The visitor will be amazed by the beauty of Baganga, especially at this time when other parts of the country have turned dry, brown and dusty. Baganga remains green and lush. The white-topped waves of the Pacific Ocean keep washing up on the shore. In this environment on a lazy Sunday, a taste of the local version of puto and the crispy skin of lechon makes life seem perfect and trouble free. But venturing into the hinterlands where cutting of rattan and logging compete with coconut farming as the main source of livelihood is risky unless one is a friend of the NPA.

Passing through Mati City on my way back to Davao City, I learned that members of the NPA have come down from the mountains to campaign for Satur Ocampo, Liza Maza and Sen. Manny Villar. The people who are responsible for making Trisha Faith fatherless at the age of nine months have temporarily replaced their firearms with campaign posters. Sen. Villar, whom I was delighted to personally serve coffee when he guested the radio station where I worked and who staked his House speakership to have the Clean Air Act passed, must explain to Trisha Faith, her mother, the parents and siblings of the late PFC Dedumo why he is collaborating with the killers of their loved one. Dedumo was a soldier in the service of his country and he died defending this country and the office for which Sen. Villar is aspiring.