SunStar
April 28, 2021
THERE are two things I like regarding recent developments on the issue of community pantries. One is National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon issuing a gag order to Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade and Communications Secretary Lorraine Badoy of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). The other is seeing military personnel bringing trucks of goods to the now popular Maginhawa, Quezon City community pantry set up by former student activist Ana Patricia Non.
On the gagging of Parlade and Badoy, I say it was the best thing the government could do short of kicking out the two from NTF-ELCAC. The two are supposed to be spokespersons of a body with lofty goals. I say “lofty” because even the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. could not end the communist insurgency during his time as a strongman. Can the Duterte administration succeed where Marcos failed? ....