UNPOPULAR OPINION | Did Anakbayan Just Admit that the AFP and PNP Serve the People?

In a recent post titled “Maximum Tolerance: Cases of Police Brutality and Military Abuses in the Philippines,” Anakbayan once again accused the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) of pretending to be “pro-masses.”

The group sneered that while the uniformed services may build roads and bridges, assist in agriculture, conduct medical missions, and carry out other non-military projects, they supposedly remain bound by a “mercenary tradition” that prevents them from truly serving the people.

But in its attempt to discredit the military and police, Anakbayan inadvertently admitted what the public already knows — that the AFP and PNP are, in fact, serving the Filipino people in ways far beyond their traditional roles.

Because really, who helps build those roads that connect farmers to markets in the countryside, the once supposed “bastions” of the CPP-NPA-NDFP? Who are the first medical teams to respond to far-flung sitios during calamities?

Who helps deliver government aid to conflict-affected areas where even local officials fear to tread? The very same men and women

Anakbayan accuse of being “mercenaries”.

If these acts of service — constructing vital infrastructure, providing healthcare, ensuring safety, and promoting livelihood — are not “pro-masses,” then what is?

For Anakbayan, being “pro-people” seems to require a revolutionary pedigree, as if genuine service only counts when the communist armed movement initiates it. But for the millions of Filipinos in rural communities, the measure of service is simple. Who shows up, who helps, and who delivers?

In this light, the AFP and PNP’s efforts speak louder than Anakbayan’s rhetoric, whether it’s rebuilding a bridge destroyed by floods or facilitating peacebuilding in former conflict zones.

Perhaps the real question isn’t whether the military can abandon its so-called “mercenary tradition.” It’s whether Anakbayan can abandon its outdated dogma long enough to recognize that the government, for all its imperfections, is capable of genuine public service and is actually doing.

So, to borrow their own logic, if service to the people is the highest form of love, then maybe the AFP and PNP, especially under the auspices of Executive Order No. 70’s whole-of-the-approach, have been practicing what Anakbayan has only been preaching?