The "Red scare" tactics of Arroyo's military

This is disturbing. Sana hindi mangyari ito.

THE military and the police are hysterically raising the Red bogey in the run-up to the State of the Nation Address of President Arroyo on Monday. We hope it’s just the worn-out tactic of trying to scare the moderates from joining the anti-SONA protest actions. What we fear is that the AFP and the PNP might be cooking up something and already laying the ground so the communists would be blamed.

Brig. Gen. Jose Angel Honrado, AFP spokesman, was honest enough to say that the intelligence information talks only of a general threat to disrupt the SONA.

"Aside from that, there is no specific information, like targeting specific targets or establishments or facilities… On the specifics (of the plan), there are none," he said.

PNP chief Arturo Lomibao has at least something specific to point to. A purportedly breakaway communist group, Partido Marxista Leninista, has threatened to assassinate all those involved in the "Hello Garci" tapes, including President Arroyo.

Since the communist party has been splitting like an amoeba for years, we don’t discount the possibility there is indeed such as group. As to the group’s capability, its obscurity alone indicates it cannot mount any action more significant than holding press conferences.

So, again, what gives?

The purported "communist infiltration" probably would be used by the police and the military to justify harassment of protesters. Lomibao has warned that "out of line" jeepneys and buses ferrying protesters from the provinces would be barred from entering Metro Manila.

Well, the zealousness in enforcing franchising rules would be commendable had the police also barred those buses from the provinces which hauled the warm bodies to the pro-Gloria rally at the Luneta last Saturday. But that’s the way things work. The AFP and PNP are strictly neutral for Gloria.

"Communist infiltration" could also be used to justify a crackdown on protesters. Policemen, with the support of soldiers, could break up any attempt by protesters to mass. All in the name, of course, of protecting these protesters from the violence the communists are purportedly planning.

There are other possibilities, worse ones. Some hardliners in the Arroyo cabinet, most of them retired military men, are itching to crush the opposition with a mailed fist. It would take only a few teams of provocateurs to turn a peaceful demonstration into riot and mayhem.

And the communists would be conveniently blamed.

I hope Gloria's military is not dumb enough to use extreme force to break up the huge "Gloria resign" rally scheduled during her SONA speech.

More from Ducky Paredes:

CHANCES are that the rallies during Gloria Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) on July 25 will be bloody and violent. This is because the PNP has already floated "reports" there is a plan to assassinate Gloria.

According to PNP chief Arturo Lomibao, he has information that the Partido Marxista-Leninista ng Pilipinas (PMLP) will be out to create trouble on that day. He also has "reports" that "unscrupulous individuals" will "sow terror" on that day.

My reaction is to be on guard against what the PNP, under Chavit Singson’s former police chief, might have in store for us on the day of the SONA.

Whoever the President has been, there have always been rallies on SONA day. It is only under Gloria that the police have been so paranoid that they have kept rallies as far away as possible from the Batasang Pambansa where the SONA takes place. The police have also never been as rabid in their defense of the establishment as in Gloria’s "presidency."