UNPOPULAR OPINION | Throwback to when Kabataan Partylist was proud that their alumni are NPA fighters

In a 2019 video that remains publicly accessible on YouTube, Kara Lenina Taggaoa, then chairperson of the League of Filipino Students (LFS), spoke with a clarity that left little room for interpretation. Wearing a Kabataan Partylist shirt, she said, “Proud kami na ang alumni namin ay nag-NPA”.

Last month, in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, authorities captured Ceeka Garzon, whom the military has identified as a member of the New People’s Army. In the immediate aftermath, a number of activist organizations, including LFS and Kabataan Partylist, offered a different account. Garzon, they said, was an artist living among the Mangyan community—her presence there rooted in cultural work rather than armed participation.

Meanwhile, the 2nd Infantry Division has said that Garzon acknowledged her involvement with the NPA.

Where earlier rhetoric suggested pride regarding those who crossed into the armed movement, current responses appear more cautious, more deliberate in drawing distinctions. Associations that were once publicly affirmed are now being summarily dismissed or, at the very least, carefully managed. 

If joining the armed struggle was once framed, in certain contexts, as an extension, even the highest form, of pro-people advocacy, what explains the present distancing from the said advocacy? What gives?

One might expect that groups which have long framed the armed struggle as a legitimate path to societal change would stand firmly behind individuals accused of taking that path. At the very least, there would be no need for rhetorical distancing.

If Garzon did, in fact, take up arms and join the New People’s Army, then the silence—or denial—raises an uncomfortable question. Are they still proud of activists joining the armed struggle?

You can watch the referenced video here:

Very little effort to connect the dots, in my unpopular opinion.