The NPA has not been holding back, either for the new Presidency nor for the promised Peace Talks.
On Friday, July 30, 2010 at 735AM at Sitio Manipis, Barangay Poblacion in Davao City's Paquibato District, 4 soldiers from the 69IB (Infantry Battalion) were wounded, 1 critically in an ambush preceeded by 2 command detonated mines.
August 01, 2010, in Barangay Balingasag, Misamis Oriental, AFP Sgt.Elmer Panar was shot to death by a SPARU team (Special Armed Partisan Group). The SPARU,usually incorrectly transliterated as "Sparrow," as in the bird, are small teams of 3 to 4 guerillas who engage in close quarter, usually public executions. Panar had just returned home from a cock fight (the poultry kind sicko). After killing the Sgt. they killed a civilian, Alexander Pabuluan, for unspecified reasons.
August 03, 2010 at 1145AM in Sitio Lusong, Barangay Puting Bato, Cababaran City, Agusan del Norte Province, the 30IB were suprised when they stumbled across a large NPA camp while on routine patrol in a new sector. Approximately 60 NPA guerillas wee undergoing basic military training. In the subsequent fire fight 2 NPA guerillas were killed, 3 were wounded.
On August 04, 2010 in Matanao, Davao del Sur Province, Cresaldo Banan, a Surrenderee to the 39IB was killed by an NPA SPARU team.
Agust 05, 2010 in Barangay Dunganpikong, Matanao, Davao del Sur Province, an AFP patrol encountered a small group of NPA under "Ka Jam Jam." During that firefight Corporal Cesar Bucol was shot to death.
On August 06, 2010 in Barangay Colosas, Paquibato District, Davao City, the NPA ambushed a small group of motorcycles carrying tribal leader Datu Ruben Labawan, newly appointed Datu (Chief) of the STCPD ( Supreme Tribal Council for Peace and Development), an AFP COIN (Counter-Insurgency Force Multiplication front organisation) entity and the 2 AFP soldiers escorting him to a local forum in the local AFP Brigade HQ (1003 Bde), over the border in Santo Tomas, Davao del Norte Province. Labawan was unscathed in this 2nd attempt on his life. Sadly, the 2 AFP soldiers were killed, 1 of whom was his brother, Pfc.Kimpio Labawan. Pfc.Labawan and the second soldier, Elansio Alonsagay Jr were attached to the 62nd Recon Company. 4 of Labawan's fellow STCPD members were wounded as well in the gunfire by 12 NPA guerillas. The NPA captured 2 M16s off of the dead soldiers, and an additional wounded civilian, Datu Enecencio Dangkay, a tribal Datu from Bukidnon Province died the following day at the hospital.
The 1st attempt on Datu Labawan's life was when he and his wife were riding tandem on his motorcycle and 18 NPA hidden 2 meters off of the roadside gave him a superficial wound on his right hand. This attempt left a wound on the opposite hand. Go figure.
It is worth noting that Datu Ruben Labawan is also the leader of "Alsa Lumad,"another Force Multiplication effort of the AFP. The name, which means "Hill Tribes Arise," or, "Indigenous People Arise,"is patterned after a mid-80s Force Multiplication effort called "Alsa Masa" (Masses Arise). I will be going into great detail about these organisations as well as Force Multiplication in general.
In response to that incident the NPA has been engaging in PSYOPs (Psychological Warfare/Propaganda) using letter head for Datu Labawan's STCPD letterhead to print inflammatory statements that claim a Pangayaw (Tribal Feud, akin to"Rido,"Muslim Clan Fueuds) is taking place because of this 2nd attempt on the Datu's life. Labawan claims that he hasn't even been back to Barangay Colosas since August 06, the day of the attack, nor is he engaging in warfare against an entire community.
The barangay has been flooded with armed men but Col.Eduardo del Rosario, the CO (Commanding Officer) of the 1003rd Brigade which covers the area in question, insists that it is merely CAFGU and similar pro-government paramilitaries. Responding to Mayor Sarah Duterte Carpio's well voiced sentiments on the AFP's heavy handed operations, he said that he would be relieved of duty if he did not pursue armed insurgents, as well as being remiss with regard to tax payers. Interestingly, del Roasario admitted that there IS a Tribal War brewing against Bisaya, a non-tribal christian ethnicity, by a tribe from Bukidnon Province but that the AFP has intervened and warned the Bukidnon tribals against bringing their violence to Davao City. The Bukidnon tribals are irate over the death of their chief, Datu Enecencio Dangkay.
Speaking of Mayor Duterte Carpio, she instructed the barangay officials from Barangay Colosas, as well as nearby barangays to develop a withdrawal plan for roughly 5,000 IDPs (Refugees) in the event the violence does take place.
That same day, August 06, at 730AM in Monkayo, ComVal Province, AFP Special Forces encountered 30 NPA . After a long firefight the NPA withdrew only to run into the middle of the AFP Blocking Force on the border of Laak and Monkayo. 3 soldiers were badly wounded. the AFP later claimed that it had managed to capture a Hi Value NPA Leader, Percival Manimog during the clashes but the NPA claims that Manimog had withdrawn from the organisation in 2006 and has been incactive since.
On August 10, 2010 at 150PM in Sitio Tulay, Barangay Mahingkog, Magpet, North Cotabato Province a 13 year old boy claiming to be Communist guerilla from an NPA breakaway faction called "BFG" (Black Fighters Group) allegedly surrendered to Barangay Captain Godfrey Acupan. Mr.Acupan claims that Maximo had surrendered just minutes after a clash between the Black Fighters and the 57IB. When the guerillas withdrew with 2 wounded members Maximo managed to stay behind saying that he was tired of the beatings administered by a sub-leader Rex Ansabao.
Rex Ansabo was 1 of 40 escapees from (Amas) North Cotabato Provincial Jail in Feburary of 2007. Ansabo is the youngest brother of Ibon Ansabo, the group's leader, as well as a brother-in-law of young Maximo. A 3rd Ansabo brother, Samante is also a sub-leader in the group.
The group is as of now still relatively small, with 20 Regulars (full time guerillas), all members of the Bagobo Tribe. The Bagobo are "Lumad," the local equivalent of the generic label "Hill Tribe." In terms of demographical breakdowns there are 3 main denominators: I) "Moro," a collective name for 13 large ethno-lingustic groups all professing the Islamic faith; II) "Christian," anyone professing the Christian faith but usually relegated to Cebuanos and Ilonggo, 2 Bisaya (Visayan) groups; III) "Lumad," a collective grouping of 18 Hill Tribes but usually not including Negritos.
The Bagobo Tribe usually lives in the Upper Cotabato Basin and into Bukidnon Province. The Black Fighters cleaved off of the NPA proper roughly 18 months ago and seem to be devoid of any ideological imperative. However, that can easily change with the right person joining. Their current armoury, per IS-AFP (Army Intelligence) is 3 M16s, 3 M14s, 2 carbines and one 12 gaunge. That can also very easily change. One needs to remember that virtually all weapons held by the NPA have been obtained via capture related to tactical offencives.
August 12, 2010 on dirt logging road, Kulambugan Spur, at Kilometer #21, in Sitio Kulambugan, Barangay Danao in Lianga, Surigao del Sur Province a DENR (Dept. of Natural Resources) detachment of Retrieval Officers (officers tasked with reigning in illegal logging and the trade surrounding it) from Region#2 were embedded in a combined team of 50 AFP and PNP (Philippines National Police), to ensure the safety of the DENR personnel from both the NPA as well as criminal elements involved in logging.
The DENR detachment, part of Task Force Kalikasan (Nature), a Task Force aimed at indeciting the illegal trade that is contributing to so much of the island's rapid deforestation, as well as related violent crime, including insurgency, were walking on foot along the road, 2km from the logging site they were inspecting when the group was ambushed by NPA snipers who killed the Chief of Lianga PNP,Inspector Christopher P.Mazo and wounded 4 DENR personnel. Although the "Task Force, which is dedicated to just 4 adjoining towns, Lianga, San Miguel, San Agustin and Marihatag often comes under attack from bonafide criminal elements. However, this attack was NPA and we know this because the NPA itself took credit for it publicly.
Unfortunately for the DENR the AFP has been gearing up for a large offencive in the Andap Complex, which is where that patch of bush is located. Seeing 50 well armed soldiers and police (who also take part in COIN Ops, i.e. anti-insurgency operations) walking through the jungle in full combat mode just as alarge offencive is taking place sort of lends itself to vulnerability. The NPA warned the DENR not to have the AFP or PNP escort it and said that the department and its personnel have nothing to fear unless the agents are "mulcing" (extorting).
August 13, 2010 at 1145AM in Sitio Lusong, Barangay Puting Bato, Cadabaran City in Agusan del Norte Province, 60 NPA undergoing training were engaged by the 30IB with 2 NPA dead and 3 AFP wounded, 1 extremely critical. Earlier in this entry I discussed the 30IB having accidentally found the same NPA element encamped in a different sector of the municipality. As one can see the AFP's policy of breaking off engagement and lack of co-ordination between AFP and PNP elements is merely a stopgap measure, if indeed it can even be called that since it is without rhyme or reason.
August 24, 2010 at 1145AM in Barangay La Fortuna, Veruela, Agusan del Sur Province, NPA Front 3 attacked an AFP detachment of the post of the 26IB,less than 100 meters from the Battalion HQ. In less than 10 minutes they killed 1 AFP NCO and 4 soldiers and escaped after capturing 2 M16s and 1 KC3, along with 1800 rounds of 5.56MM amunition (M16) and ten M203 grenades. The dead AFP personnel: Cpl.Basir Limpasan, Pfc.Roger Espineli, Pvt.Rowell Antonio, Pvt.Elrico Orcijola and Pvt.Sim Bunzalan.
The next day, August 25, at 730AM, in Pursuit Operations the AFP encountered
a small detachment from the same NPA Front, Front 3, near the borders of Veruela and Monkayo which sits just across the line in ComVal (Compostela Valley) Province. 1 soldier from the 26IB and the detachment's civilain guide were critically wounded in that fire fight. After the NPA had withdrawn the soldiers recovered 2 IEDs weighing 1kg each.
The use of the term "IED" (Improvised Explosive Device) is the catch phrase that has become oh so popular this past decade and is used to describe any type of illicit explosive device. In the NPA's case however, the proper term when deployed would be command detonated mine. Without placement however the term loses any real meaning because it needs actual intent to be labeled a "mine" since it is illicitly produced. I am going through this rigamorole because sometimes, sadly, semantics do matter. The AFP is very quick to use the word "mine" with just about every explosive found with regard to the NPA. The term is loaded with negative propaganda value and this needs to be considered.
La Fortuna, the barangay where both the detachment post and its parent Battalion HQ sit is the most heavily NPA Influenced barangay in the town.
August 22, 2010 saw OPAPP (Office of the Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process) Secretary Teresita Deles commenting on the spate of recent NPA tactical offencives. Just 1 day prior on the Central Philippine island of Samar 8 PNP officers had been killed in an NPA ambush, along with 1 barangay official. Ms.Deles said that the NPA violence will not put a dent in the government's efforts at re-implementing the GRP (Govt.) and NDF (National Democratic Front, the umbrella org. of Leftist groups including the NPA) Peace Process. Indeed Ms.Deles said that the violence only serves to underscore the pressing need FOR the Process.
Speaking directly about the Samar ambush she said that the specific attack was "condemnable"[sic] and that she was "especially concerned" over reports that it had been precipitated by a landmine detonation which she said is never acceptable and never will be. Of course I have mentioned the government's use of the landmine issue to score propaganda points and this is just another tired recycling of this issue. A command detonated mine, i.e. an IED that it manually detonated, not by timer, is NEVER illegal in terms of LOAC (Laws of Armed Conflict), the body of international Law dealing with warfare. The government's repeated referral to the Ottawa Treaty is also bordering on the ridiculous but that is how the game is played here, par for the course.
The NPA, as I have noted in prior entries is also guilty of using inane issues in propaganda drives. Probablly the most noticeable being the whole "Child Warrior" issue, something that the government ALSO plays with. Customary International Law holds by consensus that the legal age of combatants is 14 and up, and most nations abide by 14.5 as the minimum age. Most Western Nations, the US included have absolutely no problem inducting 17 year olds and sending them to the front lines so that when the NPA and the GRP seize upon 17 year old CAFGU soldiers, or 17 year old NPA guerillas it becomes nothing more than a farce.
On August 26, 2010 in Sitio Gamot, Barangay Santa Filomena, Quezon in Bukidnon Province, the AFP's 43rd Recon Company's 1st and 2nd Platoons on routine patrol got into a heavy 35 minute firefight with the NPA.
On August 28, 2010 at 8AM in Barangay Mahaba, Marihatag, Surigao del Sur, the 36IB responded to HUMINT (Human based intelligence) regarding NPA cadres from Front 19B having been sighted in the village and the result was a 30 minute fire fight. This was followed by 3 more fire fights later that day.
At 1PM in Sitio Palonpon also in Barangay Mahab 10 NPA guerillas were sighted and engaged, wounding 1 AFP NCO.
At 135PM in Barangay Lansones a firefight resulted in 1 AFP NCO, Cpl.Frethel Escabal, being killed and 1 other NCO and 1 soldier being critically wounded.
At 140PM in Barangay Rambutan a 2nd detachment from the 36IB sighted guerillas and engaged without casualties.
At 2PM in Barangay Kalamansi a 3rd detachment of the 36IB was ambushed without casulaties.
At 220 PM in Barangay San Roque the 14th Scout Rangers saw a small group of NPA guerillas moving through the bush and engaged, killing a female and capturing her M16. The rest of her small group escaped into Barangay Boringon.
The violence caused another 1,225 IDPs (in total) to flee with many taking refuge in the municipal gymnasiums of Marihatag and San Isidro.
On Wednesday, September 01, 2010 at Kilometer 24 on Malabog Road, Barangay Malabog, Paquibato District, Davao City in Davao del Sur Province, a detachment from 69IB's Company C, under 1stLt.Ryan Veles was en route to its post when the truck they were in narrowly escaped the blast of a powerful roadside IED.
That same day in Barangay Mapula also in Davao City's Paquibato District a Recon detachment directly attached to 1003 Brigade HQ was nowhere nearly as fortunate when it too hit a powerful roadside IED. 1 soldier, Bonifacio Llaliza was killed as was 1 Bagani Force (Lumad paramilitary) soldier whose identity hasnt yet been released. 2 other soldiers were wounded.
As August went out with a whisper Jorge"Ka Osis"Madlos 1 of 2 NPA cadres who have operated on Mindanao since shortly after Martial Law was originally declared (the other being Leonicio"Ka Parago"Pitao of Davao City), and who concurrently serves as the Mindanowan NDF spokesperson, released a statement in which he compared President Aquino to Pontius Pilate and heavily criticised him for allowing an extension for his predecessor's OPLAN Bantay Laya II, the anti-NPA blueprint that was set to expire on June 30th past, the end of the Arroyo Administration.
Madlos was correct in noting that traditionally, Philippine Administrations have taken a breather after ascending to office so as to allow the Opposition to forge a more moderate position. Of course insurgent organisations have never opted to take a moderate position but that is neither here nor there. Madlos also added that the President is standing with flowers in 1 hand and the 2nd hand holding a pistol behind his back, a pistol he is itching to use imperils the GRP-NDF Peace Process.
The Peace Process ended in 2004 due to the GRP cooperating with the US to place the NPA, CPP and the NDF on the American list of terrorist organisations as well as the GRP having reneged on its vow to release all political prisoners in the Philippines. It is being wound up again for a renewed effort.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
MILF/BIAF Developments for the Second and Third Quarters of 2010
The MILF is gearing up for the Peace Process once again, set to resume after Ramadan, i.e. in mid-September to early October, though of course we will be lucky if it happens anytime close to late October. While the MILF has yet to announce its new Peace Panel, GRP (Govt.) has, and I will get to that in this entry. In the interim the killing continues though of course without official MILF sanctioning (cough).
June 5th, 2010 saw Norway joining the MILF-GRP Peace Process. Norway has agreed to join the IMT (International Monitoring Team, an entity I have explained in detail a bit further on in this post) via a letter from Norwegian Ambassador to the Philippines, Kmot Solem to GHP Peace Panel Chairman Rafael Seguis with a corresponding copy to MILF Peace Panel chairman Mohagher Iqbal.
July 4th, 2010 in Barangay Buluan, Sultan Kudarat (town, not province), in Maguindanao Province, an IED, or Improvised Explosive Device (as in "bomb") fashioned from a 60MM mortar shell detonated and critically wounded one man. As the 54IB (Infantry Battalion) responded and set up a security perimeter and the 6ID (Infantry Division) EOD (Ordnance Team) Detachment set about scouring the immediate area for clues an alert soldier discovered a well concealed, second IED fasioned from an 81MM mortar shell. This 2nd device, much more powerful than the first was primed to detonate just as 1st Responders (medical, police and soldiers) reached critical mass on scene. Luckily this was averted and the device was decommisioned by Phased Water Cannon.
Predictably, and tiredly, the AFP tried to spin it as an MILF-SOG (MILF Special Operations Group, an almost apocryphal element of the MILF blamed for any type of bombing not thoroughly linked to any of the Kidnap for Ransom cum Extortion Gangs in the MILF AOR). The MILF though tried to outdo the AFP in implausability as it actually issued a release 9as opposed to unoffical comment or innuendo) blaming the AFP for a "False Flag Operation." For those unaware, a False Flag Operation is an act of war , or sabotage/terrorism undertaken by one side but served up as to appear as if it is from a second group. A good historical example might be the "Lavon Affair" that Israel undertook in Egypt in the very early 1950s.
The MILF is claiming, amazingly, that soldiers belonging to Datu Piang's Mayor Samer Uy's CVO had personally witnessed men in MILF fatigues walking from the town of Datu Piang across the border into the municipality of Sultan Kudarat and setting the 60MM IED. They then allegedly witnessed this group of men walking back into Datu Piang and entering the 29IB post, from which they were not observed leaving. In other words, 29IB soldiers wearing MILF camoflauge uniforms walked right past MILF supporters, crossed a municipal border, and in full view primed and buried a large IED. They then supposedly walked back across the border and down the street, back past MILF supporters, and then casually sauntered into an AFP post...in MILF uniforms. Riiiight.
In reality it was the work of BIAF, or Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (armed wing of the MILF) Kumander Tata Uy, the nephew of the Mayor of Datu Piang, Samer Uy. The 2 kinsmen are battling each other over the younger man, Tata, not bowing to his older and more powerful kinsman, Mayor Samer Uy.
At 805PM on July 12th, 2010 in Datu Piang's Barangay Poblacion, a young man carrying an ADIDDAS gymbag hurriedly walked towards the towns MPO, or Municipal Police Office and set the bag down on the ground. Next door the town plaza was full of young students from Datu Gumbay Piang Elementary School who were having a school celebration in the cool evening air. Then the powerful IED inside the bag detonated and rained debris for a radius of at least a half a kilometer. 8 year old student Moktar Ma was vapourised, a principal of a school in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, a neighbouring community and two 12 year old High School students were also critically wounded.
Young Moktar Ma had attended the school function in the town plaza and after it ended had gone across the road for a take away meal with his dad. Getting into a Triskiad (i.e. "Trike," i.e. "Tuk Tuk,"the most popular form of public transport in most Philippine communities. Fashioned from a dirt bike or off road motorcycle with a small cubic centimeter engine, inserted into an aluminum or iron carriage with bench seats front and back for passengers, unlike the similar contraptions one sees in Mainland SE Asia). As the triskiad began the ride to the Ma home, several streets away, the IED detonated and left little of the small boy. Amazingly, his father sitting next to him as well as the driver were left entirely unscathed.
The "School Principal" was on his own motorcycle and passing by the plaza as the detonation took place. He was able to survive with just a slight flesh wound in his leg. The two high schoolers were walking along the shoulder of the main road, en route to their homes after witnessing the event in the plaza. Both suffered moderate shrapnel wounds. All victims were residents of Datu Piang's Barangay Poblacion.
The BIAF itself is not known for laying IEDs though its members are often times involved in profitable sidelines, feuds and even stated political objectives that are, quite interestingly, 100% in synch with MILF/BIAF Objectives. IS-AFP (AFP Intelligence) often talks about the MILF-SOG (MILF Special Operations Group) as if it is an actual MILF entity, which it is not. What IS factual though is that particular BIAF Kumanders (Base Command brass) sanction these operations either for profit (as in Lanao del Sur and Norte transformers and Globe Telecom cell towers being blown to bits) or for political ends, as in the 105, 101 and 102 Base Commands, the so called "MILF Lost Commands" (another bit of fantasy) which use these bombings to manipulate both the GPH, or Government of the Philippines and the MILF political echelon.
The Datu Piang bombing, the 2nd in 2 months to hit the town, is the work of the 105 Base Command, in a matter of speaking since it is the work of its sub-Kumander Tata Uy, and though the MILF has made quite a show of giving its Kumander Ustadz Kato a lateral transfer into the political echelon, he is sanctioning the attacks for Kumander Tata Uy and his long running sub-conflict in Barangay Reina Regente. The fact of the matter is that the entire town has been terrorised since 2008 (actually since 1968 but you get the idea) and so, at present, the reasons why these bombings take place no longer really matters.
That same day, July 12, at 10PM, in Barangay Barurao, Sultan sa Barongis, Maguindanao Province the 105 Base Command's sub-Kumander Maestro Felmin led 400 of his well armed guerillas into town and surrounded roughly 100 homes belonging to clansmen and supporters of ex-Vice Mayor Oca Badal. The MILF then proceeded to burn almost the entire barangay to the ground. Badal is a Kumander in the ILLEGAL (as opposed to the re-formed and legal) Ampatuan CVO, the entity behind the Maguindanao Massacre. The CVO and the MILF have been at each other's throats for nearly 3 decades due to the Ampatuan's loyalty to the MNLF and their having exerted considerable power within the MILF AOR (Area of Operations).
As if Datu Piang, Maguindanao Province didnt have enough problems with its Mayor, Samer Uy battling his nephew and MILF sub-Kumander, Tata Uy, it also must contend with 2 other MILF groups battling EACH OTHER. Kumander Abunawas of the 104 Base Command is at odds with Kumander Adzmi of the 106 Base Command in one of those rice harvest blood baths that strike all over the island during the twice yearly harvest. It began when small detachments of uerillas from both groups came into the town to assist (i.e. "guard" i.e. "EXTORT") villagers with their rice harvests.
Tempers being what they are, especially when it comes to one fo the more lucrative forms of income for these guerillas, a fire fight borke out, lasting approximayely 45 minutes before both sides withdrew back into the bush. This initial exchange caused 500 IDPs to flee Barangays Liong and Balanaken, most taking shelter in Datu Gumbay Piang Elementary School in Barangay Poblacion.
At that point it was only a matter of time before violence re-erupted and at 1130AM on August 07 it took place once again. By then the 29IB had set up a small lean-to outside the main gate to the school housing the IDPs from the earlier exchange. Open 9AM to 5PM, 7 days a week, and again from 730PM to 11PM on week nights it has managed to ensure the safety of all IDPs taking refuge inside the school compound. An additional 1200 people sought shelter at the school and at 2 other locations (Fish Landing Shelter on the Pulangi/rio Grande de Mindanao River in Barangay Buayan, at GLAC13, a.k.a. Gani L.Abpi College, a local private school also serving as an IDP centre).
On August 08 the 29IB, only tallying those IDPs at Datu Gumbay recorded, in number of families not individuals, 89 families from Barangay Alonganen, 63 from Barangay Balanaken and 194 from Barangay Liong. To the 29IB's credit it has taken it upon itself to show films on the school's stage, almost every evening to try and entertain the IDPs, a measure not usually taken by other Infantry Battalions. Outside the school that evening, 2 of Kumander Abunawas' guerillas were shot to death.
July 14, at 7PM in Barangay Labu Labu, Datu Hofer, Maguindanao Province, Labu Labu Elementary School was struck with a pre-mature IED detonation whose only casulaty was its courier.24 year old Sabtula Kad Unte was arrested at Cotabato Regional Medical Center as he was being treated for shrapnel wounds. He was then transferred to the 6th Infantry Division Hospital at Camp Siongco outside the city.
On July 19, 2010, the MILF formally announced the 4 month suspension of BDA (Bangsamoro Development Agency) BOD (Board of Directors) Chairman, Dr.Safrullah Dipatuan.The suspension formally began on July 15 and will run until November 15. He has been suspended for not having gotten his superiors' permission prior to a trip abroad. He had left on June 09 for Kuala Lampur, Malaysia to attend an Islamic conference where he harshly criticised Israel's Blockade of Gaza. This of courswe would probbally earn him kudos for a job well done with the MILF except that hidden in the Suspension Order is an interesting mention of his having gone there to "meet a friend."
Dr.Dipatuan had become chairman in 2009 when his predecessor Dr.Parido Pigkaulan was demoted to Member of the Board (on BOD)in what the MILF has claimed was a regular rotation of staff in that all appointees to the BDA are there for a 2 year rotation unless extended. Of course that doesnt explain just why Dr.Pigkaulan became a Member after serving as the Board's Chairman.
From July 19 to July 21, 2010 in Sitio Risingan, Barangay Dunguan, aleosan, North Cotabato Province, just over the river from Datu Piang, the municipality discussed in my last paragraph(s), Kumander Hadju Sajid of the 105 Base Command was warring with his arch nemesis Norodin Ungkay, a Town Councilotr in Aleosan and local CVO Kumander.
On the 19th Sajid attacked a CAFGU post loyal to Ungkay in Sitio Manggahan, Barangay Dunguan and caused an unknown (but large) number of IDPs to flee into the adjoining towns of Pikit, North Cotabato.
July 25 to August 01, 2010 in Barangay Matabong, Ampatuan, Maguindanao Province saw the LEGAL Ampatuan CVO under Kumander Marcos battling the MILF's 105 Base Command. The "Legal Ampatuan CVO" is the newly organised and trained, government sanctioned CVO operating out of Shariff Aguak, the provincial capitol of Maguindano but with branches in the towns once dominated by the ILLEGAL Ampatuan CVO (towns like Datu Saudi, etc,etc). A CVO, or "Civilain Volunteer Organisation" is an official government paramilitary that operates as a very localised military reserve. Manned by citizens of and only operating in specific municipalities and sublimated to the LGU at hand (Local Governmental Unit, i.e. "municipality or barangay), and usually operating under supervision of an infantry Battalion though the Ampatuan CVO did not have much to do with the AFP. The illegal Ampatuan CVO was the group responsible for the so called "Maguindanao Massacre" in late November of 2009. Almost all Filipinos and ex-pats reading this will know pretty much whom and what I am talking about, owning to the entire brouhaha's domination of the media for the first 6 months of 2010. However, imagining that others may not know these things, I will briefly offer up some context.
The Ampatuan Clan is, or perhaps was (actually still is) Maguindanao's most powerful clan. Led by patriarch Andal Sr, who at the time of the Massacre was the provincial governor, with his son and heir apparent Anadal Jr, the mayor of a town created just for him (1 of a few created by andal Sr, who also created an entire province, Shariff Aguak before the Supreme Court dissolved it). the Clan held a tite reign over the province but one time aly, Mayor Eshmael"Toto"Mangudadatu" sought to chalenge this monopoly of power with a run for the governor's seat in the last election, in 2010. Making known his intent, he sought to negate any chance for violence by deploying his wife at the head of a large convoy of SUVs filled with female clan members, allied attorneys and a horde of media representatives.
Driving down National Hiway towards to provincial capitol of Shariff Aguak (town, not the afore mentioned failed province), they were held at a PNP checkpoint in the town of Ampatuan. Andal jr., leading about 100 well armed members of the Ampatuan CVO appeared out of the jungle by the side of the road, and after some physical assaults had the CVO soldiers drive the vehicles in the Mangudadatu convoy to a hill about 2 kms away but over looking the checkpoint. At that site all 57 people (including a few who had only been sandwiched in by the convoy and weren't attached toit at all) were murdered by chain-fed M16 (1 journalist, hogtied and in the front seat of an SUV had been shot in the head with a double barrled shotgun).
The dead and their vehicles were being interred in 3 hastily excavated pits, with provincially owned construction machinery when CVO scouts alerted the group to an approaching detachment of AFP soldies not allied with the Ampatuan Clan. the soldiers had been deployed after a flurry of communications between the media and the AFP, by the companies employing the murdered journalists. the gruseome scene was recorded for all posterity instead of simply becoming yet another one of the many Philippine "Killing Fields" and the Ampatuans themselves were pretty much under the microscope, but not out of power, and not separated from their vast ill gotten fortune.
198 people have been charged in the incident, of which more than 100 remain at large. Many of those wanted men are CVO soldiers. interestingly, the CVO which had roughly 2500 men, has pretty much gone rogue with an estimated 2000 gunmen operating in Maguindanao and N.Cotabato Provinces, battling both the AFP as well as their perennial enemy , the MILF.
The whole sordid affair deserves its own series of entires and I will be producing them soon.
After the Massacre a State of Emergency, then a State of Martial Law which soon reverted back to a State of Emergency was declared for Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat Provinces (the latter being the base of the Mangudadatu Clan, themselves fairly powerful), as well as Cotabato City. Cotabato City was added because it is the capitol of the ARMM (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao). Besides Maguindanao being 1 of 5 ARMM provinces, the Governor of the ARMM (at the time) was another Ampatuan son, Zaldi Ampatuan. The region remains under a State of Emergency and the Ampatuan CVO (illegal) is spilling alot of blood up until the present.
On the day in question, the MILF 105 Base Command battled the legal Ampatuan CVO and around nightfall the moratars began pounding both sides without let up. At that point the AFP's 46IB came in and reinforced the CVO. The bloodshed stopped on August 01 when the IMT (International Monitoring Team, an entity composed of Brunei, Japan, Norway and the EU and led by Malaysia, created to monitor and support the Cease Fire between the MILF and the AFP/GRP), and the CCCH-MILF and the CCCH-GRP (explained in an earlier portion of this post) set up shoppe in Barangay Matabong and the adjoining Barangay Kapimpilan. This enabled both sides to save face due to international pressure and attention.
During this same period, July 25 through August 01, 2010 in Barangay Salat, President Quirino, Sultan Kudarat Province, 400 MILF guerillas under sub-Kumander Daud Macaalay entered the barangay and burned more than 100 homes to the ground. Most of the burned homes and buildings belonged to MNLF Kumander Magalona Ampatuan, a barangay councilor in Barangay Salat. Ampatuan's brother, Manny, also an MNLF Kumander was killed in an earlier exchange of gunfire. IDPs in the town have set up temporary shacks around the city hall compound.
July 26 through July 30, 2010 in Malabalay City, Bukidnon Province, the PMA (Pangadapu Mindanao Association) under Supreme Datu Migketay Victorino Saway, a Lumad (Hill Tribes) umbrella organisation held an important meeting of tribal chiefs in which they produced a Resolution demanding that Lumads (of course via the PMA) be given a seat at the next MILF-GRP Talks in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia after Ramadan. They demand that their rights with regard to Ancestral Domain be respected.
Datu Saway is a nemesis of the MILF's alternate Peace Panel member, Datu Antonio P.Ki , a B'laan tribal Historian who takes the opposite tact, i.e. the MILF party line. The MILF of course tries to sell a defected bill of goods claiming that while the MILF would hold political sovereignity of the Lumad Ancestral Domains, it would not actually "control" them. Instead it says, the Lumad themselves would handle the tracts. Naturally this has failed to satisfy anyone but the few Lumad puppets on the MILF payroll.
Again, a subject deserving of its own entry, Ancestral Domain is a concept akin to the US' Native American "Reservation" system with limited autonomy to indigenous groups over patches of land, not neccessarily contigious with which specific indigenous groups have a recorded historical conenction. These Domains involve alot of money because of timber, minerals, metals, and agricultral land. The Talks so far have hardly even mentioned the Lumad, and when mentioning them have sublimated their concerns to that of the Moros, the collective term for Muslims. in other words, the MILF wants to have ultimate control over Lumad lands within lands awarded to the Moros. Naturally this doesnt sit well with Lumads themselves.
On July 29, 2010, the Chairman of the MDA (Mindanao Development Authority). Jesus Dureza who concurrently has served in successive Peace Panels in MILF Talks, most recently as Chairman of the last Panel under the Arroyo Government in the 2003 Talks (which took place after the 2003 MILF-GRP War), has resigned his position at MDA. He was in the middle of a 6 year term but left his position because of his heavy identification with the former Administration.
Some may recall that as Chairman of the 2003 GRP-MILF Talks he became embroiled in some controversy when he was accused of "annotating" the proceedings minutes (the transcript of what is said during negotations), specifically 1 very important parlez in Kaula Lampur, Malaysia on February 28 that year. interestingly, and not known to very many, in 1999 long before the government utilised his services or gave him a position in any office he had contacted the MILF on his own and had offered to serve on THEIR Panel.
There is alot that can be said about this, and some may even argue that as a lifelong resident of Mindanao and a well known attorney not connected to either side that there was nothing wrong in what he did but it does show a certain level of ambitiousness that has caused some to call his abilities into question. when a person is attracted to the limelight, and more specifically to the hallowed halls of pwoer they will do anything within their reach to stay there, no matter the cause, the ends will justify the means. With that said, since his appointment to the GRP, both on the Panel as well as in his position at the MDA, he has done nothing to prove his critics right.
That same day, July 29, Sultan Muhammad Fuad Abdullah Kiram I of Suluofficially asked the GRP to disqualify Malaysia from its role as mediator of the GRP-MILF PEace PRocess Talks owing to his long time claim on Sabah. As I briefly discussed in my "Whole Lot of Ugly cum Operation Merdeka" series of entries, although Malaysia has flown its flag over Sabah State on Borneo since Malaysian Independance the state historically belongs to the Sulu Sultanate.
The remarks first surfaced at the CMD (Christian Muslim Democrats, as in Lakas-KAMPI-CMD) joint SultanteAward Presentation at Quezon City's Sulo Hotel. The Sultan (actually 1 of several claimants for the title of Sultan) clarified that he does not advocate seccession of Mindanao but does advocate a form of autonomy akin to Finalnd's entity created for its Sami ("Lapp") minority. The MILF which is heavily biased towards Malaysia came out swining and warned the Sultan to "be careful" with his words and made sure to describe him as a "claimant" to the throne.
In a related development, on Monday, August 30 GRP re-certified Malaysian participation and rationalised this by pointing out Malaysia's lengthly and deeply immersed service to the process. Malaysia which joined the Process as Mediator in March of 2001 also heads the IMT (International Monitoring Team), an entity devoted to preserving the Cease Fire. Malaysia reciprocated on Wednesday, September 01 by officially re-commmitting itself. If the government had not re-certified Malaysia it would have not only grreatly delayed the Talks, but could have very well jeapourdised the Process owing to MILF's afore mentioned bias towards the country. To reject the nation would have taken a bi-lateral agreement by both the GRP AND the MILF, and the latter would have never come.
July 30 to August 01, 2010 in Barangay Makasendeg, Pikit, North Cotabato saw the 29IB ensconed and shelling the MILF under Kumander Tata Uy who were dug in across the provincial border in Barangays Reina Regente and Dasawao in Datu Piang, Maguindanao. The AFP was lobbing 81MM mortar shells for 2 days stright and one of the last shells, at 3PM on August 01 managed to critically wound 4th grader Datu Mama Samiling (the child's first name is "Datu," he was not actually a "Datu" which means "Most Esteemed Man" and idiomatically means "Tribal Chief").
On August 07, 2010 in Sitio Kimudal, Barangay Balanakan, Datu Piang, Maguindanao Province, a detachment from the 29IB (Infantry Battalion), under Lt.Orcullo has ensconced itself in a village mosque as it sets up shoppe trying to pacify a local Rido (Clan Warfare) between 2 MILF factions from 2 different Base Commands ("Base Command" is a designation akin to conventional Brigade, a format the MILF adopted after the 2000 GRP-MILF War when the MILF destroyed almost all the MILF's static camps.
The fighting, which I had discussed earlier in this entry, reached its apex on August 10, but has ebbed and flowed continuously since then with very hot flare ups. I do know that 4 guerillas from the 106 Base Command died on the 10th but other than that it is exceedingly difficult to keep a tally since according to Shar'ia Law (Islamic Law), the dead must be buried before the following nightfall (though alternatively, "martyrs" in the undertaking of Jihad can be left as is but that is a Maranaw and Yakan custom not universally adhered to y all Moro ethnicities and certainly not at all held by the Islamic World in general).
The villagers are angry at the AFP for living in the mosque, especially since most in the AFP are non-Muslim and drink beer, eat pork, etc. As of posting, today is August 28, they are still biouvaced in that mosque. Some may recall that in 2009 the 54IB came under criticism for doing this same thing in Barangay Sambulawan, in Datu Salibo in that same province. This has also happened in Datu Piang's Barangays Magaslong and Balanakan in the past. In fairness to the AFP, there just arent that many semi-modern buildings large enough, and safe enough to house at least a platoon, and usually a company of soldiers. As long as the soldiers do not desecrate the building and make allowances for worshippers it shouldnt be a problem, irrespective of the Muslim belief that non-muslims shouldnt be living there.
The MILF has filed an official complaint for a Cease Fire Violation, by the AFP (i.e. "GRP") via the CCCH (an entity consisting of a panel from each side that is designed to mediate so called Violations so as to prolong the Cease Fire). The comaplaint is against an alleged bombing run by 2 AFP OV-10s ("Broncos," jets) that the MILF maintains bombed an entire barangay, Algunganan in Datu Piang, Maguindanao in fighting related to the 104 and 106 Base Commands. On August 07 those 2 jets dropped WP (White Phosphorus) in a rice paddy where the 2 groups were battling as a distinct warning. WP, as some may very well know, is the munition which turned the world's angry attention (once again) to Israel during the IDF's (Israeli Defense Forces) December 2008/Janurary 2009 operation in Gaza. Amazing how THAT can get the world on the edge of its collective seat while the very same munition can land on heads in umpteenth other conflicts that the West could not care the least about.
In truth, WP is completely legal and is NOT an AP (Anti-Personnel) Munition, meaning that it is not used to cause death or injury. Rather, when used correctly, it is designed to denude brush (clear foilage), Mark terrain (for subsequent bombing runs) , for Illumination (to provide light in dark conditions, or as an Obscurant (to give "Smoke" so that Ground Forces, i.e. infantry can operate in a much improved environment, safety wise).
On the day in question, the AFP dropped it a a Marker, so as to send a loud and clear message to the 2 MILF Base Commands to knock off the nonsense or take some 500 pounders on the head (stop fighting or you will be bombed into submission). The MILF, ignoring the fact that the entire sub-conflict is an MILF on MILF affair, and ignoring the bloodshed and misery not only amongst its own guerillas but the civlians amongst whom the operate instead chooses to spin the 2 WP shells as a propaganda exercise that noone even pays attention to. That day in question, 6000 new villagers (in total) became IDPs (Refugees).
August 09, 2010, Camp Darapanan, in Barangay Darapnan, Sultan Kudarat (town, not province), in Maguindanao Province, the camp holding the MILF's main political apparattus was home to the MILF-FOCAP (Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines), "Forum of the Peace Process." al Haj Ebrahim Murad, the Chairman of the MILF gave the Opening Speech.
In his speech chairman Murad claimed that there is merely 1 "Substantiative Agenda Item" holding the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) and the MILF apart. Om Janurary 27, 2010 both sides attempted to solve the impasse via the "Comprehensive Compact" Draft Agreement. The exchange of Drafts failed to bbring the 2 sides together. Murad claims that the MILF merely reiterated its last position, the so caled, "Assymetrical State and Sub-State Arrangement of Governance" where as the GRP recycled an untenable position it had held from 2000 to 2003.
The circa 2003 position, "Enhanced Autonomy" is merely a slight riff on the current programme, "ARMM" (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao). He continued, relating that at the last tet a tet in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia on June 03, 2010 left the GRP merely repeating its stated lack of direction. Murad sees no difference twith the new Administration, thus far but is taking a wait and see approach.
August 12, 2010 saw the IS-AFP (AFP Intelligence) distribute a Report on the MILF's "State of Readiness" over the preceeding 7 months. Camp Palestine, in butig, Lanao del Sur Province was home to 8 Training cycles. Of these 8, 2 were 90 day Basic Training courses, one 30 day Intelligence course and 6 courses of 3 day Reivews (Brush Ups) on Infantry technique. The 3 day Reviews of course entailed hundreds of trainnes per cycle. there was also 1 cycle in Tawi Tawi under the 117 Base Command, in Jungle Warfare, something that the MILF hasnt really concentrated on given the terrain under which it usually operates (Maranaw and Maguindanaowan area are marsh or river basins, or otherwise very denunded farmland that would not look entirely out of place in say, Essex in England or Wisconsin in the US). 2 Base Commands, the 114 and afore mentioned 117 do primarily operate in the jungle but then the 117th, whose AOR is Sulu and Tawi Tawi but basically only exists on Tawi Tawi, is ineffectual and basically concentrates its efforts at "fundraising," while the 114, whose AOR (Area of Operations) is on Basilan Island, is for all intensive purposes folded into the ASG (Abu Sayyaf Group).
On august 18, 2010, MILF Peace Panel Chairman (or I should say former since the Panel was officially deactivated almost 2 months ago though it is an open secret that he will once again be made Chairman when the re-constituted Panel is announced within the week) Jun Mantawil responded to media reports that Congressman Rodolfo Biazon has remarked that "Cha Cha" (Charter change, i.e. Constituional Ammending) is a pre-requisite for any realisation of the MoA (Memorandum of Agreement) on Ad (Ancestral Domain), per the current MILF position on the issue. Mantawil pointed out that under the current MILF position (this "position" being "Assymetrical State and Sub-State Arrangement") there are no demands for anything not currently allowed by the 1987 Constitution.
Mantawil stresses that the MILF is not demanding ultimate control over Currency/Monetary Arrangements or Foreign Relations and that indeed the MILF conceeds these to the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) along with Postal Powers (maybe this last aspect was given as a joke given the absolutely deplorable state of the Philippine Postal System, with most Mindanowan towns taking 6 months or more to receive DOMESTIC mail if they even ever receive it at all).
It is also worth noting that Mantawil also flogged the latest joint venture of the MILF and the Asia Foundation, a nicely bound (and rather expencive) compendium of all signed GRP-MILG Agreements post 1996 's Jakarta Accord. for those keeping count, there are 87 including the non-sensical blather like the last Agreement signed in Kuala Lampur in early june this year.
On August 21, 2010 on the eastside of Zamboanga City, 2 MILF guerillas were taken into custody re the AFP's Order of Battle. They were wanted though for their involvement with a local extortion gang along the likes of al Khobar and the Pentagon Gang, groups who I will discuss, as well as their dynamic, in an upcoming entry. The 2 men are charged with having strafed alocal bus with M16s as it sped by with passengers in an extortion plot against the bus company. The first attack in this spate took place on Janurary 17, 2010 in Licomo, Zamboanga del Sur Province when 12 people were wounded by an M16 strafing. 2 of those 12 people were plainclothes PNP Marshalls working with the bus company, Rural Transit.
June 5th, 2010 saw Norway joining the MILF-GRP Peace Process. Norway has agreed to join the IMT (International Monitoring Team, an entity I have explained in detail a bit further on in this post) via a letter from Norwegian Ambassador to the Philippines, Kmot Solem to GHP Peace Panel Chairman Rafael Seguis with a corresponding copy to MILF Peace Panel chairman Mohagher Iqbal.
July 4th, 2010 in Barangay Buluan, Sultan Kudarat (town, not province), in Maguindanao Province, an IED, or Improvised Explosive Device (as in "bomb") fashioned from a 60MM mortar shell detonated and critically wounded one man. As the 54IB (Infantry Battalion) responded and set up a security perimeter and the 6ID (Infantry Division) EOD (Ordnance Team) Detachment set about scouring the immediate area for clues an alert soldier discovered a well concealed, second IED fasioned from an 81MM mortar shell. This 2nd device, much more powerful than the first was primed to detonate just as 1st Responders (medical, police and soldiers) reached critical mass on scene. Luckily this was averted and the device was decommisioned by Phased Water Cannon.
Predictably, and tiredly, the AFP tried to spin it as an MILF-SOG (MILF Special Operations Group, an almost apocryphal element of the MILF blamed for any type of bombing not thoroughly linked to any of the Kidnap for Ransom cum Extortion Gangs in the MILF AOR). The MILF though tried to outdo the AFP in implausability as it actually issued a release 9as opposed to unoffical comment or innuendo) blaming the AFP for a "False Flag Operation." For those unaware, a False Flag Operation is an act of war , or sabotage/terrorism undertaken by one side but served up as to appear as if it is from a second group. A good historical example might be the "Lavon Affair" that Israel undertook in Egypt in the very early 1950s.
The MILF is claiming, amazingly, that soldiers belonging to Datu Piang's Mayor Samer Uy's CVO had personally witnessed men in MILF fatigues walking from the town of Datu Piang across the border into the municipality of Sultan Kudarat and setting the 60MM IED. They then allegedly witnessed this group of men walking back into Datu Piang and entering the 29IB post, from which they were not observed leaving. In other words, 29IB soldiers wearing MILF camoflauge uniforms walked right past MILF supporters, crossed a municipal border, and in full view primed and buried a large IED. They then supposedly walked back across the border and down the street, back past MILF supporters, and then casually sauntered into an AFP post...in MILF uniforms. Riiiight.
In reality it was the work of BIAF, or Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (armed wing of the MILF) Kumander Tata Uy, the nephew of the Mayor of Datu Piang, Samer Uy. The 2 kinsmen are battling each other over the younger man, Tata, not bowing to his older and more powerful kinsman, Mayor Samer Uy.
At 805PM on July 12th, 2010 in Datu Piang's Barangay Poblacion, a young man carrying an ADIDDAS gymbag hurriedly walked towards the towns MPO, or Municipal Police Office and set the bag down on the ground. Next door the town plaza was full of young students from Datu Gumbay Piang Elementary School who were having a school celebration in the cool evening air. Then the powerful IED inside the bag detonated and rained debris for a radius of at least a half a kilometer. 8 year old student Moktar Ma was vapourised, a principal of a school in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, a neighbouring community and two 12 year old High School students were also critically wounded.
Young Moktar Ma had attended the school function in the town plaza and after it ended had gone across the road for a take away meal with his dad. Getting into a Triskiad (i.e. "Trike," i.e. "Tuk Tuk,"the most popular form of public transport in most Philippine communities. Fashioned from a dirt bike or off road motorcycle with a small cubic centimeter engine, inserted into an aluminum or iron carriage with bench seats front and back for passengers, unlike the similar contraptions one sees in Mainland SE Asia). As the triskiad began the ride to the Ma home, several streets away, the IED detonated and left little of the small boy. Amazingly, his father sitting next to him as well as the driver were left entirely unscathed.
The "School Principal" was on his own motorcycle and passing by the plaza as the detonation took place. He was able to survive with just a slight flesh wound in his leg. The two high schoolers were walking along the shoulder of the main road, en route to their homes after witnessing the event in the plaza. Both suffered moderate shrapnel wounds. All victims were residents of Datu Piang's Barangay Poblacion.
The BIAF itself is not known for laying IEDs though its members are often times involved in profitable sidelines, feuds and even stated political objectives that are, quite interestingly, 100% in synch with MILF/BIAF Objectives. IS-AFP (AFP Intelligence) often talks about the MILF-SOG (MILF Special Operations Group) as if it is an actual MILF entity, which it is not. What IS factual though is that particular BIAF Kumanders (Base Command brass) sanction these operations either for profit (as in Lanao del Sur and Norte transformers and Globe Telecom cell towers being blown to bits) or for political ends, as in the 105, 101 and 102 Base Commands, the so called "MILF Lost Commands" (another bit of fantasy) which use these bombings to manipulate both the GPH, or Government of the Philippines and the MILF political echelon.
The Datu Piang bombing, the 2nd in 2 months to hit the town, is the work of the 105 Base Command, in a matter of speaking since it is the work of its sub-Kumander Tata Uy, and though the MILF has made quite a show of giving its Kumander Ustadz Kato a lateral transfer into the political echelon, he is sanctioning the attacks for Kumander Tata Uy and his long running sub-conflict in Barangay Reina Regente. The fact of the matter is that the entire town has been terrorised since 2008 (actually since 1968 but you get the idea) and so, at present, the reasons why these bombings take place no longer really matters.
That same day, July 12, at 10PM, in Barangay Barurao, Sultan sa Barongis, Maguindanao Province the 105 Base Command's sub-Kumander Maestro Felmin led 400 of his well armed guerillas into town and surrounded roughly 100 homes belonging to clansmen and supporters of ex-Vice Mayor Oca Badal. The MILF then proceeded to burn almost the entire barangay to the ground. Badal is a Kumander in the ILLEGAL (as opposed to the re-formed and legal) Ampatuan CVO, the entity behind the Maguindanao Massacre. The CVO and the MILF have been at each other's throats for nearly 3 decades due to the Ampatuan's loyalty to the MNLF and their having exerted considerable power within the MILF AOR (Area of Operations).
As if Datu Piang, Maguindanao Province didnt have enough problems with its Mayor, Samer Uy battling his nephew and MILF sub-Kumander, Tata Uy, it also must contend with 2 other MILF groups battling EACH OTHER. Kumander Abunawas of the 104 Base Command is at odds with Kumander Adzmi of the 106 Base Command in one of those rice harvest blood baths that strike all over the island during the twice yearly harvest. It began when small detachments of uerillas from both groups came into the town to assist (i.e. "guard" i.e. "EXTORT") villagers with their rice harvests.
Tempers being what they are, especially when it comes to one fo the more lucrative forms of income for these guerillas, a fire fight borke out, lasting approximayely 45 minutes before both sides withdrew back into the bush. This initial exchange caused 500 IDPs to flee Barangays Liong and Balanaken, most taking shelter in Datu Gumbay Piang Elementary School in Barangay Poblacion.
At that point it was only a matter of time before violence re-erupted and at 1130AM on August 07 it took place once again. By then the 29IB had set up a small lean-to outside the main gate to the school housing the IDPs from the earlier exchange. Open 9AM to 5PM, 7 days a week, and again from 730PM to 11PM on week nights it has managed to ensure the safety of all IDPs taking refuge inside the school compound. An additional 1200 people sought shelter at the school and at 2 other locations (Fish Landing Shelter on the Pulangi/rio Grande de Mindanao River in Barangay Buayan, at GLAC13, a.k.a. Gani L.Abpi College, a local private school also serving as an IDP centre).
On August 08 the 29IB, only tallying those IDPs at Datu Gumbay recorded, in number of families not individuals, 89 families from Barangay Alonganen, 63 from Barangay Balanaken and 194 from Barangay Liong. To the 29IB's credit it has taken it upon itself to show films on the school's stage, almost every evening to try and entertain the IDPs, a measure not usually taken by other Infantry Battalions. Outside the school that evening, 2 of Kumander Abunawas' guerillas were shot to death.
July 14, at 7PM in Barangay Labu Labu, Datu Hofer, Maguindanao Province, Labu Labu Elementary School was struck with a pre-mature IED detonation whose only casulaty was its courier.24 year old Sabtula Kad Unte was arrested at Cotabato Regional Medical Center as he was being treated for shrapnel wounds. He was then transferred to the 6th Infantry Division Hospital at Camp Siongco outside the city.
On July 19, 2010, the MILF formally announced the 4 month suspension of BDA (Bangsamoro Development Agency) BOD (Board of Directors) Chairman, Dr.Safrullah Dipatuan.The suspension formally began on July 15 and will run until November 15. He has been suspended for not having gotten his superiors' permission prior to a trip abroad. He had left on June 09 for Kuala Lampur, Malaysia to attend an Islamic conference where he harshly criticised Israel's Blockade of Gaza. This of courswe would probbally earn him kudos for a job well done with the MILF except that hidden in the Suspension Order is an interesting mention of his having gone there to "meet a friend."
Dr.Dipatuan had become chairman in 2009 when his predecessor Dr.Parido Pigkaulan was demoted to Member of the Board (on BOD)in what the MILF has claimed was a regular rotation of staff in that all appointees to the BDA are there for a 2 year rotation unless extended. Of course that doesnt explain just why Dr.Pigkaulan became a Member after serving as the Board's Chairman.
From July 19 to July 21, 2010 in Sitio Risingan, Barangay Dunguan, aleosan, North Cotabato Province, just over the river from Datu Piang, the municipality discussed in my last paragraph(s), Kumander Hadju Sajid of the 105 Base Command was warring with his arch nemesis Norodin Ungkay, a Town Councilotr in Aleosan and local CVO Kumander.
On the 19th Sajid attacked a CAFGU post loyal to Ungkay in Sitio Manggahan, Barangay Dunguan and caused an unknown (but large) number of IDPs to flee into the adjoining towns of Pikit, North Cotabato.
July 25 to August 01, 2010 in Barangay Matabong, Ampatuan, Maguindanao Province saw the LEGAL Ampatuan CVO under Kumander Marcos battling the MILF's 105 Base Command. The "Legal Ampatuan CVO" is the newly organised and trained, government sanctioned CVO operating out of Shariff Aguak, the provincial capitol of Maguindano but with branches in the towns once dominated by the ILLEGAL Ampatuan CVO (towns like Datu Saudi, etc,etc). A CVO, or "Civilain Volunteer Organisation" is an official government paramilitary that operates as a very localised military reserve. Manned by citizens of and only operating in specific municipalities and sublimated to the LGU at hand (Local Governmental Unit, i.e. "municipality or barangay), and usually operating under supervision of an infantry Battalion though the Ampatuan CVO did not have much to do with the AFP. The illegal Ampatuan CVO was the group responsible for the so called "Maguindanao Massacre" in late November of 2009. Almost all Filipinos and ex-pats reading this will know pretty much whom and what I am talking about, owning to the entire brouhaha's domination of the media for the first 6 months of 2010. However, imagining that others may not know these things, I will briefly offer up some context.
The Ampatuan Clan is, or perhaps was (actually still is) Maguindanao's most powerful clan. Led by patriarch Andal Sr, who at the time of the Massacre was the provincial governor, with his son and heir apparent Anadal Jr, the mayor of a town created just for him (1 of a few created by andal Sr, who also created an entire province, Shariff Aguak before the Supreme Court dissolved it). the Clan held a tite reign over the province but one time aly, Mayor Eshmael"Toto"Mangudadatu" sought to chalenge this monopoly of power with a run for the governor's seat in the last election, in 2010. Making known his intent, he sought to negate any chance for violence by deploying his wife at the head of a large convoy of SUVs filled with female clan members, allied attorneys and a horde of media representatives.
Driving down National Hiway towards to provincial capitol of Shariff Aguak (town, not the afore mentioned failed province), they were held at a PNP checkpoint in the town of Ampatuan. Andal jr., leading about 100 well armed members of the Ampatuan CVO appeared out of the jungle by the side of the road, and after some physical assaults had the CVO soldiers drive the vehicles in the Mangudadatu convoy to a hill about 2 kms away but over looking the checkpoint. At that site all 57 people (including a few who had only been sandwiched in by the convoy and weren't attached toit at all) were murdered by chain-fed M16 (1 journalist, hogtied and in the front seat of an SUV had been shot in the head with a double barrled shotgun).
The dead and their vehicles were being interred in 3 hastily excavated pits, with provincially owned construction machinery when CVO scouts alerted the group to an approaching detachment of AFP soldies not allied with the Ampatuan Clan. the soldiers had been deployed after a flurry of communications between the media and the AFP, by the companies employing the murdered journalists. the gruseome scene was recorded for all posterity instead of simply becoming yet another one of the many Philippine "Killing Fields" and the Ampatuans themselves were pretty much under the microscope, but not out of power, and not separated from their vast ill gotten fortune.
198 people have been charged in the incident, of which more than 100 remain at large. Many of those wanted men are CVO soldiers. interestingly, the CVO which had roughly 2500 men, has pretty much gone rogue with an estimated 2000 gunmen operating in Maguindanao and N.Cotabato Provinces, battling both the AFP as well as their perennial enemy , the MILF.
The whole sordid affair deserves its own series of entires and I will be producing them soon.
After the Massacre a State of Emergency, then a State of Martial Law which soon reverted back to a State of Emergency was declared for Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat Provinces (the latter being the base of the Mangudadatu Clan, themselves fairly powerful), as well as Cotabato City. Cotabato City was added because it is the capitol of the ARMM (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao). Besides Maguindanao being 1 of 5 ARMM provinces, the Governor of the ARMM (at the time) was another Ampatuan son, Zaldi Ampatuan. The region remains under a State of Emergency and the Ampatuan CVO (illegal) is spilling alot of blood up until the present.
On the day in question, the MILF 105 Base Command battled the legal Ampatuan CVO and around nightfall the moratars began pounding both sides without let up. At that point the AFP's 46IB came in and reinforced the CVO. The bloodshed stopped on August 01 when the IMT (International Monitoring Team, an entity composed of Brunei, Japan, Norway and the EU and led by Malaysia, created to monitor and support the Cease Fire between the MILF and the AFP/GRP), and the CCCH-MILF and the CCCH-GRP (explained in an earlier portion of this post) set up shoppe in Barangay Matabong and the adjoining Barangay Kapimpilan. This enabled both sides to save face due to international pressure and attention.
During this same period, July 25 through August 01, 2010 in Barangay Salat, President Quirino, Sultan Kudarat Province, 400 MILF guerillas under sub-Kumander Daud Macaalay entered the barangay and burned more than 100 homes to the ground. Most of the burned homes and buildings belonged to MNLF Kumander Magalona Ampatuan, a barangay councilor in Barangay Salat. Ampatuan's brother, Manny, also an MNLF Kumander was killed in an earlier exchange of gunfire. IDPs in the town have set up temporary shacks around the city hall compound.
July 26 through July 30, 2010 in Malabalay City, Bukidnon Province, the PMA (Pangadapu Mindanao Association) under Supreme Datu Migketay Victorino Saway, a Lumad (Hill Tribes) umbrella organisation held an important meeting of tribal chiefs in which they produced a Resolution demanding that Lumads (of course via the PMA) be given a seat at the next MILF-GRP Talks in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia after Ramadan. They demand that their rights with regard to Ancestral Domain be respected.
Datu Saway is a nemesis of the MILF's alternate Peace Panel member, Datu Antonio P.Ki , a B'laan tribal Historian who takes the opposite tact, i.e. the MILF party line. The MILF of course tries to sell a defected bill of goods claiming that while the MILF would hold political sovereignity of the Lumad Ancestral Domains, it would not actually "control" them. Instead it says, the Lumad themselves would handle the tracts. Naturally this has failed to satisfy anyone but the few Lumad puppets on the MILF payroll.
Again, a subject deserving of its own entry, Ancestral Domain is a concept akin to the US' Native American "Reservation" system with limited autonomy to indigenous groups over patches of land, not neccessarily contigious with which specific indigenous groups have a recorded historical conenction. These Domains involve alot of money because of timber, minerals, metals, and agricultral land. The Talks so far have hardly even mentioned the Lumad, and when mentioning them have sublimated their concerns to that of the Moros, the collective term for Muslims. in other words, the MILF wants to have ultimate control over Lumad lands within lands awarded to the Moros. Naturally this doesnt sit well with Lumads themselves.
On July 29, 2010, the Chairman of the MDA (Mindanao Development Authority). Jesus Dureza who concurrently has served in successive Peace Panels in MILF Talks, most recently as Chairman of the last Panel under the Arroyo Government in the 2003 Talks (which took place after the 2003 MILF-GRP War), has resigned his position at MDA. He was in the middle of a 6 year term but left his position because of his heavy identification with the former Administration.
Some may recall that as Chairman of the 2003 GRP-MILF Talks he became embroiled in some controversy when he was accused of "annotating" the proceedings minutes (the transcript of what is said during negotations), specifically 1 very important parlez in Kaula Lampur, Malaysia on February 28 that year. interestingly, and not known to very many, in 1999 long before the government utilised his services or gave him a position in any office he had contacted the MILF on his own and had offered to serve on THEIR Panel.
There is alot that can be said about this, and some may even argue that as a lifelong resident of Mindanao and a well known attorney not connected to either side that there was nothing wrong in what he did but it does show a certain level of ambitiousness that has caused some to call his abilities into question. when a person is attracted to the limelight, and more specifically to the hallowed halls of pwoer they will do anything within their reach to stay there, no matter the cause, the ends will justify the means. With that said, since his appointment to the GRP, both on the Panel as well as in his position at the MDA, he has done nothing to prove his critics right.
That same day, July 29, Sultan Muhammad Fuad Abdullah Kiram I of Suluofficially asked the GRP to disqualify Malaysia from its role as mediator of the GRP-MILF PEace PRocess Talks owing to his long time claim on Sabah. As I briefly discussed in my "Whole Lot of Ugly cum Operation Merdeka" series of entries, although Malaysia has flown its flag over Sabah State on Borneo since Malaysian Independance the state historically belongs to the Sulu Sultanate.
The remarks first surfaced at the CMD (Christian Muslim Democrats, as in Lakas-KAMPI-CMD) joint SultanteAward Presentation at Quezon City's Sulo Hotel. The Sultan (actually 1 of several claimants for the title of Sultan) clarified that he does not advocate seccession of Mindanao but does advocate a form of autonomy akin to Finalnd's entity created for its Sami ("Lapp") minority. The MILF which is heavily biased towards Malaysia came out swining and warned the Sultan to "be careful" with his words and made sure to describe him as a "claimant" to the throne.
In a related development, on Monday, August 30 GRP re-certified Malaysian participation and rationalised this by pointing out Malaysia's lengthly and deeply immersed service to the process. Malaysia which joined the Process as Mediator in March of 2001 also heads the IMT (International Monitoring Team), an entity devoted to preserving the Cease Fire. Malaysia reciprocated on Wednesday, September 01 by officially re-commmitting itself. If the government had not re-certified Malaysia it would have not only grreatly delayed the Talks, but could have very well jeapourdised the Process owing to MILF's afore mentioned bias towards the country. To reject the nation would have taken a bi-lateral agreement by both the GRP AND the MILF, and the latter would have never come.
July 30 to August 01, 2010 in Barangay Makasendeg, Pikit, North Cotabato saw the 29IB ensconed and shelling the MILF under Kumander Tata Uy who were dug in across the provincial border in Barangays Reina Regente and Dasawao in Datu Piang, Maguindanao. The AFP was lobbing 81MM mortar shells for 2 days stright and one of the last shells, at 3PM on August 01 managed to critically wound 4th grader Datu Mama Samiling (the child's first name is "Datu," he was not actually a "Datu" which means "Most Esteemed Man" and idiomatically means "Tribal Chief").
On August 07, 2010 in Sitio Kimudal, Barangay Balanakan, Datu Piang, Maguindanao Province, a detachment from the 29IB (Infantry Battalion), under Lt.Orcullo has ensconced itself in a village mosque as it sets up shoppe trying to pacify a local Rido (Clan Warfare) between 2 MILF factions from 2 different Base Commands ("Base Command" is a designation akin to conventional Brigade, a format the MILF adopted after the 2000 GRP-MILF War when the MILF destroyed almost all the MILF's static camps.
The fighting, which I had discussed earlier in this entry, reached its apex on August 10, but has ebbed and flowed continuously since then with very hot flare ups. I do know that 4 guerillas from the 106 Base Command died on the 10th but other than that it is exceedingly difficult to keep a tally since according to Shar'ia Law (Islamic Law), the dead must be buried before the following nightfall (though alternatively, "martyrs" in the undertaking of Jihad can be left as is but that is a Maranaw and Yakan custom not universally adhered to y all Moro ethnicities and certainly not at all held by the Islamic World in general).
The villagers are angry at the AFP for living in the mosque, especially since most in the AFP are non-Muslim and drink beer, eat pork, etc. As of posting, today is August 28, they are still biouvaced in that mosque. Some may recall that in 2009 the 54IB came under criticism for doing this same thing in Barangay Sambulawan, in Datu Salibo in that same province. This has also happened in Datu Piang's Barangays Magaslong and Balanakan in the past. In fairness to the AFP, there just arent that many semi-modern buildings large enough, and safe enough to house at least a platoon, and usually a company of soldiers. As long as the soldiers do not desecrate the building and make allowances for worshippers it shouldnt be a problem, irrespective of the Muslim belief that non-muslims shouldnt be living there.
The MILF has filed an official complaint for a Cease Fire Violation, by the AFP (i.e. "GRP") via the CCCH (an entity consisting of a panel from each side that is designed to mediate so called Violations so as to prolong the Cease Fire). The comaplaint is against an alleged bombing run by 2 AFP OV-10s ("Broncos," jets) that the MILF maintains bombed an entire barangay, Algunganan in Datu Piang, Maguindanao in fighting related to the 104 and 106 Base Commands. On August 07 those 2 jets dropped WP (White Phosphorus) in a rice paddy where the 2 groups were battling as a distinct warning. WP, as some may very well know, is the munition which turned the world's angry attention (once again) to Israel during the IDF's (Israeli Defense Forces) December 2008/Janurary 2009 operation in Gaza. Amazing how THAT can get the world on the edge of its collective seat while the very same munition can land on heads in umpteenth other conflicts that the West could not care the least about.
In truth, WP is completely legal and is NOT an AP (Anti-Personnel) Munition, meaning that it is not used to cause death or injury. Rather, when used correctly, it is designed to denude brush (clear foilage), Mark terrain (for subsequent bombing runs) , for Illumination (to provide light in dark conditions, or as an Obscurant (to give "Smoke" so that Ground Forces, i.e. infantry can operate in a much improved environment, safety wise).
On the day in question, the AFP dropped it a a Marker, so as to send a loud and clear message to the 2 MILF Base Commands to knock off the nonsense or take some 500 pounders on the head (stop fighting or you will be bombed into submission). The MILF, ignoring the fact that the entire sub-conflict is an MILF on MILF affair, and ignoring the bloodshed and misery not only amongst its own guerillas but the civlians amongst whom the operate instead chooses to spin the 2 WP shells as a propaganda exercise that noone even pays attention to. That day in question, 6000 new villagers (in total) became IDPs (Refugees).
August 09, 2010, Camp Darapanan, in Barangay Darapnan, Sultan Kudarat (town, not province), in Maguindanao Province, the camp holding the MILF's main political apparattus was home to the MILF-FOCAP (Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines), "Forum of the Peace Process." al Haj Ebrahim Murad, the Chairman of the MILF gave the Opening Speech.
In his speech chairman Murad claimed that there is merely 1 "Substantiative Agenda Item" holding the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) and the MILF apart. Om Janurary 27, 2010 both sides attempted to solve the impasse via the "Comprehensive Compact" Draft Agreement. The exchange of Drafts failed to bbring the 2 sides together. Murad claims that the MILF merely reiterated its last position, the so caled, "Assymetrical State and Sub-State Arrangement of Governance" where as the GRP recycled an untenable position it had held from 2000 to 2003.
The circa 2003 position, "Enhanced Autonomy" is merely a slight riff on the current programme, "ARMM" (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao). He continued, relating that at the last tet a tet in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia on June 03, 2010 left the GRP merely repeating its stated lack of direction. Murad sees no difference twith the new Administration, thus far but is taking a wait and see approach.
August 12, 2010 saw the IS-AFP (AFP Intelligence) distribute a Report on the MILF's "State of Readiness" over the preceeding 7 months. Camp Palestine, in butig, Lanao del Sur Province was home to 8 Training cycles. Of these 8, 2 were 90 day Basic Training courses, one 30 day Intelligence course and 6 courses of 3 day Reivews (Brush Ups) on Infantry technique. The 3 day Reviews of course entailed hundreds of trainnes per cycle. there was also 1 cycle in Tawi Tawi under the 117 Base Command, in Jungle Warfare, something that the MILF hasnt really concentrated on given the terrain under which it usually operates (Maranaw and Maguindanaowan area are marsh or river basins, or otherwise very denunded farmland that would not look entirely out of place in say, Essex in England or Wisconsin in the US). 2 Base Commands, the 114 and afore mentioned 117 do primarily operate in the jungle but then the 117th, whose AOR is Sulu and Tawi Tawi but basically only exists on Tawi Tawi, is ineffectual and basically concentrates its efforts at "fundraising," while the 114, whose AOR (Area of Operations) is on Basilan Island, is for all intensive purposes folded into the ASG (Abu Sayyaf Group).
On august 18, 2010, MILF Peace Panel Chairman (or I should say former since the Panel was officially deactivated almost 2 months ago though it is an open secret that he will once again be made Chairman when the re-constituted Panel is announced within the week) Jun Mantawil responded to media reports that Congressman Rodolfo Biazon has remarked that "Cha Cha" (Charter change, i.e. Constituional Ammending) is a pre-requisite for any realisation of the MoA (Memorandum of Agreement) on Ad (Ancestral Domain), per the current MILF position on the issue. Mantawil pointed out that under the current MILF position (this "position" being "Assymetrical State and Sub-State Arrangement") there are no demands for anything not currently allowed by the 1987 Constitution.
Mantawil stresses that the MILF is not demanding ultimate control over Currency/Monetary Arrangements or Foreign Relations and that indeed the MILF conceeds these to the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) along with Postal Powers (maybe this last aspect was given as a joke given the absolutely deplorable state of the Philippine Postal System, with most Mindanowan towns taking 6 months or more to receive DOMESTIC mail if they even ever receive it at all).
It is also worth noting that Mantawil also flogged the latest joint venture of the MILF and the Asia Foundation, a nicely bound (and rather expencive) compendium of all signed GRP-MILG Agreements post 1996 's Jakarta Accord. for those keeping count, there are 87 including the non-sensical blather like the last Agreement signed in Kuala Lampur in early june this year.
On August 21, 2010 on the eastside of Zamboanga City, 2 MILF guerillas were taken into custody re the AFP's Order of Battle. They were wanted though for their involvement with a local extortion gang along the likes of al Khobar and the Pentagon Gang, groups who I will discuss, as well as their dynamic, in an upcoming entry. The 2 men are charged with having strafed alocal bus with M16s as it sped by with passengers in an extortion plot against the bus company. The first attack in this spate took place on Janurary 17, 2010 in Licomo, Zamboanga del Sur Province when 12 people were wounded by an M16 strafing. 2 of those 12 people were plainclothes PNP Marshalls working with the bus company, Rural Transit.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Whole Lot of Ugly Part IV,the Jabidah Massacre...
***CONTINUED FROM PART III***Responding to the Court Martial Panel's Response to the defence Petition on Adverse Publicity, in which the Panel had contended that the Supreme Court held no Powers of Review over the Military System of Justice, the Court conceeded that Jurisdiction WAS the primary manner of interface between the Court and the Military System. However, it maintained that Rule#65 clarified the issue and provided a rationale for further Review.
Quoting a portion of Rule#65 verbatim, the Court pointed out that a "grave abuse of discretion" could (easily) lead to errors in determining Jurisdiction, ergo "grave abuse of discretion" is itself a form of legal malfeasance open to Court Review. Again, I hesitate to delve too deeply into rationales, especially with regard to cited Case Law, since my goal with this series of entries is merely to outline the event itself ("Jabidah Massacre,"i.e. the failed "Operation Merdeka"). As I stated in an earlier entry I fully intend to go into great detail on the legalese in a future series of entries.
On "Publicity" per se, the Court pointed out that the actual recipient of Adverse Publicity is the state, i.e. the AFP, not the defence. This contention is incredibly problematic but again, this is neither the time nor place for me to explore that. The Court further observed that with 2 Restraining Orders already implemented, the case was undergoing a "cooling off" period during which attention would wane, including negative attention, ergo that concern by the defence was over stated.
The Court's prediction concerning an inattentive public , for the most part, was realised and very, very quietly, in 1971, the 24 defendants had their case (using the singular since they WERE tried in the collective) dismissed.
The 24...
Capt.Alberto G.Sateco
Benjamin"Lt.Baqui"Munar
M.Sgt.Benjamin C.Munar
Reynaldo"Lt.Rey"Munar
Eugenio Alcantara (who for Op.Merdeka was assigned the "rank" of Lt.)
Capt.Cerilo Oropesa
Capt.Teodoro P.Facelo
Capt.Ruperto E.Amistoso
1stLt.Eduardo B.Batalla
2ndLt.Rolando Abadilla
M.Sgt.Frederico Ilangilang
M.Sgt.Cesar Calinawagan
T.Sgt.Timoteo C.Malubay
T.Sgt.Pedro Banigued
S.Sgt.Narciso T.Dabbay
Cpl.Rolando Buenaventura
Cpl.Felix Lauzon
Cpl.Evaristo Ruiz
Cpl.Orlando Decena
Cpl.Francisco Grinn
Cpl.Agustin Dagdag
Cpl.Alfredo F.Forfieda
Pfc.Wlfredo Latonero
and last but not least...
Maj.Eduardo L.Martelino, the Operations Officer for the entire mission and man considered most culpable by most observers.
Maj.Martelino won a promotion to Col.for his trouble but retired shortly thereafter to Tawi Tawi. Converting to Islam and taking the name Abdul Latif (while retaining his surname Martelino) he married the young Sama woman he had been involved with prior to the case (and prior to the entire scheme itself). They made their home, ironically, on Siminul Island, the small islet where the whole affair began. In late 1978 Col.Martelino was killed under mysterious circumstances, on Sabah, perhaps befitting a man who had lived his entire life in volved in covert activities and as a man obsessed with Sabah.
Jibin Arula's life has taken a quieter path. During the Senate Investigations into Operation Merdeka and the deaths on Corregidor, his patron Gov.Montano had arranged to bring Arula's wife, Noring to Cavite. She and Arula lived together in a small non-descript home next to his protector and friend, Chief of Police de Sagun, in Tres Martires. For 2 years,as Arula worked at a job wrangled for him by the Governor, as a sort of inter-office messenger in the Cavite Provincial Capitol Building. Noring had quickly gotten pregnant with their 4th child and after 9 months in Cavite she returned south , to Jolo island, to await the return of her husband.
Jibin Arula never returned to her, having taken a 2nd wife, Lilia. A Bisaya (a non-Muslim tribe/ethnicity) like Noring, she had recently moved to Cavite from her home province of Antique and after marriage settled into what she had hoped would be a quiet life of domesticity.
In 1970 Gov.Montano lost his bid for re-election and Arula's short but heady life as a national celebrity came to an abrupt end. Perhaps recognising that his safety would now be in question he graciously accepted the 12,000 Pesos given to him by the Governor and his wife and moved to her home province of Antique . There he invested his money in livestock and helped his inlaws farm their modest plot. He and Lilia had 3 children of their own and in 1973 he gained custody of his 4 children by Noring as well.
In 1994 Lilia died and Arula made his way south to Jolo. It wasnt long until he came to the notice of the MNLF and Chairman Misuari. As Misuari inked the 96 Jakarta Accord and was given the governorship of ARMM as one of his "gifts,"he found a place for Arula as well. Basically a walking political statement for the MNLF, Arula was made a "paid consultant" at the newly created SCPDC (Southern Philippines Peace and Development Council), an entity also given to Misuari as his 2nd "gift."Making 7,000 Pesos a month he basically maintained a low profile until 2000 when Misuari, reading the writing on the wall began powering down the vast and bloated bureaucracy that characterised everything he touched.
The MNLF which was directly created because of Jibin Arula, and its Chairman Misuari who owes his entire "career" to Arula and his sad tale has done precious little for the man. Today he lives in a poor Manila neighbourhood with the youngest of his 7 children. Very rarely he is brought out, dusted and given some vigirous handshakes and sad clucks of the tongue as Moros and their allies try to parade his misery to try and justify whatever bloodletting has taken place sine 1968.
Quoting a portion of Rule#65 verbatim, the Court pointed out that a "grave abuse of discretion" could (easily) lead to errors in determining Jurisdiction, ergo "grave abuse of discretion" is itself a form of legal malfeasance open to Court Review. Again, I hesitate to delve too deeply into rationales, especially with regard to cited Case Law, since my goal with this series of entries is merely to outline the event itself ("Jabidah Massacre,"i.e. the failed "Operation Merdeka"). As I stated in an earlier entry I fully intend to go into great detail on the legalese in a future series of entries.
On "Publicity" per se, the Court pointed out that the actual recipient of Adverse Publicity is the state, i.e. the AFP, not the defence. This contention is incredibly problematic but again, this is neither the time nor place for me to explore that. The Court further observed that with 2 Restraining Orders already implemented, the case was undergoing a "cooling off" period during which attention would wane, including negative attention, ergo that concern by the defence was over stated.
The Court's prediction concerning an inattentive public , for the most part, was realised and very, very quietly, in 1971, the 24 defendants had their case (using the singular since they WERE tried in the collective) dismissed.
The 24...
Capt.Alberto G.Sateco
Benjamin"Lt.Baqui"Munar
M.Sgt.Benjamin C.Munar
Reynaldo"Lt.Rey"Munar
Eugenio Alcantara (who for Op.Merdeka was assigned the "rank" of Lt.)
Capt.Cerilo Oropesa
Capt.Teodoro P.Facelo
Capt.Ruperto E.Amistoso
1stLt.Eduardo B.Batalla
2ndLt.Rolando Abadilla
M.Sgt.Frederico Ilangilang
M.Sgt.Cesar Calinawagan
T.Sgt.Timoteo C.Malubay
T.Sgt.Pedro Banigued
S.Sgt.Narciso T.Dabbay
Cpl.Rolando Buenaventura
Cpl.Felix Lauzon
Cpl.Evaristo Ruiz
Cpl.Orlando Decena
Cpl.Francisco Grinn
Cpl.Agustin Dagdag
Cpl.Alfredo F.Forfieda
Pfc.Wlfredo Latonero
and last but not least...
Maj.Eduardo L.Martelino, the Operations Officer for the entire mission and man considered most culpable by most observers.
Maj.Martelino won a promotion to Col.for his trouble but retired shortly thereafter to Tawi Tawi. Converting to Islam and taking the name Abdul Latif (while retaining his surname Martelino) he married the young Sama woman he had been involved with prior to the case (and prior to the entire scheme itself). They made their home, ironically, on Siminul Island, the small islet where the whole affair began. In late 1978 Col.Martelino was killed under mysterious circumstances, on Sabah, perhaps befitting a man who had lived his entire life in volved in covert activities and as a man obsessed with Sabah.
Jibin Arula's life has taken a quieter path. During the Senate Investigations into Operation Merdeka and the deaths on Corregidor, his patron Gov.Montano had arranged to bring Arula's wife, Noring to Cavite. She and Arula lived together in a small non-descript home next to his protector and friend, Chief of Police de Sagun, in Tres Martires. For 2 years,as Arula worked at a job wrangled for him by the Governor, as a sort of inter-office messenger in the Cavite Provincial Capitol Building. Noring had quickly gotten pregnant with their 4th child and after 9 months in Cavite she returned south , to Jolo island, to await the return of her husband.
Jibin Arula never returned to her, having taken a 2nd wife, Lilia. A Bisaya (a non-Muslim tribe/ethnicity) like Noring, she had recently moved to Cavite from her home province of Antique and after marriage settled into what she had hoped would be a quiet life of domesticity.
In 1970 Gov.Montano lost his bid for re-election and Arula's short but heady life as a national celebrity came to an abrupt end. Perhaps recognising that his safety would now be in question he graciously accepted the 12,000 Pesos given to him by the Governor and his wife and moved to her home province of Antique . There he invested his money in livestock and helped his inlaws farm their modest plot. He and Lilia had 3 children of their own and in 1973 he gained custody of his 4 children by Noring as well.
In 1994 Lilia died and Arula made his way south to Jolo. It wasnt long until he came to the notice of the MNLF and Chairman Misuari. As Misuari inked the 96 Jakarta Accord and was given the governorship of ARMM as one of his "gifts,"he found a place for Arula as well. Basically a walking political statement for the MNLF, Arula was made a "paid consultant" at the newly created SCPDC (Southern Philippines Peace and Development Council), an entity also given to Misuari as his 2nd "gift."Making 7,000 Pesos a month he basically maintained a low profile until 2000 when Misuari, reading the writing on the wall began powering down the vast and bloated bureaucracy that characterised everything he touched.
The MNLF which was directly created because of Jibin Arula, and its Chairman Misuari who owes his entire "career" to Arula and his sad tale has done precious little for the man. Today he lives in a poor Manila neighbourhood with the youngest of his 7 children. Very rarely he is brought out, dusted and given some vigirous handshakes and sad clucks of the tongue as Moros and their allies try to parade his misery to try and justify whatever bloodletting has taken place sine 1968.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Whole Lot of Ugly Part III, Jabidah Massacre...
***CONTINUED FROM PART II***On June 23, 1969 the Philippine Supreme Court rescinded the Restraining Order, after having ruled in favour of the AFP in terms of jurisdiction to try the case, and so the case proceeded. This basically relegated the case to the rubbish heap, and though the Opposition, spearheaded by icon Sen.Benigno S.Aquino Jr.tried their best to flog it with both Senatorial AND Congressional Investigations the conditions just prior to Martial Law combined with the case's covert nature and Security Clearances meant that nothing would ever become of it.
On August 12, 1969 the Martelino as lead defendant filed another Petition with the Court Martial Panel, this one questioning the Right of Pre-emptory Challenge. Basically, the defence had taken the position that each of the defendants was permitted 1 challenge, per specification (charge), per Court Martial Officer (judge). In other words, they were allowed to challenge the right of each judge to sit on each charge, separately. To explain it a bit more simply, if a defendant is on trial and finds that for some reason the judge trying the case is exhibiting bias, or some other less than objective trait, they have a right to challenge the assignation of THAT judge on THAT case.
In the case in question, with 24 defendants all being tried collectively, and with a panel of judges, and those 24 defendants being tried on a variety of charges (11 in total), should the defence be allowed to use 1 challenge, per each defendant against each judge on every charge? The defence naturally argued yes they should, because of course were this to be allowed the case would die out, taking decades to resolve.
The defence added a periphreal complaint claiming that Adverse Publicity was negating the objectivity of at least 1 Court Martial Officer, who had admitted in print that he had been reading about "coffins being prepared for Marcos in Jolo City," in a Manila daily (Manila's "Daily Mirror," 7/29/69). Added to the claim was the contention that Martelino, et al were being used as political scapegoats by the Opposition (Liberalistas) in view of the national election coming up on 11/11/1969.
The Court Martial Panel responded that each specification (charge) could be challenged a total of 6 times. Rather than the number of defendants (24) they used the number of Panel Officers (6) as their rationale. This resulted in 66 Challenges being permitted. The Panel maintained that this was so because the defendants were being tried collectively (jointly), not commonly (separately). The defence then reversed itself and chose to accept that rationale BUT took issue with the second part of that determination. The defence now maintained that the Panel had erred in finding that in collectively tried cases (multiple defendants tried as a whole) the entire pool of defendants functioned as 1 singular entity (the rationale supplied in determining the finding of 1 Challenge per each of the 6 Panel officers).
This new position by the defence led to a Petition to the Supreme Court to nullify the Panel's Ruling. This Petition combined the defence's prior Comaplaint of Adverse Publicity with the current exception (on Pre-emptive Challenges) and combined them in a unitary Petition. On 8/29/1069 the Court Ruled that they would accept the Petition with regard to Adverse Publicity, after having expedited a Ruling on Pre-emptory Challenges given two days prior, on 8/27/1969. As the acceptance was issued the Court implemented the second Restraining Order in the case (also on 8/29/1969).
In the 8/27/1969 Ruling on Pre-emptory Challenges the court cited Article#18 of the Philippine Articles of War and reminded the defence to be careful what they wish for. The Ruling maintained that since the 11 specifications (charges) had undergone Review and subsequent merging, there weere now a grand total of 8 charges. Each of the 8 charges would be permitted a single Challenge, for a new grand total of 8 Pre-emptory Challenges. From well over 100 to 66, then from 66 to 8, the Defence was not happy but they had asked for it and so there it was.
Required to offer a Response to the Petition on Adverse Publicity, the Court Martial Panel conceeded that publicity surrounding the case was an undeniable fact, as was that the nature of that publicity was adversarial (negative publicity). It pointed out however, that the defence had failed to include one iota of evidence to support their basic contention that this negative attention had caused the Panel to be anything less than absolutely objective. It then used the very language utilised by the defence in its Petition when it reminded the Court that the defence had characterised the Panel with glowing adjectives such as, "integrity,""background" and "experience" all preceeded with positive qualifiers. Then the Panel veered into offencive mode when it countered that outside the narrow scope of Jurisdiction and very limited cases of Malfeasance, the Supreme Court possesed no Powers of Review over the Military System of Justice. Finally, the Panel closed their Response by pointing out that the defence hadnt addressed itself to every avenue of recourse available WITHIN the Military system of Justice.
As the nation moved on, which is exactly what the defence, the AFP and indeed the Supreme Court was hoping for, Moro intellectuals were capitalising on the affair, aided by the Opposition...
On August 12, 1969 the Martelino as lead defendant filed another Petition with the Court Martial Panel, this one questioning the Right of Pre-emptory Challenge. Basically, the defence had taken the position that each of the defendants was permitted 1 challenge, per specification (charge), per Court Martial Officer (judge). In other words, they were allowed to challenge the right of each judge to sit on each charge, separately. To explain it a bit more simply, if a defendant is on trial and finds that for some reason the judge trying the case is exhibiting bias, or some other less than objective trait, they have a right to challenge the assignation of THAT judge on THAT case.
In the case in question, with 24 defendants all being tried collectively, and with a panel of judges, and those 24 defendants being tried on a variety of charges (11 in total), should the defence be allowed to use 1 challenge, per each defendant against each judge on every charge? The defence naturally argued yes they should, because of course were this to be allowed the case would die out, taking decades to resolve.
The defence added a periphreal complaint claiming that Adverse Publicity was negating the objectivity of at least 1 Court Martial Officer, who had admitted in print that he had been reading about "coffins being prepared for Marcos in Jolo City," in a Manila daily (Manila's "Daily Mirror," 7/29/69). Added to the claim was the contention that Martelino, et al were being used as political scapegoats by the Opposition (Liberalistas) in view of the national election coming up on 11/11/1969.
The Court Martial Panel responded that each specification (charge) could be challenged a total of 6 times. Rather than the number of defendants (24) they used the number of Panel Officers (6) as their rationale. This resulted in 66 Challenges being permitted. The Panel maintained that this was so because the defendants were being tried collectively (jointly), not commonly (separately). The defence then reversed itself and chose to accept that rationale BUT took issue with the second part of that determination. The defence now maintained that the Panel had erred in finding that in collectively tried cases (multiple defendants tried as a whole) the entire pool of defendants functioned as 1 singular entity (the rationale supplied in determining the finding of 1 Challenge per each of the 6 Panel officers).
This new position by the defence led to a Petition to the Supreme Court to nullify the Panel's Ruling. This Petition combined the defence's prior Comaplaint of Adverse Publicity with the current exception (on Pre-emptive Challenges) and combined them in a unitary Petition. On 8/29/1069 the Court Ruled that they would accept the Petition with regard to Adverse Publicity, after having expedited a Ruling on Pre-emptory Challenges given two days prior, on 8/27/1969. As the acceptance was issued the Court implemented the second Restraining Order in the case (also on 8/29/1969).
In the 8/27/1969 Ruling on Pre-emptory Challenges the court cited Article#18 of the Philippine Articles of War and reminded the defence to be careful what they wish for. The Ruling maintained that since the 11 specifications (charges) had undergone Review and subsequent merging, there weere now a grand total of 8 charges. Each of the 8 charges would be permitted a single Challenge, for a new grand total of 8 Pre-emptory Challenges. From well over 100 to 66, then from 66 to 8, the Defence was not happy but they had asked for it and so there it was.
Required to offer a Response to the Petition on Adverse Publicity, the Court Martial Panel conceeded that publicity surrounding the case was an undeniable fact, as was that the nature of that publicity was adversarial (negative publicity). It pointed out however, that the defence had failed to include one iota of evidence to support their basic contention that this negative attention had caused the Panel to be anything less than absolutely objective. It then used the very language utilised by the defence in its Petition when it reminded the Court that the defence had characterised the Panel with glowing adjectives such as, "integrity,""background" and "experience" all preceeded with positive qualifiers. Then the Panel veered into offencive mode when it countered that outside the narrow scope of Jurisdiction and very limited cases of Malfeasance, the Supreme Court possesed no Powers of Review over the Military System of Justice. Finally, the Panel closed their Response by pointing out that the defence hadnt addressed itself to every avenue of recourse available WITHIN the Military system of Justice.
As the nation moved on, which is exactly what the defence, the AFP and indeed the Supreme Court was hoping for, Moro intellectuals were capitalising on the affair, aided by the Opposition...
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Whole Lot of Ugly Part II, the Jabidah Massacare
***CONTINUED FROM PART I***With the Cavite City Fiscal refusing to transfer jurisdiction on the case, General Benjamin Espino moved into damage control mode and assigned Captain Alfredo O.Pantejos to perform a preliminary investigation and make a recommendation as to whether-or-not to pursue a Court Martial. In reality Gen.Espino had no real choice in the matter given the attention paid by President Marcos. It was the President in fact who had first told the General about the incident in a phone call on March 21. In that call he had ordered Espino to empanel a Court Martial and nip the whole affair in the bud, taking a pro-active stance and hoping to negate whatever damage the Opposition might try to do with the incident. After placing 21 men on Corregidor on Confinement to Base, on March 22, Gen.Espino began a quiet investigation into the event itself and all related happenings, but officially did nothing else until the subpoena by the Cavite City Fiscal.
On April 06 Pontejos submitted his findings and recommended all 21 men for Court Martial. That same day Gen.Espino issued Special Order #208, empaneling a General Court Martial for the events taking place on March 18 on Corregidor. Gen.Espino based his Order on an alleged contravention of Articles 94 and 97, of the Articles of War, in the Philippine Military Code. On April 16 Pontejos ammended his initial Report to add 3 more names to the list, for a total of 24 men facing Court Martial, those men were added to the list of subjects relegated to Confinement to Base.
With Captains Magsanoc and Pontejos having gotten nowhere in trying to convince the Cavite City Fiscal to transfer jurisdiction of the case to the military, the AFP moved on April 19 to have the Cavite City case dismissed since a Court Martial had been empaneled. Cavite City contested this move and argued their contention based upon 3 seemingly firm points:
I) Jibin Arula had never taken an Oath of Service and was enrolled in a programme overseen by the Civil Affairs Office, ergo could not strictly be considered as part and parcel of the AFP.
II) Correigdor was not a Military Reservation, i.e. an island entirely within the jurisdiction of the AFP, despite an order to that effect by former President Quirino in 1948. Indeed, former President Magsaysay had declared the island a "National Shrine." Such a designation negates any standing as a Military Reservation, a closed and guarded area, in that it allows civlians to visit at will.
III) Last but not least, Cavite City Court WAS the Court of First Instance (the court where charges were filed first).
This seemingly uncomplicated issue ended up stalling the case for more than a year as it wound its way through the system, all the way to the Supreme Court. In the meantime the Supreme Court issued a Restraining Order against both the Cavite City fiscal AND the AFP with regard to legal proceedings. The AFP argued that while it is true former Pres.Magsaysay DID declare the island a "National Shrine," his declaration did not and could not negate Presidential Proclamation #69 by former President Quirino, issued on May 31, 1948. Former Pres. Magsaysay made his designation via Executive Order #58, on August 16, 1954. Ergo, the AFP pointed out, Pres. Magsaysay made his delcaration some 6 years AFTER former Pres. Quirino made HIS. Again, precendence is the key.
The Supreme Court, which had issued a Restraining Order on both cases, the Court Martial and the civil case in Cavite City, ruled against Cavite City on jurisdiction and did so for a number of reasons. Briefly, former Pres. Magsaysay's designation in 1954 could not have negated former Pres. Quirino's unless it specifically stated that it was doing so. Implied Repeals, that is, assuming one order negates another have not received favourable treatment by the Philippine Courts and this was of course noted by the Supreme Court. For that matter, neither have they received favourable treatment in American Courts and at that time America served as the gold standard for the Philippine Justice System which openly utilised American Case Precedents as touch stones.
The Court pointed out as well that "National Shrines" are usually listed in great detail. In other words, on an island the size of Corregidor, battlefield areas, etc. are usually defined as "Shrines," without offering blanket enshrinement of the entire landmass. To this point the Court pointed out that nothing bars concurrent designation, a site may be a "Shrine" AND a "Reservation," without it having to be either one or the other.
Another interesting point was that Kinley Airfield, where the incident actually took place, was not included in the enshrinement. In other words, even if the Court had accepted the main premise of Cavite City, that enshrinement negates status as a military Reservation, the actual incident did not take place within any portion of the delineated "National Shrine."
Since this incident is truly pivotal to Philippine Insurgency, both the Communist as well as the Islamic, I believe in the near future I will go into great and exacting detail on the criminal proceedings. For the moment however it would be counter-productive as I am merely trying to document the event in this series of entries.
On the issue of "Court of First instance," that is, which court filed criminal charges first and therefore should get jurisdiction to try the case, the Supreme Court pointed out that although Jibin Arula HAD filed charges with the Cavite City Fiscal on April 02, 1968, no warrant of arrest had been issued against anyone. Merely a charge sheet had been entered. With the AFP however, a warrant of arrest was issued on April 06 so that the AFP clearly had precedence in trying the case.
Cavite City then tried a trump card, arguing that the Court should Rule in its favour as a matter of Public Policy, in that the benefit to society outweighs the strict adherance to case law. The Court rejected this out of hand.
TO BE CONTINUED...
On April 06 Pontejos submitted his findings and recommended all 21 men for Court Martial. That same day Gen.Espino issued Special Order #208, empaneling a General Court Martial for the events taking place on March 18 on Corregidor. Gen.Espino based his Order on an alleged contravention of Articles 94 and 97, of the Articles of War, in the Philippine Military Code. On April 16 Pontejos ammended his initial Report to add 3 more names to the list, for a total of 24 men facing Court Martial, those men were added to the list of subjects relegated to Confinement to Base.
With Captains Magsanoc and Pontejos having gotten nowhere in trying to convince the Cavite City Fiscal to transfer jurisdiction of the case to the military, the AFP moved on April 19 to have the Cavite City case dismissed since a Court Martial had been empaneled. Cavite City contested this move and argued their contention based upon 3 seemingly firm points:
I) Jibin Arula had never taken an Oath of Service and was enrolled in a programme overseen by the Civil Affairs Office, ergo could not strictly be considered as part and parcel of the AFP.
II) Correigdor was not a Military Reservation, i.e. an island entirely within the jurisdiction of the AFP, despite an order to that effect by former President Quirino in 1948. Indeed, former President Magsaysay had declared the island a "National Shrine." Such a designation negates any standing as a Military Reservation, a closed and guarded area, in that it allows civlians to visit at will.
III) Last but not least, Cavite City Court WAS the Court of First Instance (the court where charges were filed first).
This seemingly uncomplicated issue ended up stalling the case for more than a year as it wound its way through the system, all the way to the Supreme Court. In the meantime the Supreme Court issued a Restraining Order against both the Cavite City fiscal AND the AFP with regard to legal proceedings. The AFP argued that while it is true former Pres.Magsaysay DID declare the island a "National Shrine," his declaration did not and could not negate Presidential Proclamation #69 by former President Quirino, issued on May 31, 1948. Former Pres. Magsaysay made his designation via Executive Order #58, on August 16, 1954. Ergo, the AFP pointed out, Pres. Magsaysay made his delcaration some 6 years AFTER former Pres. Quirino made HIS. Again, precendence is the key.
The Supreme Court, which had issued a Restraining Order on both cases, the Court Martial and the civil case in Cavite City, ruled against Cavite City on jurisdiction and did so for a number of reasons. Briefly, former Pres. Magsaysay's designation in 1954 could not have negated former Pres. Quirino's unless it specifically stated that it was doing so. Implied Repeals, that is, assuming one order negates another have not received favourable treatment by the Philippine Courts and this was of course noted by the Supreme Court. For that matter, neither have they received favourable treatment in American Courts and at that time America served as the gold standard for the Philippine Justice System which openly utilised American Case Precedents as touch stones.
The Court pointed out as well that "National Shrines" are usually listed in great detail. In other words, on an island the size of Corregidor, battlefield areas, etc. are usually defined as "Shrines," without offering blanket enshrinement of the entire landmass. To this point the Court pointed out that nothing bars concurrent designation, a site may be a "Shrine" AND a "Reservation," without it having to be either one or the other.
Another interesting point was that Kinley Airfield, where the incident actually took place, was not included in the enshrinement. In other words, even if the Court had accepted the main premise of Cavite City, that enshrinement negates status as a military Reservation, the actual incident did not take place within any portion of the delineated "National Shrine."
Since this incident is truly pivotal to Philippine Insurgency, both the Communist as well as the Islamic, I believe in the near future I will go into great and exacting detail on the criminal proceedings. For the moment however it would be counter-productive as I am merely trying to document the event in this series of entries.
On the issue of "Court of First instance," that is, which court filed criminal charges first and therefore should get jurisdiction to try the case, the Supreme Court pointed out that although Jibin Arula HAD filed charges with the Cavite City Fiscal on April 02, 1968, no warrant of arrest had been issued against anyone. Merely a charge sheet had been entered. With the AFP however, a warrant of arrest was issued on April 06 so that the AFP clearly had precedence in trying the case.
Cavite City then tried a trump card, arguing that the Court should Rule in its favour as a matter of Public Policy, in that the benefit to society outweighs the strict adherance to case law. The Court rejected this out of hand.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
The Jabidah Massacre, Operation Mardeka, No Good, but Alot of Bad and Ugly
The Malaysian state of Sabah sits on the northwestern corner of Borneo, roughly 45 minutes by regular boat from the Philippine's southern most province, Tawi Tawi. This geographic proximity allows the regions ethnicities to come and go across international borders just as they always have. The almost half a century of insurgency in the Southern Philippines have also caused a huge influx of Filipinos to both the Malaysian AND Indonesian parts of Borneo, with the 3rd nation on Borneo, Brunei, having been spared because of its incredibly small area. Likewise, Sabah has played its own part in exporting that insurgency TO the Philippines. Indeed, in its own way that tiny corner of Borneo has had more to do with the bloodletting and torture that as afflicted the Southern Philippines this last half a century.
Brunei more than any other Bornean nation has had a deep historical relationship with the peoples and lands that now collectively make up the Philippines. It was this deep bond that led to the Sultan of Brunei ceding much of what is now Sabah, along with Palawan to the Sultan of Sulu. Though the history of what transpired both then and long afterwards is important, for the sake of brevity I will fast forward to Malasyian independance and that country's incorporation of Sabah into its fold.
Understandably the loss of Sabah has not sat well with both the Sultante of Sulu nor with the Philippines. This deep resentment came to a head not long after Malaysian independance when the Marcos Government gave considerable support to a plan floated by supporters of Sultan Kiram of Sulu, and more so by members of his own extremely right wing government. Using a combined pool of Illokano,Tausug and Sama (Samal) Tribesmen the civil Affairs Office of the Department of National Defense oversaw the formation of a guerilla force, comprised of almost 2,000 men, and given the code name, "Jabidah."
The Office of the Secretary of Defense, via Under Secretary Manuel Syquio created a protocol for destabilisation of Sabah. Destabilisation was desired because of the Philippine claims on Sabah, claims that were taking years to slowly wind their way through international legal channels. While President Marcos had backed off of earlier vows to take Sabah by any means neccessary and had played the good neighbour in spearheading the creation of ASEAN, a regional cooperative bloc, he never took his eyes off of Borneo. Not wanting to wait decades, and even then all that waiting would amount to nothing more than a gamble with steep odds against the Philippines, the Marcos Government gave its tacit support to a plan to forment unrest and dissent in Eastern Malaysia, and thereby bolster Philippine claims by pointing to such dissent and unrest as proof of disatisfaction (amongst the people of Sabah) with Malaysian Rule.
As Under Secretary Syquio set up shoppe in the Civil Affairs Office, a move designed to keep almost all AFP personnel out of the loop, he hand picked the Operations Officer for his enterprise based upon a book that had been written the decade before, in 1959. This book, "Someday Malaysia," envisioned a SE Asia with a pan-Malayan state. This monolithic nation would encompass all of the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and of course...Malaysia. the books author happened to be a Sr, Officer in the Philippine Air Force, Major Eduardo Martelino. An ethnic Ilonggo from Aklan Province, Martelino was very familiar with the targetted area, in fact he was romantically involved with a Samal woman on Tawi Tawi, a woman he would later marry.
In the early Summer of 1967 Maj.Martelino had an underling travel to Cebu City, on Cebu Island to begin recruitment of non-military staff for the project, primarily Medical Technicians and Lawyers, concentrating their efforts in 1 institution, the Cebu Institute of Technology. At the same time, on Luzon, Jolo Island and Tawi Tawi recruitment efforts began with cursory background checks of prosepctive applicants. By autumn they had their preliminary lists in terms of manpower and refurbishment of Camp Sofia, the primary base of training on Tawi Tawi's Simunul Island began, then still a part of Sulu Province.
On December 17, 1967 recruits began arriving on Camp Sofia, in Barangay Tampakan on Simunul Island. Counter-intuitively the first of a 3 phased training regimen took place there, as opposed to the 3rd phase since the island approximated their Operational Terrain. where as they should have finished their training at Camp Sophia, they merely engaged in calesthenics and cleaning up the base compound. On December 30, 1967 Philippine Naval Boat #68 left the island due north carrying a full complement of trainees heading to Manila Bay for Phase II of their training.
Arriving late in the vening on Janurary 03 the Illokanos among them were ecstatic, knowing that they were very close to home. For the Tausug and Sama men involved however it was a different story. Though some were undoubtedly happy to be that much closer to becoming members of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines), most had never been anywhere but Sulu and Tawi Tawi and so it came as quite a shock, in many ways, when they first arrived on Corregidor on Janurary 03, 1968. This period of adjustment was complicated by a lack of sensitivity on the part of their trainers. Issues involving a bland and unaccustomed diet, lack of religious materiels or allowances for observance, and perhaps most problematic for many of the men was the presence of females in their housing unit, a converted wing of Corregidor's Fort Mills Hospital. Things went from bad to worse when their pay vouchers, 50 Pesos a month (roughly 1 Euro or 1.25 US) were lost in transit after being delayed for almost 2 months due to funding issues owing to the covert nature of the endeavour.
Roughly 1/3rd of the Tausug recruits formed a clique and began agitating for better conditions. When their trainers ignored them, treating them much as they would any other AFP recruit, 87 men, all Tausugs, signed a petition to President Marcos demanding better conditions and their pay. Led by Dugasan Julkainan, a from Jolo City, the letter was entrusted to a a member of the Navy, a fellow Tausug named Abhoud Tay, who was about to pass through Manila. Tay promised the men that he would post the petition by mail as soon as he got to Manila.
The men handed the envelope to Tay on the afternoon of March 2nd while thanking him profusely for his assistance. Early on March 3rd, at 3PM, seven of the most antagonistic recruits were told to report to Lieutenant Eduardo Batalla, the Junior Officer who handled the administrative functions when Major Martelino was out of camp, which was most of the time. When the meeting concluded conditions showed a marked improvement and almost all trainees buckled down and began to adjust.
Maeanwhile, as the preceding had been transpiring, beginning on March 1st, fellow recruits had begun shipping out to Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal Province, for the third and final phase of their training. Likewise, 24 who had flunked out of Phase II had begun shipping back to Sulu and Tawi Tawi. Therefore it came as no suprise when late in the evening, March 17th, their trainers read off of a short list of names and told those whose names had just been called to pack up their gear, they were shipping out.
Just before day break, March 18th, 12 of the men were told to carry their gear and get on a 6X6 truck idling outside the base gate. Not told where they were going but assuming it was onto to Luzon and the 3rd and final phase of their grueling training, the men excitedly complied. Happily riding in the rear of the truck as it took the narrow and twisting jungle track to the airfield below the base, they were unprepared for what took place. The lone survivor Jibin Arula recalled that the truck had also been carrying Ilokano recruits as well, and that they had been picked up prior to the Tausugs. Just as their truck emerged from Malinta Tunnel one of the Illokano recruits had inadvertantly hit the release switch on his carbine's (rifle) magazine release (the magazine being the detachable component that holds the rounds, the bullets). Although Arula himself found nothing strange about that an older recruit remarked that the magazine switch was situated next to the safety switch (the "safety" is a switch that keeps the weapon from firing by mistake). The unspoken message was that something might be amiss, that the Ilokano recruit's mishap may have been alot more than just another innocent mistake. As they say, hindsight is 20/20 vision...
Rolling to a stop at Kindley Airfield, roughly 3 kilometers down hill from their camp, they and and their trainers, led by Lieutenants Eduardo Batalla and Rolando Abadilla dismounted from the truck. As the Tausugs took their time happily getting their fallen gear together the trainers and the Ilokano recruits formed a group several meters away, between the tarmac and the truck. As the last of the Tausug men joined together in a small group the Ilokanos, who had their backs towards the 12 Jabidah soldiers, spun and opened fire.
As his squadmates fell around him Jibin Arula remembers running blindly in the opposite direction, not even aware that he had been wounded above his knee. Coming to a precipice 12 meters above the rocky shoreline he threw himself over with abandon, the only thing on his mind was survival. Coming back to consciousness he found himself just a couple of meters from breaking waves. Grabbing a piece of wooden debris he stumbled into the surf and began swimming.
Arula sawm with abandon, not conscious of his pain, or even of his exhaustion, adrenaline taking care of all that. As the sun came up above the water he could hear the sounds of outboard motors, to his mind the sound of his trainers looking for him. Swimming onward he had made his way almost to Carballo Island when he was spotted by fishermen who hauled him aboard, saving his life. Incredulous, the fishermen, Tagalogs, asked him how he had come to be swimming in the middle of Manila Bay. Thinking fast on the cuff Arula explained that he was a crewmen on a local merchant vessel and had fallen overboard after a night of drinking with his fellow shipmates. Accepting his story at face value the fishermen decided to call it a day and made their way for port, in Naic, Cavite.
While Jibin Arula was thankful for having been saved he knew that his ordeal had only just begun. never having been off his home island of Jolo, and speaking very little Tagalog, or any language other than his native Tausug, he was terrified knowing that getting home was next to impossible. Thinking quickly he asked the fishermen that had saved him if anyone knew someone in government. Told by one that he had a cousin in the Cavite Provincial Guard, tasked with guarding that province's Governor, Delfin Montano, a well known member of the Opposition. Arula decided to invest his fate with this fisherman and the man's unknown cousin.
Back upon land Arula and the fisherman made their way to the cousin's home in the municipailty of Trece Martires only to
discover that the cousin was away, on duty. As they were trying to decide their next move the Barangay Captain, alerted to their presence, arrived with the local Barangay Guards, armed to the teeth. This was a time long before the Muslim neighbourhoods in Luzon even existed. There was no Golden Mosque in Quiapo, no Maharlika Housing Scheme, no Pasig City ghetto, a time when, aside from a hundred or so university students in Quezon City who wanted to assimilate and so for the most part lived and looked just like their non-Muslim countrymen. Most Filipinos on Luzon, certainly the working class, viewed all Filipino- Muslims as the slaveraiders and brigands of the Spanish Era "Moro-Moro" folklore, a perception that was unfortunately quite rooted in fact (in that the only Muslims Luzon had ever seen up until that point- apart from seafaring traders in Manila- had been those that raided their coastal villages though this was usually relegated to the Visayas Region). Therefore, the Barangay Captain suspected that Arula was a pirate who had somehow gotten separated from his fellow Suluanos, and demanded that he make an appearance at the local police station the very next morning.
Returning at daybreak with even more gunmen the Barangay Captain refused to listen to Arula's hastily made excuses and escorted him to the station, at gunpoint. Finally boxed into a corner Arula refused to give a statement, demanding that he be allowed to give it to the Chief of Police, who was away on business. The officers began beating him and only stopped once the chief arrived. The chief, Melencio de Sagun, who would soon become a lifelong friend and defender of Arula admonished his men for mistreating Arula, whom he reminded them, was not a prisoner.
After having Arula checked at a local medical clinic Chief de Sagun personally escorted him to the Governor's Residence in Cavite City, the provincial capital. Arriving in the evening of March 19th he was ushered into the govenor's antechamber where he proceeded to tell his tale. After a couple of days of consideration, on March 23rd, 1968, the Governor had Arula file a criminal complaint of Frustrated Murder against Major Martelino and 10 other AFP (de facto and otherwise) officers and enlisted men at the Cavite City Fiscal's Office, and so the story quickly became known.
The Cavite City Fiscal filed the appropriate charges and also named the AFP's Chief of Staff, General Benjamin Espino as a Respondant. On April 2nd the AFP's Captain Jose Magsanoc appeared at the Fiscal's Office to offer the AFP's Legal Response but also to try and convince the Fiscal to transfer jurisdiction to the AFP, to allow a Court Martial to take place in lieu of Civil Proceedings. Thus the stage was set for what would be a nearly 4 year legal battle...
I will continue in Part II.
Brunei more than any other Bornean nation has had a deep historical relationship with the peoples and lands that now collectively make up the Philippines. It was this deep bond that led to the Sultan of Brunei ceding much of what is now Sabah, along with Palawan to the Sultan of Sulu. Though the history of what transpired both then and long afterwards is important, for the sake of brevity I will fast forward to Malasyian independance and that country's incorporation of Sabah into its fold.
Understandably the loss of Sabah has not sat well with both the Sultante of Sulu nor with the Philippines. This deep resentment came to a head not long after Malaysian independance when the Marcos Government gave considerable support to a plan floated by supporters of Sultan Kiram of Sulu, and more so by members of his own extremely right wing government. Using a combined pool of Illokano,Tausug and Sama (Samal) Tribesmen the civil Affairs Office of the Department of National Defense oversaw the formation of a guerilla force, comprised of almost 2,000 men, and given the code name, "Jabidah."
The Office of the Secretary of Defense, via Under Secretary Manuel Syquio created a protocol for destabilisation of Sabah. Destabilisation was desired because of the Philippine claims on Sabah, claims that were taking years to slowly wind their way through international legal channels. While President Marcos had backed off of earlier vows to take Sabah by any means neccessary and had played the good neighbour in spearheading the creation of ASEAN, a regional cooperative bloc, he never took his eyes off of Borneo. Not wanting to wait decades, and even then all that waiting would amount to nothing more than a gamble with steep odds against the Philippines, the Marcos Government gave its tacit support to a plan to forment unrest and dissent in Eastern Malaysia, and thereby bolster Philippine claims by pointing to such dissent and unrest as proof of disatisfaction (amongst the people of Sabah) with Malaysian Rule.
As Under Secretary Syquio set up shoppe in the Civil Affairs Office, a move designed to keep almost all AFP personnel out of the loop, he hand picked the Operations Officer for his enterprise based upon a book that had been written the decade before, in 1959. This book, "Someday Malaysia," envisioned a SE Asia with a pan-Malayan state. This monolithic nation would encompass all of the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and of course...Malaysia. the books author happened to be a Sr, Officer in the Philippine Air Force, Major Eduardo Martelino. An ethnic Ilonggo from Aklan Province, Martelino was very familiar with the targetted area, in fact he was romantically involved with a Samal woman on Tawi Tawi, a woman he would later marry.
In the early Summer of 1967 Maj.Martelino had an underling travel to Cebu City, on Cebu Island to begin recruitment of non-military staff for the project, primarily Medical Technicians and Lawyers, concentrating their efforts in 1 institution, the Cebu Institute of Technology. At the same time, on Luzon, Jolo Island and Tawi Tawi recruitment efforts began with cursory background checks of prosepctive applicants. By autumn they had their preliminary lists in terms of manpower and refurbishment of Camp Sofia, the primary base of training on Tawi Tawi's Simunul Island began, then still a part of Sulu Province.
On December 17, 1967 recruits began arriving on Camp Sofia, in Barangay Tampakan on Simunul Island. Counter-intuitively the first of a 3 phased training regimen took place there, as opposed to the 3rd phase since the island approximated their Operational Terrain. where as they should have finished their training at Camp Sophia, they merely engaged in calesthenics and cleaning up the base compound. On December 30, 1967 Philippine Naval Boat #68 left the island due north carrying a full complement of trainees heading to Manila Bay for Phase II of their training.
Arriving late in the vening on Janurary 03 the Illokanos among them were ecstatic, knowing that they were very close to home. For the Tausug and Sama men involved however it was a different story. Though some were undoubtedly happy to be that much closer to becoming members of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines), most had never been anywhere but Sulu and Tawi Tawi and so it came as quite a shock, in many ways, when they first arrived on Corregidor on Janurary 03, 1968. This period of adjustment was complicated by a lack of sensitivity on the part of their trainers. Issues involving a bland and unaccustomed diet, lack of religious materiels or allowances for observance, and perhaps most problematic for many of the men was the presence of females in their housing unit, a converted wing of Corregidor's Fort Mills Hospital. Things went from bad to worse when their pay vouchers, 50 Pesos a month (roughly 1 Euro or 1.25 US) were lost in transit after being delayed for almost 2 months due to funding issues owing to the covert nature of the endeavour.
Roughly 1/3rd of the Tausug recruits formed a clique and began agitating for better conditions. When their trainers ignored them, treating them much as they would any other AFP recruit, 87 men, all Tausugs, signed a petition to President Marcos demanding better conditions and their pay. Led by Dugasan Julkainan, a from Jolo City, the letter was entrusted to a a member of the Navy, a fellow Tausug named Abhoud Tay, who was about to pass through Manila. Tay promised the men that he would post the petition by mail as soon as he got to Manila.
The men handed the envelope to Tay on the afternoon of March 2nd while thanking him profusely for his assistance. Early on March 3rd, at 3PM, seven of the most antagonistic recruits were told to report to Lieutenant Eduardo Batalla, the Junior Officer who handled the administrative functions when Major Martelino was out of camp, which was most of the time. When the meeting concluded conditions showed a marked improvement and almost all trainees buckled down and began to adjust.
Maeanwhile, as the preceding had been transpiring, beginning on March 1st, fellow recruits had begun shipping out to Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal Province, for the third and final phase of their training. Likewise, 24 who had flunked out of Phase II had begun shipping back to Sulu and Tawi Tawi. Therefore it came as no suprise when late in the evening, March 17th, their trainers read off of a short list of names and told those whose names had just been called to pack up their gear, they were shipping out.
Just before day break, March 18th, 12 of the men were told to carry their gear and get on a 6X6 truck idling outside the base gate. Not told where they were going but assuming it was onto to Luzon and the 3rd and final phase of their grueling training, the men excitedly complied. Happily riding in the rear of the truck as it took the narrow and twisting jungle track to the airfield below the base, they were unprepared for what took place. The lone survivor Jibin Arula recalled that the truck had also been carrying Ilokano recruits as well, and that they had been picked up prior to the Tausugs. Just as their truck emerged from Malinta Tunnel one of the Illokano recruits had inadvertantly hit the release switch on his carbine's (rifle) magazine release (the magazine being the detachable component that holds the rounds, the bullets). Although Arula himself found nothing strange about that an older recruit remarked that the magazine switch was situated next to the safety switch (the "safety" is a switch that keeps the weapon from firing by mistake). The unspoken message was that something might be amiss, that the Ilokano recruit's mishap may have been alot more than just another innocent mistake. As they say, hindsight is 20/20 vision...
Rolling to a stop at Kindley Airfield, roughly 3 kilometers down hill from their camp, they and and their trainers, led by Lieutenants Eduardo Batalla and Rolando Abadilla dismounted from the truck. As the Tausugs took their time happily getting their fallen gear together the trainers and the Ilokano recruits formed a group several meters away, between the tarmac and the truck. As the last of the Tausug men joined together in a small group the Ilokanos, who had their backs towards the 12 Jabidah soldiers, spun and opened fire.
As his squadmates fell around him Jibin Arula remembers running blindly in the opposite direction, not even aware that he had been wounded above his knee. Coming to a precipice 12 meters above the rocky shoreline he threw himself over with abandon, the only thing on his mind was survival. Coming back to consciousness he found himself just a couple of meters from breaking waves. Grabbing a piece of wooden debris he stumbled into the surf and began swimming.
Arula sawm with abandon, not conscious of his pain, or even of his exhaustion, adrenaline taking care of all that. As the sun came up above the water he could hear the sounds of outboard motors, to his mind the sound of his trainers looking for him. Swimming onward he had made his way almost to Carballo Island when he was spotted by fishermen who hauled him aboard, saving his life. Incredulous, the fishermen, Tagalogs, asked him how he had come to be swimming in the middle of Manila Bay. Thinking fast on the cuff Arula explained that he was a crewmen on a local merchant vessel and had fallen overboard after a night of drinking with his fellow shipmates. Accepting his story at face value the fishermen decided to call it a day and made their way for port, in Naic, Cavite.
While Jibin Arula was thankful for having been saved he knew that his ordeal had only just begun. never having been off his home island of Jolo, and speaking very little Tagalog, or any language other than his native Tausug, he was terrified knowing that getting home was next to impossible. Thinking quickly he asked the fishermen that had saved him if anyone knew someone in government. Told by one that he had a cousin in the Cavite Provincial Guard, tasked with guarding that province's Governor, Delfin Montano, a well known member of the Opposition. Arula decided to invest his fate with this fisherman and the man's unknown cousin.
Back upon land Arula and the fisherman made their way to the cousin's home in the municipailty of Trece Martires only to
discover that the cousin was away, on duty. As they were trying to decide their next move the Barangay Captain, alerted to their presence, arrived with the local Barangay Guards, armed to the teeth. This was a time long before the Muslim neighbourhoods in Luzon even existed. There was no Golden Mosque in Quiapo, no Maharlika Housing Scheme, no Pasig City ghetto, a time when, aside from a hundred or so university students in Quezon City who wanted to assimilate and so for the most part lived and looked just like their non-Muslim countrymen. Most Filipinos on Luzon, certainly the working class, viewed all Filipino- Muslims as the slaveraiders and brigands of the Spanish Era "Moro-Moro" folklore, a perception that was unfortunately quite rooted in fact (in that the only Muslims Luzon had ever seen up until that point- apart from seafaring traders in Manila- had been those that raided their coastal villages though this was usually relegated to the Visayas Region). Therefore, the Barangay Captain suspected that Arula was a pirate who had somehow gotten separated from his fellow Suluanos, and demanded that he make an appearance at the local police station the very next morning.
Returning at daybreak with even more gunmen the Barangay Captain refused to listen to Arula's hastily made excuses and escorted him to the station, at gunpoint. Finally boxed into a corner Arula refused to give a statement, demanding that he be allowed to give it to the Chief of Police, who was away on business. The officers began beating him and only stopped once the chief arrived. The chief, Melencio de Sagun, who would soon become a lifelong friend and defender of Arula admonished his men for mistreating Arula, whom he reminded them, was not a prisoner.
After having Arula checked at a local medical clinic Chief de Sagun personally escorted him to the Governor's Residence in Cavite City, the provincial capital. Arriving in the evening of March 19th he was ushered into the govenor's antechamber where he proceeded to tell his tale. After a couple of days of consideration, on March 23rd, 1968, the Governor had Arula file a criminal complaint of Frustrated Murder against Major Martelino and 10 other AFP (de facto and otherwise) officers and enlisted men at the Cavite City Fiscal's Office, and so the story quickly became known.
The Cavite City Fiscal filed the appropriate charges and also named the AFP's Chief of Staff, General Benjamin Espino as a Respondant. On April 2nd the AFP's Captain Jose Magsanoc appeared at the Fiscal's Office to offer the AFP's Legal Response but also to try and convince the Fiscal to transfer jurisdiction to the AFP, to allow a Court Martial to take place in lieu of Civil Proceedings. Thus the stage was set for what would be a nearly 4 year legal battle...
I will continue in Part II.
Monday, August 16, 2010
The Genesis of Islamic Liberation in Mindanao Part I
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Caraga Campaign Mayhem
"Caraga" is the region covering the north eastern corner of Mindanao. Specifically it consists of 4 Provinces: Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Suriago del Sur,Surigao del Norte along with the island province of Dinagat. There are very few Muslims, in fact 2 of its provinces, Agusan del Sur and Surigao del Sur both have less than 1,000 each. They do have large populations of Lumads, the non-Muslim and non-Christian Tribes usually called,"Hill Tribes" in most other nations.
Being the most heavily forested region on the island it has a huge amount of logging and since it is abutting ComVal (Compostela Valley Province) it also is moderately involved with mining. The biggest security issue however is the NPA, the Maoist Insurgency. Indeed, it is the most NPA innundated region in the nation, especially when taken in combination with ComVal that abuts Agusan del Sur. Though 2 provinces are deemed "Pacified," Surigao del Norte and Dinagat both still posess sizable numbers of synpathisers (i.e. Base of Mass Support), Sectoral Front Organisations as well as a fair number of inactive guerillas so that it remains to be seen whether those provinces will indeed remain so. Though the region saw alot of confrontations between the NPA and candidates who refused to pay the obligatory (in NPA "Influenced" areas) PTC (Pay to Campaign) "permits." These confrontations were relatively peaceful (though weapons were used in all instances none was ever fired even in warning).
Overt political violence is rare in this part of Mindanao even though the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) perpetually placing dozens of regional municipalities on the "Watch List" would seem to make that happening counter-intuitive. Still, incidents DO happen, and so here we are...but first...
Perhaps the biggest news in Caraga this Election Season was the fall of the Barbers Dynasty. The Barbers Clan has ruled Surigao del Norte for nearly 2 decades, the duration of the post-Marcos Era. Gov.Robert"Ace"Barbers, the current patriarch of the family was swept out of office by a paltry margin of 2,214 votes. The victor? Former Department of Education Regional Director Sol Forcadilla Matugas. Madame Matugas is the wife of Francisco"Lalo"Tinio Matugas who coincidentally won his race for the Surigao del Norte 1st District Congressional Seat.
Francisco Matugas, an attorney and long time political activist with PPS (Partido Padajon Surigao) now becomes the regining partiarch of the region's newest dynasty. He had been running against a felow attorney, Constantino"Banjo"Navarro III, the scion of another local dynasty, the Navarro Clan (also well known to those that pay attention to the insurgency due to black sheep Father Navarro,aka the "Barefoot Priest," who became the ranking NPA CO for a decent amount of time), long allied with the Barbers. His victory could almost be considered a landslide given the steep margin of roughly 9,800 votes.
Fracnsico's brother, Ernesto"Mitoy"Matugas has become the new mayor of the province's largest city, Surigao City with his victory over ex-Governor Robert Lyndon Barbers Jr, namesake of the original partiarch, the late Senator Robert Lyndon Barbers Sr.
Perhaps most note worthy of all, the Matugas Party, PPS, swept the entire province with every town now being led by a PPS member. The closest comparison would be Lanao del Norte Province where all but 1 community is led by a single party, but of course the operative difference being that Surigao del Norte is TOTALLY in control of PPS. This doesn't bode well for the people of Surigao del Norte despite the former dynasty's alleged penchant for corruption and ineptitude. Given the personal struggle of Madame Matugas against an allegation of corruption when she was in charge of Region 13, in her former position (she retired from another region after transferring out of Region 13 because of that allegation, an allegation from which she was cleared), one hopes that the Matugas Clan will not become further proof of the ancient maxim, "Power corrupts absolutely..."
On Janurary 28, 2010 on Langihan Road in Barangay Upper Doongan, Butuan City, Agusan del Norte Province, 28 year old Roldan P.Curalde was riding his motorcycle when shot to death with a 45. Mr.Curalde who was self employed as a miner/prospector was a Campaign Organiser for MPM (Mabuting Pilipino Movement).
On May 08, 2010 in Loreto, Agusan del Sur, COMELEC had dropped off "flash cards" for the PCOS (Precinct Optical Scanners) machines to local representative Jay Actub Salinas earlier that day and Mr.Salinas had spent the better part of that day at the municipal elections office. He had just returned home that evening and was standing in front of his door when shot with a 45 caliber pistol.
Loreto, sitting on the Agusan River is isolated in terms of approaches by land so Mr.Salinas was bundled into a speed boat and transported up river to the provincial capitol, Prosperidad where he received treatment for a wound to his abdomen. Later transfered to a hospital in Tagum City in Davao del Norte Province he was able to make a recovery, albeit after a long convalescence.
Election Day, May 10, 2010, unknown parties in Bayugan, Agusan del Sur Province manufactured fake Arrest Warrants against particular candidates that sought to impeach their character in the eyes of voters.
Reversing chronologically, there were some important goings on in Bayugan, Agusan del Sur, as well as a case in Surigao City in Surigao del Norte Province.
On June 25, 2009 in at Rotunda Circumfrential Park in Barangay Poblacion, Bayugan, Agusan del Sur, Barangay Councilor and radio jounalist Jonathan "Athan"Lisondra Petalvero, 43, of Bayugan was shot to death as he stood talking with members of the BASVODA (Bayugan Association of Hired Van Operators and Drivers) having given a keynote speech inside a nearby resturant, by invitation of BASVODA President Sammy Mendoza.
Mr.Petalvero was a staunch supporter of Vice Mayor Genesis Efren, running for Mayor in 2010. Genesis Efren also owns the radio station where Mr.Petalvero worked, DXFM Frenster, in Bayugan.Efren's rival, Kim Lope Asis is the son of the (then) Mayor Magdalena Lope Asis as well as being both a Barangay Captain AND the Chairman of the ABC (Association of Barangay Captains).
Earlier that month, June of 2009, a Barangay Councilor for Barangay Ipil in Bayugan was also shot to death and like Petalvero he was a supporter of Vice Mayor Efren.
On July 28, 2009 at the Municipal Health Center[sic] in ComVal Province, 39 year old Crispin Lenaban was arrested in a joint apprehension by ComVal Provincial PNP (Philippine National Police), PNP RID (Regional Intelligence Division and PRO (Police Regional Office) #13. His Warrant was issued by RTC (Regional Trial Court) #30, Branch #32 in surigao City, for Double Murder, Hiway Robbery and Posession of Firearms. Some may recall that Lenaban was wanted in the murders of COMELEC Officer Wenifreda Taer, her son who was a serving Provincial Board Councilor for Surigao del Norte Province, Rodulfo Taer and fellow Board Councilor Dominador Dandan, all of Alegria, Surigao del Norte. He was 1 of 2 gunmen, 1 with a 45, the other with a 9MM pistol. The 2nd gunman remains unknown.
Being the most heavily forested region on the island it has a huge amount of logging and since it is abutting ComVal (Compostela Valley Province) it also is moderately involved with mining. The biggest security issue however is the NPA, the Maoist Insurgency. Indeed, it is the most NPA innundated region in the nation, especially when taken in combination with ComVal that abuts Agusan del Sur. Though 2 provinces are deemed "Pacified," Surigao del Norte and Dinagat both still posess sizable numbers of synpathisers (i.e. Base of Mass Support), Sectoral Front Organisations as well as a fair number of inactive guerillas so that it remains to be seen whether those provinces will indeed remain so. Though the region saw alot of confrontations between the NPA and candidates who refused to pay the obligatory (in NPA "Influenced" areas) PTC (Pay to Campaign) "permits." These confrontations were relatively peaceful (though weapons were used in all instances none was ever fired even in warning).
Overt political violence is rare in this part of Mindanao even though the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) perpetually placing dozens of regional municipalities on the "Watch List" would seem to make that happening counter-intuitive. Still, incidents DO happen, and so here we are...but first...
Perhaps the biggest news in Caraga this Election Season was the fall of the Barbers Dynasty. The Barbers Clan has ruled Surigao del Norte for nearly 2 decades, the duration of the post-Marcos Era. Gov.Robert"Ace"Barbers, the current patriarch of the family was swept out of office by a paltry margin of 2,214 votes. The victor? Former Department of Education Regional Director Sol Forcadilla Matugas. Madame Matugas is the wife of Francisco"Lalo"Tinio Matugas who coincidentally won his race for the Surigao del Norte 1st District Congressional Seat.
Francisco Matugas, an attorney and long time political activist with PPS (Partido Padajon Surigao) now becomes the regining partiarch of the region's newest dynasty. He had been running against a felow attorney, Constantino"Banjo"Navarro III, the scion of another local dynasty, the Navarro Clan (also well known to those that pay attention to the insurgency due to black sheep Father Navarro,aka the "Barefoot Priest," who became the ranking NPA CO for a decent amount of time), long allied with the Barbers. His victory could almost be considered a landslide given the steep margin of roughly 9,800 votes.
Fracnsico's brother, Ernesto"Mitoy"Matugas has become the new mayor of the province's largest city, Surigao City with his victory over ex-Governor Robert Lyndon Barbers Jr, namesake of the original partiarch, the late Senator Robert Lyndon Barbers Sr.
Perhaps most note worthy of all, the Matugas Party, PPS, swept the entire province with every town now being led by a PPS member. The closest comparison would be Lanao del Norte Province where all but 1 community is led by a single party, but of course the operative difference being that Surigao del Norte is TOTALLY in control of PPS. This doesn't bode well for the people of Surigao del Norte despite the former dynasty's alleged penchant for corruption and ineptitude. Given the personal struggle of Madame Matugas against an allegation of corruption when she was in charge of Region 13, in her former position (she retired from another region after transferring out of Region 13 because of that allegation, an allegation from which she was cleared), one hopes that the Matugas Clan will not become further proof of the ancient maxim, "Power corrupts absolutely..."
On Janurary 28, 2010 on Langihan Road in Barangay Upper Doongan, Butuan City, Agusan del Norte Province, 28 year old Roldan P.Curalde was riding his motorcycle when shot to death with a 45. Mr.Curalde who was self employed as a miner/prospector was a Campaign Organiser for MPM (Mabuting Pilipino Movement).
On May 08, 2010 in Loreto, Agusan del Sur, COMELEC had dropped off "flash cards" for the PCOS (Precinct Optical Scanners) machines to local representative Jay Actub Salinas earlier that day and Mr.Salinas had spent the better part of that day at the municipal elections office. He had just returned home that evening and was standing in front of his door when shot with a 45 caliber pistol.
Loreto, sitting on the Agusan River is isolated in terms of approaches by land so Mr.Salinas was bundled into a speed boat and transported up river to the provincial capitol, Prosperidad where he received treatment for a wound to his abdomen. Later transfered to a hospital in Tagum City in Davao del Norte Province he was able to make a recovery, albeit after a long convalescence.
Election Day, May 10, 2010, unknown parties in Bayugan, Agusan del Sur Province manufactured fake Arrest Warrants against particular candidates that sought to impeach their character in the eyes of voters.
Reversing chronologically, there were some important goings on in Bayugan, Agusan del Sur, as well as a case in Surigao City in Surigao del Norte Province.
On June 25, 2009 in at Rotunda Circumfrential Park in Barangay Poblacion, Bayugan, Agusan del Sur, Barangay Councilor and radio jounalist Jonathan "Athan"Lisondra Petalvero, 43, of Bayugan was shot to death as he stood talking with members of the BASVODA (Bayugan Association of Hired Van Operators and Drivers) having given a keynote speech inside a nearby resturant, by invitation of BASVODA President Sammy Mendoza.
Mr.Petalvero was a staunch supporter of Vice Mayor Genesis Efren, running for Mayor in 2010. Genesis Efren also owns the radio station where Mr.Petalvero worked, DXFM Frenster, in Bayugan.Efren's rival, Kim Lope Asis is the son of the (then) Mayor Magdalena Lope Asis as well as being both a Barangay Captain AND the Chairman of the ABC (Association of Barangay Captains).
Earlier that month, June of 2009, a Barangay Councilor for Barangay Ipil in Bayugan was also shot to death and like Petalvero he was a supporter of Vice Mayor Efren.
On July 28, 2009 at the Municipal Health Center[sic] in ComVal Province, 39 year old Crispin Lenaban was arrested in a joint apprehension by ComVal Provincial PNP (Philippine National Police), PNP RID (Regional Intelligence Division and PRO (Police Regional Office) #13. His Warrant was issued by RTC (Regional Trial Court) #30, Branch #32 in surigao City, for Double Murder, Hiway Robbery and Posession of Firearms. Some may recall that Lenaban was wanted in the murders of COMELEC Officer Wenifreda Taer, her son who was a serving Provincial Board Councilor for Surigao del Norte Province, Rodulfo Taer and fellow Board Councilor Dominador Dandan, all of Alegria, Surigao del Norte. He was 1 of 2 gunmen, 1 with a 45, the other with a 9MM pistol. The 2nd gunman remains unknown.
Political Developments for the Second Quarter of 2010, Part V: Misamis Election Related Violence
Election 2010 (May 10, 2010) was violent countrywide, as Elections always are in the Philippines. Of course Mindanao always bears the brunt of this violence and Misamis Occidental was no exception, sadly. Though less volataile than other parts of the island it still gained no immunity from the bloodletting. Located in North-Central Mindanao, bordering Misamis Oriental Province, the Zamobanga Peninsula, and Lanao del Norte Province the low intensity conflict is unavoidable, geography being what it is.
The first incident took place on December 5th, 2009 in the municipality of Concepcion when a Barangay Captain from the Nacionalista Party was killed by a man armed with a 45 pistol. In an unusual turn of events however the killer was arrested in March of 2010 in the province's Oroquieta City. The sad and highly predictable news is that he remained mum as to who had contracted the killing and the circumstances surrounding it.
On December 20th, 2009 in Barangay Tabo-o in the town of Jimenez local political affairs journalist Daniel "Danny" Pilar was feeding his chickens at the back of his home when an unknown attacker threw an M79 fragmentation grenade over his roof in an attempt to kill him. The grenade landed on the rear portion of the roff before rolling down the highly inclined tarpaper and landed between two slots in a large jalousie window. Unfortunately, Mr. Pilar's father in law, Rodolfo Dulam, was sitting in a chair next to that window reading a newspaper when it detonated. Critically wounded he was rushed to the hospital as the entire family immediately entered the government's brand new Witness Protection Program [sic] which operates very differently from Western programmes of that sort in that one need not be involved in a court proceeding to take advantage of it. Journalists, a very vulnerable demographic in the Philippines have become a hot item on the political agenda with the new Task Force 211 having been created for the investigation of violent crimes against them, thus enabling them to also take advantage of the aforementioned programme.
Mr.Pilar had voluntarily put his local television programme, "Analysis" on a 1 year hiatus and had just restarted production 2 weeks prior to the attack. He had been working on a story targeting a local politician and the Election being what it is, voila. His show, on Misamis Cable Channel #6 focuses on misdeeds of local politicians and overall corruption.
March 6th, 2010 in Barangay Maca-libre Bajo in Oroquieta City, Barangay Captain Lopez Jaena was shot to death by two men who were both armed with 45 pistols. On Election Day votes were still openly bought even though the incumbent was dead, showing just how deeply entrenched these practices really are.
April 13th, 2010 in the municipality of Plaridel a Lakas-KAMPI-CMD campaign organiser was killed by an unknown gunman with a 45 caliber pistol.
That same day in Ozamiz City's Barangay Bacolod the Barangay Captain shot a Liberal Party campaign worker to death in a fight over the Liberal Party candidate, his rival for higher office (Barangay Elections are in October).
The next day, April 14th, 2010, at 4PM on Don Anselmo Bernard Avenue on the borders of Barangays Catadman and Manabay, in Ozamiz City, Barangay Councilor and ex-radio journalist Edwin Sigue (sometimes misspelled as "Segue") was shot to death as he drove his SUV. The killer, riding tandem on a motorcycle shot him three times with a 45 caliber pistol as Mr.Sigue was en route to Clarin in that same province.
Though Mr.Sigue had resigned from his jounalism position after winning his seat as a Barangay Councilor in the previous election (2007), his show had been concentrating on political issues and the station carrying it, FM-DXDB, based in Ozamiz City, reported that they had still been receiving death treats over the issues he had discussed. He was also working as a part time Election Co-ordinator for a candidate running in the 2010 Election for Vice Governor with the campaign being based in Ozamiz City. Shortly before he was killed he had been pressured and threatened to stop his work for that candidate so that it is believed he was killied because of that other candidate and/or his past journalism work and not neccessarily because of his own position as a Councilor.
On April 16th, 2010 in Barangay San Isidro in the town of Calamba, Barangay Councilor and Lakas-KAMPI-CMD party organiser Luciano Sayson was killed making him the 5th Barangay official to be killed in Calamba this Election (I cannot give details on the others since I was unable to find any corroborative information). Reportedly, his death makes 2 Barangay Councilors and 3 Barangay Captains killed just in that 1 small community.
That same day in Barangay Upper Dapitan in the town of Concepcion, Barangay Captain Danny Elianic, a supporter of incumbent Mayor Pilota, was approached by Roldan Tinae, a well known gunman for (then) Vice Mayor Juanidy Vina who was hoping to unseat Mayor Pilota. Sensing that Vina wanted to do more than talk, Elianic made a run for it. As he correctly surmised, Tinae began unloading shots from his 45 caliber pistol causing Elianic to jump off a roadside cliff and into a steep ravine. Hitting the bottom, he escaped death by rolling as Tinae furiously took pot shots, luckily missing him.
Also in Concepcion, on April 23rd, 2010 in Barangay Marugang, Vina's gunmen terrorised most of the barangay, a strong support base for Mayor Pilota. Reading off of a list of addresses they began strafing particular homes. Luckily noone was killed but several children were badly injured in the stampede of frightened residents trying to escape the mayhem.
In this same town, on April 28th, 2010 a Barangay Councilor who supports Mayor Pilota was walking with his wife, heading to their home in the cool of the evening when 2 men riding tandem on a motorcycle rushed by, the man on the rear shooting the Councilor, Dario Elonor to death. Luckily his wife was uninjured.
On May 03, 2010 in this same town, Concepcion, Mayor Benjamin Dequina Pilota Jr., a retired AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) Colonel formally requested that COMELEC (Election Authority) place the town under its control so as to avoid predicted violence. Cognisant of the issues involved at Election Time Mayor Pilota specifically requested that any AFP detachments deployed be posted outside of affected barangays so as to avoid a uniformed presence that might intimidate prospective voters. His request also specifically mentioned Vice Mayor and rival for the Mayoralty, Juanidy Vina, and alleges that Vina is in violation of the COMELEC imposed maximum on number of Armed Men in a Security Detail.
His request was denied but the extra attention apparently ended up doing the trick because after the earlier bursts of violence Vina left well enough alone and refrained from acting out again.
Friday, May 7th, 2010 in the municipality of Sincaban, incumbent Mayoral candidate Dello Lood found himself the subject of a PNP SAF (Special Action Force) raid on his compound, supposedly for weapons related to a small paramilitary commanded by Lood.The Warrant, issed by Judge Rio Concepcion Anchas of Ozamis City in that same province was for a single residence, only for firearms but when the Warran was executed it was done so by a single PNP officer, Amazingly, this single officer was a PO1, the lowest rank in the PNP.
The PNP PO1 whose name was never released, as is often the case when such things are swept under the rug didnt pay more than a glance at Lood's own house but instead scoured the home of Lood's aunt who resides next to Lood, within that same compound. As the PNP officer exited the aunt's home Lood, who had been summoned by one of his servants who wasted no time in calling the Mayor, led a boisterous crowd who could fairly be described as a howling mob. They deamnded that the officer drop the bag he was carrying out of the aunt's home. The officer refused, made a dash for his official vehicle and quickly locked himself inside as the crowd nearly over-turned the auto.
The terrified officer summon allied municipal officials who managed to negotiate a deal with the crowd that allowed them to search the bag. Searching the bag they were stunned to find nearly 300,000 Pesos. Lood quickly checked his cash reserves of nearly 1 million Pesos (roughly 20,000 US) and found almost 700,000 missing. At that point the officer knew he'd been had and begged to be allowed to surrender with some semblance of safety. The municipal officials on site negotiated the issue and the officer was escorted to Governor Loreto Leo Ocampos and permitted to surrender to him.
It is worth noting that not only were no firearms found in either of the two homes searched, Lood's and his aunts, the Warrant was not executed properly, nor was it issued properly since the Judge in question, Rio Concepcion Anchas, did not have jurisdiction over Sinabacan. His powers of authority ended in the neighbouring municipality of Jimenez.
That weekend on Camiguin Island, off the coast of Misamis Oriental Province, some journalists ran into a very worrying situation. Long the bastion of the Romulado Clan it is extremely well known as being rife with political corruption though actual violence is rare owing to the vice like grip, almost dictatorial, exerted by that family. The journalists in question are all local stringers who sell footage and/or reports based upon predicted public interest. What better way to make some money then than to take a short ferry ride out to Camiguin?
It began with a mysterious SMS (text) message from Rolando Gono, a news jock on 106.3 FM in Cagayan de Oro City, in Misamis Oriental Province. The SMS, sent to friends and fellow journalists, father and son Herbert Hugo Dumaguing, 43, and Hubert Junior, in which Gono said that he was surrounded by Romulado paramilitary soldiers who were man handling him and he felt imminent danger was at hand. The Dumaguins who freelance video news footage with the father as anchor and Hubert on camera then rushed to their comrade's aid.
A truly news worthy issue in the province was the victory of a member of the famed Jalosjos Clan of Zamboanga del Sur Province who won the Mayoralty of Baliango, in Misamis Occidental Province. The Jalosjos are a political dynasty I had talked about when I did my entry on Zamboanga and its extra-heavy Election Related Violence. The Clan Patriarch Romeo (his actual name) fell from grace when convicted in 1995 of Statutory Rape against a 13 yearold girl. Sentenced to 2 Life Sentences his ally, former-President Gloria M. Arroyo commuted his sentence to Time Served, 13 years, 5 months and 5 days citing his "Good Time Allowance" (Hey! I thought he used THAT allowance in 1995!).
He was released in time to see two sons unseat the Hofer Dynasty, the Clan ruling neighbouring Zamboanga Sibugay Province, an upset most (including myself) did not see coming. More to the point, THIS Jalosjos, daughter Sveltana, caused alot of controversy since according to all but her closest supporters, she has never lived in Misamis Occidental. As expected people filed Grievances with COMELEC on this issue and on July 30th, 2010 COMELEC ruled that indeed she had failed to prove residency and so she has been unseated.
The first incident took place on December 5th, 2009 in the municipality of Concepcion when a Barangay Captain from the Nacionalista Party was killed by a man armed with a 45 pistol. In an unusual turn of events however the killer was arrested in March of 2010 in the province's Oroquieta City. The sad and highly predictable news is that he remained mum as to who had contracted the killing and the circumstances surrounding it.
On December 20th, 2009 in Barangay Tabo-o in the town of Jimenez local political affairs journalist Daniel "Danny" Pilar was feeding his chickens at the back of his home when an unknown attacker threw an M79 fragmentation grenade over his roof in an attempt to kill him. The grenade landed on the rear portion of the roff before rolling down the highly inclined tarpaper and landed between two slots in a large jalousie window. Unfortunately, Mr. Pilar's father in law, Rodolfo Dulam, was sitting in a chair next to that window reading a newspaper when it detonated. Critically wounded he was rushed to the hospital as the entire family immediately entered the government's brand new Witness Protection Program [sic] which operates very differently from Western programmes of that sort in that one need not be involved in a court proceeding to take advantage of it. Journalists, a very vulnerable demographic in the Philippines have become a hot item on the political agenda with the new Task Force 211 having been created for the investigation of violent crimes against them, thus enabling them to also take advantage of the aforementioned programme.
Mr.Pilar had voluntarily put his local television programme, "Analysis" on a 1 year hiatus and had just restarted production 2 weeks prior to the attack. He had been working on a story targeting a local politician and the Election being what it is, voila. His show, on Misamis Cable Channel #6 focuses on misdeeds of local politicians and overall corruption.
March 6th, 2010 in Barangay Maca-libre Bajo in Oroquieta City, Barangay Captain Lopez Jaena was shot to death by two men who were both armed with 45 pistols. On Election Day votes were still openly bought even though the incumbent was dead, showing just how deeply entrenched these practices really are.
April 13th, 2010 in the municipality of Plaridel a Lakas-KAMPI-CMD campaign organiser was killed by an unknown gunman with a 45 caliber pistol.
That same day in Ozamiz City's Barangay Bacolod the Barangay Captain shot a Liberal Party campaign worker to death in a fight over the Liberal Party candidate, his rival for higher office (Barangay Elections are in October).
The next day, April 14th, 2010, at 4PM on Don Anselmo Bernard Avenue on the borders of Barangays Catadman and Manabay, in Ozamiz City, Barangay Councilor and ex-radio journalist Edwin Sigue (sometimes misspelled as "Segue") was shot to death as he drove his SUV. The killer, riding tandem on a motorcycle shot him three times with a 45 caliber pistol as Mr.Sigue was en route to Clarin in that same province.
Though Mr.Sigue had resigned from his jounalism position after winning his seat as a Barangay Councilor in the previous election (2007), his show had been concentrating on political issues and the station carrying it, FM-DXDB, based in Ozamiz City, reported that they had still been receiving death treats over the issues he had discussed. He was also working as a part time Election Co-ordinator for a candidate running in the 2010 Election for Vice Governor with the campaign being based in Ozamiz City. Shortly before he was killed he had been pressured and threatened to stop his work for that candidate so that it is believed he was killied because of that other candidate and/or his past journalism work and not neccessarily because of his own position as a Councilor.
On April 16th, 2010 in Barangay San Isidro in the town of Calamba, Barangay Councilor and Lakas-KAMPI-CMD party organiser Luciano Sayson was killed making him the 5th Barangay official to be killed in Calamba this Election (I cannot give details on the others since I was unable to find any corroborative information). Reportedly, his death makes 2 Barangay Councilors and 3 Barangay Captains killed just in that 1 small community.
That same day in Barangay Upper Dapitan in the town of Concepcion, Barangay Captain Danny Elianic, a supporter of incumbent Mayor Pilota, was approached by Roldan Tinae, a well known gunman for (then) Vice Mayor Juanidy Vina who was hoping to unseat Mayor Pilota. Sensing that Vina wanted to do more than talk, Elianic made a run for it. As he correctly surmised, Tinae began unloading shots from his 45 caliber pistol causing Elianic to jump off a roadside cliff and into a steep ravine. Hitting the bottom, he escaped death by rolling as Tinae furiously took pot shots, luckily missing him.
Also in Concepcion, on April 23rd, 2010 in Barangay Marugang, Vina's gunmen terrorised most of the barangay, a strong support base for Mayor Pilota. Reading off of a list of addresses they began strafing particular homes. Luckily noone was killed but several children were badly injured in the stampede of frightened residents trying to escape the mayhem.
In this same town, on April 28th, 2010 a Barangay Councilor who supports Mayor Pilota was walking with his wife, heading to their home in the cool of the evening when 2 men riding tandem on a motorcycle rushed by, the man on the rear shooting the Councilor, Dario Elonor to death. Luckily his wife was uninjured.
On May 03, 2010 in this same town, Concepcion, Mayor Benjamin Dequina Pilota Jr., a retired AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) Colonel formally requested that COMELEC (Election Authority) place the town under its control so as to avoid predicted violence. Cognisant of the issues involved at Election Time Mayor Pilota specifically requested that any AFP detachments deployed be posted outside of affected barangays so as to avoid a uniformed presence that might intimidate prospective voters. His request also specifically mentioned Vice Mayor and rival for the Mayoralty, Juanidy Vina, and alleges that Vina is in violation of the COMELEC imposed maximum on number of Armed Men in a Security Detail.
His request was denied but the extra attention apparently ended up doing the trick because after the earlier bursts of violence Vina left well enough alone and refrained from acting out again.
Friday, May 7th, 2010 in the municipality of Sincaban, incumbent Mayoral candidate Dello Lood found himself the subject of a PNP SAF (Special Action Force) raid on his compound, supposedly for weapons related to a small paramilitary commanded by Lood.The Warrant, issed by Judge Rio Concepcion Anchas of Ozamis City in that same province was for a single residence, only for firearms but when the Warran was executed it was done so by a single PNP officer, Amazingly, this single officer was a PO1, the lowest rank in the PNP.
The PNP PO1 whose name was never released, as is often the case when such things are swept under the rug didnt pay more than a glance at Lood's own house but instead scoured the home of Lood's aunt who resides next to Lood, within that same compound. As the PNP officer exited the aunt's home Lood, who had been summoned by one of his servants who wasted no time in calling the Mayor, led a boisterous crowd who could fairly be described as a howling mob. They deamnded that the officer drop the bag he was carrying out of the aunt's home. The officer refused, made a dash for his official vehicle and quickly locked himself inside as the crowd nearly over-turned the auto.
The terrified officer summon allied municipal officials who managed to negotiate a deal with the crowd that allowed them to search the bag. Searching the bag they were stunned to find nearly 300,000 Pesos. Lood quickly checked his cash reserves of nearly 1 million Pesos (roughly 20,000 US) and found almost 700,000 missing. At that point the officer knew he'd been had and begged to be allowed to surrender with some semblance of safety. The municipal officials on site negotiated the issue and the officer was escorted to Governor Loreto Leo Ocampos and permitted to surrender to him.
It is worth noting that not only were no firearms found in either of the two homes searched, Lood's and his aunts, the Warrant was not executed properly, nor was it issued properly since the Judge in question, Rio Concepcion Anchas, did not have jurisdiction over Sinabacan. His powers of authority ended in the neighbouring municipality of Jimenez.
That weekend on Camiguin Island, off the coast of Misamis Oriental Province, some journalists ran into a very worrying situation. Long the bastion of the Romulado Clan it is extremely well known as being rife with political corruption though actual violence is rare owing to the vice like grip, almost dictatorial, exerted by that family. The journalists in question are all local stringers who sell footage and/or reports based upon predicted public interest. What better way to make some money then than to take a short ferry ride out to Camiguin?
It began with a mysterious SMS (text) message from Rolando Gono, a news jock on 106.3 FM in Cagayan de Oro City, in Misamis Oriental Province. The SMS, sent to friends and fellow journalists, father and son Herbert Hugo Dumaguing, 43, and Hubert Junior, in which Gono said that he was surrounded by Romulado paramilitary soldiers who were man handling him and he felt imminent danger was at hand. The Dumaguins who freelance video news footage with the father as anchor and Hubert on camera then rushed to their comrade's aid.
A truly news worthy issue in the province was the victory of a member of the famed Jalosjos Clan of Zamboanga del Sur Province who won the Mayoralty of Baliango, in Misamis Occidental Province. The Jalosjos are a political dynasty I had talked about when I did my entry on Zamboanga and its extra-heavy Election Related Violence. The Clan Patriarch Romeo (his actual name) fell from grace when convicted in 1995 of Statutory Rape against a 13 yearold girl. Sentenced to 2 Life Sentences his ally, former-President Gloria M. Arroyo commuted his sentence to Time Served, 13 years, 5 months and 5 days citing his "Good Time Allowance" (Hey! I thought he used THAT allowance in 1995!).
He was released in time to see two sons unseat the Hofer Dynasty, the Clan ruling neighbouring Zamboanga Sibugay Province, an upset most (including myself) did not see coming. More to the point, THIS Jalosjos, daughter Sveltana, caused alot of controversy since according to all but her closest supporters, she has never lived in Misamis Occidental. As expected people filed Grievances with COMELEC on this issue and on July 30th, 2010 COMELEC ruled that indeed she had failed to prove residency and so she has been unseated.
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