Upcoming Peace Talk with Filipino Communists

Another round of peace talks between the Philippine government and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) is scheduled to begin next month in Oslo, Norway. Among issues to be settled are: 1) the communists’ demand that the Philippine government take its time in implementing its Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program; 2) the release of a captured communist leader; and, 3) the legitimacy behind those revolutionary taxes being levied on private companies doing business in “rebel-controlled” territories.

Still and all, CPP issued this statement: “The Filipino people cannot principally rely on peace negotiations to achieve a just and lasting peace, especially given the duplicity of the (Philippine government) and its repeated violations of existing agreements,” . . . “The revolutionary forces must continue to firmly hold on to their arms, and relentlessly wage people’s war until the puppet reactionary rule is finally replaced and a new democratic order is established.” Whatever.

What if for a minute we take these thugs seriously, ask them about their agenda for a more just, more prosperous Philippines, and give them the opportunity to defend and describe in concrete terms their ideologically-inspired programs and projects for the Filipino people? During this round of peace talks, let’s have the Philippine government pit these communists against the best free-market minds in the Philippines (preferably economists and other scholars who are former communists who have long abandoned the movement), to see whose ideas are indefensible, once and for all. Hope that would lead to a communist’s self-examination on how and when he can start becoming a productive member of the Philippine society.

For the question that this peace talk should really address is whether the CPP, with all its grandiose plans and abstract notions of peace and social justice, has the right to continue to exist.