From an exchange of bullets and trail of dead bodies, the war between Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army of the National Democratic Front (CNN) shifted to another field.
Perhaps running out of bullets, the army and the CNN seemingly agreed to continues the battle in a humane manner.
At least in Bohol, they elevated the fight into less bloody, but equally deadly war.
Words, because nobody could run out of words, and so they agreed, word war it is.
The army has come to the warfront with nary a firearm, one that made them sitting ducks to the barrage of propaganda. In this war, the army is ill-equipped.
On the other hand, the CNN are veterans in the word war: themselves rising into the ranks by sheer use of their convincing power.
But resources-wise, the army can haul in as much as they can dump. With a large fan-base, the army can blast like a shotgun and sort everything later.
Strategic in their approaches, the CNN fights their war by their pickings.
Like a sniper perched on high ground, the CNN fights a more brilliant war than we can know. Of course, that war is never clean.
Both forces employ witty doses of lies, in neat wrappings of truths and half truths.
Most recently, the army insists Bohol is still insurgency free.
But the CNN said they are back. And they published their return with an alleged attack of a camp in Mabini.
Unluckily, it could be a mistake the CNN would have to deal with.
Because in the normal world, people’s eyebrows raise when those who “harass” file the blotter and use it to say, we did it.
As they said, you can’t win a war with fireworks and press releases.