Hontiveros Digging Own Grave on Palparan De Facto Alliance
by Terry Ridon
by Terry Ridon
"Our members have been slaughtered, Jonas Burgos will have disappeared for three years now, and she now blames us for all these? Where is the gall of this woman?"
Absolute Absence of Logic
"Risa needs to enroll herself in Logic 101, because she has none of it," This was the angry reply of Terry Ridon, National Chairperson of the League of Filipino Students, when Risa Hontiveros accused Satur Ocampo, Liza Maza and their partylists of being indirectly responsible for the more than a thousand political killings of their members during the Arroyo administration precisely because of the progressive tandem's refusal to condemn the CPP-NPA.
Ridon said that her statement reeked of a 'blame the victim' logic akin to rape victims being castigated by authorities for casting harm upon themselves, instead of addressing the real issues on the nature of political killings and the reality of the armed conflict across the archipelago.
"It is but unfortunate, that Hontiveros is clearly now harping on the same logic as the military butchers like Palparan. Palparan then blamed the very membership of persons in partylist organizations as the reason behind the executions. Risa is blaming us today. Thus, it can now be told, the de facto alliance between Palparan and Hontiveros against Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza truly holds."
Ridon said thousands of political killings and disappearances happened not because of Ocampo and Maza's refusal to denounce the CPP-NPA, but because of President Gloria Arroyo's implementation of Oplan Bantay Laya, in which security forces specifically targeted unarmed civilian activists and its supporters.
"Hontiveros appears to be ignorant even of this fact, or plays blind to this to suit her malicious agenda against Ocampo and Maza."
Absolute Ignorance on the Nature of Peace Negotiations and the Armed Conflict
"She had also exposed her ignorance on the nature of the armed conflict, as she cannot make a distinction between the use of violence by the state against its opponents and the justified use of arms by the people against oppressive regimes and systems."
Ridon said that by stating that Hontiveros abhors all forms of violence, she in effect had rejected the respected revolutionary tradition of Bonifacio, Sakay and the Huks, all of whom waged armed struggle against oppressors foreign and domestic.
"Even the Philippine Constitution recognizes the right of the people to rebel against oppressive regimes and systems, including the raising of arms. No other interpretation is possible, and Hontiveros' statement exposes completely her elementary knowledge on the relationship of peace and the roots of the armed conflict in the Philippines."
Ridon said there can be no peace just because of the rejection of the use of violence. "Such is merely the silencing of the guns, as the root causes of the armed conflict will not have been addressed. There can thus be no just and lasting peace, which Maza and Ocampo had long advocated for."
"Even absent the CPP-NPA, for as long as the root causes of the armed conflict remain present, such as massive landlessness in the countryside, the absence of genuine agrarian reform, the continuing foreign subjugation of natural resources, among others, the people shall always resort to justified revolutionary violence."
Ridon said that precisely because of this understanding of the nature of the armed conflict and peace negotiations as to why Ocampo and Maza cannot flatly denounce the CPP-NPA.
"The situation of the armed conflict is much more complicated than the mere condemnation demanded by Hontiveros. Unless she is ignorant of all these, her insistence make her demands suspect and malicious."
Ridon said that in view of these, such demands would ring hollow, and exposes a lack of understanding of the complex situation of the armed conflict and peace negotiations.
"She should thus shut her mouth instead of desperately trying to score malicious propaganda points against Ocampo and Maza. Like her principal Noynoy Aquino, she should just stick to the more important electoral issues like genuine agrarian reform and employment."
Absolute Absence of Logic
"Risa needs to enroll herself in Logic 101, because she has none of it," This was the angry reply of Terry Ridon, National Chairperson of the League of Filipino Students, when Risa Hontiveros accused Satur Ocampo, Liza Maza and their partylists of being indirectly responsible for the more than a thousand political killings of their members during the Arroyo administration precisely because of the progressive tandem's refusal to condemn the CPP-NPA.
Ridon said that her statement reeked of a 'blame the victim' logic akin to rape victims being castigated by authorities for casting harm upon themselves, instead of addressing the real issues on the nature of political killings and the reality of the armed conflict across the archipelago.
"It is but unfortunate, that Hontiveros is clearly now harping on the same logic as the military butchers like Palparan. Palparan then blamed the very membership of persons in partylist organizations as the reason behind the executions. Risa is blaming us today. Thus, it can now be told, the de facto alliance between Palparan and Hontiveros against Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza truly holds."
Ridon said thousands of political killings and disappearances happened not because of Ocampo and Maza's refusal to denounce the CPP-NPA, but because of President Gloria Arroyo's implementation of Oplan Bantay Laya, in which security forces specifically targeted unarmed civilian activists and its supporters.
"Hontiveros appears to be ignorant even of this fact, or plays blind to this to suit her malicious agenda against Ocampo and Maza."
Absolute Ignorance on the Nature of Peace Negotiations and the Armed Conflict
"She had also exposed her ignorance on the nature of the armed conflict, as she cannot make a distinction between the use of violence by the state against its opponents and the justified use of arms by the people against oppressive regimes and systems."
Ridon said that by stating that Hontiveros abhors all forms of violence, she in effect had rejected the respected revolutionary tradition of Bonifacio, Sakay and the Huks, all of whom waged armed struggle against oppressors foreign and domestic.
"Even the Philippine Constitution recognizes the right of the people to rebel against oppressive regimes and systems, including the raising of arms. No other interpretation is possible, and Hontiveros' statement exposes completely her elementary knowledge on the relationship of peace and the roots of the armed conflict in the Philippines."
Ridon said there can be no peace just because of the rejection of the use of violence. "Such is merely the silencing of the guns, as the root causes of the armed conflict will not have been addressed. There can thus be no just and lasting peace, which Maza and Ocampo had long advocated for."
"Even absent the CPP-NPA, for as long as the root causes of the armed conflict remain present, such as massive landlessness in the countryside, the absence of genuine agrarian reform, the continuing foreign subjugation of natural resources, among others, the people shall always resort to justified revolutionary violence."
Ridon said that precisely because of this understanding of the nature of the armed conflict and peace negotiations as to why Ocampo and Maza cannot flatly denounce the CPP-NPA.
"The situation of the armed conflict is much more complicated than the mere condemnation demanded by Hontiveros. Unless she is ignorant of all these, her insistence make her demands suspect and malicious."
Ridon said that in view of these, such demands would ring hollow, and exposes a lack of understanding of the complex situation of the armed conflict and peace negotiations.
"She should thus shut her mouth instead of desperately trying to score malicious propaganda points against Ocampo and Maza. Like her principal Noynoy Aquino, she should just stick to the more important electoral issues like genuine agrarian reform and employment."
