Speech Before the Lions Club of Manila

There is one invitation that can not be subject to refusal. It is a rare invitation, so rare that people in public life dream to receive but do not always get. When such invitation comes, the feeling is one of relief and gratitude. I am referring to the invitation of Senator Ernesto Maceda. Thank you very much, Senator Ernie!

I did not know that Senator Ernie was a Lion. What I knew was the fact that anyone appearing before the Maceda Committee or Committees in the Senate was advised to enter the lion’s den with courage and care. That must have been an intimidating advice.

But those who appeared before Senator Maceda would invariably say that they left the hearings a wiser man than when they entered. I hope to leave your meeting a very wise man, indeed. 

At about this time last year – and I was still Chief, PNP – I delivered a speech entitled Repeating The Dose. It was during the celebration of moral and spiritual guidance to which – if you recall – the month of October is dedicated every year. If the guns of October are firing now, they are being trained against those who preach sound moral foundation and go all the way to break it apart. A dose of their own medicine, we say.

We have been taught to have a sense of history if we are to do well. Empty of it, we lack the standard of judgment which can protect us from dangerous living in the present. Full of it, we are in possession of a system of principles for our direction.

From Senator Maceda’s experience and expose, I have learned three ways of becoming more efficient and effective in public life. One, take time for reflection regardless of present conditions and circumstances. Two, be trusting of friends who can hurt us with the truth. Three, learn to be less dogmatic and do away with a holier-than-thou attitude.

Where we begin to peddle the truth, that is where our losses begin to end. And the best way to strengthen our stomach for truth is to repeat often the dose. Today, I would like to peddle a different truth. It has nothing to do with the Bigger Arroyo.

Eighty years ago, military intelligence officers found a document replete with strategy, tactics, and techniques. The document was a bible on materialistic revolution. It was found in Europe and by military intelligence officers who knew what to do with it. Very much unlike the ISAFP Chief.

That document urged revolutionaries to divide the people into hostile groups. How? By using public information media.

That document urged revolutionaries to seize power. How? Under the guise of seeking ‘true democracy’.

We are now in the 21st Century. But the strategy, tactics, and techniques in that document are in current practice. And the President of this Republic does not seem to understand.

The planned scenario is all too clear: in the prevailing chaos, these same people are the first to call upon our Armed Forces to preserve peace and order, and to protect life and property. They invoke – with a halo on their heads – Article II, Section 3, of our Constitution. They conveniently forget – not because of the halo on their heads but in spite of it – civilian supremacy over the military.

Only recently, the People’s Consultative Assembly – with Ma. Linda Olaguer Montayre for its spokesperson – has begun to target our institutions. Its position is unmistakable, a portion of which I now quote:

‘Today, we have some senators, congressmen, local government officials – all men in high places who are criminal partners of the drug lords and who have no qualms paying the judiciary or the military/PNP to further their ends.’

My friends, you and I must ask who decides who the evil men and women are. Is it Col. Victor Corpus with his kangaroo court? Is it the so-called civil society with it kangaroo politics?

What we are seeing today is a damming remnant of the materialistic revolution written about eighty year ago. Civil society preaches on one side of the mouth the virtues of non-violence. On the other side, it peddles the violence of the mob. All these in the guise of a people’s consultative assembly ferociously working for civil disobedience.

Civil society – before it becomes evil – must decisively avoid co-optation by the left. Communism in this country is not dead. It only took a short break. It is now about to break all of us. It has, in fact, started. The enemy has passed the gate.

Ninoy Aquino was right after all in his 1983 assessment when he wrote to Lito Banayo. He penned these remarkable line and I quote:

‘Communism is an institution. The moment it gets its foot on the door, there is no backing out. A man die as a dictatorship will surely die, but an institution lives on. There has never been a successful communist revolution that was reversed. The moment the genie is out of the bottle, there is no putting back.’

We are a free people today. And there is no doubt about that. Look at the Senate. We are the freest institution in the country.

We have our own democratic institutions today. And there is no question about that.

But how do we protect ourselves and our institutions – as well as the freedom we cherish – from the enemy that is communism? Let me bare my heart and soul.

The first preventive and protective step to take is to recognize the existence of communism in this country. Second, to pierce its veil of duplicity and false propaganda. Third, to have the courage to identify the communists themselves inside and outside of government.
That communism still exists in this country is a fact that glares all of us. Membership in a communist party is not a violation of the law. Communists are free to roam anywhere in the country.

But we should not be deceived. There is every duplicity and false propaganda in the mind of the communist. He does nothing but to manipulate people’s personal attitude and conduct in order to affect the affairs of this nation.

No less than a Jesuit priest, Fr. Miguel Bernard, has read the communist strategy to infiltrate and manipulate the church. This is his summary:

One, make the priests and the people like you.

Two, win their confidence.

Three, bolster their ego by making them feel needed and wanted.

Four, show an interest in their projects and concerns.

Five, show tenderness and affection for them.

Six, remember their birthdays.

In short, sell yourself to them without showing your true colors. Hide behind every righteous cause. Do not talk of revolution, talk about dissent.

My friends, I said it before – and let me say it again – that membership in a communist party in this country does not violate any law. But when communists – past, present, and future – are in bed with civil society, it is time to ring the alarm. And when no less than the President of this Republic is in bed with them, it is time to be afraid.

Inside Malacañang and the Cabinet today are former members of the CPP/NPA. I refer to Presidential Spokesman Roberto Tiglao, Agrarian Secretary Nani Braganza, and Housing Secretary Mike Defensor.

Tiglao joined the underground and gave life to the armed struggle as a member of the Tarlac Provincial Party Committee. Braganza was Chairman of Makabayan, MRCC of the CPP/NPA. Defensor was Vice President of the Central Executive Council Political Front Organization of MRRC CPP/NPA.

In the House of Representatives we have Congressman Satur Ocampo and Congresswoman Etta Rosales. Their links are too well-known.

We already know of the head of the ISAFP, Col. Victor Corpus. He said he was punished enough for his joining the CPP/NPA. So be it. But he has no right to punish this county an hour longer.

There is a former communist in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. He is the Assistant General Manager. He is Peter Mutuc.

Some people have asked why a certain George Babiera was seen in Lamitan, Basilan during the release of Reghis Romero. He is the key to the Nacorda expose which led to the fasle accusation heaped upon our military. Corpus has chosen to be silent on this matter that now corrodes the confidence of the entire military.

In civil society today is the omnipresence of a certain Teddy Casino. He was a member of the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee. His links with the party remain until today.

There are today talks going the rounds of a military-led junta to rise from Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution and under the guise of a narco-power threat. The call to the military is devious; and the guise, duplicitous.

Let it be said – here and now – that the extreme left is not allowing itself to be used for nor reason at all. The extreme left was not born yesterday. It knows strategy, techniques, and tactics. Patience is what it has in great abundance.

To be sure, the extreme left is prepared to be use by the Makati Business Club, by civil society, by KOMPIL and now KATOTOHANAN. It is, however, more prepared to devour them later. And at the most unexpected hour.

These new messiahs from civil society must pause and ponder. They can not be our country’s new praetorian guard. Not then, not now.

My friends, let us make no mistake about this. The easiest route to power by all the leftists and communists is through a military junta. We must by all legal means block that route.

I came today to ring the bell. This is one wake-up call we must hear and heed. It is the truth, too.

Once more, I want to thank all of you for your very kind invitation. And if you plan to invite me again in the future, please be informed that I am now accepting in advance your invitation.

*****