BWorld 113, Peace talks with CPP-NDF for another 30 years?

* This is my article in BusinessWorld last February 17.

After three decades (1987-2017) of peace talks between the Philippine government and the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF), all held in Europe (Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Italy, etc.), what lessons have we learned?

There are at least two. One is that the “endless peace talks” for the past 30 years might continue for another 30 years or more. Here is a brief time line of those peace talks that I gathered from various sources.

Joma Sison and his team in Europe have earned huge media and political mileage. They can continue getting funds for these high-profile peace talks so they will want the talks to continue for the next 30 years or more, with their kin and buddies as future negotiators.

Similarly, media and political mileage have also benefitted negotiating teams of the Philippine government, regardless of administrations. At least they get frequent, all-expenses paid trips to Europe. So there is also incentive for them and future government negotiators to continue the talks for the next 30 years or more.

Second lesson, since the CPP-NDF negotiators have been residing in Europe for decades, could it be that the Philippine government is negotiating with foreigners but previously Filipino citizens? My source says several negotiators have become either Dutch or Spanish citizens.

I am not a big fan of nationalism so this issue is not that important to me. I am just curious if some groups will insist on the citizenship issue, will there be no legal problems?

The Philippine communist movement has already been a spent force for so many years. The Philippine government should treat them just like other organized criminal groups engaged in extortion and armed attacks.

Likewise, the Europe-based CPP-NDF negotiators are spent leaders who are better ignored than heard, for the next decade/s to come. They will continue making unreasonable demands to cover up their irrelevance.

Bienvenido Oplas, Jr. is the head of Minimal Government Thinkers and a Fellow of SEANET. Both institutes are members of EFN-Asia.

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See also:

BWorld 110, Should we go federal or not? February 19, 2017 

BWorld 111, Electric cooperatives and unstable power supply, March 01, 2017

BWorld 112, Asia Liberty Forum 2017 in Mumbai, March 01, 2017

El Nino, Oplan Bayanihan, CPP-NPA and Kidapawan road closure

If the issue of rallyists and demonstrators in Kidapawan, Cotabato was asking government for subsidy to deal with El Nino crop failure, why (1) most plackards were campaigning against Oplan Bayanihan (OB), (2) farmer demonstrators were supposed to be very poor and hungry yet have neat, uniformly-printed plackards, (3) there were flags with hammer and sickle, (4) occupy an important highway connecting Davao-Cotabato, among the major urban centers of Mindanao?

Photos from  http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/561130/news/regions/farmers-killed-dozens-hurt-in-dispersal-of-protesters-in-cotabato

and http://davaotoday.com/main/headline/in-photos-tension-brews-a-day-before-the-dispersal-of-the-farmers-barricade-in-kidapawan-city/

I was not so familiar with OB, I googled "Oplan Bayanihan", the top 9 articles given by google are from (1) philippinerevolution.net, (2) human rights PH, (3) karapatan, (4) nato reyes, (5) inquirer, (6) Bayan USA, (7) bulatlat, (8) army.mil, and (9) interaksyon.

Ahaa, anti-OB is mainly the campaign of the CPP-NPA and affiliates -- 6 of those 9 sources, except from #5, 8 and 9. And the campaign has drowned the legitimate farming issue of farm subsidy against El Nino crop damage.

This video shows that (1) BFP started spraying water, (2) PNP started tactical advance, (3) protesters started throwing rocks and stones, lots of of stones, (4) PNP retreated, some running away in panic, (5) a small group of PNP was cornered by the advancing protesters armed with rocks, (6) gun shots. 

"Who started the violence? You be the judge"
https://www.facebook.com/kalumuranmindanao/videos/1272844346063461/

The CPP-NPA militants + Bayaan Mo Na front organizations manipulated the farmers. From the plackards, there seems to be little mention about subsidy against El Nino, more of anti-OB. Plus the red banners, plus the KMP.

A day before the dispersal, those at the frontline looked like non-militants, young boys, some women. But the plackards were consistent -- Oppose OB. 

Some (or many?) reporters are simply pro-demonstrators, like this story:

"All they wanted was rice, plus free vegetable seedlings and financial subsidy in the wake of the El Niño. But after three days of protest to air their demands, all that the protesting farmers and their supporters got were bullets." http://www.mb.com.ph/demand-for-rice-turns-bloody/

Wanted rice and vegetables only? But many plackards show that the highway occupants wanted the military/AFP's OB to be stopped, which has zero relevance to El Nino issue. The reporter did not mention anything about this.

El Nino also affected the provinces or islands of Negros, Cebu, Mindoro, Masbate, Samar, Leyte, Ilocos, etc. Farmers also suffered there but there were no highway occupation and closure for several days, no demand to stop OB. Why? The CPP-NPA on those provinces were less active, or less manipulative?

Meanwhile, this big El Nino is fading fast. Big La Nina is coming, more floods and destruction of farms soon. Will there be another road occupation and closure in Cotabato, elsewhere?

If the demonstrators, the CPP-NPA and Bayaan Mo Na opposed another OB like Oplas Bienvenido smile emoticon I can understand because that guy always says politically incorrect things, like big El Nino is not man-made but nature-made. But hey, they are opposing another OB, Oplan Bayanihan, that has zero relations with El Nino and prolonged drought.

To summarize my arguments:

1. Wrong venue by the demonstrators, NOT a highway please, there are public plaza, school grounds, idle farms, etc. Rallyists' freedom of assembly is secondary to other people's freedom of mobility.

2. Wrong insertion of anti-OB campaign in an otherwise legitimate farming issue of drought and crop failure.

3. Wrong use of live bullets against the demonstrators. Teargas, rubber bullets, strong water pressure, truncheons, etc. would be enough to disperse them from the highway.

Meanwhile, this video and interview of one of the original farmer rallyists shows that some or many of them really wanted to go home earlier, a day before, but leftist leaders prevented them from leaving.

https://www.facebook.com/atrocitiesandlies/videos/695574457252433/

In a debate in a friend's wall on this subject, I argued the following:

1. Inconveniencing the public via closure of a highway to get public attention is not justified. The rallyists have created more public animosity, not sympathy, in that act. Except for the few deaths, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people in Davao and Cotabato are clapping the PNP for opening up the road again.

2. When the Iglesia mob closed and occupied Edsa for 2D/3N to protest against DOJ's Leila de Lima, that act was road dictatorship. Even assuming that their "cause" was 101% valid, their choice of venue was 101% wrong. Their "freedom of assembly" is secondary or far out compared to the "freedom of mobility" of other people.

3. Road/highway closure and occupation for days is evil and wrong -- whether the perpetrators are Iglesia or Catholic or IS or commies or capitalists or batman. No justification. Kidapawan highway closure for 3 days is wrong. Mali lang ang govt kasi may namatay, but the dispersal was 100% correct.

The CPP, China, Joma and Dick Malay

Reposting a brief memoire by a former young Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) official in the early 70s, Ricardo "Dick" Malay, below.

When I was still among the leftist student activists in UP Diliman in the 80s, I would hear his name a few times. Not that I was a member of the party or its youth arm, KM , but from older Marxist leaders like Profs. Dodong Nemenzo and Randy David.

I met Dick for the first (or second?) time in November or December last year, in one of the gatherings of UP alumni at Taga UP Diliman Ka Kung (TUPDKK). Dick narrated many things when he went to China in 1971. An interview of him and Victor Corpuz by Howie Severino is here. Check at 1:25 minute mark.

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The Left, China and Rizal

By Dick Malay

December 30, 2014

We arrived in China in the summer of 1971 not  as refugees of an impending martial law, but armed with an urgent mission for the revolutionary Left. My wife and I had taken a French leave from our work with marching orders to set up a a clandestine outpost in Beijing. It was  tasked  as a clearing house for China's military assistance to the fledgeling Maoist rebellion versus a dictatorship in the making.

      

The Communist Party led insurgency felt it needed more than ideological support from the putative center of world revolution. In an era where Mao the Great Helmsman was vowing all-out internationalist assistance to rebellions and uprisings the world over, it was thought that overthrowing the strongman's rule with imported Chinese weapons was in the best interest of the revolution.  Together with a CPP politburo member, we landed in Beijing to the welcoming arms of our Chinese comrades.

     

At the same time, our mission was  to forge fraternal ties with Communist governments and revolutionary movements with chanceries in the Chinese capital. With such a global united front standing behind it, the anti- Marcos struggle was assured of victory. But for us, the first order of the day was to negotiate the shipment of armaments and ordnance from our Chinese partners.They granted two CPP proposals over the course of two years for the sea-borne delivery of weapons to the NPA, then steadily gaining in strength against government forces.

   

The initial shipment in 1972 undertaken by the vessel MV Karagatan ended in a debacle. During a deadly firefight with government troops alerted to the boat's movements, the rebels on the receiving ground abandoned most of the Chinese armaments, including powerful assault rifles, to the enemy. The Karagatan incident was one of the reasons President Marcos cited for declaring martial law.

    

But the setback did little to dampen the enthusiasm of the Chinese party to continue supporting the insurgency. In 1974, a second transshipment aboard the Dona Andrea met a more grievous fate.  Enroute to a Hainan naval base to pick up a large quantity of military hardware, the vessel manned by inexperienced cadres and fighters was shipwrecked in the Pratas Islands.

Although the Chinese authorities rescued the crew and brought them safely to the mainland, we felt the collaboration was nearing the end of its line. With two dismal failures exposing the CPP military ineptitude on one hand and uncovering China's export of revolution on the other, it was time to take a long hard look at the bi-lateral relationship born in the implosions of a perfervid era.

    

Two developments added to the emerging bleak picture. China and the Philippines were on the road to a cozy friendship after cementing diplomatic ties; and Deng Xiaobing, the pragmatic foe of Mao Tsetung, was back in power. It was Deng who voiced disgust at the price China had to pay for courting the CPP to its side. "The Filipino comrades are very clumsy," he reportedly said after reports of the two disastrous shipments came to his attention.

   

The events foretold that the times of friendship and solidarity  were drawing to a desolate close . We were compelled to shutter our mission and move to a new destination where the Maoist creed was a growing novelty  and attracting curious minds. At a farewell banquet given by the Chinese party commissar for our departing group, I raised my glass to toast the CCP and Chairman Mao for the friendship and hospitality we deeply felt during our ten year sojourn in their land.

To which the commissar responded raising his own glass of maotai:  "To the health and victories of our Filipinos comrades. Let us not forget also, to the memory of your national hero Dr Jose Rizal whose death is commemorated today. We Chinese people highly respect and revere him as one of our own heroes. Ganbei!"  

 

I had forgotten the day was a December 30. In that instant, i was jolted back to the reality that we were too busy forging on with our revolution that we had become hostage to the dogmas of a parallel world we were unwittingly creating in our quest for a better world to live.

Mabuhay ka at maligayang araw, Gat Jose Rizal!

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Terms from Dick which I heard, referring  to his big disappointment of China communism and Joma Sison:

1. "classless society" -- no classes especially in universities in China after the Mao revolution. Professors were either killed or sent to the farms to live like farmers.

2. "A mad dog grrr rero" -- new pronouncement of Joma Sison's alias "Amado Guerrero". 

Hahaha, Very witty Dick.

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See also: 
China Watch 9: Liu Xiaobo, Human Rights and the NPA, December 10, 2010
Pilipinas Forum 3: Is Marxism Still Relevant?, August 30, 2011 
Pilipinas Forum 19: The CPP-NPA, Sison and Maoism, November 09, 2011 
Pilipinas Forum 26: On State-Party Relations, February 28, 2012

Today is 11-11-11

Wonderful date today, 6 one's. Many groups and individuals marked this day for the launching of some of their big programs and projects.

Me, I will attend the Philippine Economic Society (PES) annual meeting and conference, a whole day activity to be held at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Will meet many friends there in the economics profession. I've been inactive of the PES lately. Well, I did not like the themes and topics of previous conferences before. This year, still another cheesy topic, but the good thing is that there are so many simultaneous panel discussions, something like 6 to 7 panels on-going at the same time, so I can just hop from one panel to another if one panel is boring. This is the main reason that attracted me to attend today's PES big event.

In the morning session, I plan to attend the discussion on "Understanding Institutional Change in the Philippines". I want to see if the speakers will mention topics like rule of law and property rights, two of the most important but often overlooked concepts in many economic and social literatures in the country. Or I can jump to the panel on International Trade.

In the afternoon, I plan to attend the panel on "Labor and Migration", or "Issues on Restraining Firm Market Power". Restrain market power? Why not restrain government power? There will also be cocktails after the conference, yeah, beer or wine, I prefer beer.

November 2011 is quite pivotal for some countries. The government in Greece sank, Berlusconi in Italy is sinking. Thailand manyprovinces are "sinking" literally due to heavy flooding. The floods are still rampaging for weeks now. Some folks will definitely argue that "warming causes cooling", yeah right.

State welfarism is very costly, many countries on both sides of the Atlantic are realizing it slowly. Paying someone for not working, or giving "free" healthcare for many if not all people, early retirement (like 50 years old in Greece?) and long pensions, are slam dunking their public finance with tons and tons of public debt. Public Debt/GDP ratio of 50 percent seems mild these days, as many countries are on the 60 to 100 percent or higher ratio already.

And talks of Israeli strike of Iran's nuke facilities has resurfaced. Here in the Philippines, talks of "all out war" against the communist CPP-NPA and the secessionist MILF rebels is also resurfacing, at least among a few sectors who want to end these 42-43 years old armed conflict. Me too, I'm tired of all these war, even if they are limited to far away municipalities and barrios. I don't want to see, support, finance through endless taxes and fees all those wars and bloated military bureaucracies for the next decades. It's an endless war it seems.
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The PES conference was great, lots of good papers presented, big audience too, should be 200+ participants. I actually came late, past 10am. The morning plenary session has already started, about Public Private Partnership (PPP) on various infrastructure projects. There were four speakers, one from the PPP Office, one from the Department of Finance, and two from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). I forgot the conference kit at home, I don't remember their names, but will write about it further. Peter Wallace was the moderator.

The two ADB guys talked a lot about public goods, like hard infrastructures (roads, energy, ports, etc.) and education. During the open forum, I was one of those who asked questions. I said something like this.

My question and comments are addressed to the two speakers from the ADB. You talked a lot about public goods, state responsibility, but I think one important public good now that government can provide is how to reduce the public debt, reduce the interest payment burden. The ongoing debt problems in Greece, Italy, the US and other developed countries clearly show that high public debt leading to economic turmoil is one clear proof of government failure, of government as creator or instigator of economic instability. So why not push for private sector investments even with no public sector participation? When government comes in, they bring lots of bureaucracies, as earlier mentioned by Mr. Vic Valdepenas where the PPP Office is duplicating the functions of the ICC (Investment Coordinating Council), the BOI (Board of Investments) and other agencies. Government also contract more debt, and get more taxes to finance those debts. So it is possible to have more private sector investments with no additional public debt.

Interest payment alone of the Philippine government is around P330 billion per year, average for 2010 to 2012, principal amortization not included yet, clearly a huge public finance burden. If private investors come in, government can only ask them, "Will you be involved in drug pushing, human trafficking, related activities?" If their answer is No, then government should tell them, "Ok, start your business tomorrow" and that's how we proceed with investment-led growth.

Perhaps it was somehow a shocker for the two ADB guys to be told that government -- and ADB-pushed new debts -- should step back. My gift for them on 11-11-11. In fairness to the two guys, they admitted that bigger private sector involvement is possible and desirable, that high public debt is a big issue for many economies.

More stories later in this blog.

Mining 2: Insurgents and Mining Companies

This is my article today in the online magazine thelobbyist.biz. Original title is shown.
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http://www.thelobbyist.biz/perspectives/less-gorvernment/1212-mining-is-necessary-rebels-are-not

Mining is Necessary, Rebels are Not

TUESDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2011 02:13

WRITTEN BY NONOY OPLAS

Tags: Less Government

Mining of various mineral and metallic products give us computers, cell phones, tv, refrigerators, cars, tricycles, tractors, boat engines, steel bars, cement, door knobs, iron roof, nails, electrical wires, coins, and so on. Thus, all buildings, schools, shops, buses, boats, factories and other means of production, will be impossible without mining.

People who oppose mining as “damaging the environment” should live in caves, or in wooden/bamboo houses with nipa or cogon roof and house joints are not connected by nails and other metallic products, and they should have no electricity. This is highly possible of course, as many people in poor rural villages still live in those structures. The question is if those vocal opponents of mining are willing to live such lifestyle, -- no computers, no internet, no texting, no tv, no electricity.  I bet they will all say No.

Hence, mining is necessary. Opponents can oppose certain mining practices, but they cannot expect zero destruction in the environment as it is simply impossible. Even those who put up an all wood/bamboo house with cogon roof and have agricultural plots outside with no electricity, still alter or damage the natural environment as they have to cut many trees and clear the land for such human settlement and their agricultural activities.

The attack by the communist rebels New People’s Army (NPA) early this month of three mining firms in Surigao del Norte where the rebels burned many trucks, mining equipment, onsite offices and other properties was totally condemnable. The rebels and their apologists cited “protection of the environment” as their main reason for their action and did not admit to plain extortion and environmental stupidity.

Extortion and banditry by the rebel NPAs is wrong. To live off on unproductive work like holding guns and shooting or burning and bombing those who do not give them money is living a purely parasitic life. The parasitism of the rebels is no different from the parasitism of many agencies and personnel in government, the institution that the rebels say they want to overthrow and replace. The only difference is that the parasitism of many organs of the State has legal basis, there are laws and regulations that allow those agencies to exist and justify their claim to taxpayers’ money which are collected by force and coercion, whereas the rebels’ parasitism has no legal basis. But both have coercive powers because both are armed and are willing to commit violence against the unarmed public if they will not oblige to the will of the two armed groups.

Since the Philippine State collects lots of direct and indirect taxes from the mining firms – corporate income tax, personal income tax of officers and staff, VAT, franchise tax, property tax, business permit tax, etc. – the State has the duty to protect the property and investments of those mining firms. The State can inflict penalties against erring companies, mining or otherwise, like closing them if they do not pay the assessed taxes, if they do not secure the necessary business and environmental permits, and so on. But if the State does not do its job of protecting private property rights, what are the penalties against the inefficiency or laziness of the State?

Sadly, there is none. While the AFP Chief of Staff has relieved several high ranking officials of the Army who are deployed to protect those areas, it is a very light penalty that is inflicted only on persons, not the institution. If I have my way, I will propose that those mining companies should be entitled to drastic tax credits, if not limited compensation from the government, for the latter’s negligence of its function and failure to enforce a contract – tax collections in exchange for protection of private property. In this case, the government simply collected taxes and various fees even if it was negligent and lazy to do its job.

If the government is truly accountable, the agencies that were tasked to do the job of protective property rights and failed to do their tasks should suffer budgetary cuts and cut in bureaucracy, and the companies that suffered huge losses from such destruction should get tax credits or compensation from the government, then the affected companies have the option to hire private or community security forces to protect their properties, subject to existing national laws on human rights and property rights.

Of course this is only a hypothetical solution as the government will never entertain such type of arrangement. The BIG government is not truly accountable. Like the rebel bandits and extortionists, the government simply wants to collect more taxes and fees, whether its agencies are doing their job or not.

Lack of promulgation of the rule of law – the law on contracts, the law on private property rights, the law on human rights, etc. – is the main cause of lack of investment and economic growth in the country. Which causes high unemployment and poverty, and poverty, the rebels say, is the main cause why they are rebelling against the State.

Since the State, not the rebels, have the official and formal contract with the people, the State should be answerable and accountable to the people. And the State here includes not only the elective officials but also the appointive personnel and bureaucrats, from the civilian to police and armed force bureaucracies. The rule of law stipulates the penalties against erring government officials and personnel for neglect of their duties. Since these are not followed, what we have actually is the rule of men, not the rule of law.

And while the rebels may have some beef and rationale in fighting the government, their means and philosophies are equally bankrupt and violent, which immediately disqualifies them from any respect of building a civilized society today or in the future.

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On JANUARY 03, 2010, i wrote this:

Leeches and the rule of law

"Leeches on both ends of the economic spectrum challenge crafters of government policy, specially when resources aren't that plentiful and have to be managed rationally. But the situation becomes even more of a challenge when these leeches are represented in the lawmaking body of the land."

I think that statement is wrong. Only leeches from the socialists and monopolist-minded capitalists applaud more government intervention. Free market capitalists want zero government intervention in business. Except in business practices that result in death and harm to people's health. Like selling counterfeit or substandard medicines. Or selling expired and adulterated food and drinks. Or selling poisonous toys. Or selling bombs. Or issuing bouncing checks. All of these are covered by existing laws and prohibitions against threats to people's health and life.

On another note, there was a suggestion that we still need the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to collect VAT and to police the entry of hazardous materials like guns and bombs through the ports. I believe that VAT collection can be done by the lean BIR, while checking the entry of guns and bombs is a police function, not BOC. Whether the guns come from Iran or Cagayan, whether from Russia or Zamboanga, the police should monitor and confiscate those whenever necessary.

On abiding simple rules, the "rule of law" is a very radical concept.
It says that the law rules over men. No one is exempted from the law, and no one can grant exemption. The law applies equally to unequal people.

When the law says no stealing, then no stealing -- whether by the President or the King or the most desperate and the poorest people. No stealing, period. No ifs, no buts, no exemption.

When the law says "No left turn" or "No counterf-flow" , then no left-turn or no counterflow should be allowed.

Unfortunately in this country, the WORST violators of the rule of law, especially of traffic rules, are the Office of the President, the Presidential Security Group, and the police (PNP).

For this group of people, there is only rule of men, no rule of law. They are the WORST violators of the rule of the law, and we call them "public servants" and we part with a big portion of our monthly income to feed those shameless and arrogant people.

The President and her military escords, they are the WORST violators of the rule of law, at least of traffic rules. Shame on them.

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See also 
Mining 1: Mineral Rights, September 09, 2010


Coercion and Rule of Law, August 14, 2007
Criminals 3: Kidnappers in Government, August 24, 2010 
Criminals 4: Hostage-taking of HK Tourists in Luneta, August 31, 2010
Criminals 5: One Year of Maguindanao Massacre, November 23, 2010
Criminals 8: Extortion Culture in the PNP, June 13, 2011
Pilipinas Forum 1: Crime and Punishment, August 29, 2011

Philippine left's website popularity

Leftist and socialist philosophies permeate many societies' public policies. It is easy to spot the groups and individuals who advocate these philosophies. How? Just observe their language and policy pronouncements: Personal and parental responsibility, individual liberty, these are strange concepts for them, you seldom or will never, find such terms in their literature. Instead, you will find these keywords very often -- "more government responsibility and intervention", "more government regulation and taxation", "social equality", and sometimes, "nationalist industrialization."

The most leftist organization in the Philippines of course, is the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA). These groups are fighting for, nothing else but communism in the Philippines (with transition stage in "national democracy" then socialism then communism) via armed struggle and armed revolution.

Both CPP and NPA have no websites of their own. The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) handles their online presence with its website, http://www.ndfp.net/joomla/.

I checked its global traffic rank via alexa.com, somehow high:

China Watch 9: Liu Xiaobo, Human Rights and the NPA

Today is International Human Rights Day. Every December 10 every year is human rights day. And on this day, two significant events happened in the Philippines.

One is that the President has ordered the release of the health workers who have been detained for nearly a year now, called the "Morong 43". The Philippine military hauled them on charges of being members of the Communist Party of the Philippines - New People's Army (CPP-NPA).

The CPP-NPA were receiving some indirect assistance from the China communist government in the 70s under the leadership of Mao Tse Tung. The founder of the CPP, Joma Sison, was a hard-core Maoist. He patterned the CPP revolution on three communist thinkers, Marx-Lenin-Mao. The kind of revolution they want to pursue is mainly Maoist -- use of farmers, rural workers, to "encircle the cities" in an armed revolt and capture state power.

The second important event today is the decision of President Aquino to join other countries who will boycott the awarding ceremony of the Nobel Peace Prize awards in Oslo, Norway, today.

This year's awardee is Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident who was among the leaders of the Tiananmen rebellion in 1989 that resulted in the Tiananmen massacre. Liu was imprisoned then, got out, imprisoned again on other charges later, got out. And about a year ago, he was sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment.

China's government violently opposed the decision of the Nobel Peace prize committee, so it launched a diplomatic offensive and pressured some countries not to participate in the awarding of the prize.

I think the China government simply over-reacted, its OA. Nobel is a private foundation, not a government or a multilateral institution. If it was the UN, or any state government around the world that gives that Peace award, the China government has every reason to react negatively diplomatically.

So now, what if Rotary International, or Mason International, or the International Red Cross, or Transparency International, or any other private and international NGO will give a similar award on peace and non-violence, to any other Chinese dissident, past or present, the China government will again launch another negative diplomatic assault?

It is true that President Aquino and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) were so embarrassed by the hostage-taking and death of many HK-Chinese hostages a few months ago. China reacted angrily with the massacre inside the tourist bus. So P.Noy does not want China to be angry again, and this should be the main reason why the Philippine government will boycott the Nobel Peace Prize awarding ceremony. In this case, the PNoy government danced along with the over-reaction of the China government.

Back to the NPA. The National Democratic Front (NDF), the chief negotiator in behalf of the CPP-NPA, made a mistake earlier of making the "freedom of Morong 43" as their no. 1 precondition before they will resume peace talks with the Philippine government. It's like implying, "they're our buddies, set them free first, then we can talk". The detained health workers would not want the public to think that way.

Lesson: Big government, like the China communist government, can be evil. The right to dissent, the right to self-expression, is part of human liberties. So long as words do not call for violence, like calling for an armed overthrow of a government, critique of corrupt and dictatorial governnts are rightful privileges of people in a free society.

The same way, the CPP-NPA-NDF dream of estabilishing socialism and a socialist government in the Philippines, their main strategy of armed struggle and violent overthrow of the Philippine government, is evil. Many civilians, including health workers like the Morong 43, have been trapped and hostaged in the endless but hopeless goal of establishing a socialist government via armed revolution,

If they want health socialism, education socialism, housing socialism, pension socialism,management socialism, etc., then they should work in the open, non-armed, battle for ideas. They should bring books and blogs, not armalite and grenades.

The Big Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and their corruption is directly proportional to the corruption and idiocy of the CPP-NPA. If the AFP is not heavily corrupt along with the politicians, the communist rebellion would have ended a long time ago.

It is important that NGOs should remain independent -- independent from government, independent from politicians, independent from communist rebels, independent from other bodies that rely on coercion for their continued existence. That way, they will not be indebted to those politicians, government agencies, and can praise or criticize when it is due.

* See also: China Watch 8: World's Largest Economies in 2010, August 16, 2010