THE remains of Baby River, the child of unjustly detained political prisoner Reina Mae Nasino, was set to be buried at the Manila North Cemetery. However, what should have been a solemn ride to the cemetery was interrupted by the brazen harassment of tens of uniformed military officers who surrounded the vehicle. From being separated for three months from her mother, up to being harassed while at the wake of her baby as Reina merely answered questions from the media, the military has been ruthless.
Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK) utterly condemns the latest in a series of brazen and shameless acts of political harassment of activists. We are one in calling for the release of all political prisoners including Reina Mae Nasino on humanitarian grounds. The big question amid all the suffering that the Duterte regime has generated however is: why are they doing this in the first place? What does the regime and its minions have to gain over harassing a mourning mother and her family, friends, and fellow activists?
The only possible reason for this senseless harassment is that the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año and the entire Duterte regime wishes to desensitize the public towards its escalating fascist attacks on basic democratic and human rights, and to further distract progressive movements from the life-or-death issues plaguing the working class and toiling masses. This is in line with the objectives of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) under Secretary Año to showcase the brutality of the regime to the broad public in order to keep the masses disempowered and hopeless.
than doing the sensible and humane option of letting us mourn this unspeakable tragedy and redirecting the government’s complete energy and attention towards improving its health and economic response, it chooses to continue its absurd anti-communist witch-hunt even as Baby River approaches her final resting place. They would rather exhaust all efforts to make the masses think that the biggest threat to their interests are the invisible communist boogeyman, and not the regime’s own incompetence and subservience to ruling class interests amid a global pandemic and economic crisis.
All of this is being done in order to keep us distracted and intimidated, unable to resist the inhumanity and senselessness of the regime’s state terror. If this is their objective, SPARK together with the progressive movements will not fall for their psychological operations and will not be cowed into fear and apathy by the regime’s nonstop assaults. If we allow these attacks to be normalized, the fascists in power will have succeeded in their objectives.
SPARK urges fellow youth and the public at large to remain critical towards each and every act of harassment of the Duterte regime. We must demand justice at each step of the way for each and every one of the regime’s countless victims. Our strongest weapons are unity and militancy. Only by resisting the psyche of fear, apathy, and helplessness shall we be able to keep on track in our quest for peace, social justice towards an egalitarian society. (Spark)
