Rina wrong on Left

This is in response to Rina Jimenez-David’s column against activists and the Left (“Better lukewarm than absent,” Opinion, 10/21/16).

Contrary to her deceptive claims, Anakbayan and other organizations of the legal democratic mass movement have repeatedly taken a strong stand against the extrajudicial killing (EJK) of drug suspects in President Duterte’s war on crime. Unlike the condemnation of the so-called “yellow forces” associated with the previous Aquino administration, which David herself admits to be “lukewarm” at best, Anakbayan has led several protest actions against human rights abuses committed under the current administration.

The National Day of Action to Stop the Killings organized by Anakbayan last Aug. 11 saw hundreds of students converge at major universities in Metro Manila and in other regional centers. This was widely covered by international news wires and unfortunately even made some of our members targets of cyberbullying by pro-Duterte trolls.

In fact, David’s misleading claim that opposition to EJKs has been largely confined to her friends among the “yellow forces” does a big disservice to genuine advocates of human rights. The legitimate cause against EJKs will only be discredited by being associated with President Aquino whose six-year rule was also marked by the systematic killing of lumad, peasant leaders and political activists.

We take exception to the charge that the Philippine Left has lost its principles and has been co-opted by the Duterte administration. As a national democratic youth organization, Anakbayan takes pride in being on the left side of the political spectrum. We remain consistent champions of workers, farmers, indigenous peoples and other oppressed sectors; and we fight alongside them in their struggles. To remind David, it was in fact the “yellow” traditional politicians who were the first to jump ship to the ruling party, thereby giving Duterte a “super majority” in Congress.

Even as we view positively Duterte’s charting of an independent foreign policy, his serious pursuit of peace negotiations and appointment of progressive leaders to his Cabinet, we remain critical of his administration’s shortcomings, particularly in the area of human rights, and of his continuation of pro-big business, neoliberal economics. This is why Anakbayan has actively helped drumbeat the campaign of the lumad, moro and other national minorities that continue to be victimized by rampant militarization and the plunder of their ancestral lands.

But what is most offensive in David’s column is her troll-like proposition that the brutal dispersal at the US Embassy was justified because it revealed what she takes to be the real colors of activist groups: “In some ways, we should be grateful for the police officer for doing what he did—that is, to show up the activists for what they really are,” she says, blatantly justifying the violence inflicted against activists by virtue of their political views. This is the height of victim-blaming. So much for David’s self-proclaimed advocacy of human rights.

EINSTEIN RECEDES, national secretary general, Anakbayan, [email protected]