Russia and China might help end insurgency
At last, we’ve been able to throw off the US yoke!
President Digong made this possible when he extended the hand of friendship to Russia and China, the United States’ Cold War enemies.
Why should we treat Russia and China as our foes just because they are enemies of the United States?
Those two countries haven’t done us wrong, and if they did—like supporting the communist insurgency in the country—that was only because they considered us a US lackey.
They have long ceased supporting the communist insurgents.
Duterte’s offer of friendship to Russia and China might lead to an end of the communist insurgency.
Article continues after this advertisementThe New People’s Army and its predecessor, the Hukbalahap (Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon) have been waging one of the world’s longest-running insurgency.
Article continues after this advertisementRussia and China have long become capitalist countries.
Communism is a perfect system of government and therefore unachievable.
Perhaps the two erstwhile communist countries can convince their Filipino comrades of the futility of the “mass struggle” and adapt to the ways of capitalism.
In his talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Peru at the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting, President Digong said the United States has treated the Philippines shabbily.
Mano Digong cited the case of Angelo dela Cruz, a Filipino worker who was kidnapped in 2004 by Iraqi militants who demanded the pullout of Philippine noncombat troops in exchange for his release.
Then President Gloria gave in to the demand of the militants to save Dela Cruz, who would have been beheaded.
President Digong told Putin the United States “made it hard for us.”
This columnist can attest to that as I was at that time still close to the Arroyo couple, President Gloria and then First Gentleman Mike Arroyo.
When President Gloria visited Washington, President George W. Bush made the Philippines a “non-NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) ally.”
As a non-NATO ally, the Philippines was promised military hardware by the US: fighter and transport planes, helicopters, ships, etc.
As the militants were holding Dela Cruz hostage, the US told Gloria not to accede to the Iraqi demand.
But Gloria, who was running for president, gave in as Dela Cruz had become a cause célèbre in the country.
And because Gloria acceded to the Iraqi demand, the promised military aid
never came.
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Why did St. Scholastica College, an exclusive school for girls, make its students take part in the protest against the burial of former President Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani?
Those students were not yet born during the Marcos regime.
Why do the nuns teach their students to hate a person they don’t know?
What has happened to the Christian virtue of forgiveness?
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Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Chair and CEO Jose Vicente Salazar, who was implicated by ERC Director Francisco Jose Villa Jr. in a scam, didn’t have a good record as justice undersecretary.
Before Villa committed suicide, he said Salazar had forced him to take part in a rigged bidding which Villa described in his blog as “a criminal act.”
President Noynoy gave Salazar the ERC, a sinecure, so he would stop being a monkey on the shoulder of Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, who was favored by then Secretary Leila de Lima, according to my source at the Department of Justice.