FILIPINOS of whatever spiritual faith recognize the importance of family in human life. The value of family was already with our ancestors even before the coming of invaders and colonizers. The coming of major faiths like Islam and Christianity paved the way for introducing profound meaning to the family that has endured the exploitation and oppression of colonizers. The value of Filipino family, despite the great divide in socio-economic status, remained stable with a strong belief in God and faith in the natural superiority of good over evil.
The ideology of the Communist Party of the Philippines sees otherwise. It views the family as a natural tool of the bourgeoisie that controls capital to perpetuate its private ownership of the means of production in society. Because of its long-term objective of establishing socialism that negates private property in general, the CPP even at the national democratic phase of its kind of revolution is already consciously and intently devaluing the family in its ideological and political work.
CPP ideologues, using Marxist concepts, argue that the Filipino family has already been physically broken up anyway by the prevailing economic system wherein family members have been dispersed and separated by the need to work in different places in the country and abroad. This condition is seen as the cause of moral decadence among many youths who have lost the direct guidance of parents and the ruin of many marriages.
Following the above line of thinking, the CPP finds enough justification for the separation of members of the family for the cause of the revolution and its armed struggle in the countryside to be done without qualm and hesitation. The CPP even teaches that the malaise suffered by the Filipino family under the present social conditions will be solved this way in the long run. That is, when its revolution triumphs.
The CPP follows Joma’s concept of “continuing revolution” that has no foreseeable end. Believe it or not, it is mostly an ideological effort to contest the correctness of the present line of the Communist Party of China. The problem is that Joma is criticizing the biggest communist party in power and to prove his point the armed struggle in the country must continue or at least the NPA must remain armed. The NPA has no delineated areas defensible against government forces despite the former still finding opportunities for tactical operations against the latter. The CPP is aware of the grave danger its young recruits will face in this guerilla warfare and will face for an indefinite period. In this, any sense of family ties must end for these young recruits to survive mentally.
For its current recruitment to be successful the CPP must go against the Filipino family value. It is therefore not surprising that parents are shocked by the changes in the mentality of their children who were recruited by the CPP. And there is the proof of the devaluing. And all enablers by direct and indirect means to the insurgency are part of the devaluing no matter how they protect their own families from this.
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