Tiamzons’ arrest exposes Aquino haciendero ignorance

by Vencer Crisostomo, originally posted at the Philippine Online Chronicles.

The BS Aquino government’s bragging about the arrest of Benito Tiamzon, Wilma Austria and 5 others shows everything that’s wrong about how it (mis)understands things.

Last March 19, like a KSP child with low EQ trying hard to impress people, BS Aquino declared that “big fish” will be captured soon. On everyone’s doubtful mind was Jovito Palparan or some big time smuggler, tax-evader, or plunderer with military protection.

Instead, the government announced the arrest of peace consultants, both senior citizens, who they claim are currently the chairman and secretary general of the Communist Party of the Philippines. They go on full party-like-a-rockstar mode and celebrate the impending end of the Philippine revolution.

Sorry to pop BS Aquino’s bubble, but his uberhappiness is misplaced. The arrests are nothing to be proud of, in fact, the way the government acted further exposed brat Aquino’s haciendero kababawan and ignorance.

The arrests of the peace consultants clearly violate the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) signed by the government and NDFP. According to the NDFP, Austria is holder of NDFP Document of Identification ND978226 under her real name and Tiamzon is the holder of NDFP Document of Identification ND 978227 under the assumed name “Crising Banaag.”

The GPH panel denies this by effectively suspending JASIG unilaterally, saying that JASIG is no longer in effect, ridiculously putting the blame on a “corrupted diskette” which the panels failed to open. #throwback #sillyargument

This claim is refuted by former GPH peace panel head Silvestre Bello III.

According to human rights group Karapatan, there are 12 NDF peace consultants who are in jail because of trumped-up criminal charges and 10 NDF consultants who are victims of enforced disappearance. How will peace talks possibly continue when one side is arresting negotiators of the other?

Filed against the two are trumped-up criminal charges which violate the Hernandez Doctrine, which states that crimes committed in the course of a rebellion should be subsumed by rebellion charges.

BS Aquino is clearly destroying whatever advances the peace talks have previously attained and is not interested in seeking just and lasting peace. By hailing the arrests as major victory his government shows ignorance of history much like how Marcos predicted the fall of the revolutionary movement whan it arrested Joma Sison in 1977.

KMU says arrest aimed at causing chilling effect vs Aquino critics.

The Tiamzons’ arrest is surely aimed at causing a “chilling effect” among critics of Aquino at a time when the chief executive continues to earn the people’s ire for his defense of the pork barrel system, criminal negligence when super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) hit the country, and implementation of anti-worker and anti-poor policies.

The CPP statement provides a stark contrast between BS Aquino’s government and the CPP leaders.

At the time of their arrest, both Tiamzon and Austria were performing tasks and duties assigned to them by the CPP and the NDFP. Up to recently, both were busy conducting first hand investigation into the conditions of the working class people in the Visayas region whose lives were devastated by supertyphoon Yolanda (Haiyan) and who continue to suffer from the Aquino regime’s antipeople, crony-controlled, corrupt and grossly inept response to the calamity.

As leaders of the CPP, Tiamzon and Austria are the opposite of the landlord Aquino and his coterie of corrupt officials. Tiamzon and Austria are the epitome of simple living. Neither of them own a private home nor drive their own sportscar. Neither do they play with guns for fun or personal satisfaction. They are not like Aquino and his officials who plunder public funds to aggrandize themselves or perpetuate their political rule.

Inquirer looks at the killing of an activist in Iloilo and makes a good point: how will government end the insurgency when unarmed activists are being assasinated by the military?

Until he rids himself of haciendero ignorance and childishness, Aquino will never understand why people are critical of this government and why many are fighting to change the current system.

If he wants to understand the roots of insurgency, no better way than to look at what’s happening in his own backyard. In Hacienda Luisita, the landgrabbing and bulldozing of the houses of peasants continue.

Photo courtesy of PNP. Some rights reserved.