While true, such rebellious impetus still requires awakening and nurturing. Could it be the case that the undeniable rot coming from systemic corruption, syndicated crime, barefaced utilization by vested political interests for partisan ends and the brutal counter-insurgency campaigns is now wreaking havoc on the AFP, causing it to break apart and the rank-and-file and young officers to become attracted to more radical alternatives?

The official propaganda line is that the poor, idealistic military rebels, who presumably lack the capacity for independent thinking, have merely been conned by opportunist politicians or some such cabal of civilian backers and financiers. Lately it is the CPP-NPA that is supposedly singing the siren song of rebellion to government troops.

The claim is that these forces are the ones who are “politicizing” the AFP and that this is anathema to a “professional armed forces.”

The solution therefore is to immediately contain the virus of rebellion by punishing suspect military rebels more harshly this time around and run after their civilian backers.

Thereafter the troops must be immunized from the evil importuning coming from outside the AFP by conducting seminars on Knowing the Enemy, a virulently undemocratic indoctrination material produced by the AFP that labels all critics of the Arroyo administration as “communist” and therefore fair game for the death squads run by the General Palparans of the AFP and the Department of National Defense (DND).

Deliberately beclouded is the long tradition of the AFP as the armed defender of an elite-ruled and oppressive status quo presided over by a series of governments, including the Marcos dictatorship and the current Arroyo regime, that have repeatedly failed to address the underlying causes of social conflict in this country but chose rather to deal with them using deception and the muzzle of the gun.

If that is not being “politicized” of the highest order, we wonder what is. Posted by (Bulatlat.com)

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