BY DUCKY PAREDES
MALAYA

‘We have in our midst, a potential fifth column of Chinese Communist supporters.’

WHAT you will be reading is the editorial of “Bayan,” official paper of the Communist Party of the Philippines (PKP). I have no fear in putting this out to my readers because I know that you are all smart enough to see how dumb the Communists are.

Here is the Bayan editorial: “The Reactionary politicians are currently busy trying to sneak charter change (‘cha-cha’) into the national agenda. No matter how much Aquino denies it, ‘cha-cha’ is definitely one of the priorities of his regime and the entire ruling system. It is a logical consequence of Aquino’s betrayal of the nation’s sovereignty in allowing growing US armed presence in the country and his ceding of the national patrimony to foreign companies.

“Aquino’s minions are actively working on building a broad consensus among reactionary politicians in favor of charter change. These efforts are being led by Juan Ponce Enrile, Senate president and one of the leading stalwarts and baton wielders of US imperialism. Enrile’s partner in this endeavor is Rep. Feliciano Belmonte, Speaker of the Lower House of Congress.

“Enrile and Belmonte want to accomplish ‘cha-cha’ in the shortest time possible and without any obstacles or political scuffles. US imperialism is extremely keen for ‘cha-cha’ to push through. Nonetheless, it also wants amendments without any major conflicts that would shake the stability of the ruling political system.

“The tactics used in quickly securing Corona’s impeachment by Congress in November 2011 are the same ones they would like to utilize again in achieving ‘cha-cha.’ Alongside a vigorous media campaign to make ‘cha-cha’ palatable to the people, government funds will definitely be used to ‘convince the politicians.

“There are efforts to ‘depoliticize’ the ‘cha-cha’ and portray it as an exercise with purely ‘economic’ objectives. Aquino is pictured in the media as being opposed to, or uninterested in, ‘cha-cha’ in an effort to make the people believe that politicians are not interested in amendments leading to their term extensions. But this is all public posturing. In fact, Aquino and the entire puppet ruling regime are extremely interested in ‘cha-cha’ and desire it exceedingly.

“’Cha-cha’ counts among the Aquino regime’s top priorities because it is one of the requisites set by US imperialism for the Philippines to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement which is currently being built by the US. The TPP aims to build a ‘free market zone’ where member-countries abolish all tariffs and similar policies to achieve full investment and trade liberalization.

“Since Aquino’s men came to power, they have been actively negotiating to have the country included in the TPP. But the US outrightly said last year that the country must first amend the reactionary constitution to make it consistent with the objectives of the TPP.

“The constitutional changes being pushed by the Aquino regime all revolve around this issue. The regime wants to completely eliminate from the constitution whatever remaining provisions it has that promote national independence and protect the national patrimony. In particular, Enrile wants to remove from the reactionary constitution provisions that bar foreigners from owning land in the country and prohibit foreign capitalists from owning more than 60% of enterprises.

“’Cha-cha’ will also pave the way for eliminating provisions banning foreign military facilities or bases and prohibiting the entry of nuclear weapons in order to allow American troops to freely enter and leave the Philippines and conduct operations within the country.

“Once ‘cha-cha’ pushes through, the puppet government will have completely surrendered Philippine national sovereignty. The US has already been able to push its neoliberal policies of liberalization, deregulation, privatization and denationalization in the past three decades. The removal of the remaining restrictions will surely result in the further ravaging of the economy and plunder of Philippine natural resources, the intensification of workers’ exploitation and the graver oppression of the toiling masses.

“If the US has been able to strengthen its presence and military domination of the Philippines despite contrary constitutional provisions, there will be no stopping it from transforming the country into its military outpost in the Asia-Pacific once ‘cha-cha’ comes to pass.”

What rot! Di ba maliwanag? The President resists Cha-Cha but the legislators honestly feel that we are short-changing ourselves by keeping parts of our economy exclusively for Pinoys who really do not have the wherewithall to invest. Simple, uncomplicated. Nothing sinister anywhere.

But, if this is what the Communists do not want, then, we should want the ‘Cha-cha’ change that Belmonte and Enrile are pushing. Whatever the Communists want for us is what will favor Communist China. Di ba maliwanag ito? They want a Philippines defenseless against a Communist Chinese bully that wants to take the Philippines for itself. The next time you talk to a Filipino Communist, ask him point-blank if he will personally defend this country against the evil designs of Communist China on our sovereignty.

I can well understand a true patriot’s reactions to foreigners getting in our way. When, however, they see only the American, our official ally, and choose to ignore a Communist superpower which has territorial claims on our country, what it tells me is that we have in our midst, a potential fifth column of Chinese Communist supporters!

As pointed out in previous columns, one of the things we failed to do after World War II was that we did not prosecute those who collaborated with the Japanese and helped them to impose their rule on this country during the occupation.

Thus, even now, there are those who (out of a misguided application of Christian charity, find fault with those who punish those who used their power for themselves and against our people.) I agree with the President. As Christians, we can forgive but we cannot forget the evil that they did. I basically cannot forgive the Communists amongst us for all the evil they have wrought in our country and their continuing aggression against our people. And now, they’re on the side of Communist China vs. the Philippines!

***

Readers who missed a column can access www.duckyparedes.com/blogs. This is updated daily. Your reactions are welcome at duckyparedes@yahoo.com