My letter to Vice President Leni Robredo
Madam Vice President, good evening.
I hope you can spare a moment to read this rather lengthy letter. I’m fully aware of how busy you are in the campaign trail. I wrote it to remind myself and others of what is at stake in the coming elections.
To me, the elections have nothing to do with simply winning, but everything to do with what might come after should the harbingers of violence win. Let’s admit it: there’s a good chance of that happening.
On the 20th day of August, in an undisclosed area of Silay City, Negros Occidental, the 42-year-old poet, Kerima Lorena Tariman, daughter of fellow writer Pablo Tariman, was gunned down by the Philippine Army’s 79th Infantry Battalion (IB) during a clash with the New People’s Army.
Earlier in March 7, labeled “Bloody Sunday,” nine labor and human rights activists namely, Emmanuel Asuncion, Chai Lemita Evangelista, Ariel Evangelista, among others, were killed in separate police raids. They were unarmed.
Two days before the incident, Pres. Rodrigo Duterte told officers to eliminate all communists in encounters with police and military.
The latest tally on the killings of farmers has reached 311 since Duterte took office in 2016.
In the first four years of Duterte’s drug war, 129 children have died in what the government had maliciously labeled as “collateral damage”.
Duterte’s drug war has officially claimed roughly 6,000 lives to over 30,000 based on the claims of different human rights groups.
In a most shocking display of aggression and bloodlust, 22 journalists have been murdered from December 2016 to October 30, 2021. Journalists Larry Que and Orlando Dinoy were killed during these dates, respectively.
To add the other names of fellow journalists, which I have culled from the tallies of both The Committee to Protect Journalists and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines: (Jan. 6, 2017) Mario Cantaoi; (Feb. 17, 2017) Marlon Muyco; (March 13, 2017) Joaquin Briones; (Aug. 6, 2017) Leo Diaz; (Aug. 7, 2017) Rudy Alicaway; (Oct. 24, 2017) Christopher Lozada; (April 30, 2018) Edmund Sestoso; (May 12, 2018) Carlos Matas; (June 7, 2018) Dennis Denora; (June 23, 2018) Manuel Lacsamana; (July 20, 2018) Joey Llana; (Jan. 11, 2019) John Michael Decano; (July 10, 2019) Eduardo Dizon; (Oct. 30, 2019) Benjie Caballero; (Nov. 7, 2019) Dindo Generoso; (May 5, 2020) Rex Cornelio Pepino; (Sept. 14, 2020) Jobert Bercasio; (Nov. 10, 2020) Virgilio Maganes; (Nov. 14, 2020) Ronnie Villamor; and (May 2, 2021) John Heredia.
Very little has been done to catch the gunmen. Impunity, as you well know by now, is alive and well in our benighted country.
Twenty-two-year-old Frenchie Mae Cumpio, arrested on Dec. 2020 on trump up charges, remains in jail.
On the early morning of Aug. 10, 2020, while undergoing medical treatment, 72-year-old Randall “Randy” Echanis, chair of Anakpawis and Deputy Secretary General of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, was brutally murdered in his rented house in Quezon City during a police raid.
Forensic Pathologist Raquel Fortun said that Echanis was killed by knife wounds leading to a punctured aorta.
Madam Vice President, I could spend the rest of the evening on matters pertaining to the thousands I have yet to name and have been victimized by red-tagging, online harassment and death threats, troll attacks, illegal surveillance, intimidation of campus journalists, the closure of ABS-CBN, cyberattacks on alternative news media, and every other tactic this regime employed under Executive Order №70.
This is the same Executive Order № 70, which institutionalized the ‘Whole-of-Government Approach,’ also gave rise to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict or the NTF-ELCAC.
Based on its operations, it is apparent that the Whole-Of-Nation Approach was engineered to militarize the bureaucracy. A kind of martial law, however “discreet”. However, the blood on our streets tells us otherwise.
When news broke out on Nov. 9, 2021 that you’re in favor of abolishing the NTF-ELCAC, I and the rest of the country found yet again a reason to hope. Hope because many of whose names I’ve listed here had been first red-tagged by the NTF-ELCAC before they were killed, either by roaming assassins or during police raids.
Abolishing the task force seems to be the only intelligent and appropriate solution to stop the killings.
On paper, EO 70 promised “inclusive and attainable peace,” a directive the NTF-ELCAC had chosen to violate with impunity by its display of unrelenting hostility, not only towards communist and progressive groups, but critics of this regime as well.
Days later, during your fifth security briefing with Armed Forces’ top brass, you have clearly defaulted on your first statement. The assurance of your support for the anti-communist campaign of the NTF-ELCAC left many of your supporters dazed and confused, including myself, if not on the verge of rethinking our support for your candidacy.
I tried, God knows I did, to understand where you were coming from. But the more I gave it much thought, the more the problem dawned on me.
By what rationale, if there are any to begin with, can you say such a thing? And there’s a bigger elephant in the room: how could you even suggest, albeit remotely, that the military has the right, the moral standing, and the capability to alleviate systemic poverty and violence, which are the root causes of insurrection, among others?
The excuse you presented, to utilize billions earmarked as the task force’s budget for countryside development, while done in good faith, doesn’t even begin to validate an expected string of murders and atrocities that will come should you refuse to abolish the group.
Yes, it’s an excuse, and an extremely lame one at that. We all know that alleviating poverty requires more than mere wherewithal. It demands moral gumption, expertise in poverty alleviation, political will to overhaul the system, a deep conviction for human rights and dignity, and more than ever, a strong empathy for the poor and the disenfranchised.
The military being what it is, an implement of war, stands far beyond the scope of these requirements.
However much I try to justify my support for your candidacy as President, it seems to fall face flat on the ground on account of your recent statement. While I am all for good intentions, Madam Vice President, we all know that the same have been abused to pave the many roads to hell.
Think Hitler and World War II. Think Marcos and martial law. Think of all the ways dictators were able to fool their countrymen: they were camouflaged by good intentions.
Neither am I asking the world from you. Just a simple guarantee, however small, that you will never again allow these hoodlums in uniform to put their foot at the door.
Filipinos are in a fight for their lives, Madam Vice President. The pandemic is making our already desperate condition even more frustrating, if not yet hopeless.
Truth be told, I wish to see the day that perhaps you can turn the tide of violence and corruption around — for us, for our children, and your children.
That finally a candidate has arrived, despite us being left with very little choice. For me, you’re it. You’re the one the vast majority of our people have pinned their hopes on. You’re the one without any hint of cruelty as a track record.
I have once penned a piece saying that we need a woman of substance as President, one who can show the world that Filipinos are not the sniveling infinitesimal cowards that we have become in the eyes of the international community and the powers that be.
That our revolutionary heritage has taught us lessons on how to combat tyranny, and more so, to choose our destiny for ourselves.
And it’s quite auspicious that I write this on the day of Andrés Bonifacio’s 158th birth anniversary. Lest we forget, this nation was birthed by the brave men and women of the Philippine Revolution. Had it not been for these “terrorists,” we would still be under the brutal reign of colonials and imperial rapists.
Madam Vice President, how do we go about changing the harsh conditions we now face? By going back to the basics of human dignity where freedom is paramount and duty is expected of each one, more so people from government. The Constitution, our political Bible, is here to guide our decisions.
The abolition of the NTF-ELCAC, and let me hazard to say, even EO 70 and the Anti-Terrorism Law, will mark the beginning of our progress towards reforms. There can be no two ways about it. No middle ground. No dilly-dallying in the face of brazen atrocities.
Neither is this a matter of debate, like one’s preference for apples over oranges. Actual human lives are at stake. And by that, I mean moral decisions have to be made even when faced by badges, uniform, power.
It’s now or never. Either they go, or this country will slide down an abyss of its own making. And with all due respect, Madam Vice President, you cannot expect to instill changes if you throw your lot in favor of oppressors — good intentions or not makes no difference. I don’t even have to explain that.
In roughly eight months, Filipinos will be trekking to the polls. Please do not let them walk to precincts lost and undecided on who to choose.
It is important first to know if we can trust you with our lives and our freedoms. I think it’s only fair to want a guarantee of sorts. One of which is your assurance that you will abolish all the forces which have been guilty of circumventing our rights as a people.
There is still time to change your mind on the matter of the NTF-ELCAC. The militarization of the bureaucracy, which undermines civilian authority, must stop and not a moment too soon.
We can begin our march towards change from there.
Madam Vice President, thank you for your time.
