Biden wants lengthy discussion on South China Sea issue

by Argyll Cyrus Geducos, Manila Bulletin

NEW YORK, USA — United States President Joseph Biden is seeking a lengthy discussion on the South China Sea dispute and other issues that greatly concern the Philippines.

President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. holds a bilateral meeting with US President Joseph Biden in New York City on September 22, 2022. (Argyll Geducos)

Biden said this during his bilateral meeting with President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on the sidelines of the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Thursday morning (New York time).

In his remarks, President Biden said he has already Chinese President Xi Jinping about the issue.

“I expect we’ll discuss the South China Sea and disputes in critical global throughway,” he said.

I’ve spent a lot of time with not only the President of China but others about the international waters and how they had to be respected. And we should talk about that long,” he added.

Biden said he wanted to strengthen the Philippines and the US alliance.

“One of the things we want to talk about today is how we continue to strengthen it and work together on the things that have the greatest concern to you,” he said.

Among these issues are Covid-19 recovery, energy security, renewable energy, and human rights.

“You and I both think that’s the future we can do a lot — we can do a lot together. I’m desperately interested in making sure we do,” he said.

“I’m interested to know what’s on your mind and how we can continue to strengthen this relationship,” he added.

Meanwhile, President Biden thanked the Philippines for its stand on the war in Ukraine and how it has taken a toll on energy and food prices.

“We are working very hard to be able to do something about that,” he said.

CPP, NPA not terror groups

By Franco Jose C. Baroña , Arlie O. Calalo  and Javier Joe Ismael

(UPDATE) THE Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing the New People's Army (NPA) are not terrorist organizations, a Manila trial court has ruled.

The Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 19 handed down the ruling last Wednesday as it dismissed a petition of the Department of Justice (DoJ) on Feb. 21, 2018, to declare the CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization.

The DoJ filed the petition under Section 17 of the Human Security Act (HSA) of 2007, which requires a ruling by a regional trial court before an organization can be officially labeled as a terrorist.

In her ruling, Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar said that the group's Ten Point Program "readily shows that the CPP-NPA is organized or exists, not for the purpose of engaging in terrorism."

Magdoza-Malagar noted that the Human Security Act defines terrorism as the commission of piracy and mutiny in the high seas; rebellion or insurrection; coup d'etat; murder; kidnapping and serious illegal detention; crimes involving destruction of property "thereby sowing and creating a condition of widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace, in order to coerce the government to give in to an unlawful demand."

"It is not difficult to see how the CPP-NPA's resort to 'armed struggle' and the violence that necessarily accompanies the same, as the sanctioned means to achieve its purpose(s) may have earned the CPP-NPA the terrorist label," the judge said.

In determining whether the group committed "terrorist acts," the court looked at nine incidents of atrocities its members allegedly committed as testified by government witnesses. These are:

- The killings in December 2019, March 2020, July 2020, August 2020 and July 2020

- The October 2020 ambush

KUWTT: CPP, NPA not terror groups | Sept. 23, 2022

- The failed attempt to kill a teacher in October 2020

- The burning of a chapel and residential houses in May 2020

- The abduction of seven civilians in May 2019.

Magdoza-Malagar said the eyewitnesses identified the suspects only through the clothes they wore. It takes more than a certain manner or mode of clothing to establish that a person is a CPP-NPA member, she said.

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"In the absence of any evidence that the official uniform of the members of the CPP-NPA consists of an all-black outfit, this court cannot give credence to the witnesses' identification," the judge said.

Magdoza-Malagar said none of the nine incidents caused "widespread and extraordinary fear and panic" among the populace.

She characterized the incidents as "pocket and sporadic occurrences" in Mindanao, specifically in Surigao del Sur, Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon and Agusan del Sur, the judge said.

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She also cited the difference between terrorism and rebellion as pointed out in a 2017 Supreme Court ruling, the former being considered as larger in scope.

The Supreme Court stated that if the crime committed is for political purposes, it is rebellion.

If the primary objective is to sow and create widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among populace to coerce the government to give in to an unlawful demand, the crime is terrorism.

Lawyer Lorenzo "Larry" Gadon said on Thursday that the denial of the Manila court to label the CPP-NPA as a terrorist group does not count.

"It does not really matter because it is within the power of the executive branch to declare them as a terrorist group in the exercise of its police powers that is inherent to the State," Gadon told The Manila Times.

He said the President has the authority to declare the CPP-NPA as a terrorist group in exercising police powers to protect the security and integrity of the state.

"The President has access to all information and data to enable him to exercise such power," said Gadon, the lone senatorial candidate of the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan which was founded by late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., the father of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.

"I just don't know why the petition was filed in the first place, which I find it unnecessary," he said.

During a Senate hearing Tuesday, Sen. Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa said the government should drop the idea of a negotiated peace as a solution to the communist insurgency problem since the CPP-NPA has been deceiving the government all along.

"These people are only fooling us. We've been talking to them for many years and nothing happened out of it. We are sincere, but they're not. Let's not allow them to fool us further, especially now that the CPP-NPA are already on their knees because of the NTF-Elcac (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict)," dela Rosa said.

The former national police chief presided at the hearing of the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security, Peace, Unification, and Reconciliation, joint with the Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, which he leads, as well as the Committee on Finance, to discuss Senate Bill (SB) 200 which seeks to institutionalize the NTF-Elcac by establishing the National Council to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.

The NTF-Elcac was created in December 2018 by Executive Order 70 issued by then president Rodrigo Duterte.

"What are they [CPP-NPA] doing while we are talking peace with them? They are there consolidating their people, regrouping, rearming themselves, and recruitment because they're free to go around the communities. You know, enough of this for me," he told government security officials who attended the hearing.

"Let's finish the problem and we have to be serious about it. As I've said, I have retired from the service with all the scars in my body, with all the death that I have seen. Do I have to wait for my son, who just graduated from  academy, to experience the same problem that I faced when I was young, when I was a lieutenant until I retired?... We are not giving a better future for the youth if we do not finish this problem now," dela Rosa said.

Be truly poor to be truly rich

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

WE have to understand this point very well. We need to be truly poor so we can be truly rich in God, attaining the fullness of our dignity as God’s image and likeness, children of his, sharers of his divine life and nature. This is how we can be truly rich.

To be truly poor is to acknowledge that we depend on God for everything. To be truly poor is not about how much one has or does not have. That is a very poor description of what is to be truly poor. And that’s because one can have a lot of things and yet know that everything comes from God and is for God and for everybody else.

A truly poor person knows that he is not the absolute owner of whatever he has, even if he is entitled to the right of private ownership. He is at best only a steward tasked to make use of whatever he has to start building the kingdom of God here on earth. A truly poor person has an abiding awareness that he is only a caretaker of the goods of the earth and that he is answerable to God and to everyone for that duty.

In a certain sense, our earthly life can be described as a matter of emptying and filling. That is, emptying of our own selves, our own egos, so we can be filled with God, with love, which is what is proper to us.

In whatever we do, let’s see to it that this business of emptying and filling is the underlying law and principle that is being followed. Failing in that can only mean failing in our ultimate purpose in life, no matter how successful we may appear to be in our work or social and political life, and in the other aspects of life.

We need to adapt and develop the relevant attitude and skills so we can turn this ideal into a working lifestyle. We should not forget that Christ clearly said: ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Mt 16,24) That, in a nutshell, is the biblical basis for this business of emptying and filling.

Christ himself, our way, truth and life, lived this principle perfectly by emptying himself so he can be filled with the will of his Father. 

St. Paul expressed this fact in this way: “Christ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” (Phil 2,5-8)

Christ’s self-emptying cannot be overemphasized. Being the son of God with whom nothing is impossible, he chose to be born poor in a manger and led an austere life all throughout. Even in his impressive moments of preaching and making miracles, he did not want to be treated as a king or some kind of celebrity.

He preached about meekness and humility and lived what he preached. “Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart,” he said. (Mt 11,29) In the Last Supper, he shocked his apostles when he began to wash their feet and insisted on doing so, despite the protestation of Peter, to give an example for them to follow.

We need to be truly poor to be truly rich in God!

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com