Walden Bello says he does not regret joining, leaving CPP

Vice presidential candidate Walden Bello on Monday said he does not regret joining nor leaving the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in a bid to bring down the Marcos dictatorship back in the day.

In an ANC interview, Bello, a former party-list lawmaker, said he was with the CPP from 1974 to the late 80s, convinced that the move would help oust then-President Ferdinand Marcos who implemented martial law in 1972 to 1981.

“I believe I was like many others who felt at that point that the best way to bring down a dictatorship was joining the CPP,” he said.

“I will never regret that period in my life because that was when we spent a lot of time working to bring down a dictatorship, but I also knew from now that when the time came to lead and to develop more politically in a personal kind of way, then I also do not regret that I left at that time and struck on to a new path,” he added.

Bello recalled that he left the CPP due to problems in terms of strategy and respect for human rights.

He then said that it was “positive” of President Rodrigo Duterte to reignite the peace talks with the armed groups by the start of his term. However, he added that the military might have influenced the President to halt the negotiations.

“My sense is that President Duterte basically gave in to the military. The military was basically the one who told him, ‘You are not to engage in this process if you want our contingent support.’ And of course, Duterte, like in many other cases, backed down. In the case of the peace and security area, he became a captive of not only the police but the military,” Bello said.

Before being elected president in 2016, Duterte said he would be the country's first left-leaning president, but clarified that he never joined the CPP.

Duterte's Executive Order 70 created the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) to implement community consultations, problem solving sessions, and local peace dialogues.

However, in 2017, Duterte signed a proclamation declaring the termination of peace talks with the communist rebels, saying the CPP and its wings, the New People's Army (NPA) and the National Democratic Front (NDF), are still “engaged in acts of violence and hostilities.”

Bello said if elected vice president, he and running mate Leody de Guzman would reduce the number of Philippine military personnel by a third, claiming that they are the “biggest block to peace.”

“The problem is that we’ve had a series of presidents from Marcos on who said they’re open to reform, they're open to peace talks, but when confronted with the military’s ultimatum that you can’t do that. They give in because they want the support of the military,” he said.

“The biggest block to peace, internal peace in the country, is the Philippine military,” he added.

De Guzman earlier said resumption of the peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF is no longer needed should the government meet the rebels’ demands.

He said he has read the armed group’s proposals on land reforms, justice system, public service, and policies for workers and farmers and he thinks that all are just.  —KBK, GMA News