SENATOR Loren Legarda is a champion of several causes, including preserving and protecting the environment and promoting livelihood programs in the country. And although considered as part of the mainstream right in the government, she is nevertheless not immune from the machinations and clever manipulations from the left.
It is really not surprising that at a time when the armed insurgency in the country has been battered black and blue from the government’s offensive, we see moves from the Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) to continue their flagging campaign to overthrow the duly instituted government as well as increase their chances of survival.
One such move of course is to encourage their misguided and misled supporters to drum up interest in putting back on the table the scuttled peace talks between the national government and the CPP-NPA-NDF. This is in fact a tactical option that the insurgents have time and again utilized to stave off aggressive military action against their dwindling armed front in order to allow them the opportunity to lick their wounds and consolidate their ranks. Another move is to continue insisting and presenting their movement as innocuous to the established democratic government and simply advocate nothing more than to see that human rights are recognized and respected. In other words, a harmless group that seeks only to better the lives of the Filipinos under its aegis.
It is therefore quite understandable that given their dire situation, not only militarily but also politically, and especially as a result of the unrelenting campaign of the government in its ‘whole of nation approach” to finally end the insurgency in the country, the CPP-NPA-NDF would turn to its supporters in government, those willing to be further misled by its deceptive narratives in order to turn public opinion in their favor once more.
This is what is usually termed as desperation moves on the part of the communist organization knowing that they are being besieged by the government on all fronts, particularly during the previous administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte, and realizing that they are now in dire straits.
So given the friendly history between the communists and Senator Legarda, it is a no-brainer for the former to cuddle up to the lawmaker and suggest to her to call out the government into considering talking peace with them again and thereby provide them the needed respite and opportunity to regroup their tattered forces.
In a recent new item presented by Esquire Philippines online, it trumpeted the title “Senator Loren Legarda Defends CPP-NDF and Ideologies ‘Different From the Majority’, and cited statements made by the Senator to that effect in connection with a proposal from his colleague Senator Francis Tolentino that “government officials should declare any associations they may have with the CPP-NDF”. However, Senator Legarda went further than merely declaring her past working relationship with the CPP-NDF by also expressing her concern regarding attacks on ideologies apart from that espoused by the government. She then made statements such as, “Believing in an ideology which may be different from the majority, in layman’s terms believing in philosophies that may be left-center, so to speak, does not make anyone subversive I hope that the peace talks can be revived so that we… can work together towards peace, equity, and authentic, real reforms in the countryside.”
There are many heroes in our midst whom we see and who we do not see and know. Even heroes who may be associated with the CPP. I declare that I have worked with the NDF, and I am not ashamed of it.” She also believed that the CPP-NPA-NDF are not enemies of the State since there has been allegedly no law or pronouncement to that effect from the government.
Perhaps the good senator should have also asked whether there is a war going on between the NPA, which is the armed branch of the CPP-NDF, and the armed branch of the government, which is the AFP and the PNP, and which has already sacrificed the lives of a lot of our countrymen.
As a senator for the past many years, It should have been obvious to her that for more than fifty years already the government has been waging war against its enemy – the CPP-NDF. She should have been more circumspect in trying to explain her position in relation to her dealings with the CPP-NDF, considering that the latter is reportedly in its death throes due to the incessant campaign of the government to finally end its hold and power in the countryside.
