THIS opening line of a popular Tiktok ditty has no relation to the subject matter at hand but for the nickname Aussie for Australia. But then just as National Security Adviser (NSA)-designate Clarita R. Carlos' otherwise non-security criteria are suddenly allowed to find ascendance in discussions on the country's national security, so must an otherwise non sequitur song phrase be permitted to suddenly find bearing in this issue. In an interview, the former University of the Philippines professor, whose political star rose seemingly parallel to the rise of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) mass recruitment of members in the UP campus, was asked thus: 'Ano po ang ikanga'y nagpakumbinsi sa inyo na tanggapin itong posisyong ito sa ilalim ng Marcos administration bilang national security adviser?'

Answered the retired professor: 'Iyan 'yung aking research and expertise, 'yung defense security and foreign policy. Lahat iyan ay isang aspeto ng ating national security. So, it's not anything new to me.' And elaborating, in another interview, she cited such concerns as poverty and lost opportunities as comprising more the security aspects that must be attended to for being the root causes of insurgency. This certainly strikes me as a reprise of Jose Maria Sison, whose clever promotion of the revolutionary line actually divests the real root cause of the insurgency, which is the insatiable hunger for political power by those in the lead of that insurgency. We will elaborate on this topic in subsequent articles.