Today’s Views

LITO: While waiting for the outcome, don’t you think it is also good to hold peace talks between the NPA rebels and the Government?

As far as I can recall, even during the American colonial period an agreement had been forged between the Moro people under the Sultan of Sulu and the US government. This was called the Bates Treaty. But it was shortlived having been abrogated by the US government, because in the first place it was not meant to last but just as an expedient move to “divide and rule” the Filipinos. At that time the US was at war with the Filipino revolutionaries. They wanted to concentrate their armed forces in Luzon. And so the Bates Treaty was a tactical trick to hold the Moro armed resistance at bay, while they were busy trying to crush the Filipino revolutionary forces in the north.

Amidst the innumerable occurrences in our social context which elicit differing perceptions and reactions among the citizenry, it is inevitable that confusion ensues. The ordinary citizen on the street is bound to ask, as did my friend Lito: What is the real score, my friend—what President Pinoy claims that the country’s economy is improving? Or what the government critics say that life among the people is getting worse?

I’m just wondering how your prescribed ideolopical antibiotic to combat corruption can be effective when for a long time this social illness has deeply metastasized in our political system? We cannot also say that none of our leaders had ever possessed some nationalistic consciousness since they started to rule our country…?