End insurgency by addressing poverty, social inequities, malfeasance

Some officials of President Duterte’s “militarized” Cabinet seem hell-bent on stamping out “illegal activities” by local communists in and outside the University of the Philippines. They may have good intentions other than probably staging some diversionary scenarios to deflect public attention from the P15-billion PhilHealth mess and the alleged recent attempt at overpricing China-made vaccines, but they seem to have overlooked one reality: Any recourse to militarization purportedly to end insurgency, whether in campuses or elsewhere, will likely fail if it precedes or replaces any comprehensive solutions to the problems of poverty, social inequity, and official malfeasance.

Our military authorities should make better use of their bloated intelligence funds by putting up surveillance or intelligent strategies, whether in schools, in the hills, or in the West Philippine Sea, with the least exposure or intrusion possible so as not to restrict the exercise of freedom and the pursuit of excellence in the academe. Let any existing accord between the Department of National Defense and any university be upheld—at least for now that our country is beset by myriad problems, particularly COVID-19.

MANUEL A. COLLAO, [email protected]