Serving the people is not exclusive to those who bear arms

No regrets coining and labeling some as Rebels, Just Because (if, indeed, I did coin it, otherwise credit goes to whoever used the phrase before I did)...

While I do understand the struggle, armed conflicts never produce real victors. And I just can't accept armed resistance as a solution knowing that it's not only about resistance to an oppressive, corrupt system but also to forward an oppressive, failed ideology.

We cannot denounce the death of our comrades while condoning, celebrating the loss of lives on the other side of the political fence. A death of a human being is always a loss, soldiers leave widows and orphans too. Or how about the unfair, senseless loss of innocent lives caught in the crossfire, oftentimes brushed aside as mere collateral damage?

In the last couple of days, I have listened to a doctor who personally attended to the victims of an ambush against police trainees. One of the survivors was a woman whose leg was penetrated by a bullet which exited and totally shattered her knee and had to choose between amputation or to never be able to bend her leg again. They were jogging, part of their morning exercise, unarmed, when they were fired upon by snipers. Maybe she, too, set out to dedicate her life to serve the people, she just chose to do it as part of the police force and not as a rebel. We will never know now.

Another first-hand account shared to me was how a road project nearing completion that would help farmers in a far-flung area bring their produce to the market was halted because of non-payment of "revolutionary taxes."

Peace. Give it a chance, is all I'm saying. Yeah, peace.

I do acknowledge, a revolution is in order - our political system needs restructuring, our fragile democracy needs strengthening, but how do destabilization, terrorism, and let's not deny it - murder help bring about change, positive change? How do all that help move this nation forward? How do AK47s put food on the table of the oppressed and not only on that of its bearer? 

Let us not romanticize terrorism, let us not romanticize violence, let us not romanticize murder.  

And we too love this nation, we too are doing what we can to help turn things around in this country, and we, too, are hungry - most of us are, in fact. But none of that justify firing a bullet on a fellow Filipino.