JUSTICE, BETTER ECONOMY WILL SOLVE PHILIPPINES INSURGENCY – LOREN

Sen. Loren Legarda yesterday said the delivery of equal justice, social amelioration and a healthy economy and not the use of a “mailed fist” will solve the problem of insurgency.

Loren made these remarks to a group of students and teachers who visited her at her Senate office and sought her opinion on the reported plan of the administration to revive the Anti-Subversion Law.

Loren recalled that Republic Act No. 1700, otherwise known as the Anti-Subversion Act , was enacted in 1957 after the Communist-led Hukbalahap rebellion had already been suppressed under the administration of President Ramon Magsaysay.

She said that President Magsaysay, who remains the most popular post-war president of the Philippines, was able to defeat the Huk insurgency mostly by ensuring equal justice to the common man and instituting genuine land reform by giving land to the landless farmers and peasants.

“With the granting of land to the landless, including resettlement of landless peasants from Central Luzon in Mindanao, President Magsasay was able to undermine public support for the Huk insurgency in Central Luzon,” recalled Loren. “This spelled the end for the Huk rebellion.”

At the same time, President Magsaysay restored the people’s faith in democracy and justice by using the armed forces to defend the human rights of ordinary citizens. She cited the act of then Defense Secretary Magsaysay when he disbanded the private armies in Negros Occidental who were responsible for the murder and torture by civilian guards of a popular town mayor, Moises Padilla.

“When the civil, political and human rights of ordinary citizens are respected, and the delivery of justice to the humblest and poorest member of society is assured, and the economy is healthy, providing jobs for those able to work, there will be no fertile ground for insurgency to grow,” said Loren.

She pointed out that despite the existence of the Anti-Subversion Act, the Communist insurgency through the New People’s Army (NPA) was revived in December 1969, following the reelection of President Marcos which was perceived to have been achieved electoral fraud, overspending and coercion.

The insurgency grew after Marcos declared martial law and adopted the “mailed fist” in fighting insurgency by, among others, strengthening the Anti-Subversion Act through Presidential Decree 1885. Before Marcos fled the country in the wake of the EDSA revolution of 1986, the NPA strength was estimated at 15,000 to 20,000 regulars.

Loren said that during the administrations of Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos the NPA insurgency had declined drastically because the people believed that they could get justice and achieve economic prosperity under those two administrations. She also pointed to Ramos’s signing of a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front which reduced the extent of Muslim insurgency in Mindanao.

Loren deplored that since then the NPA insurgency has begun to resurge, with the military authorities themselves estimating the NPA strength at from 6,000 to 9,000 regulars. She added that this might be due to the perception among the public of many human rights abuses, expanding poverty and slow and unequal delivery of justice over the past several years.

“It is lack of justice, social inequality, gross poverty and lack of upward mobility for the people that are causing public dissatisfaction and are thus feeding the fires of insurgency,” said Loren. “The solution of these problems will bring the end of insurgency.”

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