o convince oneself how the
thugs have hijacked People Power revolt of 1986, one just has to take a look at
the four-day celebrations culminating on Sunday at the Edsa Shrine. Fidel V.
Ramos and Corazon Aquino, two authentic heroes of the revolt, will be there. So
will Gloria Arroyo as the sitting president. No surprises there.
But what’s Jesuit Romeo "Archie" Intengan, the clerico-fascist,
doing there as celebrant of the mass? We concede he played a minor part in the
struggle against the Marcos dictatorship. But as the killings of dissenters
surge to levels not seen since the martial law days, it’s probably fitting, in a
left-handed way, to see the ideologist of all-out war against communist rebels,
without regard to civilians killed, presiding over the religious component of
the celebration.
National security adviser Norberto Gonzales, the pre-med
graduate, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, the lawyer in his dotage, and
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, the retired general, have not the wit to
distinguish civil society groups from nat-dems, let alone to discern the
division among the latter who are the "re-affirmists" (those who continue to
believe in communist party founder Jose Ma. Sison) and "rejectionists" (those
who hate him).
The three of them, individually or collectively, cannot come
up with a counter-insurgency strategy even if the ghost of Mao Zedong springs up
right before their faces.
It is Intengan who came up with the strategy calling for the
destruction of the "political infrastructure" of the communist rebellion. That
means targeting the grass-roots organizations suspected as serving as "fronts"
of the communist party. His acolyte, Gonzales, succeeded in selling Intengan’s
brainchild to Arroyo. It has since been adopted by the Armed Forces.
The result is the "distressing" (to use the word of UN
rapporteur Philip Alston) executions of unarmed men and human who are suspected
to be leaders and members of the groups tagged as "enemies of the state."
Joema and Archie are peas in a pod. In pursuit of their
ideologies, they would let nothing stand in their way. It’s a fight to the death
and whoever is caught in the crossfire is collateral damage. Why should the two
of them care? Joema lives a comfortable existence in his Netherlands exile.
Archie can always repair to the Jesuit house in Loyola after he gets tired of
lecturing soldiers on the evils of communism and how they are incarnated in the
CPP, the NPA, Bayan, Gabriela and Anakpawis.
These two would square off in a duel at the Luneta. Their proxies have
spilled enough blood.
