A pioneer in modern terrorism

First of 2 parts

THAT 30,000 figure is based on the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ official list of soldiers killed by the New People’s Army totaling 12,861 from 1975 to 2015; my estimate is that the number of police casualties is the same, and half that the number of village militia and “uncooperative” civilians executed by the communists.

(The killing continues, but we have no data on the number of killed from 2016 to yesterday.)

Note that 30,000 is 10 times the 3,000 allegedly killed by martial law forces according to the Human Rights Victims Compensation Board (and given P2 million each in “compensation” by a law pushed by President Aquino 3rd in 2015).

Thirty thousand killed by the NPA, which the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) directs and it still has the gall to deny that it is not a terrorist organization?

IT is indeed an indication that the overall deterioration of Philippine journalism may have started to infect even a specialized section of it — opinion columns.

It was Philippine Star’s Jose Dalisay, a novelist and biographer who was supposed to be the newspaper’s replacement for the columns of the late F. Sionil Jose, who started this assault on opinion column-writing.

Obviously realizing he’s a fictionist all his life and not a column writer, Dalisay declared he was creating a new genre he calls “editorial fiction,” short fiction stories filling up his column space in that newspaper. That “genre” can exist only in lampoons, and only for student newspapers wanting to have some fun. Read his column, and you wouldn’t know and aren’t forewarned that what he writes is pure unadulterated fiction.

This is another of the anti-Marcos bashers’ big lie, their concocted revision of history. The Supreme Court in fact ruled in two decisions that martial law was constitutional and Marcos’ proclamations, decrees and other official acts were legal. These decisions were in General Register L-35546 of Sept. 17, 1974 by the First Division and GR L-40004 of Jan. 31, 1975, by the court sitting en banc (i.e., the whole court).

WITH the anniversary of martial law declaration tomorrow, its critics have revved up the propaganda line they have been exploiting for half a century. Even an otherwise intelligent journalist, Sheila…

FIVE months after this charge was hurled against then candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to stop his presidential bid, it seems to be still circulating that Toni Gonzaga, a talk-show host friendly to the President, in a recent interview asked him to comment on it — the alleged unpaid estate or inheritance taxes on his late father’s properties.

Unfortunately, the President’s response was too short, saying mainly that his family “wants to reopen the case.”

YES, it would seem so, as more and more indications are emerging, pointing to the fact that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) hasn’t got a leader, the chairman, or even a centralized command. It has degenerated into a propaganda machine, with its once feared New People’s Army consisting of small, practically bandit units roaming in a few areas in the most distant countryside.

Its official organ Ang Bayan for more than two years now hasn’t reported a new chairman to be leading the party, after the killing on March 13, 2020 of Julius Giron, whom the military claimed was the party head after Benito Tiamzon was captured in March 2014. Ang Bayan or even its allied news sites like Bulatlat have not referred to any party chairman, or even just his nom de guerre.
Instead, most party statements are bylined by “Chief Information Officer Marco Valbuena.” This is extremely strange for a Marxist-Leninist party which believes in the practice of having its chairman’s name stamped on important statements, as a means of strengthening its “democratic centralism” and glorifying its leader as Stalin and Mao were.

CONGRATULATIONS to the Manila Times' editors. It was the only broadsheet not to exhibit such a colonial mentality as to put as its banner headline on September 10 British Queen Elizabeth 2nd's death…

BROADCAST giant TV5 abruptly terminated its talks for a partnership with the Lopez-owned ABS-CBN after its executives learned that the congressional committee scrutinizing the proposal would be zeroing in on…