22/05/2022
Reply of Bro. Lt. Gen Parlade, retired, to the letter of Fr Bobby to the Ateneo Community
What’s on my mind? The letter of Fr Bobby to Ateneo community.
Dear Fr Bobby,
Kumusta ka?
Majority of my kids are Ateneans so I would like to respond to your letter as a father first and as a Filipino next.
Before I answer your first few questions l want to agree with you that indeed we had a divisive election, a very divisive one. What happened and why it happened? Simple.
You, the Jesuits, are partly to blame why our people are much more fragmented now. Don’t search for these answers from our leaders and our citizens because you know it.
Did we allow our students to forget history? Oh no, Fr Bobby, they remember. But all they remember from your lessons of 30 years was Martial Law and the strongman Marcos, and how the family pillaged the country as it brutalized all those who opposed his rule.
They remember those who fought for “freedom” like the members of Bayan, Bayan Muna, GABRIELA, KMU, ACT, TF Detainees, KM, Kabataan, ANAKPAWIS, KARAPATAN, AKBAYAN, CNL, ANAKBAYAN, and many more.
Most important of all they remember the “L” sign and what it stood for- LABAN.
The Yellow cult is very much alive and the poison runs in their veins.
Yes, Fr Bobby you taught them to hate the Marcoses that much and that they should do everything to prevent their return AT ALL COST. You succeeded, as far as the Ateneo community is concerned.
BUT, you failed miserably in genuinely reaching out to the "poor, the powerless, and those in the laylayan". I say genuine because that house to house that you did have not transformed them into more productive citizens, not even during the administration of several Aquinos. The homilies that you delivered have not convinced them they will be better off with the return of the Yellows.
They are not color-blind and these people that the Pink camp mocked are not deaf either. They sense the hypocrisy of your leaders, even as the RC church aggressively endorsed them.
They compose the majority of the 31M who believe that another six years of a Duterte-type leader will usher them to better life.
That’s what you missed while in the comfort of your lavish homes.
So what happened Fr Bobby?
Well, the Duterte government, no matter how you hate him, showed these ordinary people the CHANGE that you will only speak of. Lip service is no longer acceptable and the people in the laylayan felt it.
Are we so naïve to not realize that even as President Duterte is about to step down, his acceptance and popularity is still shooting above the roof?
Explain that to the Ateneans father, in layman’s language. Not with all your rhetoric of moral values and the search for truth.
The truth is right in your face and you refuse to see it.
Do you still want people to believe that “the task of alleviating poverty is a marathon, and not a sprint?” People are drowning and we have to save them now.
I am writing this letter while in Hanoi. Is this relevant? Of course. Here is how.
The year 1954 was when North Vietnam supported by its communist allies attacked South Vietnam in a violent war that ended with the US losing the war and leaving the ravaged country in 1973. The communists were winning in Laos, Kampuchea (Cambodia), and were encroaching in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand.
The Philippines around that time was also being threatened by the Partido Kumunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) especially after Jose Ma Sison organized his own faction, the CPP in December 1968. The following year, in March 1969, Sen Ninoy Aquino helped establish the New Peoples Army from Dante Buscayno’s ragtag group of bandits in Tarlac.
Also in March 1968, Sen Aquino exposed Oplan Merdeka (Taking Sabah) through his privilege speech on that FAKE Jabidah Massacre in Corregidor. In the process he got the support of Tungku Abdul Rahman, Premiere of Malaysia, in organizing, training, and supplying arms and war materiel to the secessionists lead by the LP stalwarts of Mindanao (Alonto, Midbantas, Lucman, Dimaporo) and Prof Missuari. They composed the series of Batches 90, 200, 300 of the MNLF, which the British SAS trained with the Gurkhas. Eventually in 1972, the MNLF split from the MIM of Datu Udtug Matalam, who was founded earlier in 1968.
1968, 1969, 1972. These were the years the secessionists and the CPP NPA rebels were born, to fight and bring down the Marcos government.
Did anyone teach our students what Sen Aquino was trying to do during those times? Was he fighting Marcos dictatorship when there was NONE? Or did he perpetuate the VIOLENCE with the organization of these armed groups which FORCED Marcos to declare MARTIAL LAW?
No. Nobody wants to tell these part of history especially as it clearly identified Sen Ninoy as a traitor to his country. But he did die in the tarmac, after he returned to Malaysia to seal his TREASONOUS commitments with the Malaysian leaders, so he was labeled an “Icon of democracy” instead.
Meantime, did YOU teach our students what was happening in and around the Philippines, which necessitated the LEGAL and CONSTITUTIONAL declaration of ML by Marcos, in order to stave off the attacks of the rebels?
NO. We only taught our students what happened during the ML, especially the “brutality” of the AFP as it tries to fight those who ARMED themselves to fight the government and DESTROY our DEMOCRACY, in collusion with the COMMUNISTS in our midst.
And then we memorialize the death of these traitors to our Democracy by carving their names in that wall we fondly call “Bantayog ng mga Bayani.”
We cant force our students to remember history NOT taught to them.
YES, let us not give up on our country because its the only one we got.
Peace na sana tayong lahat.
Lt Gen Parlade (Ret)
