We have been reading the works of Caballero Audaz on “The Revolution of the Terrorists.” In many aspects, there are more dissimilarities than similarities between Madrid under the Red Terror and Manila under the Yellow domination. In Madrid there was anarchy and despotism, dominated by armed men, the power-hungry and the terrorists. In Manila, the authority has a sharp eye and an iron hand. No one except the Armed Forces carries guns; no one except the military exercises authority; there is no law but military law.
But the calm is superficial. There is no reign of terror but the reign of fear born of interminable arrests, searches, confiscations and punishments on the hungry people whom oppression has turned into malefactors.