HOTSPOT
Tonyo Cruz
The unrelenting “red scare” has not worked.
Vice President Leni Robredo has gained ground while the dictator’s son went down in the latest public-opinion survey despite the rabid anti-communist rhetoric and red-tagging accusations hurled against her.
Robredo’s association with Makabayan’s Neri Colmenares and Bong Labog appear to be working to her advantage. Makabayan is lending her more credibility to the working families and the grassroots.
Reports from inside the Robredo camp say that campaign manager Bam Aquino was troubled by red-tagging allegations. Consequently, Aquino reportedly moved to ban Colmenares and Labog from speaking at “pink” rallies. This was first reported in the Pasig rally where Aquino vetoed the plan of local organizers to invite Colmenares to speak in the pre-program. Kakampinks openly clamored to hear Colmenares speak, which he was able to do to much applause from the tens of thousands who packed Emerald Avenue.
Robredo recently met and associated herself with Tatay Elmer of jeepney drivers’ group PISTON, the transport affiliate of the KMU. As part of her Rizal campaign, she signed a covenant with indigenous peoples there, which includes the SANDUGO.
With Robredo aiming to sustain her upward movement in the survey, her campaign correctly pivots to focus on the broad D, E portion of the voting population: farmers, fisherfolk, minimum-wage workers, the under-employed, unemployed, and the urban poor. Makabayan surely can help her in this effort.
To attract the workers’ vote, Robredo should seize the coming Labor Day celebration by openly and publicly endorsing the candidacies of Labor Vote senatorial candidates Sonny Matula, Labog and Colmenares. This should not be difficult. The three are all members of the 1Sambayan senatorial slate.
More importantly, Robredo should restate more clearly her commitments to workers and working families, and clarify the roles of the military, big businesses and foreign interests under a Robredo administration. Clarity of purpose is an antidote to both cynicism and disinformation.
With Robredo directly competing with Bongbong Marcos, one area where she should easily sharpen the differences is on the role of activists in society. Historical revisionists, Marcos loyalists, Duterte supporters, red-taggers, and backers of expensive yet failed counter-insurgency operation-plans are united in falsely-accusing and demonizing the likes of Colmenares, Labog, Makabayan and activists of all stripes.
I’m certain Robredo knows Makabayan and activists. She had seen them work as fellow lawmakers in the House. She has worked with activists while they served competently and without a taint of corruption in the first Duterte cabinet. They may not agree on all things, but on the most important things, like thwarting a Marcos-Duterte victory, they totally agree.
Robredo promises an inclusive presidency, one that listens to all and serves all. Hindi naman siguro kalabisan if she would declare that she would also listen to activists and be open to collaborating with them on common purposes. What could complicate this are outdated, Marcos-era, Cold War-era rhetoric and “military advice” to view activists as mere “fronts.” I hope Robredo disagrees with them, and instead chooses better, newer points of view.
And while we’re on the topic of listening and talking, I sure hope Robredo would prefer resuming peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front, so that both parties could reach a peaceful settlement of the decades-long armed conflict. The country has lost a lot of people and precious resources to costly, deadly and, most importantly, failed counter-insurgency operations.
If the vice president doubts my advice, I would ask her to look at two things for inspiration on how to strengthen her campaign and get pointers on who are her real friends in the fight against the Marcos-Duterte tandem.
One is the Bantayog ng mga Bayani,where Filipinos from various beliefs, including leftists and even red fighters, are honored for fighting dictatorship. The other is the list of the 9,539 Filipinos who filed, fought and won in the landmark Hilao vs. Marcos class-action suit that proved in court the barbarism and terrorism of the dictatorship.
Kakampinks' collective memory, history education, critical thinking and growing make them immune to and critical of “red scare.” So should our next president and her campaign manager, as we open more paths to victory.