Nada importa

Today we celebrate the day Jose Rizal was shot in Bagumbayan, Manila in 1896. He left a note for posterity his views of the Philippines a few hours earlier. He described it in his poem “Mi Ultimo Adios” as “perdido Eden” our lost Eden, our lost paradise.

Rizal's dilemma is still our own. There was a conflict of approach on how to restore the lost Eden. In his novel “Noli mi Tangere” Rizal expressed this confusion. When he was offered to lead the revolt against Spain, he declines saying, “I will never be the one to place myself at the head of such a mob and secure by force what the government does not think proper to grant. If I should ever see the people armed, I would declare myself on the side of the government, for in such a rabble I should not see my country… Progress is possible only through education. How can I find the road without light?”

The other man replied, “There is no liberation without violence”. Rizal responded saying, “I do not choose then to be free.”

It is perhaps coincidental that I found two letters from among my files from the NPA lairs at the time when the Communist Party of the Philippines is commemorating the 46 th year of its foundation. The celebration got top news when its founding and only chairman Jose Maria Sison announced that they would come to the negotiating table with the Philippine government after the pastoral visit of Pope Francis next month.

He also insinuated that if things go well, the peace agreement can be had before President Aquino leaves office in 2016. Of course, that will happen only if the two sides adopt a position of accommodation without betraying the reason for their being.

The CPP and its armed component, the New People's Army has a long list of grievances, ostensibly or claimed to be drawn from the people. The CPP/NPA claims to represent the people in redressing these grievances that the apparatus of the State have committed or failed to address. Unlike Rizal, the CPP/NPA chose violence as the road to liberation.

On the other hand the government accused the CPP/NPA as primarily fighting to gain political power that they cannot gain through peaceful elections. The communists, on the other hand, accused the government of injustice and monopoly of power.

The two letters from the NPA came from its top commander Frank Fernandez who wrote me on August 10, 1996. The other is from retired Army General Raymundo Jarque who wrote me earlier on May 15 of the same year. Both letters were from their hideouts in the mountains, at least that is what I believe, as from nowhere else. Ka Frank's letter was typewritten with marginal notes regarding the case in Kanlaon that later would result in the daylight execution of that city's mayor, Ondo Cardenas. That of Jarque was handwritten.

These two leaders have made their marks in Negros history but that history is yet to be written otherwise they would simply fade into oblivion.

Ka Frank was Catholic priest who chose to take the path of armed struggle against the Philippine government. At the time, in the 1970s, liberation theology divided the clergy and their flock. Some believe that armed resistance is morally permitted in the face of institutionalized oppression and injustice. Martial law represented that form of oppression.

Other members of the clergy, like Rizal, rejected that idea for violence begets violence and perpetuates the very evil one intends to stop or prevent.

Jarque defended the Republic as head the Negros command and crippled the NPA with his Operation Thunderbolt. But, as he narrated in his letter, the justice system in the country is so loaded in favor of those in power that even a general was denied the basic courtesy of a fair trial. He appealed for help from his classmates but got nowhere. They were concerned with their careers.

He thus defected to the NPA, in effect confirming the validity of the armed struggle.

Ka Frank left what could have been a peaceful life for the hazards and difficulties of living in the mountains, a testimony to his faith in the justness of the NPA cause.

His letter denounced the concentration of political and economic power by the ruling elite of Negros that must be opposed as long as the situation remains.

Both fought their wars. “El sitio nada importa”, the place matters not, Rizal said, “to serve our home and country's need.”*

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