and his cohorts, have been besieged from all sides not the least among them the barrage of condemnation from UN bodies, the European Union and progressive organizations and personalities around the world on his human rights record.
In his panic, he saw red under every bed (constricted pupils, abnormal vision and hallucinations are some of the known side-effects of fentanyl). But seriously, the patriotic and progressive forces in the country have been responsible for raising all those issues that had put him on the defensive and in the process unmasking the Great Pretender.
Some “smart” fellow among his collection of sycophants must have come up with a “bright” idea: Raise the communist bogey! Yes, this is an old-trick of the enemies of the people to deflect attention from themselves when besieged by the people’s anger and resistance.
But this red-tagging and red-baiting business have already taken a backlash. No small credit should be given to the brave young women, Angel Locsin, Liza Soberano and Catriona Gray, who fought back against macho-posing Parlade and his stupid red-tagging antics. Their intelligence and courage have inspired an artist to come up with a creative art form in the “red lipstick” selfies that have gone viral in social media.
Paraphrasing an old saying, “To be attacked by the enemies of the people is a not a bad thing but a good thing. It proves that we have achieved a great deal in our work.” ###
