Kintanar�s punishment is apt and just
Fr. Santiago "Sanny" Salas
Spokesperson in Eastern Visayas
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
January 29, 2003 The revolutionary movement and the people of Eastern Visayas uphold Romulo Kintanar�s punishment by NPA partisans last January 23 in Manila as apt and just. A gangster and renegade, Kintanar did not die a hero, much less a victim of injustice. Those who rush to eulogize him�the high officials of the Arroyo regime and Kintanar�s fellow renegades�only expose Kintanar for what he really was: a willing tool of those who oppress and exploit the people.
Kintanar had long been a fugitive from revolutionary justice and had been coddled by various administrations since Ramos as a psychological warfare agent against the revolution and the people. While still in the revolutionary movement, he was one of the masterminds of the 1985 Kampanyang Ahos in Mindanao, the anti-infiltration hysteria that led to the deaths of more than 1,000 comrades and supporters. Upon his promotion to the national leadership, he caused even more destruction by his misleadership of the NPA, corruption and disregard of organizational discipline. He masterminded gangster activities like kidnapping for ransom and armed robberies which tarnished the name of the people�s army.
The stupid and vicious statements and actions of the Arroyo government after Kintanar�s death underscore the difference between revolutionary and reactionary justice. President Arroyo herself has instituted a climate of fear in Metro Manila by giving the PNP blanket authority to arrest and detain anyone on the pretext of going after NPA partisans. It is alarming that the PNP has made fascist announcements about deploying 300,000 secret marshals in the National Capital Region, and that there will be 50 NPA dead in retaliation for Kintanar. It goes to show that vigilante justice or the violation of due process, of which the CPP-NPA has often been much maligned, is instead essential to the reactionary justice system.
How farcical, persecutory and cruel the reactionary justice system really is becomes even more evident in the Arroyo regime�s arrogant threats against the life and liberty of revolutionary leaders like Comrade Jose Ma. Sison and the members of the NDFP peace negotiating panel. Apparently, the Arroyo government also equates a gangster like Kintanar on the same level of importance as the question of whether the peace negotiations with the NDFP will go on or not. By threatening to worsen political repression against the revolutionary movement and the people, the regime is creating conditions unfavorable to the continuation of the peace talks.###
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