Strangest Bedfellows by Prospero Pulma Jr.

Strangest Bedfellows

Is it just me or there is something grossly wrong with the picture: Satur Ocampo and his Leftist cohorts running to Uncle Sam - yes, Uncle Sam, the same guy whose effigy they love to burn in their demonstrations, the same guy whom they christened a thousand foul names- for help when their ranks are being decimated by assassins, and Uncle Sam, being the “protective” Uncle that he is, telling the Philippine government to recall its hoodlums and leave the “peace-loving” communists in peace. Our homegrown Maos and Stalins must be rejoicing for never in their wildest dreams did they foresee the day when the imperialist Americans would save them from annihilation. Satur et al. do not seem to mind that the Americans are meddling in our affairs so long as the Yankees are working for them and not supplying the Armed Forces of the Philippines with counterinsurgency tools. You see, these self-proclaimed patriots’ are riled when Washington occupied vast tracts of Philippine territory in Subic and Clark and when it twists Manila’s arm for concessions, but a few days ago, they did not raise a tempest, they did not march to the U.S. Embassy like what they did at the height of the Subic rape case, and they did not curse Uncle Sam when members of the U.S. Senate practically spat on Philippine sovereignty when they probed the unabated slaying of activists by unknown gunmen. Excuse me, but both parties do not occupy the proverbial moral high ground. For one, the U.S. is notorious for supporting despots - Marcos was one of their puppets whom they fed until they discarded him when his hold onto power became untenable - and Abu Ghraib and Camp X-ray are proof that the Americans are not exactly humane jailers. As for Satur and his friends, leaders of the New People’s Army and the Communist Party of the Philippines have yet to face trial for the execution of hundreds, possibly thousands, of rebels in a series of purges to cleanse their ranks of agents set loose against them by Philippine security forces. By the way, the favorite excuse of Jose Maria Sison and Satur Ocampo to escape legal liability for the mass murder was that they were in jail while their supporter were torturing, hacking, stabbing, or shooting suspected deep penetration agents convicted by kangaroo courts is so lame that it insults any average intellect.
Right now, Satur and his friends are humping in bed with their newfound and unexpected allies, leaving justice and Philippine sovereignty in the lurch. Boy, they do make one very, very, ugly political couple. I hope the progeny of this very convenient mating do not infect the rest of the free, democratic, and still sane world.

-Prospero Pulma Jr.-