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Excerpt from the words of Juan Bandurias, quoted by The Crusader from Yahoo News comments https://sg.news.yahoo.com/duterte-left-not-communist-000000801.html, and posted by Yours Truly
" I have been living in Davao City for 40 years now. I must admit that I used to be an avid fan of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. He struck me as a real man of action, somebody who has the guts to do what other Mayors in other cities couldn’t do - and that is to personally administer the “horizontal” exit of those he thought were violating the law. I regularly watched his local TV program “ Gikan sa Masa, Alang sa Masa”. Like many who are hooked on the entertainment value of the brutal, sarcastic, cussing, threatening, and offensive remarks that comes out of his mouth on just about any issue, I even went to the extent of proudly spreading tales of his unique brand of leadership and discipline to other areas where I used to travel, whether it be Mindanao, Visayas or Luzon. In a way, I unwittingly contributed in my own way, to the spreading of the “Duterte legend” in many parts of the country. Something that I deeply regret now.
My admiration for him would change when I gradually noticed a pattern in the behavior of the man who I thought would be a perfect hero that government officials should emulate. In one of his TV program appearances last year (2015) before the campaign period, I heard him say he would give the DSWD, DA, DAR, DENR to Jose Ma. Sison (Chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines) if ever he becomes president. Although the statement caught me by surprise, and later on disturbed, I still opted to regard it with a grain of salt. Maybe he was only joking, although he looked like he wasn’t. Many years of following him on TV, the local radio and the print media, somehow taught me how to read his body language and read between the lines, so to speak, to grasp the real meaning of his oftentimes bold, oftentimes contradictory and confusing public declarations.
But subsequent incidents would boost the initial seed of doubt that was already planted in my mind. Sometime last year, a team of Davao City policemen rushed to Marilog District to rescue passengers of a vehicle that ran into an accident along the Bukidnon-Davao highway. But before they could help the stricken passengers, they were ambushed by the NPA. When interviewed by the local media later on that day, I saw and heard the Mayor say on TV, “Don’t worry; I already talked to the NPA, they already said sorry. Let’s move on.” I was expecting more. A few expletives would have helped assuage my own anger for the dastardly act committed on policemen who were just out trying to help people in distress. A hot pursuit of the rebels would have been much better to exact punishment on the perpetrators of the ambush because, in my mind, it was a criminal act, a terrorist act even. And what about the casualties and their families? But the Mayor went surprisingly very soft, and obviously did not want to make the NPA accountable. As if on cue, the local media went silent on the matter.
2015 was truly a very enlightening year for me. It was the same year when I also heard the Mayor say that investors should pay revolutionary taxes to the NPA so that they could go about with their businesses unhampered. When Kumander Parago – the most wanted NPA leader in Davao Region who had multiple warrants of arrest (murder, arson, kidnapping, etc.) – was finally killed by government troopers last year, Duterte (the top government official of the city) behaved as if a real hero had just passed away. In honor of this outlaw, he made the Almendras Gym available for his funeral, allowed his coffin to be paraded around the city with NPAs marching behind it, and allowed leftists artists to put up a huge mural along McArthur Highway near the Matina Town Square showing a giant image of him and Parago side by side with the battle cry, Mabuhay si Duterte! Mabuhay si Parago! Mabuhay and NPA!
Many people would attest that Duterte shed tears over Parago’s dead body. He obviously had more than a friendly relationship with the communist leader. It is well-known amongst ordinary folks in far-flung barangays that Parago ensured votes for Duterte in the countryside in all elections conducted in the past two decades; no one could campaign in the NPA-infested rural areas during those elections except Duterte. It angers me to realize now that Duterte’s heart bled for that communist criminal, yet he made fun of, and even expressed his sexual lust, over the brutalized corpse of an Australian missionary who was gang-raped by criminals back in 1989.
Strange how almost nothing was mentioned about the heroism of the government troopers who killed Kumander Parago. In the din of Duterte’s pronouncements that the CPP-NPA had a right to march around the city to express their grief over the loss of their top leader in Southern Mindanao, and mass actions organized by CPP-NPA front organizations in the heart of the city, the heroic act of the government soldiers was relegated to the shadows. I was aghast to read local news berating the soldiers and calling for their prosecution for having violated the human rights of Parago. Indeed, the latter was glorified in the local media, with local columnists plunging into an emotional binge in their bid to express farewell to the slain communist leader. I asked myself, what on earth is happening to my city? Suddenly, it dawned upon me that, with Duterte at the driver’s seat of Davao City for 23 very long years, the CPP-NPA has surreptitiously and stealthily penetrated and, to some extent, controlled key local institutions in the city, and is still gradually but persistently carving away at the moral, political, psychological, and even economic fiber of the local Davao society. Thanks to the cooperation of the city’s top gun. Whether this is the result of a long-term plan concocted long ago by Duterte and the communist movement is something that history will reveal someday.
No wonder, whenever government soldiers or policemen are abducted by the NPA, the latter always releases the captives directly to Duterte. I have come to believe that these incidents are jointly orchestrated to build up the image of the man as he is being groomed to, one day, rule the country.
Finally, the dagger that really tore up my heart was when news broke out a few months ago about a young army lieutenant who died in an armed encounter with the NPA in Compostela Valley, part of Davao Region (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/761615/junior-officer-slain-in-npa-clash-an-achiever). Lieutenant Pantonial was only 28 years old when he and some of his men met their violent deaths at the hands of the NPA. He was a young man full of promise. He studied at the Ateneo de Davao Grade School. As a high school student, he was among the cream of the crop being an outstanding scholar at the Philippine Science High School-Southern Mindanao Campus in Mintal, Davao City. He proceeded to study at UP Mindanao before deciding to train at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) where he graduated with distinction. He bravely fought for our country, against those who want to destroy our democratic way of life, against those who have committed various crimes against the people.
We grieve for him and for hundreds of young men and women like him who courageously offered their lives to protect this country from power-hungry terrorists whom Duterte has embraced as his own. As if adding insult to injury, it was also in Compostela Valley, where young Lt. Pantonial lost his life, that Duterte proudly declared “Mabuhay and NPA!” to the delight of his NPA buddies. What a tragic irony, indeed! Further displaying his arrogance and lack of sensitivity, he would further flaunt his affection to the CPP-NPA during a campaign sortie in Bohol recently where he publicly and mockingly declared “I am a leftist."
I finally decided that I have enough of this man. It pains me to think now that nobody cares for our true heroes like the young Lt. Pantonial anymore, except their families and friends.The incoming president of this country, in the guise of eradicating criminality in 3-6 months, prefer to grieve, instead, for communist criminals who have destroyed the lives of thousands of families in Mindanao. As if to reward him for his efforts, this false messiah is placed on top of the pedestal by his followers that include Jesuit priests and teachers from the Ateneo de Davao University (where Lt. Pantonial, ironically, was taught the value of becoming a “man for others”).
Truly the current situation in the Philippines has gone crazy. If only the young people of today can still discern what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil, who is telling lies and who is telling the truth, instead of being easily deceived by lofty and empty promises of change from a convoluted-minded, self-proclaimed messiah.
I am sure that if Lt. Pantonial were alive today, full of idealism and love for his country, he would stand up against the pro CPP-NPA pronouncements of Duterte. Most of the young people of today who are hypnotized by the promises of this man would no doubt be shamed by the courage of the young warrior who chose the difficult path to goodness, instead of hanging on the coattails of a master showman who is bent on delivering this country to the CPP-NPA in the guise of eradicating criminality in 3-6 months.
Finally, Duterte’s soft-spot for Communist China, his open hatred towards the the U.S., and his constant communication (skyping) with Jose Ma. Sison (who is now in exile in The Netherlands) completes the puzzle; The communists, with the help of their running dog – Duterte - is about to seize political power in our country! This is the clear and present danger that confronts each and every Filipino today. It’s a pity that, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, many of us Filipinos refuse to recognize this truth, we pretend that we just do not see the writings on the wall, and do not hear the real message behind the barrage of lies and disinformation coming from the Duterte camp.
Are there no patriots in this country anymore? How many more young people are our dirty politicians going to push into the hands of the enemy? How many more Filipinos are going to be duped and deceived by a wily stand-up comedian who is taking advantage of our exasperation with rising criminality and corruption? How many more young men and women are going to be sacrificed just to execute a long-prepared, insidious game plan to put a so-called “revolutionary government” in place?
It’s time for all patriots to unite, and let the blood-thirsty, power-hungry scoundrels know that there are many of us who still know how to grieve for, and celebrate, our true heroes like the young Lt. Pantonial. It is time to dig in now; it’s going to be a long-drawn struggle against the forces of darkness that are threatening to engulf our beloved country. Let us not forget the words that the revered Sen. Jovito Salonga once uttered: “For evil to triumph, it only takes good men to do nothing.”
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Disclaimer:
I encourage everyone to participate in our discussion by posting your comment/s or reaction/s. This is one way of digging deeper truths that would help us become more informed and mature about the current issues of our society, nation, and other international concerns. Exchanging of opinions or views is a healthy way of exercising our freedom and rights, as embodied in our Constitution, natural law and the UNHR. I also believe that once, we unlock the highest level of consciousness within us, those perennial problem/s that we experience will soon have its answers. It is my hope that every reader participates. Thank you.
" I have been living in Davao City for 40 years now. I must admit that I used to be an avid fan of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. He struck me as a real man of action, somebody who has the guts to do what other Mayors in other cities couldn’t do - and that is to personally administer the “horizontal” exit of those he thought were violating the law. I regularly watched his local TV program “ Gikan sa Masa, Alang sa Masa”. Like many who are hooked on the entertainment value of the brutal, sarcastic, cussing, threatening, and offensive remarks that comes out of his mouth on just about any issue, I even went to the extent of proudly spreading tales of his unique brand of leadership and discipline to other areas where I used to travel, whether it be Mindanao, Visayas or Luzon. In a way, I unwittingly contributed in my own way, to the spreading of the “Duterte legend” in many parts of the country. Something that I deeply regret now.
My admiration for him would change when I gradually noticed a pattern in the behavior of the man who I thought would be a perfect hero that government officials should emulate. In one of his TV program appearances last year (2015) before the campaign period, I heard him say he would give the DSWD, DA, DAR, DENR to Jose Ma. Sison (Chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines) if ever he becomes president. Although the statement caught me by surprise, and later on disturbed, I still opted to regard it with a grain of salt. Maybe he was only joking, although he looked like he wasn’t. Many years of following him on TV, the local radio and the print media, somehow taught me how to read his body language and read between the lines, so to speak, to grasp the real meaning of his oftentimes bold, oftentimes contradictory and confusing public declarations.
But subsequent incidents would boost the initial seed of doubt that was already planted in my mind. Sometime last year, a team of Davao City policemen rushed to Marilog District to rescue passengers of a vehicle that ran into an accident along the Bukidnon-Davao highway. But before they could help the stricken passengers, they were ambushed by the NPA. When interviewed by the local media later on that day, I saw and heard the Mayor say on TV, “Don’t worry; I already talked to the NPA, they already said sorry. Let’s move on.” I was expecting more. A few expletives would have helped assuage my own anger for the dastardly act committed on policemen who were just out trying to help people in distress. A hot pursuit of the rebels would have been much better to exact punishment on the perpetrators of the ambush because, in my mind, it was a criminal act, a terrorist act even. And what about the casualties and their families? But the Mayor went surprisingly very soft, and obviously did not want to make the NPA accountable. As if on cue, the local media went silent on the matter.
2015 was truly a very enlightening year for me. It was the same year when I also heard the Mayor say that investors should pay revolutionary taxes to the NPA so that they could go about with their businesses unhampered. When Kumander Parago – the most wanted NPA leader in Davao Region who had multiple warrants of arrest (murder, arson, kidnapping, etc.) – was finally killed by government troopers last year, Duterte (the top government official of the city) behaved as if a real hero had just passed away. In honor of this outlaw, he made the Almendras Gym available for his funeral, allowed his coffin to be paraded around the city with NPAs marching behind it, and allowed leftists artists to put up a huge mural along McArthur Highway near the Matina Town Square showing a giant image of him and Parago side by side with the battle cry, Mabuhay si Duterte! Mabuhay si Parago! Mabuhay and NPA!
Many people would attest that Duterte shed tears over Parago’s dead body. He obviously had more than a friendly relationship with the communist leader. It is well-known amongst ordinary folks in far-flung barangays that Parago ensured votes for Duterte in the countryside in all elections conducted in the past two decades; no one could campaign in the NPA-infested rural areas during those elections except Duterte. It angers me to realize now that Duterte’s heart bled for that communist criminal, yet he made fun of, and even expressed his sexual lust, over the brutalized corpse of an Australian missionary who was gang-raped by criminals back in 1989.
Strange how almost nothing was mentioned about the heroism of the government troopers who killed Kumander Parago. In the din of Duterte’s pronouncements that the CPP-NPA had a right to march around the city to express their grief over the loss of their top leader in Southern Mindanao, and mass actions organized by CPP-NPA front organizations in the heart of the city, the heroic act of the government soldiers was relegated to the shadows. I was aghast to read local news berating the soldiers and calling for their prosecution for having violated the human rights of Parago. Indeed, the latter was glorified in the local media, with local columnists plunging into an emotional binge in their bid to express farewell to the slain communist leader. I asked myself, what on earth is happening to my city? Suddenly, it dawned upon me that, with Duterte at the driver’s seat of Davao City for 23 very long years, the CPP-NPA has surreptitiously and stealthily penetrated and, to some extent, controlled key local institutions in the city, and is still gradually but persistently carving away at the moral, political, psychological, and even economic fiber of the local Davao society. Thanks to the cooperation of the city’s top gun. Whether this is the result of a long-term plan concocted long ago by Duterte and the communist movement is something that history will reveal someday.
No wonder, whenever government soldiers or policemen are abducted by the NPA, the latter always releases the captives directly to Duterte. I have come to believe that these incidents are jointly orchestrated to build up the image of the man as he is being groomed to, one day, rule the country.
Finally, the dagger that really tore up my heart was when news broke out a few months ago about a young army lieutenant who died in an armed encounter with the NPA in Compostela Valley, part of Davao Region (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/761615/junior-officer-slain-in-npa-clash-an-achiever). Lieutenant Pantonial was only 28 years old when he and some of his men met their violent deaths at the hands of the NPA. He was a young man full of promise. He studied at the Ateneo de Davao Grade School. As a high school student, he was among the cream of the crop being an outstanding scholar at the Philippine Science High School-Southern Mindanao Campus in Mintal, Davao City. He proceeded to study at UP Mindanao before deciding to train at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) where he graduated with distinction. He bravely fought for our country, against those who want to destroy our democratic way of life, against those who have committed various crimes against the people.
We grieve for him and for hundreds of young men and women like him who courageously offered their lives to protect this country from power-hungry terrorists whom Duterte has embraced as his own. As if adding insult to injury, it was also in Compostela Valley, where young Lt. Pantonial lost his life, that Duterte proudly declared “Mabuhay and NPA!” to the delight of his NPA buddies. What a tragic irony, indeed! Further displaying his arrogance and lack of sensitivity, he would further flaunt his affection to the CPP-NPA during a campaign sortie in Bohol recently where he publicly and mockingly declared “I am a leftist."
I finally decided that I have enough of this man. It pains me to think now that nobody cares for our true heroes like the young Lt. Pantonial anymore, except their families and friends.The incoming president of this country, in the guise of eradicating criminality in 3-6 months, prefer to grieve, instead, for communist criminals who have destroyed the lives of thousands of families in Mindanao. As if to reward him for his efforts, this false messiah is placed on top of the pedestal by his followers that include Jesuit priests and teachers from the Ateneo de Davao University (where Lt. Pantonial, ironically, was taught the value of becoming a “man for others”).
Truly the current situation in the Philippines has gone crazy. If only the young people of today can still discern what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil, who is telling lies and who is telling the truth, instead of being easily deceived by lofty and empty promises of change from a convoluted-minded, self-proclaimed messiah.
I am sure that if Lt. Pantonial were alive today, full of idealism and love for his country, he would stand up against the pro CPP-NPA pronouncements of Duterte. Most of the young people of today who are hypnotized by the promises of this man would no doubt be shamed by the courage of the young warrior who chose the difficult path to goodness, instead of hanging on the coattails of a master showman who is bent on delivering this country to the CPP-NPA in the guise of eradicating criminality in 3-6 months.
Finally, Duterte’s soft-spot for Communist China, his open hatred towards the the U.S., and his constant communication (skyping) with Jose Ma. Sison (who is now in exile in The Netherlands) completes the puzzle; The communists, with the help of their running dog – Duterte - is about to seize political power in our country! This is the clear and present danger that confronts each and every Filipino today. It’s a pity that, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, many of us Filipinos refuse to recognize this truth, we pretend that we just do not see the writings on the wall, and do not hear the real message behind the barrage of lies and disinformation coming from the Duterte camp.
Are there no patriots in this country anymore? How many more young people are our dirty politicians going to push into the hands of the enemy? How many more Filipinos are going to be duped and deceived by a wily stand-up comedian who is taking advantage of our exasperation with rising criminality and corruption? How many more young men and women are going to be sacrificed just to execute a long-prepared, insidious game plan to put a so-called “revolutionary government” in place?
It’s time for all patriots to unite, and let the blood-thirsty, power-hungry scoundrels know that there are many of us who still know how to grieve for, and celebrate, our true heroes like the young Lt. Pantonial. It is time to dig in now; it’s going to be a long-drawn struggle against the forces of darkness that are threatening to engulf our beloved country. Let us not forget the words that the revered Sen. Jovito Salonga once uttered: “For evil to triumph, it only takes good men to do nothing.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer:
I encourage everyone to participate in our discussion by posting your comment/s or reaction/s. This is one way of digging deeper truths that would help us become more informed and mature about the current issues of our society, nation, and other international concerns. Exchanging of opinions or views is a healthy way of exercising our freedom and rights, as embodied in our Constitution, natural law and the UNHR. I also believe that once, we unlock the highest level of consciousness within us, those perennial problem/s that we experience will soon have its answers. It is my hope that every reader participates. Thank you.
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