By Adrian E. Cristobal
THE PNP’s offer of rewards to informers on political killings and the CPP’s announced plan to field NPA assassination squads in retaliation for what it presumes to be government-sponsored killings of activists aren’t likely to give comfort to the citizenry.
In an atmosphere of fear, few, if any, citizens in our fair republic, will risk their lives and the lives of their loved ones for even a hundred thousand pesos, unless the number of Mang Pandoys of living memory who would have themselves killed for ten thousand pesos, has increased.
In an atmosphere of fear, the assassination squads can only provoke reprisals from the military and at the same time put citizens, particularly the provincial poor, in the cross-fire. As it is, urban areas, where the law is more or less observed, are no safe havens.
This is what happened in Peru up to the late 80’s as shown recently in a TV documentary in the National Geographic channel. Our military and civilian officials, bishops, and every concerned citizen should have seen it.
The war between the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) and the government had more innocent people tortured and massacred than combatants. Significantly, the Shining Path was crippled not by military action but by relentless police intelligence.
But the terror persisted until once-popular Fujimori was expelled by popular action. A Truth Commission that was convened afterwards revealed the terror in all its gory and excruciating details as a cautionary tale for all peoples caught between repression and rebellion.
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