(Editor’s Note: This is a guest opinion piece from Southern Luzon commanding general, Lt. General Antonio ‘Jun’ Parlade. It first appeared at the Manila Times last December 4, 2020.It was abridged for this issue due to space constraint).
THE third Senate inquiry into red-tagging (last December 1, 2020) was converted by the Kamatayan bloc (Makabayan Bloc in Congress) into a propaganda platform, capitalizing on the death of New People’s Army (NPA) member Jevylin Cullamat, the youngest daughter of Rep. Eufemia Cullamat of the Bayan Muna party-list.
Ironically, all the allegations of Rep. Cullamat against the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) were debunked by her two other children.
In a recorded interview, her son Jesryn Cullamat narrated in detail how the Army took pains to wrap the cadaver of Jevylin and walked more than five hours to bring the body to her family — in a better condition than when she was found abandoned by her comrades.
He confirmed that the Special Forces soldiers treated her with respect and with dignity.
Jickson, her other son, gave an interview enumerating the many forms of assistance that the Army had brought to their once neglected community.
They were of course happy about it, contrary to what Representative Cullamat claimed was the misery brought by government troops to the Indigenous People’s (IP) communities.
How can a grieving mother cry and at the same time lie about the above circumstances?
I guess that’s the definition of “pathological liar.”
As a father, I commiserate with her on her loss, but as a fellow government official, I’m not sure she deserves my sympathy for the tragic death of her daughter.
What the fruit is to the tree
This is what we have been saying all along, that a santol fruit doesn’t fall too far from the tree. The case is true, too, for the daughter of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Central Committee member Randy Echanis (who was recently killed in what appeared to be a rub-out internal to the insurgency).
His daughter Amanda Lacaba (by wife Linda of the famed consistently revolutionary Lacaba family of Pateros) is reportedly the finance secretary of the Cagayan Revolutionary Party Committee.
Ka Roger Rosal, whose daughter Andrea Rosal was killed recently in Palawan, also contributed two of his children to this armed rebellion.
To the other Kamatayan bloc members, I pose this question:
Don’t you feel any guilt at all that while Representative Cullamat has sacrificed her siblings and daughter to the cause of armed struggle, none of that has been done by you, Representatives Zarate, de Castro and Gaite? The same question goes for Bayan Muna officials Teddy Casiño and Antonio Tinio of ACT.
I hope this will be a realization, painful as it is, for Representative Cullamat: (she should) demand from her colleagues, equal sacrifice of their sons and daughters to the armed rebellion.
As you read this piece, some of the children of these other Kamatayan bloc officials are spread all over the world, enjoying the same perks of bourgeois cosmopolitan living as that indulged in by ranking CPP officials, or in some exclusive schools in Metro Manila rather than studying at Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural Development (Alcadev), Tribal Indigenous Filipinos Philippines in Surigao del Sur (Trifpss), or the Salugpungan schools, all of the CPP/NPA.
Challenge to Comelec
To the Commission on Elections, we pose this challenge. Are we to condone this institutionalizing of a tradition of accepting party-list nominees from a family known for its membership in the CPP/NPA? Jevilyn, a student of Trifpss and Alcadev, is a shining proof of how IP children are being radicalized in those institutions for eventual membership in the CPP and the NPA. After a while of integration with the NPA, Jevilyn returned in 2018-2019 to teach at Alcadev and Trifpss, confirming the direct link of these schools with the NPA.
Cullamat’s husband, Eddie, was also in the underground until his arrest in the Visayas for alleged murder and illegal possession of explosives.
Eufemia’s sister Chary Campos Cullamat is a member of Malahutayong Pakigbisog Alang sa Sumusunod (Mapasu) and Kahugpungan sa Lumadnong Organisasyon (Kasalo), which are both front organizations of the CPP.
Another sibling is Pablito Sinzo Campos Jr @ Batik, the secretary of Guerrilla Front 21, Northeastern Mindanao Revolutionary Committee (NEMRC), was captured on Feb. 23, 2018. Another sister, Gloria Campos Tumalon, was also a leader of Mapasu and was arrested early this year on kidnapping and serious illegal detention charges.
Is not the case of Representative Cullamat complicit confirmation that the CPP Central Committee has a say on whom to nominate as representatives of its party-list legal fronts?
Peace with locals, no to NDF
To be clear, the government never abandoned talking peace with the rebel NPA. The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), after the termination of talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF) in Utrecht, pursued localized peace engagement as one of its pillars. So, back talks and engagement continued in a decentralized manner all over the country, contrary to what they are saying that we abandoned it.
But do we really want peace talks with the NDF?
Let’s review the salient points of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social Economic Reforms (Caser) as demanded by the NDF and see if this is not pure stupidity.
“Article II – Break imperialist and comprador domination of the economy. Section 4. ‘The cartels and commercial operations of big compradors and bureaucrat capitalists shall be dismantled, and their assets expropriated…The disposition of these productive assets or commercial enterprises shall be negotiated based on the national interest’.”
This implies closure of all our industrial parks in Calabarzon, Clark, Cebu, Baguio etc. This means capital flight and inevitable collapse of our industrial base — an economic sabotage. And the workers and laborers? Read their lips.
“Part 111. Developing the national economy
“A. Agrarian reform and rural development – ‘In the countryside where the people’s democratic government (PDG) are operative, a revolutionary agrarian reform program is being implemented and realized through the collective efforts of the organs of political power, the New People’s Army, the revolutionary mass organizations of peasants, rural women and youth, indigenous communities, and support and participation of the broad masses of people’.”
This means the NPA will not be disarmed, demobilized and reintegrated (DDR), which talks with MILF and CPLA had implemented.
This is the worst part.
“Article VIII – Role of demobilized GRP military personnel.
“Section 1. ‘The GRP military and their engineering brigades may be mobilized only for civil works and infrastructure construction in support of industrial development’.”
Isn’t this saying that it is the AFP that will be demobilized instead?
Wow!
They also want the Mining Act, Agri and Fisheries Modernization Act, Banking and Finance Law, and many more repealed.
And yet Sen. Francisco Pangilinan cautioned me that it’s unparliamentary to say we should abandon peace talks because (I maintained) it’s plain “kalokohan.”
It is, but sorry, I’m not a member of the parliament so it does not apply to me.
I wish the senator had also heard Fidel Agcaoili of the CPP/NDF say that the “peace talks is just one of the means to achieve its end of advancing the national democratic revolution. The primary means is still the armed struggle.”
Are we willing to release more political prisoners whom they all declare as peace consultants for the next round of peace talks?
Well, Randall Echanis is dead, and many more of their so-called terrorist consultants released before. Where is the Tiamzon couple now? Tirso Alcantara, etc.? They’re all back in the mountains directing this armed rebellion, again.
So, Philippines, are we in for another round of peace talks with this treacherous CPP/NPA/NDF?