Cayam tree in Kauswagan

DEAR Ms. A. Paulita Roa,

I read your Dec. 22, 2016 column and knew of your desire to locate the possibly lone Cayam tree in Kauswagan.

It now stands in its lone majesty inside the ancestral house of the late Salvador I. Pacana Sr. at Zone 1, Kauswagan (John the Baptist St.).

It is a wonderful nut, and is cooked in the way you described in your article. Uncle Dodong Pacana, Tita Ging Pacana-Bell and Tita Inday Pacana will be glad to show you the tree now perched in a picturesque garden. A visit will make one recall how life once was in Kauswagan–quiet, quaint and welcoming.

I am not sure if it is bearing fruits at present. I recall that it bears fruit year round.) –Salvador O. Pacana, lawyer, Cagayan de Oro

Full Disclosure

THE AFP and DND should disclose the actual contents of its new campaign plan, Development Support and Security Plan Kapayapaan, that was launched last week at a top level command conference.

If it is a sequel to Oplan Bayanihan, claiming to put primacy on the peace negotiations and so-called non-combat “development” work, but continuing the militarization of communities, then it is not new nor will it succeed.

Will DSSP Kapayapaan cause the pullout of troops from Lumad and other occupied areas? Will this cause the suspension of military operations masquerading as non-combat, development operations in civilian communities? Will this end the “IP-centric” approach adopted by Oplan Bayanihan that has resulted in human rights violations in indigenous communities? Will this make the AFP stop targeting legal activists, whether through trumped-up charges or by extrajudicial killings? Will the AFP disband paramilitary groups especially those most notorious for rights abuses such as massacres?

If the answer to all these questions is No, then we are in for more of the same. Maybe even worse.

Oplan Bayanihan of  Aquino also claimed to recognize the primacy of the peace process but instead unleashed war on the people. It was an utter failure as the peace talks were stalled while the  AFP failed to stop the advance of the revolutionary forces. It is this reality that served as the basis for the Duterte government to enter into peace talks with the NDFP. Government cannot defeat the revolutionary forces because the social, economic, political and historical basis for the armed conflict remain. The root causes of armed struggle must be addressed.

The AFP should upload and make available the new DSSP Kapayapaan to allow its scrutiny by all stakeholders and interested parties, including human rights groups, peace advocates, and members of Congress. Kapayapaan’s predecessor Oplan Bayanihan was made available to the pubic by the previous regimev and can be found at the AFP’s website.

The people continue to call for the pull-out of AFP troops operating in civilian communities. These AFP operations undermine even the government’s own ceasefire declaration, exposing it as a sham as far as affected communities are concerned. Affected communities have raised many complaints versus the AFP and hope that these will be discussed during the 3rd round of formal peace talks that will begin on January 19, 2017. –Renato Reyes Jr., secretary general, Bayan

Online Attack

THE website of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines was targeted by a massive denial of service attack Jan. 9, 2017.

Our page can no longer be accessed.

We do not know by whom but this we can say–whoever are responsible for this attack are enemies of press freedom and of free expression. They are vermin, narrow-minded, misbegotten souls who mistakenly believe that they can silence critical speech and thought in their desire to force people into accepting only one worldview–theirs.

But they can do their worst. They will never succeed.

The independent Philippine press, the independent Filipino journalists, and the freedom-loving Filipino people will make sure of this, as we have done in the past and as we will do so again and again whenever basic rights and liberties are assaulted. –National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP)