Edwin Brigano's arrest early New Year's Day may have been the only blatant Ceasefire faux paux by the Philippine Government but it wasn't the last arrest of a major NDFP/CPP/NPA figure in the lead up to the formal resumption of the Peace Process on February 15, 2011. Just 4 days later an even larger NPA luminary would be taken down, and end up wearing a bullet for his trouble. If Brigano was considered a big fish for leading an NPA Front Command, how much more valuable was the arrest of Tirso "Ka Bart" Alcantara who commands an entire Regional Committee? Indeed, in his prime Alcantara nearly gained control over the entire NPA nationwide, but those days are long gone and today Alcantara leads the Southern Luzon Regional Committee.
Today Alcantara still busies himself with Tactical Planning but nearing his mid-60s he has gotten a bit too soft in the britches. How else then to explain just why he allowed himself to forgo the number one rule of revolutionries the world over by becoming a creature of habit? At 830PM on January 5, 2011, Alcantara and fellow NPA member Apolonio "Ka Polly" Cuatro had just left an NPA safehouse in Lucena City's Barangay Ibabang Iyam in Quezon Province when his luck finally ran out. A joint operation by Quezon PPO (Police Provincial Office) and the 1st Special Forces Battalion of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) fell upon him. Disregarding a command to raise his hands Alcantara ended up with a bullet in his rear.
The AFP would soon defend the operation claiming that Alcantara brought it all upon himself by reaching for a 45 caliber pistol tucked into his waistband. After securing their two prisoners the combined force recovered two hand grenades,nine blasting caps and five meters of detonating cord. Taken on 23 separate warrants for among other things, 8 counts of Murder and 2 counts of Robbery in a Band, Alcantara was down for the count. Intially taken to SOLCOM (Southern Luzon Command of the AFP) Headquarters Hospital at Lucena City's Camp Nakar he was soon transferred to Metro Manila's V.Luna Hospital where he was handcuffed with both wrists to the bed frame, in excruciating pain.
Naturally the NDFP/CPP/NPA screamed bloody murder, swearing up and down that Alcantara is yet another JASIG (Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees) protected NDFP "Consultant to the Peace Process." Still, as loud as their collective voices screamed then, it would be nothing like the din they would raise on the initial opening of the resumed Talks in Oslo on February 15th. Just a day earlier, February 14th at 630PM the combined forces of the Baliuag MPO (Municipal Police Office) and the 56IB (Infantry Battalion) snared the Government's biggest catch yet, Alan Jazmines.
63 year old Jazmines is the Secretary General of the CPP, or Communist Party of the Philippines. Elected in 2008 as a compromise between two competing factions the ex-university lecturer cum poet slash Communist ideologue was arrested on 13 separate Murder charges in Barangay Subic in Bulacan Province's Baliuag. Initially taken to Camp Santos in Malolos, Bulacan he was quickly transferred to Camp Crame in Metro Manila's Quezon City. Coming as it did just hours before the Talks began there were critics from both ends of the political spectrum. Definitely not one of the brighter acts undertaken by the Government. When Jazmines protested, claiming JASIG protection, he was reportedly told, "F-ck JASIG." If any one quote could succinctly describe the GPH take on the Agreement, THAT would be it.
With Jazmine's incarceration the NDFP claim of wrongly jailed JASIG protected personalities topped out at 15 people. However, other than briefly, albeit strongly, touching upon these 15 cases in NDFP Peace Panel Chairperson Luis Jalandoni's Opening Speech on February 15th, THAT issue would have to wait until formal introduction vis a vis the Talks' itinerary.
As the second day began at 10AM on February 16th the two Panels agreed to re-convene Reciprocal Working Committees for the 2nd Component of the 4 Part Interim Agreement, or as both Panels refer to it in this embryonic stage,"Four Part Substantiative Agreement." The 4 components:
1) Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, aka "CARHRIHL." CARHRIHL was jointly signed on March 16, 1998.
2) Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reform, or "CASER." When Talks last ended in 2004 the 2 Peace Panels had agreed upon the Preamble and little more than its Declaration of Principles. CASER is considered to be the most difficult component and is the one being dealt with currently, with both sides aiming to sign it by September of 2011.
3) Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Constitutional Reforms, or "CAPCR."
4) Comprehensive Agreement on End of Hostilities and Disposition of Forces, or "CAEoH/DoF," though it is usually abbreviated as EoH/DoF.
The second facet, CASER, as noted is barely past the very first portion of that large facet. The Reciprocal Working Committee for CASER, or RCW-SER (RCW-Social Economic Reforms) was tasked with working out its own schedule within the facet's stated time frame.
Next the Panels discussed formation of Working Committees, or "WCs," to try and gain a head start on the 3rd facet,the Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Constitutional Reform. The idea being to ease the effort of the yet to be formed Reciprocal Working Committees (RWC) on the 3rd component, RWC-PCRs. The WCs will each have 1 Chairperson, 2 members, and 2 consultants. Though they did butt heads at this First Formal Round they will hold a series of bi-lateral meetings, the first to be held in April of 2011. There after they will hold 1 bi-lateral meeting in June and then again in August. The goal as it stands is the convening of RWC-PCRs by October of 2011. Each RWC-PCR can empanel a 3 to 5 person "Committee of Sages" or "Resource Persons."
Last on the agenda that second day, February 16th was the re-conveneing of the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) for CARHRIHL,the first component. The JMC-CARHRIHL had been disbanded not long after its last meeting in July of 2005. Since that time, nearly 6 years, no mechanism existed to receive complaints regarding perceived violations of CARHRIHL by either side. With no entity to receive these complaints absolutely nothing was done about them. At the re-convening the JMC discussed producing a set of Supplemental Guidelines on the JMC and agreed to submit a Draft on the issue at a later, still unspecified date. They also began working to establish Protocols for the Complaint Process vis a vis CARHRIHL and finally,agreed to meet in March of 2011.
Days 3 and 4, February 17th and 18th, consisted of the aforementioned RWC-SER, WC-PCR and JMC-CARHRIHL getting back into the groove as their compatriots on the actual Panels brainstormed amongst themselves.
The RCW-SERs began by simply removing each side's RWC's progress since their initial formation in 2001. As I have noted both in this entry and the preceding entry (Part I) the RWCs had been able to agree on Preamble and Declaration of Principles. Then the RWCs decided on a revised set of guidelines for their component's development process. In doing this they took into account the April of 2004 list of unresolved issues on the component. Lastly, the 2 RWCs agreed on a schedule of 3 bi-lateral meetings:
1) 2nd week of June, 2011, to discuss basis, scope and applicability. Currently there are still major conceptualisation and ideation issues. The NDFP aims for Agrarian Reform, but GPH refuses to even touch it above and beyond the ridiculous CARP and CARPER, virtually worthless programmes. I will discuss those Governmental boondoggles and NDFP opposition to them in an entry on CASER. For the sake of brevity, the GPH approached the NDFP's Agrarian Reform wishlist by referring to "Asset Reform." It needs to be noted that 2 weeks prior to this first bi-lateral meeting both RWCs will exchange Working Drafts on CASER, so that the 1st meeting is a revision meeting more than anything.
2) 2nd week of August, 2011, will serve to iron out whatever kinks still remain.
3) 4th week of August, 2011, simply to concur on any last minute additions or deletions.
On the 5th day of the Talks, February 19th, the entire day consisted of both Panels engaging in a plenary session regarding 5 issues:
1) JASIG Violations that had occurred in the 6 year interval between Formal Talks. Naturally most of this session was devoted to the afore mentioned 15 arrestees, especially Brigano, Alcantara and Jazmines.
2) Both Panels attempted to come to some sort of a consensus regarding acceptable lists on JASIG protected individuals. This is no easy feat in that despite JASIG having 2 subsequent signed Agreements that sought to rectify the very ambiguous wording regarding the issues of JASIG ID and the identity of ID holders since, per the Agreement, the JASIG IDs are printed under fictitious names.
3) The 2 Panels then heard the initial report of the just re-convened RCW-SERs.
4) They then heard the reports of the just re-convened WG-PCRs.
5) Finally,they heard the report of the just re-convened JMC-CARHRIHL.
Because of the limited amount of time the 6th day, February 20th was reserved for completion of the previous day's plenary session.
On the final day, February 21st, both Panels issued a Joint Communique after which a brief Closing Ceremony was held and finally both Panel Chairpersons, the GPH's Alex Padilla and the NDFP's Luis Jalandoni held the customary Question and Answer Session. Except for a near bombshell of a revelation by Jalandoni, which was fully confirmed by Padilla, there was nothing worth noting. The bombshell being that the CPP/NPA is no longer considered to be a terrorist organisation by the Government. The listing had been the product of vindictiveness when the NDFP/CPP/NPA had refused then President Arroyo's precondition of an unconditional ceasefire prior to sitting backdown to the table in the early months of her Presidency. It took her nearly three years but in 2004 she got her wish as the United States ridiculously added the CPP/NPA to its list of terrorist organisations. When the EU moved to follow suit the Talks collapsed.It is was a positive development indeed because truth be told, for all its very real faults, the CPP/NPA is far from anything "terrorist." No word as to whether President Aquino will move to have the US re-consider its placement of the group on its list.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Kidnap for Ransom,Second Quarter of 2011,Part V:The Release of Soken Chew Mantigue and How it Plays Directly into the MILF-BIAF Infighting
At 430AM on Tuesday, May 24,2011 Asila"Kumander Gordon"Syafullah,the Commanding Officer of the BIAF (Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces,armed wing of the MILF) National Guard Base Command telephoned the MILF CCCH (Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities) Secretariat Chairman,Rashid Ladlasan to notify him that the BIAF had taken custody of Soken"Angelina"Chew Mantigue after handing over the still undisclosed ransom to"former"BIAF guerilla Boy Calvo.Chairman Ladiasan then quickly notified his GPH (Government of the Philippines) counterpart,Major General Carlos Sol and asked the General to rendevouz with 3 MILF representatives who would accompany him to retrieve the victim.By 530AM Major General Sol and his escorts had arrived at the riverside clearing in Barangay Taviran in the town of Kabutalan,Maguindanao Province to await Kumander Gordon and his man who were travelling overland from the release site in that municipality's Barangay Dadtumeg.Before too long the BIAF force emerged from the jungle and Major General Sol formally took custody of Ms.Mantigue from the BIAF.
Major General Sol then drove the shaken victim directly to 6th Infantry Division Headquarters at Camp Siongco in Barangay Awang,Datu Odin Sinsuat in that same province,Maguindanao.It was in the Camp Siongco Hospital that Ms.Mantigue's grateful husband and children were able to finally relax a bit,knowing that their wife and mother had survived none the worse for the wear.
In follow up operations that morning the PNP (Philippine National Police) stumbled across some unhappy BIAF guerillas and a brief firefight ensued in which one police officer was critically wounded.Still,the day was hailed as a success by both the MILF/BIAF and the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) as well as the Government as a whole.The MILF claimed that Ms.Mantigue had been"rescued"by the BIAF after it had seized 3 BIFF (Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters) whom they then held hostage as bargaining chips.The BIFF of course is the new group of Islamic Insurgents led by the infamous Ustadz Ameril Ombra Kato.Kato was the man single handedly responsible for starting the 2008 War (aka MoA-AD War,or Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain War) when he invaded and occupied 5 municipalities in North Cotabato Province.At the time Kato was the CO (Commanding Officer) of the BIAF's largest Base Command,the 105.
As the war wound down in the middle of 2009 the MILF negotiated a Ceasefire with the Government (GPH) and didn't bother consulting Kato.Then,in an effort to buy goodwill in a resumption of the MILF-GPH Peace Process the BIAF removed Kato from Command,replacing him with his much more moderate Second in Command,Zacarias Goma.The MILF then assigned Kato to their Shar'ia Court (Islamic Court) as a lowly legal aide.To add insult to injury they claimed it was a promotion.Kato formally resigned from the MILF/BIAF and took virtually the entire 105 Base Command with him.At the same time members of the BIAF 109 Command and members of the former Ampatuan CVO/CAFGU (Civilian Volunteer Organization/Citizen Auxiliary Force Geographical Unit,Force Multiplication elements ubder the PNP and AFP respectively) joined forces with Kato's burgeoning guerilla force.
Despite this turn of events both the MILF/BIAF and BIFF have tried walking a very fine line between rejecting each other and re-integrating.The BIFF wear teeshirts emblazoned with their own initials,"BIFF" with"of the MILF"under it as if to portray itself as an MILF armed organisation.In late March of this year the MILF Central Committee issued a Resolution demanding that Kato remove the MILF initials as well as for the BIFF to stop claiming an association.On the other hand it has been stating publicly that Kato was still an MILF member and that they would welcome him and his men back into the fold should he ever decide to follow the dictates of the MILF/BIAF hierarchy.
While the MILF/BIAF would have no qualms about kidnapping members of KFR (Kidnap for Ransom) groups,it would not dare to directly oppose the BIFF.The BIAF is in shambles as I have noted in other recent MILF entries.Those guerillas not actually joining Kato usually sympathise with his direct pull no punches methodology.Likwise there has been a rash of defections to the MNLF,both the MNLF-Misuari as well as MNLF-EC15 (Executive Committee of 15,aka MNLF-Sema).In fact,it is the MNLF-EC15 that is directly responsible for the Mantigue KFR,as noted in my previous KFR entry for the Second Quarter of 2011.
The day after Ms.Mantigue was released,Wednesday,May 25,2011 the new governmental taskforce taking aim at Tsinoy (Filipinos of Chinese descent) KFRs in that particular area went to the media with a strongly worded condemnation of both the Mantigue Family as well as invectives against other governmental entities obstensibly taking aim at the Tsinoy KFR problem.TF Kutawato,created by the Department of Justice to uncover local political clout attached to the main KFR Group responsible for the Cotabato City kidnappings says that the Mantigue Family had had CCTV (Closed Circuit TV,Security Cameras) footage clearly showing the identities of the 4 kidnappers posing as customers.After the men dragged Ms.Mantigue kicking and screaming into incognito the family quickly took the tape and gave it to their parish priest,worried that the highly connected kidnappers would come back if they turned it over to local authorities.The priest then took it upon himself to turn over the tape to PACER (Presidential Anti-Crime and Emergency Response).TF Kutawato maintains thatif they had been able to view the tape they would have been able to launch a rescue operation.As I noted in that afore mentioned entry on KFR,that is the last thing any intelligent person would want since Filipino Authorities have absolutely no finesse in hostage situations.
The 4 customers cum kidnappers:
1) Kumander Taylor Silongan
2) Sammy Tilaka
3) Kadaffy Guiamalon
4) Datukan Kalbo
The 4 were sub-contracted by Boy Calvo on behalf of Manyangkang Saguile,himself working for none other than MNLF-EC15 Chairman Muslimin Sema.Sema of course is ALSO the Vice Mayor of Cotabato City...ergo TF Kutawato.Ah what a tangeled web.
Major General Sol then drove the shaken victim directly to 6th Infantry Division Headquarters at Camp Siongco in Barangay Awang,Datu Odin Sinsuat in that same province,Maguindanao.It was in the Camp Siongco Hospital that Ms.Mantigue's grateful husband and children were able to finally relax a bit,knowing that their wife and mother had survived none the worse for the wear.
In follow up operations that morning the PNP (Philippine National Police) stumbled across some unhappy BIAF guerillas and a brief firefight ensued in which one police officer was critically wounded.Still,the day was hailed as a success by both the MILF/BIAF and the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) as well as the Government as a whole.The MILF claimed that Ms.Mantigue had been"rescued"by the BIAF after it had seized 3 BIFF (Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters) whom they then held hostage as bargaining chips.The BIFF of course is the new group of Islamic Insurgents led by the infamous Ustadz Ameril Ombra Kato.Kato was the man single handedly responsible for starting the 2008 War (aka MoA-AD War,or Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain War) when he invaded and occupied 5 municipalities in North Cotabato Province.At the time Kato was the CO (Commanding Officer) of the BIAF's largest Base Command,the 105.
As the war wound down in the middle of 2009 the MILF negotiated a Ceasefire with the Government (GPH) and didn't bother consulting Kato.Then,in an effort to buy goodwill in a resumption of the MILF-GPH Peace Process the BIAF removed Kato from Command,replacing him with his much more moderate Second in Command,Zacarias Goma.The MILF then assigned Kato to their Shar'ia Court (Islamic Court) as a lowly legal aide.To add insult to injury they claimed it was a promotion.Kato formally resigned from the MILF/BIAF and took virtually the entire 105 Base Command with him.At the same time members of the BIAF 109 Command and members of the former Ampatuan CVO/CAFGU (Civilian Volunteer Organization/Citizen Auxiliary Force Geographical Unit,Force Multiplication elements ubder the PNP and AFP respectively) joined forces with Kato's burgeoning guerilla force.
Despite this turn of events both the MILF/BIAF and BIFF have tried walking a very fine line between rejecting each other and re-integrating.The BIFF wear teeshirts emblazoned with their own initials,"BIFF" with"of the MILF"under it as if to portray itself as an MILF armed organisation.In late March of this year the MILF Central Committee issued a Resolution demanding that Kato remove the MILF initials as well as for the BIFF to stop claiming an association.On the other hand it has been stating publicly that Kato was still an MILF member and that they would welcome him and his men back into the fold should he ever decide to follow the dictates of the MILF/BIAF hierarchy.
While the MILF/BIAF would have no qualms about kidnapping members of KFR (Kidnap for Ransom) groups,it would not dare to directly oppose the BIFF.The BIAF is in shambles as I have noted in other recent MILF entries.Those guerillas not actually joining Kato usually sympathise with his direct pull no punches methodology.Likwise there has been a rash of defections to the MNLF,both the MNLF-Misuari as well as MNLF-EC15 (Executive Committee of 15,aka MNLF-Sema).In fact,it is the MNLF-EC15 that is directly responsible for the Mantigue KFR,as noted in my previous KFR entry for the Second Quarter of 2011.
The day after Ms.Mantigue was released,Wednesday,May 25,2011 the new governmental taskforce taking aim at Tsinoy (Filipinos of Chinese descent) KFRs in that particular area went to the media with a strongly worded condemnation of both the Mantigue Family as well as invectives against other governmental entities obstensibly taking aim at the Tsinoy KFR problem.TF Kutawato,created by the Department of Justice to uncover local political clout attached to the main KFR Group responsible for the Cotabato City kidnappings says that the Mantigue Family had had CCTV (Closed Circuit TV,Security Cameras) footage clearly showing the identities of the 4 kidnappers posing as customers.After the men dragged Ms.Mantigue kicking and screaming into incognito the family quickly took the tape and gave it to their parish priest,worried that the highly connected kidnappers would come back if they turned it over to local authorities.The priest then took it upon himself to turn over the tape to PACER (Presidential Anti-Crime and Emergency Response).TF Kutawato maintains thatif they had been able to view the tape they would have been able to launch a rescue operation.As I noted in that afore mentioned entry on KFR,that is the last thing any intelligent person would want since Filipino Authorities have absolutely no finesse in hostage situations.
The 4 customers cum kidnappers:
1) Kumander Taylor Silongan
2) Sammy Tilaka
3) Kadaffy Guiamalon
4) Datukan Kalbo
The 4 were sub-contracted by Boy Calvo on behalf of Manyangkang Saguile,himself working for none other than MNLF-EC15 Chairman Muslimin Sema.Sema of course is ALSO the Vice Mayor of Cotabato City...ergo TF Kutawato.Ah what a tangeled web.
Monday, May 23, 2011
GPH-NDFP Peace Process, First Quarter of 2011, Vol.I: Preliminary Talks in Oslo, Norway and Three Arrests Worth Noting
Following the tet a tet in Hong Kong on December 2nd and 3rd, 2010, the two Panels agreed to hold Preliminary Talks from January 14th to the 21st in Oslo, Norway. Foremost on the NDFP's agenda was the re-implementation of JASIG, or the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees. JASIG was created on February 24th, 1995 and is designed to allow free movement and freedom from arrest and prosecution for all NDFP personnel directly involved with the Peace Process. Under former President Arroyo JASIG had been formally suspended on August 3rd, 2005 (though it then remained in effect for 30 days past that date) not long after the CPP/NPA/NDFP had officially withdrawn from negotiations owing to President Arroyo's successful lobbying of the United States to have the CPP/NPA added to America's list of terrorist organisations.
In other developments from Hong Kong, both sides re-affirmed Norway's role as the Facilitator to the Peace Process. Unlike the GPH-MILF Peace Process with Malaysia as Facilitator, Norway doesn't simply appoint a single individual but rather a Secretariat, though different terminology is used. In real terms, Norwegian Ambassador to the Philippines, Tore Lundh, is Chairing that Facilitation Secretariat and so, for better or for worse, Ambassador Lundh gets tarred as the "Facilitator."
Having had a 6 year break between Formal Rounds both sides had to play formal catch up. In other words, in the interim both sides- especially the NDFP- were assesing and re-assesing all prior Agreements as to continued viability, currency and so on. However, jumping back into the Peace Process requires certain diplomatic protocols and formalities. One such formality is the decison to re-assess prior Agreements despite them having been constantly re-assesed during the long wait.
The NDFP, predictably, raised the issue of recent NPA arrestees whom they claim are NDFP Consultants to the Peace Process. According to JASIG Consultants will be issued identifying documents from the NDFP specifying their status as Consultants. These unspecified "documents" will then serve as Safe Conduct Passes allowing free and unmolested movement throughout the Philippines, as well as allowing travel into and out of the country. JASIG is ambiguous on the type of ID as well as not requiring any type of notification to the Government about who is serving as Consultants at any given time (or serving at all, though there were 2 additional Agreements on JASIG that are supposed to help rectify this problem), nor even the total number of members doing so. The NDFP then manipulates the Agreement by claiming that every high placed arrestee is protected under JASIG. On the other side of the coin, the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, absolutely ignores the Agreement except for the 4 actual members of the NDFP Peace Panel.
When the meeting in Hong Kong took place the NDFP claimed 15 arrestees were being held in violation of the Agreement.In particular 3 of those members:
1) Rafael Baylosis
2) Randall Echanis
3) Vicente Ladlad
were labelled as absolutely "vital" to the next phase of the Process, CASER (Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms). Ergo it was asked that their releases be expedited so as to allow them to participate by the opening of Formal Resumption, on February 15th, 2011. However, between the meeting's conclusion on December 3rd, 2010 and the opening of the Preliminary Talk on January 14th three more names were added to the overall list. At 3AM on New Years Day, January 1st, 2011 Edwin "Ka Julie" Brigano was arrested in Davao City on Mindanao.
Brigano, who also used the nom de guerre "Ka Patao" had availed himself to an offer made by that city's Vice Mayor, Rodrigo "Roddy" Duterte. A local warlord himself, Duterte sits with his daughter Sarah Duterte Carpio as Mayor since his term limit as Mayor expired in 2010. Duterte has led Davao City since the late 1980s after coming to a working agreement with local NPA leader Leonicio "Ka Parago" Pitao. At the time almost the entire city was controlled by the NPA but because of organisational wide internal purges its parallel city government was unable to exert proper control and the city was turning into a warzone as various state-sanctioned paramilitaries asserted themselves under the greatly weakened NPA. When Duterte rose to power it was only because Ka Parago had guaranteed him the vote in NPA-controlled barangays and districts. After winning that first election as Mayor in 1988 he entered into a more permanent arrangement with Ka Parago so as to end the bloodshed engulfing Davao City as the NPA and state sponsored paramilitaries took it to the street in a life and death struggle for supremacy.
Realising that the key to long lasting success is the fostering of what the Philippine Government likes to call, "Peace and Development" but what in reality can be very simply stated as "pesos." Duterte and Ka Parago agreed that the NPA would receive carte blanche to run its parallel government in three outlying city districts:
1) Toril
2) Paquibato
3) Marilog
and to a lesser extent Calinan and Baguio Districts as well. For this concession Ka Parago vowed that he would limit any NPA tactical operations to those three districts and moreover would relegate armed activities to security operations such as armed patrols and the like. Duterte also agreed to pay Ka Parago a healthy sum each month and to occasionally offer logistical and materiel support as well but that is a sordid tale for another time.
After the meeting in Hong Kong both sides announced a 16 day Ceasefire (covered in my NPA entry for the last quarter of 2010). Vice Mayor Duterte then went a step further and invited any and all NPA members who wished to, to come to Davao City and enjoy the holiday without fear of hassles from the AFP or PNP (Philippine National Police). In fact, Duterte even invited Ka Parago to an all expence paid holiday at the city's finest hotel, on the city's tab. As "grateful" as Ka Parago was he instead invited the Vice Mayor and his daughter, the Mayor, up to his camp in Paquibato District for a different take on the holiday. In fact father and daughter DID end up taking Ka Parago up on his offer, albeit very quietly and low key.
Meanwhile, an NPA leader from ComVal (Compostela Valley Province) decided to enjoy a safe and secure holiday in a nice warm bed. Coming out of the ComVal mountains Edwin Brigano made his way to his mother in law's home in Toril District's Barangay Bago Gallera. Much to his suprise, with 3 days left on the Ceasefire, he was pulled out of bed, hooded and hogtied. Adding to Brigano's discomfort was the fact that he had just taken a hiatus from his role within the organisation, as Secretary, or leader of Front 33, the Armando Dumandan Command in order to obtain much needed medical care for Hepatitis and a respritory illness he had acquired in the jungle.
Vice Mayor Duterte was beyond livid. He immediately began berating PNP Inspector Pedro V.Tango, Director of the Davao del Sur PPO (Police Provincial Office).The following week things heated up by several degrees as Duterte took to the airwaves on his weekly Sunday morning television show, "Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa" (From the Masses, to the Masses). In the best tradition of dictators the world over, men like Hugo Chavez, Manuel Noriega and Moamar Khadaffy (Ghadaffi), Duterte's "show" is a 3 hour long exercise in non-sensical and egotistical rhetoric. Personally, my favourite "episode" was when Duterte invited Chinese drug lords to his city to open methamphetamine labs so that he could lock their doors and set fire to the buildings with them inside it. Others might prefer the numerous times he has admitted orchestrating death squads that target 12 year old "criminals." Duterte is the quinessential Mindanowan politico.
On the Sunday in question Duterte actually said the following, speaking in Cebuano, the lingua franca amongst non-Muslims on Mindanao, "There are bright Generals, but this Tango is not using the grey matter between his ears. If you create a bigger problem, if you are incompetent and don't know what you are doing for the country then you must go!" It was a classic Duterte moment because the raid wasn't even conducted by PPO Davao del Sur. Inspector Tango had absolutely nothing to do with it. It was undertaken by the PNP's CIDG-11 (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Region XI) and SAF, the PNP Special Forces. Tango definitely earned my respect in how he handled himself following those comments. Mindanao is an island where one sees the most arrogant pissant tin soldier type of mentality (as typified by old Roddy). I mean, anyone who sits for a Newsweek (US based international news magazine) piece and brags about killing people extra-judicially is beyond a carticature of "macho" or "Alpha Male," and yet juxtaposed against Vice Mayor Duterte's unabashed arrogance was Inspector Tango, not meekly but magnanimously offering that even though he wasn't responsible,he holds no grudges against Davao City's benevolent dictator. Of course it is always possible that Tango is a even more of a real man and simply settles scores privately. In the end, Tango was set to retire on April 29th when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 56. Two weeks prior to that date Duterte sponsored a dinner feting the man, apparently having realised that he had been completely mistaken over the responsibility in the Brigano Case. After the meal Duterte told the media that Tango rated an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. Tango offered that it was all water under the bridge, that he had never blamed Duterte.
And what of Edwin Brigano? He was nabbed on 2 separate warrants. The first from RTC (Regional Trial Court) #6 under Judge Patricio Balite in Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur Province was for Double Frustrated Murder. The second, from RTC #3 under an unnamed jurist in Nabunturan, ComVal, was for Rebellion, the generic charge slapped on every Communist guerilla though for some unknown reason it is rarely utilised against any Muslim guerilla. I suppose that the Government MIGHT believe the phrase "Muslim Rebel" to be redundant. Brigano claims to have never having been to Agusan del Sur Province despite it being 4km from his boyhood home. In fact, prior to leading Front 33 he had led Front 2 whose AOR (Area of Responsibility) happens to include much of Agusan del Sur. On January 3rd, 2011 Brigano's attorney filed an urgent motion in RTC #3 in ComVal asking the court to compel CIDG-11 to produce Brigano in front of the court. The motion claimed that CIDG had no intention of allowing Brigano his day in the sun per his Constitutional Rights. More over, the motion claimed that CIDG personnel were subjecting Brigano to mental torture. The last allegation was sheer theatrics given the fact that anybody who wished to was allowed to vist with Brigano outside his cell.
In fact, two of his elder sisters visited him that same Wednesday. One of the women, only a year older than her 53 year old brother told how Brigano was asked to tend their elder brother's farm one day back in 1978. Left alone tending the crops and critters in Barangay Casoon in Comval's municipality of Monkayo, the 18 year old simply disappeared without a word to anyone. Despite leading an NPA element in another part of the province he never once tried to contact his grief stricken family. The woman's daughter had been watching the television news just the day before seeing Brigano doing the Perp Walk for the cameras. The girl, who had never met her uncle, excitedly told her mother that the arrestee looked just like an uncle she did know, Brigano's much younger brother. The family had believed Brigano dead all these years. They had mourned him, they had moved on with life. The matriarch of the family couldn't bear to visit her son, she was still in a state of shock. She was still in denial, all the more so because "Edwin Brigano" isn't his given name. It is a new identity assumed since joining the NPA.
To be continued...
In other developments from Hong Kong, both sides re-affirmed Norway's role as the Facilitator to the Peace Process. Unlike the GPH-MILF Peace Process with Malaysia as Facilitator, Norway doesn't simply appoint a single individual but rather a Secretariat, though different terminology is used. In real terms, Norwegian Ambassador to the Philippines, Tore Lundh, is Chairing that Facilitation Secretariat and so, for better or for worse, Ambassador Lundh gets tarred as the "Facilitator."
Having had a 6 year break between Formal Rounds both sides had to play formal catch up. In other words, in the interim both sides- especially the NDFP- were assesing and re-assesing all prior Agreements as to continued viability, currency and so on. However, jumping back into the Peace Process requires certain diplomatic protocols and formalities. One such formality is the decison to re-assess prior Agreements despite them having been constantly re-assesed during the long wait.
The NDFP, predictably, raised the issue of recent NPA arrestees whom they claim are NDFP Consultants to the Peace Process. According to JASIG Consultants will be issued identifying documents from the NDFP specifying their status as Consultants. These unspecified "documents" will then serve as Safe Conduct Passes allowing free and unmolested movement throughout the Philippines, as well as allowing travel into and out of the country. JASIG is ambiguous on the type of ID as well as not requiring any type of notification to the Government about who is serving as Consultants at any given time (or serving at all, though there were 2 additional Agreements on JASIG that are supposed to help rectify this problem), nor even the total number of members doing so. The NDFP then manipulates the Agreement by claiming that every high placed arrestee is protected under JASIG. On the other side of the coin, the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, absolutely ignores the Agreement except for the 4 actual members of the NDFP Peace Panel.
When the meeting in Hong Kong took place the NDFP claimed 15 arrestees were being held in violation of the Agreement.In particular 3 of those members:
1) Rafael Baylosis
2) Randall Echanis
3) Vicente Ladlad
were labelled as absolutely "vital" to the next phase of the Process, CASER (Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms). Ergo it was asked that their releases be expedited so as to allow them to participate by the opening of Formal Resumption, on February 15th, 2011. However, between the meeting's conclusion on December 3rd, 2010 and the opening of the Preliminary Talk on January 14th three more names were added to the overall list. At 3AM on New Years Day, January 1st, 2011 Edwin "Ka Julie" Brigano was arrested in Davao City on Mindanao.
Brigano, who also used the nom de guerre "Ka Patao" had availed himself to an offer made by that city's Vice Mayor, Rodrigo "Roddy" Duterte. A local warlord himself, Duterte sits with his daughter Sarah Duterte Carpio as Mayor since his term limit as Mayor expired in 2010. Duterte has led Davao City since the late 1980s after coming to a working agreement with local NPA leader Leonicio "Ka Parago" Pitao. At the time almost the entire city was controlled by the NPA but because of organisational wide internal purges its parallel city government was unable to exert proper control and the city was turning into a warzone as various state-sanctioned paramilitaries asserted themselves under the greatly weakened NPA. When Duterte rose to power it was only because Ka Parago had guaranteed him the vote in NPA-controlled barangays and districts. After winning that first election as Mayor in 1988 he entered into a more permanent arrangement with Ka Parago so as to end the bloodshed engulfing Davao City as the NPA and state sponsored paramilitaries took it to the street in a life and death struggle for supremacy.
Realising that the key to long lasting success is the fostering of what the Philippine Government likes to call, "Peace and Development" but what in reality can be very simply stated as "pesos." Duterte and Ka Parago agreed that the NPA would receive carte blanche to run its parallel government in three outlying city districts:
1) Toril
2) Paquibato
3) Marilog
and to a lesser extent Calinan and Baguio Districts as well. For this concession Ka Parago vowed that he would limit any NPA tactical operations to those three districts and moreover would relegate armed activities to security operations such as armed patrols and the like. Duterte also agreed to pay Ka Parago a healthy sum each month and to occasionally offer logistical and materiel support as well but that is a sordid tale for another time.
After the meeting in Hong Kong both sides announced a 16 day Ceasefire (covered in my NPA entry for the last quarter of 2010). Vice Mayor Duterte then went a step further and invited any and all NPA members who wished to, to come to Davao City and enjoy the holiday without fear of hassles from the AFP or PNP (Philippine National Police). In fact, Duterte even invited Ka Parago to an all expence paid holiday at the city's finest hotel, on the city's tab. As "grateful" as Ka Parago was he instead invited the Vice Mayor and his daughter, the Mayor, up to his camp in Paquibato District for a different take on the holiday. In fact father and daughter DID end up taking Ka Parago up on his offer, albeit very quietly and low key.
Meanwhile, an NPA leader from ComVal (Compostela Valley Province) decided to enjoy a safe and secure holiday in a nice warm bed. Coming out of the ComVal mountains Edwin Brigano made his way to his mother in law's home in Toril District's Barangay Bago Gallera. Much to his suprise, with 3 days left on the Ceasefire, he was pulled out of bed, hooded and hogtied. Adding to Brigano's discomfort was the fact that he had just taken a hiatus from his role within the organisation, as Secretary, or leader of Front 33, the Armando Dumandan Command in order to obtain much needed medical care for Hepatitis and a respritory illness he had acquired in the jungle.
Vice Mayor Duterte was beyond livid. He immediately began berating PNP Inspector Pedro V.Tango, Director of the Davao del Sur PPO (Police Provincial Office).The following week things heated up by several degrees as Duterte took to the airwaves on his weekly Sunday morning television show, "Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa" (From the Masses, to the Masses). In the best tradition of dictators the world over, men like Hugo Chavez, Manuel Noriega and Moamar Khadaffy (Ghadaffi), Duterte's "show" is a 3 hour long exercise in non-sensical and egotistical rhetoric. Personally, my favourite "episode" was when Duterte invited Chinese drug lords to his city to open methamphetamine labs so that he could lock their doors and set fire to the buildings with them inside it. Others might prefer the numerous times he has admitted orchestrating death squads that target 12 year old "criminals." Duterte is the quinessential Mindanowan politico.
On the Sunday in question Duterte actually said the following, speaking in Cebuano, the lingua franca amongst non-Muslims on Mindanao, "There are bright Generals, but this Tango is not using the grey matter between his ears. If you create a bigger problem, if you are incompetent and don't know what you are doing for the country then you must go!" It was a classic Duterte moment because the raid wasn't even conducted by PPO Davao del Sur. Inspector Tango had absolutely nothing to do with it. It was undertaken by the PNP's CIDG-11 (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Region XI) and SAF, the PNP Special Forces. Tango definitely earned my respect in how he handled himself following those comments. Mindanao is an island where one sees the most arrogant pissant tin soldier type of mentality (as typified by old Roddy). I mean, anyone who sits for a Newsweek (US based international news magazine) piece and brags about killing people extra-judicially is beyond a carticature of "macho" or "Alpha Male," and yet juxtaposed against Vice Mayor Duterte's unabashed arrogance was Inspector Tango, not meekly but magnanimously offering that even though he wasn't responsible,he holds no grudges against Davao City's benevolent dictator. Of course it is always possible that Tango is a even more of a real man and simply settles scores privately. In the end, Tango was set to retire on April 29th when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 56. Two weeks prior to that date Duterte sponsored a dinner feting the man, apparently having realised that he had been completely mistaken over the responsibility in the Brigano Case. After the meal Duterte told the media that Tango rated an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. Tango offered that it was all water under the bridge, that he had never blamed Duterte.
And what of Edwin Brigano? He was nabbed on 2 separate warrants. The first from RTC (Regional Trial Court) #6 under Judge Patricio Balite in Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur Province was for Double Frustrated Murder. The second, from RTC #3 under an unnamed jurist in Nabunturan, ComVal, was for Rebellion, the generic charge slapped on every Communist guerilla though for some unknown reason it is rarely utilised against any Muslim guerilla. I suppose that the Government MIGHT believe the phrase "Muslim Rebel" to be redundant. Brigano claims to have never having been to Agusan del Sur Province despite it being 4km from his boyhood home. In fact, prior to leading Front 33 he had led Front 2 whose AOR (Area of Responsibility) happens to include much of Agusan del Sur. On January 3rd, 2011 Brigano's attorney filed an urgent motion in RTC #3 in ComVal asking the court to compel CIDG-11 to produce Brigano in front of the court. The motion claimed that CIDG had no intention of allowing Brigano his day in the sun per his Constitutional Rights. More over, the motion claimed that CIDG personnel were subjecting Brigano to mental torture. The last allegation was sheer theatrics given the fact that anybody who wished to was allowed to vist with Brigano outside his cell.
In fact, two of his elder sisters visited him that same Wednesday. One of the women, only a year older than her 53 year old brother told how Brigano was asked to tend their elder brother's farm one day back in 1978. Left alone tending the crops and critters in Barangay Casoon in Comval's municipality of Monkayo, the 18 year old simply disappeared without a word to anyone. Despite leading an NPA element in another part of the province he never once tried to contact his grief stricken family. The woman's daughter had been watching the television news just the day before seeing Brigano doing the Perp Walk for the cameras. The girl, who had never met her uncle, excitedly told her mother that the arrestee looked just like an uncle she did know, Brigano's much younger brother. The family had believed Brigano dead all these years. They had mourned him, they had moved on with life. The matriarch of the family couldn't bear to visit her son, she was still in a state of shock. She was still in denial, all the more so because "Edwin Brigano" isn't his given name. It is a new identity assumed since joining the NPA.
To be continued...
Sunday, May 22, 2011
The GPH-NDFP Peace Process for the Second Quarter of 2011: CASER, Part I
The Filipino penchant for acronyms are a writer's nightmare. Either one operates under the assumption that their readership is just as anally retentive as they are in being up to date with obscure groupings of capital letters or else a writer can easily become the modern day equivalent of Tristram Shandy. For those not recognising that name, he was an 18th Century literary character who would take twenty pages just to describe the weather. I try to compensate by defining most acronyms and including the definition in parentheses, or else immediately after the acronym itself. Now that I have put you to sleep...
The NDFP, or National Democratic Front of the Philippines, was formerly known as the NDF. Recognising that the world is full of NDFs the deeply thinking pseudo-intellectuals of the Philippine far left conceptualised, after much internal debate, an addition to differentiate THEIR NDF from all the others. Their brainstorm of course was to simply add the word "Philippines" at the end. This leap of imagination best typifies a movement that sees the Long March as the pinnacle of human existence. The NDFP itself was created in 1971 (officially though it was founded on April 24, 1973) as a way in which to semi-legitamise the Leftist gameplan. Since the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) went underground along with its armed wing the NPA (New Peoples Army) early on the powers that be feared marginalisation as the opposition to then dictator Ferdinand Marcos grew and more mainstream segments of Philippine society began heeding the drum call and joing the struggle to topple then dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The solution was an above board organisational umbrella with which to control the vast majority of hard Left, and even the center Left student organisations,labor unions and NGO/CSOs,known in AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) parlance as, "Multi-Sectoral Front Organizations," [sic] or "Sectoral Front Organizations" [sic] in shorthand.
When the NPA finally entered the Peace Process at the dawn of the post-Marcos Era the CPP decided that it would be much safer to approach the negotiations in a tenative manner rather than having the CPP surface and suddenly re-enter the political arena. First and foremost were security concerns. While the nation was full of optimism and good cheer noone really knew which way the wind was blowing. More over, the AFP and PC (Philippine Constabulary, the paramilitary national police force entirely dedicated to Counterinsurgency) hadn't been purged. The same Marcos Era goons that had grown so adept at torture were still in the driver's seat. As is the case in most any nation,the armed forces are the real power independent of who is sitting as president.
Ergo the GPH-NDFP Peace Process is actually the GPH-CPP/NPA/NDFP Peace Process. "GPH" of course is the jazzy new acronym for the "Government of the Philippines." The new Administration, under President Aquino, so despised its predecessor under former President Arroyo, that it even tossed its acronym out with the trash (actually, it lobbied the international body that configures universal acronyms to change it). As they say, "Out with the old and in with the new," goodbye GRP, Government of the Republic of the Philippines, hello GPH, Government of the Philippines.
As I noted in my "GPH-NDFP Peace Process for the First Quarter of 2011" entry, the First Round of the resumed Peace Process took place in Oslo,Norway. from February 15th to the 21st, 2011. The Process, as I noted in that entry,had begun way back in 1992 making it the second oldest set of negotiations in the country.They have a long way to go before they have a chance of eclipsing the MNLF whose Talks began in 1974. Let us hope and pray that never happens. Still, at the rate that the NDFP Talks are currently taking it may just happen.
With this in mind President Aquino has set an 18 to 36 month window for a Final Peace Agreement. Ambitious to say the least. How much more so when neither side has officially sat down with one another since 2004 and barely evrn began the second of four Interim Agreements that must precede that FPA. When last they met the Arroyo Government had just succeeded in getting the United States to add the CPP and NPA to its list of Terrorist Organisations. More over, the EU had begun following suit and was debating doing the same. This listing has very real reprecussions. All bank accounts and liquid assets are immediately frozen, air travel ends, and if one is abroad they are almost always deported to their home nation since their travel documents are rescinded.In 2004 the CPP/NPA/NDFP leadership was in voluntary exile in the Netherlands. At home in the Philippines the Arroyo Government had secured trumped up Arrest Warrants against most of the combined leadership for multiple counts of murder under the doctrine of Command Responsibility. Among other things these developments placed the NDFP Peace Panel directly under the Government's thumb on the negotiating table. The NDFP really didn't have a choice in immediately ending any and all negotiations.
Drawing on the "Hague Joint Declaration of Principles" (1992) as a blueprint for the FPA, the Process was divided into four scantily defined phases.Without timetables, or Comprehensive Compacts, Peace Process speak for Interim Agreements. The Peace Panels were to hammer out each of the four modules separately, one at a time. The 4 modules:
1) CARHRIHL, or Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, defines each sides perception on how to best observe basic Human Rights and extant International Humanitarian Law.
2) CASER, or Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms, is the crux of the FPA, the vast bulk of the CPP/NPA/NDFP catalogue of grievances involve disparities in the availability and administration of social justice along with a desire for economic parity. The module is broken down into facets such as issues concerning IPs (Indigenous Peoples, the Philippine non-sensical label applied to primarily Animist Hilltribes), especially the perennial white elephant AD (Ancestral Domain). AD has defined five of the nation's insurgencies:
A) MNLF/BMA (Moro National Liberation Front/Bansamoro Armed Forces)
B) MILF/BIAF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front/Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces)
C) CPLA (Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army)
D) RPM-M (Revolutionary Proletariat Movement of Mindanao
E) NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines/New Peoples Army)
It attaches economic and cultural rights to large portions of rural land.Administered currently through NCIP (National Commission on Indigenous Peoples) it allows organisational representatives to obtain title (CADs,or Certificates of Ancestral Domain) to these large portions of land in the name of specific tribes. The CAD holder can then enter into financial arrangements centering on exploitation of natural resources. The issue is considered so central to an FPA that the failure to secure a joint agreement on the issue in the Summer of 2008 led to an actual war, the afore mentioned War of 2008.
Another facet is Agrarian Reform. The CPP/NPA/NDFP feels that the nation's previous attempts at equitable settlements and land re-distribution had failed miserably. In the Administration of Corazon "Cory" Aqunio, the President's late mother, the Government implemented CARP, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Package. Then, in 2009, then President Arroyo merely took it out of its box and shined it up a bit. Her package, CARPER,or CARP Extension with Reforms, offers absolutely no substaniative differences. The CPP et al's main problem with the two programmes is that both charge the recipient for land. They view it as non-sensical since landless farmers are indigent at best and more often than not they are completely destitute. Then,having no training in how to budget, handle responsibilities associated with land ownership and offering absolutely no materiel support (such as irrigation, post-harvest conditioning like rice dryers or spraying) there isn't much room for success. A good many recipients end up right back in debt and then end up selling their plots back to big land owners at low prices. Thus it is deemed by the CPP/NPA/NDFP (amongst others) as merely being a bandaid. Instead the correctly argue that any Agarian Reform package should work to treat the festering sore underneath the skin, not just offer a topical, cosmetic solution. I will go into great detail about this and other facets and modules in an upcoming entry.
Another important aspect concerns something the CPP/NPA/NDFP calls "National Industrialization" [sic]. Basically it's a tuned up "Nationalisation" scheme that takes aim at the multi-nationals dominating certain industries like mining or large scale agricultural plantations. Understandably the Government doesn't even want to touch it. In fact, it has been contesting the very phrase which was included in the NDFP proffered Draft on CASER way back in 1998. When the two sides had last met, in April of 2004, they had just had hammered out the CASER Preamble and opened the discussion on CASER's Joint Declaration of Princples. That is basically where both sides were when the Peace Process began anew this past February.
3) CAPCR, or Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Constitutional Reforms. Naturally, nothing has been accomplished with regard to this module which has been given a 6 month window,to be completed by February of 2012. As I said, President Aquino is ambitious to say the least.
4) EoH/DoF, or End of Hostilities and Disposition of Forces. This last module will be the easiest, with both sides very sure of the final structure. The MNLF of course faced a similar hurdle and managed it reasonably well, all things considered. Almost 6,000 guerillas were absorbed, or "Integrated" into the AFP and PNP (Philippine National Police). Will the NPA go the same route, it is very doubtful. I reckon they will convert into similarly structured elements concentrating on community service endeavours but since this module hasn't even been tabled in Informal Rounds it would be pre-mature to discuss the "what ifs" to say the least. The window given for this module is a mere 4 months. Usually panels attempt to reach FPAs by discussing their easiest components first and then spending most time and energy on solving the more difficult points. To the credit of the new GPH Panel it has insisted upon reversing the formula. Tackling the most difficult of the three remaining modules it aims to then approach the more difficult of the remaining two, CAPCR third.
In the meantime the two Panels have assigned their respective RCWs (Reciprocal Working Committees) the onerous task of hashing out whatever highly contentious issues may remain ahead of the next Round, in June. Having identified the most disparate of the collective demands at the February Round the Panels have assigned the RCWs the herculean task of dragging their positions closer to their counterpart's. Each RWC, or to be exact RCW-SER (RCW Social and Economic Reforms) has a Chairperson and two Committee Members. The GPH RWC-SCR is Chaired by GPH Peace Panel Member Ednar Dayanghirang and:
1) Fr.Alberto "Paring Bert" Alejo, a Jesuit Priest and academic at Ateneo de Davao University. An accomplished poet Father Bert Chairs the "Peace Studies Consortium" at Mindanao's most prestigious university. Long an advocate for non-violent political solutions Father Alejo has long involved himself with pacifist NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations) and CSOs (Civil Society Organisations, NGOs devoted to good governance and social justice issues). A member of Mindanao's"Bishop-Ulama Conference, he was chosen to Chair its "Konsult Mindanaw." Konsult, or KM, is devoted to increasing stakeholder participation in various non-violent forms of advocacy. Still, Fr.Alejo is probably best known for his concurrent role as Spokesperson for former CoA (Commission of Audit) Auditor Heidi Mendoza. Ms.Mendoza plays a central role in the Major General Carlos F.Garcia Case (a case I devoted an entire entry to, the first in what will be a series on the former officer and his cronies.
2) Dr.Fernando Aldaba, PhD, an Assistant Professor at Ateneo de Manila University, a sister institution of the Ateneo de Davao. An ex-Chairperson of the school's Economics Department Dr.Aldaba also held the Presidency of the Philippine Economics Society (PES). Highly active in both Labor Relations and economic development he has joined intiatives through the ASEAN Nations.
The NDFP RWC-SER Chairperson is Juliet de Lima (as in Juliet de Lima Sison) with Committee Members:
1) Randall "Ka Randy" Echanis, a member of the CPP's Central Committe has spent a good part of the last 40 years in prison. Arrested in 1983 by none other than Senator Gregorio "Gringo" Hosanan who at that point led the Presidenti Security Group (PSG, a much feared Marcos Era special military force and Intelligence apparatus designed to stave off coup attempts against Marcos). Echanis was then placed in solitary confinement in Camp Aguinaldo,the AFP Heaquarters in Metro Manila's Quezon City before being shipped to Cebu. Released in 1992 Echanis returned to his commitments, true to form.
In 2008 Echanis was no longer working underground. Spending most of his time doing Labour Organising and performing outreach work, he was conducting a Forum for the National Federation of Sugar Workers involving the outlining of the then pending HB #3059, otherwise known as GARB, or Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill. As Echanis talked at Building Trainers Center [sic] in Negros Island's Barangay Calumangan, Bago City, Negros Occidental Province, a joint element of AFP and PNP raided the building and served Echanis with a warrant out of Leyte Island's Leyte Province accusing him of Multiple Murder for a mass grave discovered in Hilongos, Leyte. Not accused of direct, or even indirect participation, the warrant was predicated upon the aforementioned protocol of Commamd Responsibility. Since Echanis was sitting on the CPP Central Committe when the atrocity took place, and had retained that position ever since, under the principle of Command Responsibility he was just as guilty for the atrocity. Along with Echanis, his wife Erlinada Lacaba Echanis and their 2 year old daughter Amanda were incarcerated as well, making their toddler the youngest politiprison inmate in Modern Filipino History.
Released in 2009 as a concession to the CPP/NPA/NDFP in a bid to finally re-start the Peace Process, the NDFP gave him official status as a Peace Process Consultant,the primary rationale being to provide him with protection from yet another arrest and incarceration via the aforementioned JASIG.
2) Rafael Baylosis, is a former Secretary General of the CPP as well as currently serving on the party's Central Committee. No stranger to jail himself, Mr.Baylosis was nabbed in 1988 as he and five other extremely high ranking members of the movement were just pulling away from the curb in Manila's San Juan District. The arrest by a joint force from the IS-AFP and NISF (Naval Intelligence Security Force) came at the tail end of a 2 month period that had grabbed the bulk of the CPP and NPA leadership.
The 2 month period was itself part of 4 year period in which the party turned inward and began attacking its own. This in-fighting is known popularly as the DPA Purge. DPA, or Deep Penatration Agent, has never existed. The closest thing to it had been a Magsaysay Era deployment of a look-alike force that eventually decimated nearly everyone in one large and notable Huk cell. The DPA Purge then was merely the usual Leftist paranoia that has plagued every single Communist Movement. The closest thing to a DPA vis a vis the NPA were NPA members were induced to become informants for the Government. A "DPA" denotes actual Government personnel who then join the NPA as spies. This has b
As for RWC-SER Chairpersons, GPH's Edgar Dayanghirang is a Mindanowan Lumad ("Lumad" being a Cebuano equivalent to the Tagalog labeled"Tingguians"or"Igorotes." All three terms denote Animist Hilltribes). Mr.Dayanghirang is a mango farmer cum cable public access fixture in the Davao City area. His appointment to the GPH Peace Panel marks his first substantial role in government.
Mr Dayanghirang's. NDFP counterpart is. Ms.Julieta de Lima Sison, none other than the wife of CPP/NPA founder, Jose Maria "Joma" Sison. Living with her husband in Utrecht the Netherlands,she isn't that familiar with people outside the movement's hierarchy. Like Mr.Echanis and Mr.Baylosis the JASIG Guarantees have served as the impetus behind her appointments.
To be continued...
The NDFP, or National Democratic Front of the Philippines, was formerly known as the NDF. Recognising that the world is full of NDFs the deeply thinking pseudo-intellectuals of the Philippine far left conceptualised, after much internal debate, an addition to differentiate THEIR NDF from all the others. Their brainstorm of course was to simply add the word "Philippines" at the end. This leap of imagination best typifies a movement that sees the Long March as the pinnacle of human existence. The NDFP itself was created in 1971 (officially though it was founded on April 24, 1973) as a way in which to semi-legitamise the Leftist gameplan. Since the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) went underground along with its armed wing the NPA (New Peoples Army) early on the powers that be feared marginalisation as the opposition to then dictator Ferdinand Marcos grew and more mainstream segments of Philippine society began heeding the drum call and joing the struggle to topple then dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The solution was an above board organisational umbrella with which to control the vast majority of hard Left, and even the center Left student organisations,labor unions and NGO/CSOs,known in AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) parlance as, "Multi-Sectoral Front Organizations," [sic] or "Sectoral Front Organizations" [sic] in shorthand.
When the NPA finally entered the Peace Process at the dawn of the post-Marcos Era the CPP decided that it would be much safer to approach the negotiations in a tenative manner rather than having the CPP surface and suddenly re-enter the political arena. First and foremost were security concerns. While the nation was full of optimism and good cheer noone really knew which way the wind was blowing. More over, the AFP and PC (Philippine Constabulary, the paramilitary national police force entirely dedicated to Counterinsurgency) hadn't been purged. The same Marcos Era goons that had grown so adept at torture were still in the driver's seat. As is the case in most any nation,the armed forces are the real power independent of who is sitting as president.
Ergo the GPH-NDFP Peace Process is actually the GPH-CPP/NPA/NDFP Peace Process. "GPH" of course is the jazzy new acronym for the "Government of the Philippines." The new Administration, under President Aquino, so despised its predecessor under former President Arroyo, that it even tossed its acronym out with the trash (actually, it lobbied the international body that configures universal acronyms to change it). As they say, "Out with the old and in with the new," goodbye GRP, Government of the Republic of the Philippines, hello GPH, Government of the Philippines.
As I noted in my "GPH-NDFP Peace Process for the First Quarter of 2011" entry, the First Round of the resumed Peace Process took place in Oslo,Norway. from February 15th to the 21st, 2011. The Process, as I noted in that entry,had begun way back in 1992 making it the second oldest set of negotiations in the country.They have a long way to go before they have a chance of eclipsing the MNLF whose Talks began in 1974. Let us hope and pray that never happens. Still, at the rate that the NDFP Talks are currently taking it may just happen.
With this in mind President Aquino has set an 18 to 36 month window for a Final Peace Agreement. Ambitious to say the least. How much more so when neither side has officially sat down with one another since 2004 and barely evrn began the second of four Interim Agreements that must precede that FPA. When last they met the Arroyo Government had just succeeded in getting the United States to add the CPP and NPA to its list of Terrorist Organisations. More over, the EU had begun following suit and was debating doing the same. This listing has very real reprecussions. All bank accounts and liquid assets are immediately frozen, air travel ends, and if one is abroad they are almost always deported to their home nation since their travel documents are rescinded.In 2004 the CPP/NPA/NDFP leadership was in voluntary exile in the Netherlands. At home in the Philippines the Arroyo Government had secured trumped up Arrest Warrants against most of the combined leadership for multiple counts of murder under the doctrine of Command Responsibility. Among other things these developments placed the NDFP Peace Panel directly under the Government's thumb on the negotiating table. The NDFP really didn't have a choice in immediately ending any and all negotiations.
Drawing on the "Hague Joint Declaration of Principles" (1992) as a blueprint for the FPA, the Process was divided into four scantily defined phases.Without timetables, or Comprehensive Compacts, Peace Process speak for Interim Agreements. The Peace Panels were to hammer out each of the four modules separately, one at a time. The 4 modules:
1) CARHRIHL, or Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, defines each sides perception on how to best observe basic Human Rights and extant International Humanitarian Law.
2) CASER, or Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms, is the crux of the FPA, the vast bulk of the CPP/NPA/NDFP catalogue of grievances involve disparities in the availability and administration of social justice along with a desire for economic parity. The module is broken down into facets such as issues concerning IPs (Indigenous Peoples, the Philippine non-sensical label applied to primarily Animist Hilltribes), especially the perennial white elephant AD (Ancestral Domain). AD has defined five of the nation's insurgencies:
A) MNLF/BMA (Moro National Liberation Front/Bansamoro Armed Forces)
B) MILF/BIAF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front/Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces)
C) CPLA (Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army)
D) RPM-M (Revolutionary Proletariat Movement of Mindanao
E) NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines/New Peoples Army)
It attaches economic and cultural rights to large portions of rural land.Administered currently through NCIP (National Commission on Indigenous Peoples) it allows organisational representatives to obtain title (CADs,or Certificates of Ancestral Domain) to these large portions of land in the name of specific tribes. The CAD holder can then enter into financial arrangements centering on exploitation of natural resources. The issue is considered so central to an FPA that the failure to secure a joint agreement on the issue in the Summer of 2008 led to an actual war, the afore mentioned War of 2008.
Another facet is Agrarian Reform. The CPP/NPA/NDFP feels that the nation's previous attempts at equitable settlements and land re-distribution had failed miserably. In the Administration of Corazon "Cory" Aqunio, the President's late mother, the Government implemented CARP, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Package. Then, in 2009, then President Arroyo merely took it out of its box and shined it up a bit. Her package, CARPER,or CARP Extension with Reforms, offers absolutely no substaniative differences. The CPP et al's main problem with the two programmes is that both charge the recipient for land. They view it as non-sensical since landless farmers are indigent at best and more often than not they are completely destitute. Then,having no training in how to budget, handle responsibilities associated with land ownership and offering absolutely no materiel support (such as irrigation, post-harvest conditioning like rice dryers or spraying) there isn't much room for success. A good many recipients end up right back in debt and then end up selling their plots back to big land owners at low prices. Thus it is deemed by the CPP/NPA/NDFP (amongst others) as merely being a bandaid. Instead the correctly argue that any Agarian Reform package should work to treat the festering sore underneath the skin, not just offer a topical, cosmetic solution. I will go into great detail about this and other facets and modules in an upcoming entry.
Another important aspect concerns something the CPP/NPA/NDFP calls "National Industrialization" [sic]. Basically it's a tuned up "Nationalisation" scheme that takes aim at the multi-nationals dominating certain industries like mining or large scale agricultural plantations. Understandably the Government doesn't even want to touch it. In fact, it has been contesting the very phrase which was included in the NDFP proffered Draft on CASER way back in 1998. When the two sides had last met, in April of 2004, they had just had hammered out the CASER Preamble and opened the discussion on CASER's Joint Declaration of Princples. That is basically where both sides were when the Peace Process began anew this past February.
3) CAPCR, or Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Constitutional Reforms. Naturally, nothing has been accomplished with regard to this module which has been given a 6 month window,to be completed by February of 2012. As I said, President Aquino is ambitious to say the least.
4) EoH/DoF, or End of Hostilities and Disposition of Forces. This last module will be the easiest, with both sides very sure of the final structure. The MNLF of course faced a similar hurdle and managed it reasonably well, all things considered. Almost 6,000 guerillas were absorbed, or "Integrated" into the AFP and PNP (Philippine National Police). Will the NPA go the same route, it is very doubtful. I reckon they will convert into similarly structured elements concentrating on community service endeavours but since this module hasn't even been tabled in Informal Rounds it would be pre-mature to discuss the "what ifs" to say the least. The window given for this module is a mere 4 months. Usually panels attempt to reach FPAs by discussing their easiest components first and then spending most time and energy on solving the more difficult points. To the credit of the new GPH Panel it has insisted upon reversing the formula. Tackling the most difficult of the three remaining modules it aims to then approach the more difficult of the remaining two, CAPCR third.
In the meantime the two Panels have assigned their respective RCWs (Reciprocal Working Committees) the onerous task of hashing out whatever highly contentious issues may remain ahead of the next Round, in June. Having identified the most disparate of the collective demands at the February Round the Panels have assigned the RCWs the herculean task of dragging their positions closer to their counterpart's. Each RWC, or to be exact RCW-SER (RCW Social and Economic Reforms) has a Chairperson and two Committee Members. The GPH RWC-SCR is Chaired by GPH Peace Panel Member Ednar Dayanghirang and:
1) Fr.Alberto "Paring Bert" Alejo, a Jesuit Priest and academic at Ateneo de Davao University. An accomplished poet Father Bert Chairs the "Peace Studies Consortium" at Mindanao's most prestigious university. Long an advocate for non-violent political solutions Father Alejo has long involved himself with pacifist NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations) and CSOs (Civil Society Organisations, NGOs devoted to good governance and social justice issues). A member of Mindanao's"Bishop-Ulama Conference, he was chosen to Chair its "Konsult Mindanaw." Konsult, or KM, is devoted to increasing stakeholder participation in various non-violent forms of advocacy. Still, Fr.Alejo is probably best known for his concurrent role as Spokesperson for former CoA (Commission of Audit) Auditor Heidi Mendoza. Ms.Mendoza plays a central role in the Major General Carlos F.Garcia Case (a case I devoted an entire entry to, the first in what will be a series on the former officer and his cronies.
2) Dr.Fernando Aldaba, PhD, an Assistant Professor at Ateneo de Manila University, a sister institution of the Ateneo de Davao. An ex-Chairperson of the school's Economics Department Dr.Aldaba also held the Presidency of the Philippine Economics Society (PES). Highly active in both Labor Relations and economic development he has joined intiatives through the ASEAN Nations.
The NDFP RWC-SER Chairperson is Juliet de Lima (as in Juliet de Lima Sison) with Committee Members:
1) Randall "Ka Randy" Echanis, a member of the CPP's Central Committe has spent a good part of the last 40 years in prison. Arrested in 1983 by none other than Senator Gregorio "Gringo" Hosanan who at that point led the Presidenti Security Group (PSG, a much feared Marcos Era special military force and Intelligence apparatus designed to stave off coup attempts against Marcos). Echanis was then placed in solitary confinement in Camp Aguinaldo,the AFP Heaquarters in Metro Manila's Quezon City before being shipped to Cebu. Released in 1992 Echanis returned to his commitments, true to form.
In 2008 Echanis was no longer working underground. Spending most of his time doing Labour Organising and performing outreach work, he was conducting a Forum for the National Federation of Sugar Workers involving the outlining of the then pending HB #3059, otherwise known as GARB, or Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill. As Echanis talked at Building Trainers Center [sic] in Negros Island's Barangay Calumangan, Bago City, Negros Occidental Province, a joint element of AFP and PNP raided the building and served Echanis with a warrant out of Leyte Island's Leyte Province accusing him of Multiple Murder for a mass grave discovered in Hilongos, Leyte. Not accused of direct, or even indirect participation, the warrant was predicated upon the aforementioned protocol of Commamd Responsibility. Since Echanis was sitting on the CPP Central Committe when the atrocity took place, and had retained that position ever since, under the principle of Command Responsibility he was just as guilty for the atrocity. Along with Echanis, his wife Erlinada Lacaba Echanis and their 2 year old daughter Amanda were incarcerated as well, making their toddler the youngest politiprison inmate in Modern Filipino History.
Released in 2009 as a concession to the CPP/NPA/NDFP in a bid to finally re-start the Peace Process, the NDFP gave him official status as a Peace Process Consultant,the primary rationale being to provide him with protection from yet another arrest and incarceration via the aforementioned JASIG.
2) Rafael Baylosis, is a former Secretary General of the CPP as well as currently serving on the party's Central Committee. No stranger to jail himself, Mr.Baylosis was nabbed in 1988 as he and five other extremely high ranking members of the movement were just pulling away from the curb in Manila's San Juan District. The arrest by a joint force from the IS-AFP and NISF (Naval Intelligence Security Force) came at the tail end of a 2 month period that had grabbed the bulk of the CPP and NPA leadership.
The 2 month period was itself part of 4 year period in which the party turned inward and began attacking its own. This in-fighting is known popularly as the DPA Purge. DPA, or Deep Penatration Agent, has never existed. The closest thing to it had been a Magsaysay Era deployment of a look-alike force that eventually decimated nearly everyone in one large and notable Huk cell. The DPA Purge then was merely the usual Leftist paranoia that has plagued every single Communist Movement. The closest thing to a DPA vis a vis the NPA were NPA members were induced to become informants for the Government. A "DPA" denotes actual Government personnel who then join the NPA as spies. This has b
As for RWC-SER Chairpersons, GPH's Edgar Dayanghirang is a Mindanowan Lumad ("Lumad" being a Cebuano equivalent to the Tagalog labeled"Tingguians"or"Igorotes." All three terms denote Animist Hilltribes). Mr.Dayanghirang is a mango farmer cum cable public access fixture in the Davao City area. His appointment to the GPH Peace Panel marks his first substantial role in government.
Mr Dayanghirang's. NDFP counterpart is. Ms.Julieta de Lima Sison, none other than the wife of CPP/NPA founder, Jose Maria "Joma" Sison. Living with her husband in Utrecht the Netherlands,she isn't that familiar with people outside the movement's hierarchy. Like Mr.Echanis and Mr.Baylosis the JASIG Guarantees have served as the impetus behind her appointments.
To be continued...
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Kidnap for Ransom,Second Quarter of 2011,Part V:Soken Chew Mantigue and Malaysian National Mohammad bin Saidin
On Saturday May 14,2011 Soken"Angelina"Chew Mantigue was going about her regular routine.Most of Angelina's days are just like any other,stocking shelves,doing the books and helping to wait on customers in her family's"Sam's Grocery Center,"long a fixture in North Upi's Barangay Nuro in Maguindanao Province.Most of the time the 54 year old woman found her life boring though that's not necessarily a bad thing given her experience in 2001.Like most Tsinoy (Filipinos of Chinese descent) she and her family had weathered numerous threats,extortion attempts and even the occasional kidnapping.
In fact,in that 2001 incident Angelina had been grabbed by 4 gunmen.The men had tried to shove Angelina into a van at which point her bodyguards sprang into action and initiated a short but very bloody firefight.When the smoke cleared a few moments later 2 of her assailants lay dead with the other 2 laying critically wounded.Amazingly Angelina emerged unscathed from the affair.Notably,2001 was at the tail end of a terrible decade for area Tsinoy with 70 cases REPORTED KFRs in just the North Cotabato/Maguindanao Provincial border area.By 1998 the local Tsinoy business associations were threatening to pull out in one fall swoop.Throughout Southeast Asia Chinese minorities serve as the backbone of most local economies and in the Philippines this has always been especially so.
Though Chinese have been trading and settling here since time immemorial they have never fully assimilated.A good part of that relates to the country's colonial history.Most of the time the Spanish,who referred to the Chinese as"Sangley"in bastardised Spanish,forced them to live in tightly packed ghettos,restricted their forms of employment and so when these harsh strictures were finally relaxed the local Chinese continued reinforcing that here to fore externally imposed separate identity.Even today most Filipino cities have "Chinese Schools,"though nowadays the student bodies tend to be more Filipino than Chinese since these schools over whelmingly produce much higher achievers overall).
On Mindanao,and points south,Tsinoy tend to concentrate their business interests in retail outlets specialising in hardware and general purpose wares.However,they form the foundation of all local economies.In a population centre like Cotabato City the Tsinoy ARE the local retail economy,end of discussion.Should they pull out en masse the nation's poorest region would literally hit rock bottom.Therefore the deployment of a Marine battalion to Cotabato City in 1998,though mostly for show,satisfied Tsinoy demands.Still it was the 2000 War between the MILF and the Government that had the most positive results in terms of curtailing that spiraling KFR rate.Most KFR organisations in Mindanao are composed of BIAF (Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces,the armed wing of the MILF) guerillas.
As an insurgent organisation the MILF/BIAF doesn't provide much in the way of financial security for its members.Certain BIAF Base Commands,or armed elements,almost completely fund themselves via KFR and the related extortion that so pervades every aspect of the local economy.The 113,114,104 and 102 Base Commands,which operate in the Zamboangan Peninsula,Basilan,Liguasan Marsh and Lanao del Sur respectively are neck deep in these activities.
In the 2001 incident the 4 gunmen belonged to the infamous Pentagon Group,now extinct (contrary to the ramblings of various ignorant PNP and Government spokespeople).I have discussed the Pentagon Group in other KFR entries,including one entitled,"The Resurrection of the Pentagon Group,"so for the sake of brevity I will merely offer that the group was founded by an ex-BIAF ("ex"according to the MILF but of course not in reality) "Kumander"(the generic label used by both the MNLF/BMA and MILF/BIAF to denote anyone of authority) named Tahir"Kumander Tigre"Alonto.Alonto,who had various other monikers,such as"Kuya Allan" (Elder Brother Allan),"Kumander Ronnie" and "Conto Alonto"was an extremely charismatic man who took a moderately entrenched industry like KFR and extortion and turned it into a genuine money machine.
When Alonto was killed his group splintered into several small highly competitive factions,albeit all of them moderately allied.It was this splintering along with the afore mentioned 2000 War that led to the steep decline on KFRs,not a deployment of a single Marine BLT (Battalion Landing Team,in this case MBLT-7).With time the strongest faction emerged as the local power to reckon with and so today the name that has replaced Alonto is Makyangkang Saguile.Saguile,48 years old is native of Talayan,a municipality in Maguindanao Province though he spends most of his time in GenSan (General Santos City) in Saragani Province.A former BIAF sub-Kumamder of the 105 Base Command he is now allied with the MNLF and often uses its Camp Bad'r in his hometown of Talayan as a staging ground,as well as a means of avoiding interdiction if the dogs are close behind.
According to various political agreements both MILF/BIAF and MNLF/BMA camps are off limits to both the AFP and the PNP.If someone is being chased and runs into a camp the most that can be done is to politely ask the camp's highest ranking man to turn him over.To my knowledge that has never happened,not even once.To ignore such agreements can can be to literally cause a major war as was the case in the 2003 Buliok Complex War.Ironically,the war began as an Anti-Pentagon Group tactical operation.
With the Government adamantly claiming that it had neutralised the KFR and extortion groups in 2002 many Tsinoy,like Angelina felt no need for heavily armed entourages and so things returned to normal,or what passes for normal in this part of the world.Fast forward to the present,Saturday,May 14th,2011.Angelina sat down at the cashier's table to wait on some customers.4 young men who had been posing as customers themselves quickly surrounded her and began dragging her out the door.Though she was kicking and screaming in what amounts to a downtown shopping district noone moved to help her.Shoved into a grey Mitsubishi Lancer the group quickly sped off down Rizal Boulevard towards the neighbouring municipality of Datu Odin Sinsuat.
Ditching the auto in North Upi's Barangay Mirab and setting it on fire,the group set off on foot for the border of Datu Odin Sinsuat when a motorcycle hidden in the marsh for this leg of their escape refused to start.Picking up their trail the soldiers in pursuit tried closing in but fell back after Angelina's captors initiated a firefight.Since losing sight of the group there have been reports that she is being held in a mountainous area above that same town,Datu Odin Sinsuat.Her brother,local attorney Roland Anwar Chew is handling ransom negotiations and is currently doing his best to whittle down the initial demand of P15 Million (~$310,000).
The latest"Natural Cure"craze has led a foreign national to the Southern Philippines and into captivity.50 year old Mohammad Nasaruddin bin Saidin of Sungai Buloh,Selangor a suburb of Kuala Lampur arrived on Jolo Island in Sulu Province in late April,2011 with his friend Abdulgafar bin Akkirulla.Akkirulla,a dual Malaysian/Philippine citizen raised in Malaysia had assured bin Saidin that he could lead him to a low-cost supplier of Spotted Geckos.Known in the Philippines as"Tukos"due to their distinctive call the lizard is quite common here,albeit not nearly as common as its much smaller cousins that are found on most any any interior wall.As common as it certainly is,Philippine Law protects the species due to its moderate popularity in the West as a pet.
Why all the fuss?Practitioners of Chinese Herbal Medicine have long used the Tuko's dried innards as panacea but within the last year the creature has become known outside of the Chinese Community as a fix-all curative.With people claiming it can cure cancer or even HIV-AIDs its price has skyrocketed.The smallest lizards are selling in Mindanao for P300 (~$6.25) and one large specimen tipping the cales at 425 grammes managed to fetch a whopping P20 Million in Kuala Lampur (~$420,000).With ever increasing demand throughout the Pacific Rim enterprising people are now travelling far afield into places they might otherwise never even consider visiting.Mr.bin Saidin was himself a truck driver who had long dreamed of a better life.His wife Mazlina Muhamad [sic],a seller of Kuih (a steamed gelatinous rice confection popular in Southern China,Singapore and parts of Malaysia) helped bankroll what was to be bin Saidin's first buying trip.He hoped to tap into an under utilised market,though he probably did so without bothering to consider just why noone else uses the Southern Philippines.
Mr.bin Akkirulla and Mr.bin Saidin arrived in Jolo and quickly secured lodging in the home of Benhar Maadilin in Sitio Boutan State,Barangay Kajatian,in the town of Indanan.Akkirulla soon left to points unknown leaving bin Saidin to his lizard hunting and dreams of striking it rich.As is so often the case with foreign treasure hunters (albeit for very different types of treasure),bin Saidin's judgement was over ridden by his desire for profit and before too long everyone knew about the strange Malaysian who was offering huge sums of money for a commonly found lizard.Indanan being an ASG (Abbu Sayyaf Group) bailiwick the gossip soon led to trouble.
Just after midnite on May 7th a group of 10 gunmen kicked in the door of the Maadilin family home and grabbed bin Saidin,his 3 cellphones along with his bankbook and passport before frog marching him into the jungle and into incognito.Soon the motley group was dragging a shocked bin Saidin uphill through Barangay Upper Buansa.At the end of that uphill barangay the terrain soon becomes very steep as it lies on the side of Bud Daho,an extinct volcano best known as the site of a memourable engagement between Datu Jakiri and the US Army sent to neutralise him in March of 1906.Just 2 days after the kidnapping ASG made its opening gambit with a demand of P10 Million (~$210,000).Not long after the group made direct contact with their captive's family in Malaysia.
Apparently ASG was operating on instinct as it so often does.The poor truck driver they had snatched was NOT a big businessman in the blackmarket wildlife trade.bin Saidin was only just beginning to learn about what Malaysians call,"Cicak Tokek,"or the"Gecko Trade."Far from being a multi-millionaire he relied on Western Union transmittals from his wife's extremely meagre earnings to keep himself in boiled rice and bottled water.As bad as things might be for Mr.bin Saidin,things were surely a lot worse for his distressed wife Mazlina.She received word that her husband would be beheaded on May 16th unless she made a down payment on their latest demand of P5 Million (~$100,000).The sum might as well have been P100 Million since she was barely able to feed their 2 young children.The deadline came and went with no word from the kidnappers.As Ms.Mohamed nervously awaited word about the deadline and the fate of her husband the Chief of the Indanan MPO (Municipal Police Office) received an illuminating call.The Malaysian Consul General in Manila had just phoned Chief of Police,Inspector Mohammad Khan Kamlon with news that ASG had re-contacted the victim's wife.The kidnappers had lowered their demand to a relatively paltry P8 Million (~$166,000),with a downpayment required to the effect of P5 Million (~$125,000).
In the days since that call on May 16th Mr,bin Saidin has been sighted once again down slope from Bud Daho,entering Barangay Buansa,still in Indanan.Likewise his captors have ben identified as a crew working under sub-Kumander Alhansy Misaya,who had been encamped in Barangay Buansa's Sitio Bunga.
In fact,in that 2001 incident Angelina had been grabbed by 4 gunmen.The men had tried to shove Angelina into a van at which point her bodyguards sprang into action and initiated a short but very bloody firefight.When the smoke cleared a few moments later 2 of her assailants lay dead with the other 2 laying critically wounded.Amazingly Angelina emerged unscathed from the affair.Notably,2001 was at the tail end of a terrible decade for area Tsinoy with 70 cases REPORTED KFRs in just the North Cotabato/Maguindanao Provincial border area.By 1998 the local Tsinoy business associations were threatening to pull out in one fall swoop.Throughout Southeast Asia Chinese minorities serve as the backbone of most local economies and in the Philippines this has always been especially so.
Though Chinese have been trading and settling here since time immemorial they have never fully assimilated.A good part of that relates to the country's colonial history.Most of the time the Spanish,who referred to the Chinese as"Sangley"in bastardised Spanish,forced them to live in tightly packed ghettos,restricted their forms of employment and so when these harsh strictures were finally relaxed the local Chinese continued reinforcing that here to fore externally imposed separate identity.Even today most Filipino cities have "Chinese Schools,"though nowadays the student bodies tend to be more Filipino than Chinese since these schools over whelmingly produce much higher achievers overall).
On Mindanao,and points south,Tsinoy tend to concentrate their business interests in retail outlets specialising in hardware and general purpose wares.However,they form the foundation of all local economies.In a population centre like Cotabato City the Tsinoy ARE the local retail economy,end of discussion.Should they pull out en masse the nation's poorest region would literally hit rock bottom.Therefore the deployment of a Marine battalion to Cotabato City in 1998,though mostly for show,satisfied Tsinoy demands.Still it was the 2000 War between the MILF and the Government that had the most positive results in terms of curtailing that spiraling KFR rate.Most KFR organisations in Mindanao are composed of BIAF (Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces,the armed wing of the MILF) guerillas.
As an insurgent organisation the MILF/BIAF doesn't provide much in the way of financial security for its members.Certain BIAF Base Commands,or armed elements,almost completely fund themselves via KFR and the related extortion that so pervades every aspect of the local economy.The 113,114,104 and 102 Base Commands,which operate in the Zamboangan Peninsula,Basilan,Liguasan Marsh and Lanao del Sur respectively are neck deep in these activities.
In the 2001 incident the 4 gunmen belonged to the infamous Pentagon Group,now extinct (contrary to the ramblings of various ignorant PNP and Government spokespeople).I have discussed the Pentagon Group in other KFR entries,including one entitled,"The Resurrection of the Pentagon Group,"so for the sake of brevity I will merely offer that the group was founded by an ex-BIAF ("ex"according to the MILF but of course not in reality) "Kumander"(the generic label used by both the MNLF/BMA and MILF/BIAF to denote anyone of authority) named Tahir"Kumander Tigre"Alonto.Alonto,who had various other monikers,such as"Kuya Allan" (Elder Brother Allan),"Kumander Ronnie" and "Conto Alonto"was an extremely charismatic man who took a moderately entrenched industry like KFR and extortion and turned it into a genuine money machine.
When Alonto was killed his group splintered into several small highly competitive factions,albeit all of them moderately allied.It was this splintering along with the afore mentioned 2000 War that led to the steep decline on KFRs,not a deployment of a single Marine BLT (Battalion Landing Team,in this case MBLT-7).With time the strongest faction emerged as the local power to reckon with and so today the name that has replaced Alonto is Makyangkang Saguile.Saguile,48 years old is native of Talayan,a municipality in Maguindanao Province though he spends most of his time in GenSan (General Santos City) in Saragani Province.A former BIAF sub-Kumamder of the 105 Base Command he is now allied with the MNLF and often uses its Camp Bad'r in his hometown of Talayan as a staging ground,as well as a means of avoiding interdiction if the dogs are close behind.
According to various political agreements both MILF/BIAF and MNLF/BMA camps are off limits to both the AFP and the PNP.If someone is being chased and runs into a camp the most that can be done is to politely ask the camp's highest ranking man to turn him over.To my knowledge that has never happened,not even once.To ignore such agreements can can be to literally cause a major war as was the case in the 2003 Buliok Complex War.Ironically,the war began as an Anti-Pentagon Group tactical operation.
With the Government adamantly claiming that it had neutralised the KFR and extortion groups in 2002 many Tsinoy,like Angelina felt no need for heavily armed entourages and so things returned to normal,or what passes for normal in this part of the world.Fast forward to the present,Saturday,May 14th,2011.Angelina sat down at the cashier's table to wait on some customers.4 young men who had been posing as customers themselves quickly surrounded her and began dragging her out the door.Though she was kicking and screaming in what amounts to a downtown shopping district noone moved to help her.Shoved into a grey Mitsubishi Lancer the group quickly sped off down Rizal Boulevard towards the neighbouring municipality of Datu Odin Sinsuat.
Ditching the auto in North Upi's Barangay Mirab and setting it on fire,the group set off on foot for the border of Datu Odin Sinsuat when a motorcycle hidden in the marsh for this leg of their escape refused to start.Picking up their trail the soldiers in pursuit tried closing in but fell back after Angelina's captors initiated a firefight.Since losing sight of the group there have been reports that she is being held in a mountainous area above that same town,Datu Odin Sinsuat.Her brother,local attorney Roland Anwar Chew is handling ransom negotiations and is currently doing his best to whittle down the initial demand of P15 Million (~$310,000).
The latest"Natural Cure"craze has led a foreign national to the Southern Philippines and into captivity.50 year old Mohammad Nasaruddin bin Saidin of Sungai Buloh,Selangor a suburb of Kuala Lampur arrived on Jolo Island in Sulu Province in late April,2011 with his friend Abdulgafar bin Akkirulla.Akkirulla,a dual Malaysian/Philippine citizen raised in Malaysia had assured bin Saidin that he could lead him to a low-cost supplier of Spotted Geckos.Known in the Philippines as"Tukos"due to their distinctive call the lizard is quite common here,albeit not nearly as common as its much smaller cousins that are found on most any any interior wall.As common as it certainly is,Philippine Law protects the species due to its moderate popularity in the West as a pet.
Why all the fuss?Practitioners of Chinese Herbal Medicine have long used the Tuko's dried innards as panacea but within the last year the creature has become known outside of the Chinese Community as a fix-all curative.With people claiming it can cure cancer or even HIV-AIDs its price has skyrocketed.The smallest lizards are selling in Mindanao for P300 (~$6.25) and one large specimen tipping the cales at 425 grammes managed to fetch a whopping P20 Million in Kuala Lampur (~$420,000).With ever increasing demand throughout the Pacific Rim enterprising people are now travelling far afield into places they might otherwise never even consider visiting.Mr.bin Saidin was himself a truck driver who had long dreamed of a better life.His wife Mazlina Muhamad [sic],a seller of Kuih (a steamed gelatinous rice confection popular in Southern China,Singapore and parts of Malaysia) helped bankroll what was to be bin Saidin's first buying trip.He hoped to tap into an under utilised market,though he probably did so without bothering to consider just why noone else uses the Southern Philippines.
Mr.bin Akkirulla and Mr.bin Saidin arrived in Jolo and quickly secured lodging in the home of Benhar Maadilin in Sitio Boutan State,Barangay Kajatian,in the town of Indanan.Akkirulla soon left to points unknown leaving bin Saidin to his lizard hunting and dreams of striking it rich.As is so often the case with foreign treasure hunters (albeit for very different types of treasure),bin Saidin's judgement was over ridden by his desire for profit and before too long everyone knew about the strange Malaysian who was offering huge sums of money for a commonly found lizard.Indanan being an ASG (Abbu Sayyaf Group) bailiwick the gossip soon led to trouble.
Just after midnite on May 7th a group of 10 gunmen kicked in the door of the Maadilin family home and grabbed bin Saidin,his 3 cellphones along with his bankbook and passport before frog marching him into the jungle and into incognito.Soon the motley group was dragging a shocked bin Saidin uphill through Barangay Upper Buansa.At the end of that uphill barangay the terrain soon becomes very steep as it lies on the side of Bud Daho,an extinct volcano best known as the site of a memourable engagement between Datu Jakiri and the US Army sent to neutralise him in March of 1906.Just 2 days after the kidnapping ASG made its opening gambit with a demand of P10 Million (~$210,000).Not long after the group made direct contact with their captive's family in Malaysia.
Apparently ASG was operating on instinct as it so often does.The poor truck driver they had snatched was NOT a big businessman in the blackmarket wildlife trade.bin Saidin was only just beginning to learn about what Malaysians call,"Cicak Tokek,"or the"Gecko Trade."Far from being a multi-millionaire he relied on Western Union transmittals from his wife's extremely meagre earnings to keep himself in boiled rice and bottled water.As bad as things might be for Mr.bin Saidin,things were surely a lot worse for his distressed wife Mazlina.She received word that her husband would be beheaded on May 16th unless she made a down payment on their latest demand of P5 Million (~$100,000).The sum might as well have been P100 Million since she was barely able to feed their 2 young children.The deadline came and went with no word from the kidnappers.As Ms.Mohamed nervously awaited word about the deadline and the fate of her husband the Chief of the Indanan MPO (Municipal Police Office) received an illuminating call.The Malaysian Consul General in Manila had just phoned Chief of Police,Inspector Mohammad Khan Kamlon with news that ASG had re-contacted the victim's wife.The kidnappers had lowered their demand to a relatively paltry P8 Million (~$166,000),with a downpayment required to the effect of P5 Million (~$125,000).
In the days since that call on May 16th Mr,bin Saidin has been sighted once again down slope from Bud Daho,entering Barangay Buansa,still in Indanan.Likewise his captors have ben identified as a crew working under sub-Kumander Alhansy Misaya,who had been encamped in Barangay Buansa's Sitio Bunga.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Kidnal for Ransom for the Second Quarter of 2011,Part IV:Joel Indino Jr. and Saima Amontao
Some things never change.The Monsoon can wreck Mindanao's rice crop,the Japanese Tsunami slash Nuclear Melt Down can reek havoc with Mindanowan exports but one industry remains immune to such vagaries.What you ask?Why of course I am talking about one of Mindanao's leading industries:KFR.KFR,or Kidnap for Ransom drives a large segment of the Central and Western Mindanowan economies.Somehow that irrefutable nugget of truth fails to comfort me.
On January 29,2011 Joel Indino Jr. was walking down Nunez Street in Zamboanga City when a green minivan pulled up along side of him.At 100PM the streets were jampacked with people and yet noone even screamed as 3 men,each holding a 45 caliber pistol got out and quickly surrounded young Mr.Indino.If the 19 year old college sophmore expected onlookers to help him he was surely disappointed.Before he could even wrap his mind around the events unfolding around him 1 of the gunmen told him in no uncertain terms that he would have to get into the van.Indino complied and the group quickly sped off.
Contacing Joel's family later that weekend the kidnappers opened negotiations by demanding P15 Million (~$320,000).When the kidnappers failed to drop the ransom quickly enough Indino's father,Joel Indino Sr.,made one of the toughest decisons of his life.As I explained in another recent KFR entry,negotiations are very fluid,with both sides knowing that the initial demand is really just a formality,sn opening gambit.Joel Sr.knew this better than most as a local politician,serving as the Barangay Chairman of Barangay Guiran in Payao,Zamboanga Sibugay Province.So,it must have been with conflicted emotions on February 7th that he phoned the Zamboamga Sibugay Provincial Police Office (PPO-Zamboanga Sibugay).The decision to do so is raising more than a few eyebrows.
KFR,as I noted at the beginning of this entry,is an unfortunately common part of life on Mindanao.As with all facts of like the authorities that be have managed to devise very specific protocols to deal with it.SOP,or Standard Operating Procedure,dictates that,just as in most any nation,the crime is centered on the point of abduction.In other words,the municipality in which the subject was kidnapped,Zamboanga City,is the municipality that serves as the investigatory focal point.If a person from Manila is kidnapped in Davao City,it is Davao City and not Manila that serves as the investigating municipality.In other words,the Zamboanga City CPO (City Police Office) is the lead agency according to SOP.
That Joel Indino Sr. called the wrong police department isn't unusual at all.Even most politicians are at a loss to name all law enforcement bodies within their own AOR (Area of Responsibility),much less understand their jurisdictional limitations and powers.Therefore,it is up to law enforcement to always follow established procedure.When Mr.Indino called PPO-Zamboanga Sibugay,its Director,Sr.Supt.Ruben D.Cariaga would normally guide the case on a parallel course to PPO-Zamboanga del Norte,the Police Provincial Office supervising the Zamboanga City CPO.His colleague at PPO-Zamboanga del Norte would then deliver it to the mayor of that municipality,Celso Lobregat.As it was,Mayor Lobregat would later offer that he was unaware that a kidnapping had even taken place.He had merely been informed that a second year student at Universidad de Zamboanga (University of Zamboanga) had gone missing.
SOP dictates that the municipality of abduction always empanels its own Task Force with the mayor automatically asssuming the role of Task Force chairman,at least on paper.In reality it is entirely dependent upon a given mayor's knowledge,ability and force of personality.As one might imagine,top tier personnel,whether in the PNP (Philippine National Police,ALL police in the Philippines are PNP) or in government are text book alpha males.Highly cpnfident to the point of arrogance and extremely territorial to boot they bristle at sublimation.Most mayors lack the neccessary qualities needed to fend off an under the table organisational coup.Once a mayor creates a task force he (or she) empanels the head of every police department within their AOR,as well as the commanding officer of the local AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) brigade (and usually the specific IB,Infantry Battalion as well).The idea of course is to launch a multi-pronged response that will block the captors movement,preventing them from taking their hostage out of the immediate area.More over,though it very rarely happens,the task force aims to interdict the captors and safely rescue the captive.This being the Philippines,it never happens.Looking back over the last decade there has only been one such attempt,involving a green SOCOM (Special Operations Command/Special Forces) element on the curious Philippine innovation known as a"Test Mission" (a unit's very first operation after training where they must make armed contact to"pass."The idea borders on the retarded since armed contact should NEVER be a goal in and of itself).The case in question involved the Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Abu Subayah and 3 of his captives:
1) American missionary slash bush pilot Martin Burnham
2) His wife,American missionary Gracia Burnham
3) Filipina nurse Ediborah Yap
Stumbling around the Zamboangan Peninsula amid reports Abu Subayah had spirited his captives across the strait from Basilan Island,the junior officer leading his newly trained men through the jungle found some recently discarded candy wrappers strewn across foot trails.In true Hansel and Gretel fashion they followed this curious trail until they heard voices.Setting up a permiter,in a torrential downpour,they waited until everybody in the small clearing was stationary and then let loose with all their considerable firepower.Among the dead guerillas,all 3 captives had been shot.Gracia Burnham alone survived with a terrible wound to the leg.Her saving grace being the initial shot that had propelled her out of her hammock and down a steep ravine.Almost all guerillas survived and escaped.
This is yet another reason why the families of hostages don't want the government coming near them during kidnappings.Since then as well,unwritten protocol has had the AFP lay unclosed perimeters so as to offer kidnappers an escape route so as to avoid a"fight to the finish."Knowing the score the kidnappers leave their quarry in an exchange of their captive for their own freedom,though it is a standard diversionary tactic independent of the proffered escape route.This scenario takes place fairly often.
With Joel Indino Sr. having notified the PPO in his home province of Zamboanga Sibugay,a task force was formed by PPO Director,Sr.Supt.Ruben D.Cariaga.Adding to the curious goings on,the make up consisted almost entirely of PPO personnel with just 1 exception.The sole"outsider"was a single officer from the Payao MPO (Municipal Police Office),Payao being the Indino's hometown.Why did this strange course of action take place?One can begin to understand when we learn who Chaired"Task Force Indino."Sr.Supt.Cariaga picked his right hand man,Supt.Geraldo Benjamin A.Avengoza.
Supt.Avengoza is a convicted murderer,or to be fair,a convicted accesory to murder.On June 05,1992 SPO1 Isgani Torrefranca Bayang and PO2 Diosdado Catacutan Esparagosa presented themselves at the Leon B.Postigo (the town was formerly known as Bacungan) MPO to take receipt of 1 prisoner for transport to the PPO for interrogation.The prisoner,Mamerto Victosa had been arrested that morning for theft.Unfortunately for the unsuccessful thief he had stolen a police officer's 38 caliber service revolver.In any such theft there is a serious chance of"reprecussions"should the thief be caught.Like all men in uniform the average police officer world over is overly attached to his weapon.More than that,having lost it to theft the officer faces serious consequences professionaly and of course loss of face amongst colleagues.Police everywhere,even more than soldiers,stand in solidarity with one another.Should you attack a family member of any police officer all other police will take your capture (at the very least) as a personal crusade.The same holds true for embarassing one of their colleagues,but how much more so when the revolver in question belonged to SPO1 Bayang himself,1 of the officers now picking up the suspect?
Leaving the MPO,prisoner in tow,the 2 officers joined their waiting superior for the long ride to PNP Camp Hamac in Dipolog City's Barangay Sicayab,the headquarters of the Zamboanga del Norte PPO.Sadly for Mr.Victosa they reached their destination without him.He was found the next day,his hands tied behind his back with 3 rounds in his chest.It didn't take long to point a finger at Officers Bayang and Catacutan,and not much longer to drag their superior into that clusterfuc* of a mess.The superior?None other than (now) Supt.Avengoza.Philippine Justice is at best a hit and miss affair.It took until 2000 to secure convictions in the case and only then because Officer Esparagosa testified against Bayang and Avengoza.Though Avengoza continued fighting the case through 2006 his sentence of 46 to 48 months has stood.Because he had been held longer than 4 years he was credited with time served and so the conviction didn't effect his freedom.In most nations a convicted murderer would be bounced from the force in disgrace.On Mindanao at least he is welcomed back with open arms and promoted to a position of command.
Supt.Avengoza was most like appointed Chairman of Task Force Indino so as to send a clear message to the kidnappers.From time to time rare personalities end up deployed to such areas,whether in the PNP or the AFP.The most successful commanders dealing with KFR are able to achieve positive results by coming across as just as ruthless as the kidnappers themselves,if not more.One memorable CO (Commanding Officer) of the 103rd Brigade in Marawi City vowed to kidnap 2 members of a KFR shotcaller's (leaders of KFR organisations) family for every civilian kidnapped by the man's group.KFR then reached an all time low for that AOR.What about in the case of Task Force Indino,did it work?Not really.Joel Indino Jr.wasn't released,negotiations were more affable but that was the jist of it.The original demand of P15 Million was however eventually reduced to slightly more than P1 Million (~$22,000).Finally,on April 16th,after 77 days in captivity,Joel was released in Sitio Tando Pataw,Barangay Poblacion in his hometown of Payao after a member of the Payao MPO deposited P1M (~$22,000) into an anonomyous bank account in an Ipil bank.Physically fine,the young man rejoined his family.
I need to add that for the last 2 years the entire Zamboangan Peninsula has had a new PNP innovation with which to counter KFRs.DIPO,or Directorate of Integrated Police Operations,is especially created to overcome jurisdictional issues and problems.I disccussed this in my most recent First Quarter of 2011 KFR entry in slightly more detail.This makes Barangay Chairman Indino's decison to utilise PPO-Zamboanga Sibugay even more curious.
On April 04,2011 13 year old Saima Amontao was walking on Lumber Street in Barangay Lower Dansalan in Marawi City.Having just left a school graduation ceremony she was now on her way to perform an errand for her mother.Passing the Reclamation Site with her friend a black van sped by before quickly backing up and stopping.The van's side door quickly opened and extended arms pulled the young girl in as her terrified friend gaped in horror.Two days later in neighbouring Lanao del Norte Province a highly shaken Saima walked into Iligan City's CPO #1 in Barangay Tambo and told an incredible story.
Miss Amontao said that after being pulled inside the van by 5 men and 1 woman she was quickly driven to Cagayan del Oro City in Misamis Oriental Province.Arriving at a 3 story home near the airport (she heard frequent flights over head) she was placed in a room guarded by armed men.With her were approximately 30 other children,mostly under 10 years of age.Unbeknownst to her captors,Manaw (Maranoan) Tribesmen,she too is a Maranaw and so was able to eavesdrop on bits and pieces of their conversation.Apparently she and the others were being held by an organised ring that provides kidneys to the black market.
I think it was about 2006 when Luzon was swept with Urban Legend SMS (Text) Messages that warned against such things.Interestingly the stories progressed to the point where dead children were being found with P50,000 (~$1,100) stuffed into their body where 1 kidney had been and then sewn up in rudimentary fashion.Then the story evolved to where eyes were being sold.A little girl was found with her eyes removed and money stuffed into her empty eye sockets.The stories were all similarly ridiculous in nature,as if such degenerates were going to throw 60,000 Pesos out with a dead body to say nothing of the fact that only live kidneys are viable.
With that said,there is indeed a black market organ trade taking place in the Philippines just as in any under developed nation.However they use very willing adults and pay them up to P250,000 for a viable kidney (~$5,000).There would be little need to assume such massive risks by kidnapping a young child.To say nothing of her claim about 30 such children...Then,Saima claimed that 1 of her guards discovered that she too was Maranaw and so aided her in escaping after two days in captivity.With the money she had when kidnapped she took a jeepney (public transportation) and inadvertantly ended up in Iligan City.
The curious part though is not that she found some support from Iligan City PNP officers,but that the local NBI Office took her story seriously enough to investigate.The NBI,or National Bureau of Investigation (akin to the American FBI) is the investigatory arm of the DOJ (Department of Justice).They are usually capable and well trained.The NBI went so far as to drive the young lady to Cagayan del Oro City and cruise the neighbourhoods near the airport in an effort to locate the home in question.I don't want to be absolutely dismissive of her story knowing quite well that people who have survived incredible ordeals quite often are brushed off as attention seekers and so on.The cases of the American serial killers John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer come quickly to mind.It took many years for authorities to see that the stories were true and by then many more had died horrible deaths.Conversely,she is 13,Maranaw and disappeared for 2 days.In her culture running away with a boy can earn her a death sentence from her own family so who can say what the poor girl has experienced.
On January 29,2011 Joel Indino Jr. was walking down Nunez Street in Zamboanga City when a green minivan pulled up along side of him.At 100PM the streets were jampacked with people and yet noone even screamed as 3 men,each holding a 45 caliber pistol got out and quickly surrounded young Mr.Indino.If the 19 year old college sophmore expected onlookers to help him he was surely disappointed.Before he could even wrap his mind around the events unfolding around him 1 of the gunmen told him in no uncertain terms that he would have to get into the van.Indino complied and the group quickly sped off.
Contacing Joel's family later that weekend the kidnappers opened negotiations by demanding P15 Million (~$320,000).When the kidnappers failed to drop the ransom quickly enough Indino's father,Joel Indino Sr.,made one of the toughest decisons of his life.As I explained in another recent KFR entry,negotiations are very fluid,with both sides knowing that the initial demand is really just a formality,sn opening gambit.Joel Sr.knew this better than most as a local politician,serving as the Barangay Chairman of Barangay Guiran in Payao,Zamboanga Sibugay Province.So,it must have been with conflicted emotions on February 7th that he phoned the Zamboamga Sibugay Provincial Police Office (PPO-Zamboanga Sibugay).The decision to do so is raising more than a few eyebrows.
KFR,as I noted at the beginning of this entry,is an unfortunately common part of life on Mindanao.As with all facts of like the authorities that be have managed to devise very specific protocols to deal with it.SOP,or Standard Operating Procedure,dictates that,just as in most any nation,the crime is centered on the point of abduction.In other words,the municipality in which the subject was kidnapped,Zamboanga City,is the municipality that serves as the investigatory focal point.If a person from Manila is kidnapped in Davao City,it is Davao City and not Manila that serves as the investigating municipality.In other words,the Zamboanga City CPO (City Police Office) is the lead agency according to SOP.
That Joel Indino Sr. called the wrong police department isn't unusual at all.Even most politicians are at a loss to name all law enforcement bodies within their own AOR (Area of Responsibility),much less understand their jurisdictional limitations and powers.Therefore,it is up to law enforcement to always follow established procedure.When Mr.Indino called PPO-Zamboanga Sibugay,its Director,Sr.Supt.Ruben D.Cariaga would normally guide the case on a parallel course to PPO-Zamboanga del Norte,the Police Provincial Office supervising the Zamboanga City CPO.His colleague at PPO-Zamboanga del Norte would then deliver it to the mayor of that municipality,Celso Lobregat.As it was,Mayor Lobregat would later offer that he was unaware that a kidnapping had even taken place.He had merely been informed that a second year student at Universidad de Zamboanga (University of Zamboanga) had gone missing.
SOP dictates that the municipality of abduction always empanels its own Task Force with the mayor automatically asssuming the role of Task Force chairman,at least on paper.In reality it is entirely dependent upon a given mayor's knowledge,ability and force of personality.As one might imagine,top tier personnel,whether in the PNP (Philippine National Police,ALL police in the Philippines are PNP) or in government are text book alpha males.Highly cpnfident to the point of arrogance and extremely territorial to boot they bristle at sublimation.Most mayors lack the neccessary qualities needed to fend off an under the table organisational coup.Once a mayor creates a task force he (or she) empanels the head of every police department within their AOR,as well as the commanding officer of the local AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) brigade (and usually the specific IB,Infantry Battalion as well).The idea of course is to launch a multi-pronged response that will block the captors movement,preventing them from taking their hostage out of the immediate area.More over,though it very rarely happens,the task force aims to interdict the captors and safely rescue the captive.This being the Philippines,it never happens.Looking back over the last decade there has only been one such attempt,involving a green SOCOM (Special Operations Command/Special Forces) element on the curious Philippine innovation known as a"Test Mission" (a unit's very first operation after training where they must make armed contact to"pass."The idea borders on the retarded since armed contact should NEVER be a goal in and of itself).The case in question involved the Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Abu Subayah and 3 of his captives:
1) American missionary slash bush pilot Martin Burnham
2) His wife,American missionary Gracia Burnham
3) Filipina nurse Ediborah Yap
Stumbling around the Zamboangan Peninsula amid reports Abu Subayah had spirited his captives across the strait from Basilan Island,the junior officer leading his newly trained men through the jungle found some recently discarded candy wrappers strewn across foot trails.In true Hansel and Gretel fashion they followed this curious trail until they heard voices.Setting up a permiter,in a torrential downpour,they waited until everybody in the small clearing was stationary and then let loose with all their considerable firepower.Among the dead guerillas,all 3 captives had been shot.Gracia Burnham alone survived with a terrible wound to the leg.Her saving grace being the initial shot that had propelled her out of her hammock and down a steep ravine.Almost all guerillas survived and escaped.
This is yet another reason why the families of hostages don't want the government coming near them during kidnappings.Since then as well,unwritten protocol has had the AFP lay unclosed perimeters so as to offer kidnappers an escape route so as to avoid a"fight to the finish."Knowing the score the kidnappers leave their quarry in an exchange of their captive for their own freedom,though it is a standard diversionary tactic independent of the proffered escape route.This scenario takes place fairly often.
With Joel Indino Sr. having notified the PPO in his home province of Zamboanga Sibugay,a task force was formed by PPO Director,Sr.Supt.Ruben D.Cariaga.Adding to the curious goings on,the make up consisted almost entirely of PPO personnel with just 1 exception.The sole"outsider"was a single officer from the Payao MPO (Municipal Police Office),Payao being the Indino's hometown.Why did this strange course of action take place?One can begin to understand when we learn who Chaired"Task Force Indino."Sr.Supt.Cariaga picked his right hand man,Supt.Geraldo Benjamin A.Avengoza.
Supt.Avengoza is a convicted murderer,or to be fair,a convicted accesory to murder.On June 05,1992 SPO1 Isgani Torrefranca Bayang and PO2 Diosdado Catacutan Esparagosa presented themselves at the Leon B.Postigo (the town was formerly known as Bacungan) MPO to take receipt of 1 prisoner for transport to the PPO for interrogation.The prisoner,Mamerto Victosa had been arrested that morning for theft.Unfortunately for the unsuccessful thief he had stolen a police officer's 38 caliber service revolver.In any such theft there is a serious chance of"reprecussions"should the thief be caught.Like all men in uniform the average police officer world over is overly attached to his weapon.More than that,having lost it to theft the officer faces serious consequences professionaly and of course loss of face amongst colleagues.Police everywhere,even more than soldiers,stand in solidarity with one another.Should you attack a family member of any police officer all other police will take your capture (at the very least) as a personal crusade.The same holds true for embarassing one of their colleagues,but how much more so when the revolver in question belonged to SPO1 Bayang himself,1 of the officers now picking up the suspect?
Leaving the MPO,prisoner in tow,the 2 officers joined their waiting superior for the long ride to PNP Camp Hamac in Dipolog City's Barangay Sicayab,the headquarters of the Zamboanga del Norte PPO.Sadly for Mr.Victosa they reached their destination without him.He was found the next day,his hands tied behind his back with 3 rounds in his chest.It didn't take long to point a finger at Officers Bayang and Catacutan,and not much longer to drag their superior into that clusterfuc* of a mess.The superior?None other than (now) Supt.Avengoza.Philippine Justice is at best a hit and miss affair.It took until 2000 to secure convictions in the case and only then because Officer Esparagosa testified against Bayang and Avengoza.Though Avengoza continued fighting the case through 2006 his sentence of 46 to 48 months has stood.Because he had been held longer than 4 years he was credited with time served and so the conviction didn't effect his freedom.In most nations a convicted murderer would be bounced from the force in disgrace.On Mindanao at least he is welcomed back with open arms and promoted to a position of command.
Supt.Avengoza was most like appointed Chairman of Task Force Indino so as to send a clear message to the kidnappers.From time to time rare personalities end up deployed to such areas,whether in the PNP or the AFP.The most successful commanders dealing with KFR are able to achieve positive results by coming across as just as ruthless as the kidnappers themselves,if not more.One memorable CO (Commanding Officer) of the 103rd Brigade in Marawi City vowed to kidnap 2 members of a KFR shotcaller's (leaders of KFR organisations) family for every civilian kidnapped by the man's group.KFR then reached an all time low for that AOR.What about in the case of Task Force Indino,did it work?Not really.Joel Indino Jr.wasn't released,negotiations were more affable but that was the jist of it.The original demand of P15 Million was however eventually reduced to slightly more than P1 Million (~$22,000).Finally,on April 16th,after 77 days in captivity,Joel was released in Sitio Tando Pataw,Barangay Poblacion in his hometown of Payao after a member of the Payao MPO deposited P1M (~$22,000) into an anonomyous bank account in an Ipil bank.Physically fine,the young man rejoined his family.
I need to add that for the last 2 years the entire Zamboangan Peninsula has had a new PNP innovation with which to counter KFRs.DIPO,or Directorate of Integrated Police Operations,is especially created to overcome jurisdictional issues and problems.I disccussed this in my most recent First Quarter of 2011 KFR entry in slightly more detail.This makes Barangay Chairman Indino's decison to utilise PPO-Zamboanga Sibugay even more curious.
On April 04,2011 13 year old Saima Amontao was walking on Lumber Street in Barangay Lower Dansalan in Marawi City.Having just left a school graduation ceremony she was now on her way to perform an errand for her mother.Passing the Reclamation Site with her friend a black van sped by before quickly backing up and stopping.The van's side door quickly opened and extended arms pulled the young girl in as her terrified friend gaped in horror.Two days later in neighbouring Lanao del Norte Province a highly shaken Saima walked into Iligan City's CPO #1 in Barangay Tambo and told an incredible story.
Miss Amontao said that after being pulled inside the van by 5 men and 1 woman she was quickly driven to Cagayan del Oro City in Misamis Oriental Province.Arriving at a 3 story home near the airport (she heard frequent flights over head) she was placed in a room guarded by armed men.With her were approximately 30 other children,mostly under 10 years of age.Unbeknownst to her captors,Manaw (Maranoan) Tribesmen,she too is a Maranaw and so was able to eavesdrop on bits and pieces of their conversation.Apparently she and the others were being held by an organised ring that provides kidneys to the black market.
I think it was about 2006 when Luzon was swept with Urban Legend SMS (Text) Messages that warned against such things.Interestingly the stories progressed to the point where dead children were being found with P50,000 (~$1,100) stuffed into their body where 1 kidney had been and then sewn up in rudimentary fashion.Then the story evolved to where eyes were being sold.A little girl was found with her eyes removed and money stuffed into her empty eye sockets.The stories were all similarly ridiculous in nature,as if such degenerates were going to throw 60,000 Pesos out with a dead body to say nothing of the fact that only live kidneys are viable.
With that said,there is indeed a black market organ trade taking place in the Philippines just as in any under developed nation.However they use very willing adults and pay them up to P250,000 for a viable kidney (~$5,000).There would be little need to assume such massive risks by kidnapping a young child.To say nothing of her claim about 30 such children...Then,Saima claimed that 1 of her guards discovered that she too was Maranaw and so aided her in escaping after two days in captivity.With the money she had when kidnapped she took a jeepney (public transportation) and inadvertantly ended up in Iligan City.
The curious part though is not that she found some support from Iligan City PNP officers,but that the local NBI Office took her story seriously enough to investigate.The NBI,or National Bureau of Investigation (akin to the American FBI) is the investigatory arm of the DOJ (Department of Justice).They are usually capable and well trained.The NBI went so far as to drive the young lady to Cagayan del Oro City and cruise the neighbourhoods near the airport in an effort to locate the home in question.I don't want to be absolutely dismissive of her story knowing quite well that people who have survived incredible ordeals quite often are brushed off as attention seekers and so on.The cases of the American serial killers John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer come quickly to mind.It took many years for authorities to see that the stories were true and by then many more had died horrible deaths.Conversely,she is 13,Maranaw and disappeared for 2 days.In her culture running away with a boy can earn her a death sentence from her own family so who can say what the poor girl has experienced.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Kidnap for Ransom,First Quarter of 2011,Part IV:Amir Nasser Arasul,Poroa Botawan Sancaan,Bairah Datumanong Sangcaan,Roberto Tacobo and Uju Araba'n
On Sunday,January 02,2011 Ujun Arabain joined family and friends at the wedding of a clan member in his home town of Indanan on Jolo Island in Sulu Province.Arabain didn't get a whole lot of time off from his position as Registar at HBSAT and so he looked forward to the wedding as a welcomed change of pace.HBSAT,or"Hadji Butu School of Arts and Trade"on Scott Road in the provincial capitol of Jolo City was formerly known as"National School of the Arts."With separate high school and college programmes and with Mr.Arabain bring the school's sole Registar,he was always struggling to keep up with an incredibly demanding schedule.
Enjoying the wedding feast at a bit past 2PM Mr.Arabain was busy in conversation and was therefore unaware that 5 well armed men had forced their way into the festivities.The leader of the gunmen.Abu Sayyaf sub-Kumander Aldin"Abu Shaining"Bagadi happens to be a 3rd cousin of Arabain's and as luck would have it had come specifically to settle an internal feud centering upon financial issues.Grabbing Mr.Arabain's possesions the 5 men hurriedly left,dragging Arabain as they went.
As unfortunate as the sordid event was it was rapidly concluded and unlike many kidnappings in the Southern Philippines it had a happy ending.Courtesy of clan elders,Mr.Arabain was released after they were able to convince the Abu Sayyaf guerillas to release Mr.Arabain.Just 47 hours later on the afternoon of January 4th,the shaken victim was back in his home in Indanan.If only those same"elders"had the decency to intervene in the cases of non-related kidnapping victims as well.
On the afternoon of February 13th,2011 6 year old Amir Nasser Arasul was walking alone on Kalle Prospero (Prospero Street) in Isabela City's Barangay San Rafael,the provincial capitol of Basilan.Suddenly,2 men riding tandem on a single motorcycle pulled up in front of the little boy,grabbed him without waning and just as quickly sped away.Within an hour Amir's father,Legislator Nasser Arasul,a CLA member (Consultative Legislative Assembly,the legislature of the ARMM,or Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao) received a phone call informing him that his young son was being ransomed by Barangay Chairman Ronnie Keseg of Barangay Tablas in the town of Tuburan,also on the island province of Basilan.
Aside from serving as a Barangay Chairman,or as they better are much better known,Barangay Captain,Keseg also serves as his municipality's Chairman of the"ABC,"or"Association of Barangay Chairmen,"an entity composed of every barangay chairman in a given municipality.ABC Chairmen also serve as ex-officio members of municipal councils.Keseg took aim at the Arasul Clan because of Haber Arasul.Haber,brother of Legislator Nasser recently ended his term as Mayor of Sumisip,also on Basilan.While still mayor Haber incurred a debt of P300,000 ($6,200) to the Keseg Clan.
After receiving the phone call regarding his son Legislator Arusul took a highly unusual step and called the PNP (Philippine National Police) to seek their assistance in the case.Calling the PNP,or any authorities is usually the last thing someone will want do if victimised by a KFR (Kidnap for Ransom).In most cases PNP officers are complicit on one level or another,if not actually pulling strings themselves.Involvement runs from the lowest ranking officers (PO1s) to some of the highest ranking personnel (even up to Senior Inspector).Just this week a KFR organisation composed entirely of PNP personnel was discovered,albeit on Luzon.Another consideration is the lack of training for officers on all aspects of police work BUT ESPECIALLY with regard to KFR.Then there are other things to consider,namely,the PNP must inform LGUs (Local Government Units,i.e.barangay,municipal and provincial governments) and when KFRs take place the Standard Operating Procedure,as dictated by the philippine Government,is to immediately create a task force dedicated to that specific kidnapping.IF the PNP in a given area is unmarred by institutional involvement it is a guarantee that the LGU IS.LGUs are likewise involved in it either through direct participation or else simply by complicity.Mindanao has 4 KFR orbits:
1) Jolo Island in Sulu Province
2) Zamboanga City-Basilan Island nexus
3) Cotabato City to Liguasan Marsh nexus
4) Marawi City to Poona Piagapo nexus in Lanao del Sur Province
In each of these 4 orbits the LGUs are involved in the utmost.I reckon this would probably be worthy of at least 1 post all its own if not an actual series but for the sake of brevity I will just point to Cotabato City and Liguasan Marsh.In both the city and almost every municipality skirting the marsh there are public officials directly profiting from KFR.In the city,local warlord,Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema (concurrently the Chairman of the MNLF-EC15,MNLF-Executive Committee of 15,an off shoot of the larger MNLF-Misuari) is the shot-caller in the Tsinoy (Filipinos of Chinese descent) KFRs that have been plagueing Cotabato City and its environs for the last decade and change.Sema hasn't always been top dog of course but during his 3 terms as Mayor he was able to supplant the BMA-Misuari (the BMA,or Bangsamoro Army being the armed wing of the MNLF) and BIAF (Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces,the armed wing of the MILF) Kumanders (amongst Islamic Insurgent organisations in the Southern Philippines the term"Kumander"denotes a Commanding Officer) that had here to fore carved a niche in this virtual cottage industry as armed conflicts powered down during the many peace processes that have been implemented and re-implemented.
So,if one has any sort of common sense they keep both the PNP as well as all LGUs as far away as they can.The goal is always profit and the KFR organisations ALWAYS expect serious negotiating.Just as in any negotiation you do not want a member of the opposition sitting in the room as you discuss pricing amongst your allies.More over,you don't want the KFR organisations being able to gauge your level of emotional and/or financial desperation.
Nasser Arasul,as an ARMM politico is well aware of the standard process in KFRs as well as the dangers one faces in directly involving the PNP.Yet,one of the first things Arasul did was call Director,Chief Supt.Felicisimo Khu ofDIPO-West.DIPO,or Directorate of Integrated Police Operations,was created at the end of 2008 to deal specifically with jurisdictional conflicts within the PNP's myriad of organisational entities.Aside from a bloated bureaucracy the PNP is inhibited by the crazy quilt-like patchwork of LGU demarcation.Arasul's home province of Basilan Island for example is very emblematic of this problem.
Basilan constitutes an entire province of Mindanao.The island,except for its provincial capitol,Isabela City,is encompassed within the ARMM (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao).Isabela City on the other hand is administratively attached to Region IX which itself encompasses the entire Zamboanga Peninsula.So,you have a city,on an island.The city serves as the capitol of this island BUT isn't attached to the island in terms of regional government.Instead it is attached to a peninsula some 17km away.Travel between the island and the peninsula isn't exactly easy,nor is it easy in terms of infrastructural parity,implementation of regional programming and so forth.Yet,these LGU demarcations are but one piece of the puzzle.The other factor involves law enforcement.The PNP was demilitarised in the post-Marcos Era and to avoid a repeat of the mistakes made while militarised the police were sublimated to the DILG,the Department of the Interior and Local Government.Now,that shouldn't have really led to any real issues since the DILG concurrently oversees all LGUs.Ergo the department should be able to formulate a system that matches its LGUs,providing aququate coverage and services.At least that would be intuitive.However,when your LGUs are structured without rhyme or reason it is impossible to do so.
The LGUs aren't the only problem.The PNP is itself incredibly bloated.There are 2 main structures to deal with:
1) Operational Support Units
2) Police Regional Offices
These 2 structures are entirely parallel command structures subordinate the national headquarters.Ideally there would be a mechanism for parallel communication but it doesn't exist above and beyond informal relationships between individual personnel.Under the Police Regional Office,or PRO,you have the sublimated entities such as PSM (Public Safety Management,formerly known as"PMGs"or Police Mobile Groups),operating in battalion sized elements.Parallel to PSM/PMGs there is a second structure composed of PPOs (Provincial Police Offices) under which are CPOs (City Police Offices) and MPOs,also known as MPSs,or"Municipal Police Offices"or the more commonly known"Municipal Police Stations."
The parallel command structure,OSU,or Operational Support Units,have 3 main sublimated structures (and several less structures).All these different structures are entirely parallel to one another.The 3 main structures:
1) Intelligence Group
2) CIDG,or Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.Further complicating matters is the fact that CIDGs are attached regionally,BUT NOT sublimated to the afore mentioned PRO (Police Regional Office).
3) SAF,or Special Action Force.SAF are Special Forces,primarily utilised in combat environmemts.
If you think this is confusing,imaging someone whose loved one has been kidnapped.Let's take the Arasul Case for an example.The man's 6 year old son has been abducted in Isabela City in Basilan Province.The child was then taken outside the city.Inside the city it is Region IX,outside it is ARMM.CIDG 9,CIDG-ARMM,PRP-ARMM,PRO-9,Isabela City CPO,Tuburan MPO/MPS,what to do?Who to call?
In a more structured environment it would be fine to call any and all because not only would each organisation have the means to effectively communicate and liason with any other of the listed organisations,they would all have an SOP,or Standard Operating Procedure.There would be explicitly articulated protocols and contingencies in place to deal with this exact situation.For example,using the American Model,a kidnapping is under the jurisdiction of the municipal police force where the actual abduction occurred.IF the municipal police force is under equipped OR overwhelmed it is freely able to liason with the state police force who have statewide jurisdiction.IF the kidnapping involves an abduction and conveyance across state borders,even into a neighbouring state,it is taken out of the hands of the municipal and state police and automatically given to the FBI,or Federal Bureau of Investigation.Everybody involved is more than clear on how jurisdiction is handled.
To the PNP's credit it realised that the large amount of kidnappings in Region IX were an organisational nightmare.Quite a number take place in Zamboanga City with the victim being spirited across the strait and onto Basilan.In other words,an abduction would take place in Region IX,and the victim would be immediately taken into ARMM.This immediate changing of jurisdictions crippled law enforcement.So,on November 14,2008 the PNP created DIPO,the Directorate of Integrated Police Operations.Intially there were only 2,DIPO-East and DIPO-West with the latter being the main focus.Headquartered in Zamboanga City its mandate was to improve prevention and interdiction of KFR assailants.Currently,DIPO-West is under the command of the afore mentioned Director,Chief Supt.Khu.
After Arasul phoned Director Khu the latter took a launch across to Isabela City,the immediate response hinging on Arasul's position as a legislator.The next day,February 14th Khu escorted Arasul to the home of Vice Mayor of Tuburan,Durie Kalahal.Kalahal had been briefed by phone and had arranged a formal sit down in the interim.Kalahal,Khu and Arasul proceeded to the Keseg compound where they discussed Keseg's demands.After 7.5 hours the 2 protagonists had agreed that Arasul would pay his brother's debt and Keseg agreed to release Arasul's son.
Tuburan,Ronnie Keseg's hometown,is an Abu Sayyaf centre of operations and most of the local politicians have been compromised by clan loyalty,financial profiteering or even so far as actually joining ASG (Abu Sayyaf Group) themselves.Keseg isn't listed as an ASG member but he could not maintain a power base in the municipality without the co-operation of Abu Sayyaf.
On Thursday,March 01,2011,50 year old Roberto Tacbobo was spending his day in the usual manner.Driving his employer's 10 wheeler the Iligan City resident was travelling down Narciso Ramos National Hiway in the municipality of Masiu,in Lanao del Sur Province.Having entered Barangay Sawir he was returning to his employer,Macarambon Calandada in the town of Saguiran,also in Lanao del Sur.With no load,having just delivered rice in the municipality of Lumbayanague Mr.Tacbobo must have realised that he wasn't facing a hijacking when 4 motorcycles rapidly boxed him. In.Despite the appellation"hiway,"Narciso Ramos is exactly like all other hiways on Mindanao,a 2 lane road with no shoulder.Therefore there wasn't much Tacbob could do but slow his pace and allow them to corral him into a gradual stop.
Each motorcycle held 2 men riding tandem.Each one of the 4 passengers were fully armed and so Roberto Tacbobo had no choice but to comply and enter the van that soon pulled up.Lucky for Mr.Tacbobo hus employer wasd ready,willing and able to pay his ransom (amount undetermined) and gain his employeezks release.On Saturday,March 3rd at 4PM,Roberto Tacbobo was released unharmed in Barangay Sandab in the municipality of Butig,Lanao del Sur Province.
On Wednesday March 23,2011 57 year old attorney Poroa Botawan Sangcaan and his wife,Baira Datumanong Sangcaan,53,a public scool teacher were en route to a Kandoori (tribal feast) when they were waylaid at an impromptu checkpoint in the municipality of Pantar Ragao in Lanao del Norte Province.The 4 armed men stopped every vehicle entering Barangay Kalanganan,scanning faces as they searched for specific people.Pulling up in their green Toyota Adventure the Sangcaans had no idea that they check point had been hastily implemented entirely for their benefit.
As soon as the couple were recognised the leader of the 4 gunmen,Arpa"Arafat"Alim Gumpal ordered his men,all clansmen,to disassemble the checkpoint and get into the SUV with the couple.The 3 other men:
1) Farouk"Froxy"Alim Gumpal
2) Odeng Gumpal
3) Lucman"Lucky"Gumpal
Quickly did as they were told and the SUV sped off.The Gumpal Clan almost immediately sold them up the food chain to a very well established KFR group in the town of Poona Piagapo,in that same province,Lanao del Sur.Holding the terrified couple in that town's Barangay Mamaan and initially demanded P1.5 Million (~$33,000) but as is always the case gradually lowered their deman to P500,000 (~$11,500) and then finally to P250,000 (~$5,250).The couple's family members were able to collectively raise that sum and so on Saturday,March 26th the couple were released on the outskirts of Poona Piagapo.
As usual even the Government couldn't get the facts straight and reported the husband as Akmad Sangka Datumanong.Datumanong,a clansman of the female victim,is the Barangay Chairman of Barangay Dadu in the town of Malundo,also in the province of Lanao del Sur.It is extremely ironic given that that actual male victim,Poroa Botawan Sangcaan is a Government employee!He is Legal Counsel for DENR-10 (Department of the Environment and Natural Resources-Region X).The DENR has its share of pratfalls given the profits involves in logging and mining,legal and illegal,all of which come under the domain of that office.The possibility that the male victim's position may habe had something to do with the couple being victimised is certainly something that should be considered.In any event,the couple,residents of Barangay Poblacion in Marawi City were none worse for the wear,all things considered.
Enjoying the wedding feast at a bit past 2PM Mr.Arabain was busy in conversation and was therefore unaware that 5 well armed men had forced their way into the festivities.The leader of the gunmen.Abu Sayyaf sub-Kumander Aldin"Abu Shaining"Bagadi happens to be a 3rd cousin of Arabain's and as luck would have it had come specifically to settle an internal feud centering upon financial issues.Grabbing Mr.Arabain's possesions the 5 men hurriedly left,dragging Arabain as they went.
As unfortunate as the sordid event was it was rapidly concluded and unlike many kidnappings in the Southern Philippines it had a happy ending.Courtesy of clan elders,Mr.Arabain was released after they were able to convince the Abu Sayyaf guerillas to release Mr.Arabain.Just 47 hours later on the afternoon of January 4th,the shaken victim was back in his home in Indanan.If only those same"elders"had the decency to intervene in the cases of non-related kidnapping victims as well.
On the afternoon of February 13th,2011 6 year old Amir Nasser Arasul was walking alone on Kalle Prospero (Prospero Street) in Isabela City's Barangay San Rafael,the provincial capitol of Basilan.Suddenly,2 men riding tandem on a single motorcycle pulled up in front of the little boy,grabbed him without waning and just as quickly sped away.Within an hour Amir's father,Legislator Nasser Arasul,a CLA member (Consultative Legislative Assembly,the legislature of the ARMM,or Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao) received a phone call informing him that his young son was being ransomed by Barangay Chairman Ronnie Keseg of Barangay Tablas in the town of Tuburan,also on the island province of Basilan.
Aside from serving as a Barangay Chairman,or as they better are much better known,Barangay Captain,Keseg also serves as his municipality's Chairman of the"ABC,"or"Association of Barangay Chairmen,"an entity composed of every barangay chairman in a given municipality.ABC Chairmen also serve as ex-officio members of municipal councils.Keseg took aim at the Arasul Clan because of Haber Arasul.Haber,brother of Legislator Nasser recently ended his term as Mayor of Sumisip,also on Basilan.While still mayor Haber incurred a debt of P300,000 ($6,200) to the Keseg Clan.
After receiving the phone call regarding his son Legislator Arusul took a highly unusual step and called the PNP (Philippine National Police) to seek their assistance in the case.Calling the PNP,or any authorities is usually the last thing someone will want do if victimised by a KFR (Kidnap for Ransom).In most cases PNP officers are complicit on one level or another,if not actually pulling strings themselves.Involvement runs from the lowest ranking officers (PO1s) to some of the highest ranking personnel (even up to Senior Inspector).Just this week a KFR organisation composed entirely of PNP personnel was discovered,albeit on Luzon.Another consideration is the lack of training for officers on all aspects of police work BUT ESPECIALLY with regard to KFR.Then there are other things to consider,namely,the PNP must inform LGUs (Local Government Units,i.e.barangay,municipal and provincial governments) and when KFRs take place the Standard Operating Procedure,as dictated by the philippine Government,is to immediately create a task force dedicated to that specific kidnapping.IF the PNP in a given area is unmarred by institutional involvement it is a guarantee that the LGU IS.LGUs are likewise involved in it either through direct participation or else simply by complicity.Mindanao has 4 KFR orbits:
1) Jolo Island in Sulu Province
2) Zamboanga City-Basilan Island nexus
3) Cotabato City to Liguasan Marsh nexus
4) Marawi City to Poona Piagapo nexus in Lanao del Sur Province
In each of these 4 orbits the LGUs are involved in the utmost.I reckon this would probably be worthy of at least 1 post all its own if not an actual series but for the sake of brevity I will just point to Cotabato City and Liguasan Marsh.In both the city and almost every municipality skirting the marsh there are public officials directly profiting from KFR.In the city,local warlord,Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema (concurrently the Chairman of the MNLF-EC15,MNLF-Executive Committee of 15,an off shoot of the larger MNLF-Misuari) is the shot-caller in the Tsinoy (Filipinos of Chinese descent) KFRs that have been plagueing Cotabato City and its environs for the last decade and change.Sema hasn't always been top dog of course but during his 3 terms as Mayor he was able to supplant the BMA-Misuari (the BMA,or Bangsamoro Army being the armed wing of the MNLF) and BIAF (Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces,the armed wing of the MILF) Kumanders (amongst Islamic Insurgent organisations in the Southern Philippines the term"Kumander"denotes a Commanding Officer) that had here to fore carved a niche in this virtual cottage industry as armed conflicts powered down during the many peace processes that have been implemented and re-implemented.
So,if one has any sort of common sense they keep both the PNP as well as all LGUs as far away as they can.The goal is always profit and the KFR organisations ALWAYS expect serious negotiating.Just as in any negotiation you do not want a member of the opposition sitting in the room as you discuss pricing amongst your allies.More over,you don't want the KFR organisations being able to gauge your level of emotional and/or financial desperation.
Nasser Arasul,as an ARMM politico is well aware of the standard process in KFRs as well as the dangers one faces in directly involving the PNP.Yet,one of the first things Arasul did was call Director,Chief Supt.Felicisimo Khu ofDIPO-West.DIPO,or Directorate of Integrated Police Operations,was created at the end of 2008 to deal specifically with jurisdictional conflicts within the PNP's myriad of organisational entities.Aside from a bloated bureaucracy the PNP is inhibited by the crazy quilt-like patchwork of LGU demarcation.Arasul's home province of Basilan Island for example is very emblematic of this problem.
Basilan constitutes an entire province of Mindanao.The island,except for its provincial capitol,Isabela City,is encompassed within the ARMM (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao).Isabela City on the other hand is administratively attached to Region IX which itself encompasses the entire Zamboanga Peninsula.So,you have a city,on an island.The city serves as the capitol of this island BUT isn't attached to the island in terms of regional government.Instead it is attached to a peninsula some 17km away.Travel between the island and the peninsula isn't exactly easy,nor is it easy in terms of infrastructural parity,implementation of regional programming and so forth.Yet,these LGU demarcations are but one piece of the puzzle.The other factor involves law enforcement.The PNP was demilitarised in the post-Marcos Era and to avoid a repeat of the mistakes made while militarised the police were sublimated to the DILG,the Department of the Interior and Local Government.Now,that shouldn't have really led to any real issues since the DILG concurrently oversees all LGUs.Ergo the department should be able to formulate a system that matches its LGUs,providing aququate coverage and services.At least that would be intuitive.However,when your LGUs are structured without rhyme or reason it is impossible to do so.
The LGUs aren't the only problem.The PNP is itself incredibly bloated.There are 2 main structures to deal with:
1) Operational Support Units
2) Police Regional Offices
These 2 structures are entirely parallel command structures subordinate the national headquarters.Ideally there would be a mechanism for parallel communication but it doesn't exist above and beyond informal relationships between individual personnel.Under the Police Regional Office,or PRO,you have the sublimated entities such as PSM (Public Safety Management,formerly known as"PMGs"or Police Mobile Groups),operating in battalion sized elements.Parallel to PSM/PMGs there is a second structure composed of PPOs (Provincial Police Offices) under which are CPOs (City Police Offices) and MPOs,also known as MPSs,or"Municipal Police Offices"or the more commonly known"Municipal Police Stations."
The parallel command structure,OSU,or Operational Support Units,have 3 main sublimated structures (and several less structures).All these different structures are entirely parallel to one another.The 3 main structures:
1) Intelligence Group
2) CIDG,or Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.Further complicating matters is the fact that CIDGs are attached regionally,BUT NOT sublimated to the afore mentioned PRO (Police Regional Office).
3) SAF,or Special Action Force.SAF are Special Forces,primarily utilised in combat environmemts.
If you think this is confusing,imaging someone whose loved one has been kidnapped.Let's take the Arasul Case for an example.The man's 6 year old son has been abducted in Isabela City in Basilan Province.The child was then taken outside the city.Inside the city it is Region IX,outside it is ARMM.CIDG 9,CIDG-ARMM,PRP-ARMM,PRO-9,Isabela City CPO,Tuburan MPO/MPS,what to do?Who to call?
In a more structured environment it would be fine to call any and all because not only would each organisation have the means to effectively communicate and liason with any other of the listed organisations,they would all have an SOP,or Standard Operating Procedure.There would be explicitly articulated protocols and contingencies in place to deal with this exact situation.For example,using the American Model,a kidnapping is under the jurisdiction of the municipal police force where the actual abduction occurred.IF the municipal police force is under equipped OR overwhelmed it is freely able to liason with the state police force who have statewide jurisdiction.IF the kidnapping involves an abduction and conveyance across state borders,even into a neighbouring state,it is taken out of the hands of the municipal and state police and automatically given to the FBI,or Federal Bureau of Investigation.Everybody involved is more than clear on how jurisdiction is handled.
To the PNP's credit it realised that the large amount of kidnappings in Region IX were an organisational nightmare.Quite a number take place in Zamboanga City with the victim being spirited across the strait and onto Basilan.In other words,an abduction would take place in Region IX,and the victim would be immediately taken into ARMM.This immediate changing of jurisdictions crippled law enforcement.So,on November 14,2008 the PNP created DIPO,the Directorate of Integrated Police Operations.Intially there were only 2,DIPO-East and DIPO-West with the latter being the main focus.Headquartered in Zamboanga City its mandate was to improve prevention and interdiction of KFR assailants.Currently,DIPO-West is under the command of the afore mentioned Director,Chief Supt.Khu.
After Arasul phoned Director Khu the latter took a launch across to Isabela City,the immediate response hinging on Arasul's position as a legislator.The next day,February 14th Khu escorted Arasul to the home of Vice Mayor of Tuburan,Durie Kalahal.Kalahal had been briefed by phone and had arranged a formal sit down in the interim.Kalahal,Khu and Arasul proceeded to the Keseg compound where they discussed Keseg's demands.After 7.5 hours the 2 protagonists had agreed that Arasul would pay his brother's debt and Keseg agreed to release Arasul's son.
Tuburan,Ronnie Keseg's hometown,is an Abu Sayyaf centre of operations and most of the local politicians have been compromised by clan loyalty,financial profiteering or even so far as actually joining ASG (Abu Sayyaf Group) themselves.Keseg isn't listed as an ASG member but he could not maintain a power base in the municipality without the co-operation of Abu Sayyaf.
On Thursday,March 01,2011,50 year old Roberto Tacbobo was spending his day in the usual manner.Driving his employer's 10 wheeler the Iligan City resident was travelling down Narciso Ramos National Hiway in the municipality of Masiu,in Lanao del Sur Province.Having entered Barangay Sawir he was returning to his employer,Macarambon Calandada in the town of Saguiran,also in Lanao del Sur.With no load,having just delivered rice in the municipality of Lumbayanague Mr.Tacbobo must have realised that he wasn't facing a hijacking when 4 motorcycles rapidly boxed him. In.Despite the appellation"hiway,"Narciso Ramos is exactly like all other hiways on Mindanao,a 2 lane road with no shoulder.Therefore there wasn't much Tacbob could do but slow his pace and allow them to corral him into a gradual stop.
Each motorcycle held 2 men riding tandem.Each one of the 4 passengers were fully armed and so Roberto Tacbobo had no choice but to comply and enter the van that soon pulled up.Lucky for Mr.Tacbobo hus employer wasd ready,willing and able to pay his ransom (amount undetermined) and gain his employeezks release.On Saturday,March 3rd at 4PM,Roberto Tacbobo was released unharmed in Barangay Sandab in the municipality of Butig,Lanao del Sur Province.
On Wednesday March 23,2011 57 year old attorney Poroa Botawan Sangcaan and his wife,Baira Datumanong Sangcaan,53,a public scool teacher were en route to a Kandoori (tribal feast) when they were waylaid at an impromptu checkpoint in the municipality of Pantar Ragao in Lanao del Norte Province.The 4 armed men stopped every vehicle entering Barangay Kalanganan,scanning faces as they searched for specific people.Pulling up in their green Toyota Adventure the Sangcaans had no idea that they check point had been hastily implemented entirely for their benefit.
As soon as the couple were recognised the leader of the 4 gunmen,Arpa"Arafat"Alim Gumpal ordered his men,all clansmen,to disassemble the checkpoint and get into the SUV with the couple.The 3 other men:
1) Farouk"Froxy"Alim Gumpal
2) Odeng Gumpal
3) Lucman"Lucky"Gumpal
Quickly did as they were told and the SUV sped off.The Gumpal Clan almost immediately sold them up the food chain to a very well established KFR group in the town of Poona Piagapo,in that same province,Lanao del Sur.Holding the terrified couple in that town's Barangay Mamaan and initially demanded P1.5 Million (~$33,000) but as is always the case gradually lowered their deman to P500,000 (~$11,500) and then finally to P250,000 (~$5,250).The couple's family members were able to collectively raise that sum and so on Saturday,March 26th the couple were released on the outskirts of Poona Piagapo.
As usual even the Government couldn't get the facts straight and reported the husband as Akmad Sangka Datumanong.Datumanong,a clansman of the female victim,is the Barangay Chairman of Barangay Dadu in the town of Malundo,also in the province of Lanao del Sur.It is extremely ironic given that that actual male victim,Poroa Botawan Sangcaan is a Government employee!He is Legal Counsel for DENR-10 (Department of the Environment and Natural Resources-Region X).The DENR has its share of pratfalls given the profits involves in logging and mining,legal and illegal,all of which come under the domain of that office.The possibility that the male victim's position may habe had something to do with the couple being victimised is certainly something that should be considered.In any event,the couple,residents of Barangay Poblacion in Marawi City were none worse for the wear,all things considered.
Friday, May 13, 2011
The Sad and Disgraceful Case of Major General Carlos F.Garcia
In more than one of my"AFP, Last Quarter of 2010"entries I discussed the"General Carlos Garcia Corruption Case."Garcia,a former AFP Comptroller,had been nabbed years ago on Plunder and Money Laundering charges.His world began to unravel when 2 of his sons were nabbed in a Los Angeles Airport trying to smuggle 100,000 US Dollars into the United States.The US Government requires anything over 9,999 US (P480,000) to be fully declared for Customs.This type of arrest is not uncommon in American airports but when their mother,General Garcia's wife Clarita very stupidly petitioned US Customs for the return of that $100 the American Government re-examined the case.
Indeed,in that petition Clarita included a 4 paged,handwritten note where she amazingly stated that because she is the wife of a Philippine General,such large sums of cash were not at all unusual.In fact,she explained that because General Garcia was the top Comptroller for the entire Philippine Military,companies wishing to win valuable contracts often gave the General large cash gifts.She said that companies with AFP Contracts,or those simply hoping to snare such Contracts provided her and her family with Business Class air travel,envelopes containing $10 to 20,000 in cash scot free and other similarly lavish"gifts."She must have been in a very talkative mood because Clarita also described how she had 5 AFP drivers,an AFP Security Detail,a 16,000 liter a month gasoline"allowance"(4,000 gallons) and an AFP cook who provided her with piano concertos upon request.The woman ACTUALLY said this.Now,there is"stupid"and there is"REALLY STUPID."This woman left"REALlY STUPID" alone decades ago and is probably past"INSANE"at this point.How much more so when she went and repeated all these amazing facts in an Affadavit executed in the presence of a US official?
The whole thing began unraveling on December 19,2003 when 2 of the Garcias' 3 sons stepped off of a plane in the American city of San Francisco.Sons Juan Paolo and Ian Carl,dual Philippine/American citizen like their mother,were bringing some cash as a favour to youngest brother Timothy Mark.The youngest Garcia was about to buy a condominium in New York City and needed a sufficient down payment.Most people would simply handle such a chore via bank transfer,or alternatively via commercial cash transfer service.In fact,there are more than a couple of ways in which to move money between the Philippines and the United States.Clarita Garcia had a habit though of carrying large sums of cash anytime she left the Philippines.Always above board Mrs.Garcia never thought twice about the Customs Delaration Form one fills out on the plane as it approaches its destination.In fact,on December 17th when she asked Juan Paolo to do this errand for Timothy Mark she had specifically reminded her eldest son to Declare the cash upon arrival.
Walking up to the Customs Officer Juan Paolo did exactly that.The problem however was that he only declared $1,000.Upon searching the 2 brothers Customs discovered $100,000 secreted in both of their carry on bags.As is the case in such matters both of the Garcia brothers were charged with"Bulk Cash Smuggling,""Conspiracy to Commit Bulk Cash Smuggling"and"Failure to Declare a Monetary Instrument."Clarita brought even larger sums into the US.It was never an issue as long as one fully declared it.Why then did this happen?According to Clarita's Affadavit Juan Paolo was a"risk taker"and"quite spoiled."In his own defence Juan Paolo simply wanted to"avoid unnecessary hassles."Greed and Sloth are 2 of the so-called"Cardinal Sins."
Months before Mrs.Garcia idiotically,almost literally placed around the neck of each family member the General himself was the first to take the that intial misstep on their collective descent into a living hell.On January 12,2004,just days after his 2 sons made their own formal request to retain the confiscated cash,General Garcia filled out a Claims Form along with a 2 page handwritten letter on AFP stationary and sent it to the US Office of Fines,Penalties and Foreitures.Trying to hold onto the seized $100,000 Garcia explained that the money was entirely licit in nature.Asked its source,General Garcia claimed that he had legally generated the money via"savings,honoraria and dividends from savings."When asked the purpose of its importation,he wrote that his youngest son Timothy Mark was buying a condominium in New York City and badly needed the money as a downpayment in the transaction,along with tuition fees for his next semester at the Parsons School of Design.Garcia added that a portion of the money was to fund a family holiday in New York City over Xmas.The claim,and its alibi are entirely normal in the American scheme of things though the stationary seems to have set things in motion so far as the American Government was concerned.Still,for the moment General Garcia must have felt himself invincible and so he put the incident behind him.
All arrests of foreign nationals by American Federal Authorities are automatically reported to the relevant authorities in their country of origin.A routine transmission sent to the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation,the Philippines' top law enforcement entity alerted the Philippine Government that the 2 young men had been involved in an unsavory enterprise.Made aware of the familial connection,the NBI contacted the AFP via back channels to make them aware that there very well could be a problem down the line.AFP Chief of Staff Narciso Abaya was made aware of that notification at the beginning of February,2004 and voila,the proverbial shi* hit the fan.General Abaya promptly notified Vice Admiral Ariston de los Reyes Jr. who was then commanding OEPSA,the AFP's Office of Ethical Standards and Public Accountability.Of course,as Chief of Staff,Abaya was well aware of what Garcia had been involved in because-if we accept latent testimony (and a whole lot of accusations and suppositioning) all Chiefs of Staff have been sharing in the various slush funds that have been created throught General Staff.Even if one rejects the military principle of Command Responsibility the Comptrollership is directly under the Chief of Staff and controls the finances of the entire military do that there isn't any room for doubt when considering the possibility that Chief of Staff Abaya MIGHT have known of Garcia's pilfrage.He absolutely knew of it.Ergo the Directive to OESPA is what Americans like to call a"CYA" (Cover Your As*) move.Abaya merely wanted to make himself invulnerable to prosecution.In fact,1 day before his mandatory retirement later in the year Chief of Staff Abaya's mindset would be made abundantly clear to observers.
Lieutenant General de los Reyes immediately obtained Garcia's SALNs,or"Statement of Assets,Liabilities and Networth),an annual statement to the Government by all AFP officers (and other government personnel) which serves to vet personnel living far above their legitimate income level.Right away glaring anomalies became apparent.As a Major General Garcia's income was roughly P36,000 (~$680)a month,or in annual terms less than P435,000 (~$8,300)a year.When comparing this to the Immigration print out which recorded all inbound and outbound commercial air travel he found that the General and his wife Clarita were spending more than his annual salary just on airline tickets.
Since this was a back door investigation OESPA didn't go for the jugular and apply for BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) records,or search on the family's collective holdings.It was clear that something was really wrong and so Vice Admiral de los Reyes warned Chief of Staff Abaya to take appropriate measures.By the last week of March General Garcia's world began to crack.He was told point blank that there were some concerns and that instead of creating waves they were simply going to give him a lateral transfer from his current position as Deputy Chief of Staff,Comptroller (J6) to Deputy Chief of Staff,Planning (J5).It was a 2 Star (Major General) to 2 Star posting so that Garcia wouldn't be taking a cut in pay,or power,but the word was out,he was on the way down and going fast.
Major General Garcia had held J6 since March 28,2001,almost 3 years to the day and such lateral transfers rarely if ever took place,and never after such a length of time in that it was non-sensical to waste a man's training and familiarity with the position just to move him sideways.That Garcia was being pulled out of J6,which literally controlled the entire military's purse strings bespoke serious concerns related to financial malpractice.All the more so because J5 had the least budget of any Deputy Chief of Staff.The transfer was effective April 4th,ironically just 2 days before Clarita Garcia paid a personal visit to ICE in the US.This visit,on April 5th and 6thwas the source of her famous,semi-retarded Affadavit.Knowing that her husband is being scored over that lousy $100,000 she STILL walked into that office,presented her 4 paged handwritten statement.Then,adding insult to injury she voluntarily agreed to sit down with an ICE agent and spill the beans.
By the Summer of 2004 the US Government began its own serious investigation into the Garcia Family.Trying to couch the inquiry in Politically Correct terms the Americans sold it as a look see at possible Money Laundering violations.To accuse the AFP Comptroller of embezzlement would fall on the wrong side of the very important US-Philippine military and strategical geopolitical alliance.The Arroyo Government was a ready and willing (though never quite able) partner in the new American crusade,the"War on Terror."It therefore behooved the Americans to couch the examination in less than caustic tones.On September 10,2004,David E.Meisner,then servince as the ICE Attache at the Manila Embassy informally briefed the Ombudsman on recent discoveries made in the US with regard to the Garcia family.ICE had uncovered 3 very expencive American properties owned outright by the family.2 of those properties,New York City condominiums were worth a combined $1.4 Million (P7 Million plus).In addition,just scanning currency declarations made by the 5 family members since 1990.Checking the sane Customs Declarations the Garcia brothers had failed to comply with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement determined that the family had brought well over $500,000 to the US from the Philippines AND IF the Non-Declaration in December of 2003 represented any type of behavioral pattern the family could have easily imported several million US Dollars,all on a single member's salary of $650 (P36,000) a month OR LESS (he had only held J6 for roughly 36 months).
On September 14,2004 Attache Meisner followed standard American diplomatic protocol and formally notified the Philippine Ombudsman that ICE was now formally investigating General Garcia and his family,and that the investigation had thus far uncovered the details I just discussed in my previous paragraph.Meisner noted that these facts represented possible violations of American Money Laundering statutes.Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo conferred with his staff for 2 days and on September 17th formally inplemented a full dress investigation of General Garcia.Marcelo's staff then immediately contacted the AFP to obtain Garcia's AFP service record along with his SALNs (Statements on Assets,Liabilities and Networth)from 1990 onward.The AFP,not suprisingly,was far from co+operative.on September 20th Marcelo had his attorneys subpoena the AFP for the desired records.Now legally required to comply,the AFP turned over the desired materiel the very next day,September 21st.
By September 27th,just 10 days after formally starting his investigation,the Ombudsman issued its findings via a formal reccomendation to AFP Chief of Staff Abaya that Garcia should be placed on 6 months Preventive Suspension,without pay and effective immediately.From this point things began snowballing incredibly fast.IF General Garcia thought he had dodged that bullet he absolutely would have no illusions that things had suddenly and irrevocably changed.Subsequently,on September 28th Garcia was formally placed on 6 Months Preventative Suspension,Without Pay and confined to his official quarters,to begin the following day,September 29,2004.Luckily for Garcia his"quarters"while not posh,were certainly comfortable.Living on JOQ,#22 Gallego in Camp Aguinaldo,it was here that the now disgraced officer would spend his last anti-climatic months as an AFP officer.Having become the first AFP General to endure suspension,and the first serving general to even undergo investigation,things would soon get a lot worse.The Suspension was primarily designed to comtrol Garcia's movements as well as to preserve legal jurisdiction.On November 18th Garcia would turn 56,the age of mandatory retirement in the AFP.At that point Garcia could disappear so it was extremely important to control his movement in the preliminary stages of the case.Likewise,if the AFP failed to suspend him before that date they would lose all legal jurisdiction over him.Suspension kept him in stasis.While AFP Chief of Staff Abaya wished to avoid moving forward in prosecution of Garcia he also recognised the ramifications of failing to appear as if he been vigilant and taken proper steps to legally ajudicate the issues raised.
General Abaya's effort at stonewalling the prosecution hit a brickwall on October 4,2004.That day the columnist Jarius Bondoc of the Manila daily,"Philippine Star"broke the case wide open.Here to fore kept out of the. Public arena Bondoc,relying on a source in the Ombudsman's Office broke the sordid tale in his column,"Gotcha."The revelations were stunning and segueing directly into damage control mode then President Gloria M.Arroyo (GMA) immediately ordered Abaya to go on the offencive and call a Press Conference at General Headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo.At the hastily convened press conference slash media bloodbath Abaya claimed that the AFP was aggressively pursuing not only Garcia but anyone else who might be involved on any level.Abaya had tried,and failed to convince Garcia to personally appear with him,knowing that a failure to produce him would only whet the media-and by relation-the public's appetite for blood.General Abaya had tried his best but Bondoc had beaten him to the punch with a mere 25 days to go before the Chief of Staff was set to retire.
The case naturally catapulted to the forefront of public consciousness and so it became the fodder of the political opposition.Congress hastily convened Hearings on the matter."Inviting"General Garcia to appear before them they set the date for the first hearing for October 11,2004.In a stroke of"bad luck"Garcia was unable to appear.Suffering from various physical maladies the good General had been taken to the University of Santo Tomas Hospital where"concerned"physicians admitted him at once.As the second and then third Hearings transpired without him Garcia was finally released on October 16th and very quickly returned to his quarters at Camp Aguinaldo.Ergo,when the fourth Congressional Hearing took place on October 18th Garcia didn't have any choice but to comply.
The fourth Hearing was remarkable for the number of times Garcia refused to answer even the most innocuous of questions.Citing his Constitutional Right not to incriminate himself no less than 30 times he managed to tee off even the most sympathetic of Congressmen and women.
As Garcia had lain in the hospital Chief of Staff Abaya had been finishing his"CYA"contingency measures.On October 12th Abaya had ordered JAGO (Judge Advocates Office,the military prosecutorial system to initiate a preliminary investigation of Garcia and to supply recommendations to the Chief of Staff as to whether or not the AFP should convene a General Court Martial for the Garcia Case.With what surely must have been an exhausted sigh Chief of Staff General Narciso Abaya turned 56 on October,29,2004 and was put out to pasture.On November 10th his successor General Efren Abreu,having received the JAGO Report from its lead investigator,Lieutenant Colonel Al Parras the day before,formally ruled that a General Court Martial would be convened on charges Garcia violated 2 Articles of War:
1) Article 96:Conduct Unbecoming of an Officer and a Gentleman
2) Article 97:Conduct Prejudicial to Good Order and Military Discipline
Later JAGO would add an additional Article,#95 which dealt with the revelation that Garcia had obtained an American Green Card,making him a Legal Resident of the US (his family also have them).Parras,the Executive Officer of JAGO(2nd in Command) was the Commander of JAGO's"Military Justice Division"had an easy enough job as far as ascertainment of relevant facts but conversely had to exhibit almost superhuman will to buckle down amid the threats and skull popping pressure of bringing down a virtually parallel system within the AFP.Not only had the previous Chief of Staff,General Abaya been dead set against pursuing this case,President Arroyo concurred.Her Executive Secretary Ignacio Buyne had been doing his best to sway public opinion since the story broke on October 4th.Joining him on his bandwagon was Arroyo appointee,Secretary of National Defense,Raul Gonzalez.Gonzalez actually had the gall to strongly suggest that the Garcias were living within their means.As he saw it,the extremely expencive properties could very easily be rationalised as bullish appreciation.Gonzalez remarked how his own condo in Manila had more than quadrupled in price in just 4 years.He said this with a straight face mind you and so the adjective"bullish" is indeed an apt one.Buyne for his rationalisation,portrayed it as a case of the political opposituon trying to besmirch the entire AFP as they dragged President Arroyo into the gutter.
In the end it wasn't the court of public opinion which motivated President Arroyo but rather the perrenial threat of a coup.All Philippine Coups,Attempts and Plots are entirely driven by the AFP.Counter-intuitively the AFP will not muster its foot soldiers to protect scumbags like Garcia.Rather they are primarily driven by earnest young junior officers imbued with integrity and idealism.In July of 2003 the President had nearly fallen in the Oakwood attempt (I have posted in previous AFP entries about all 3 coup attempts against the Arroyo Presidency,this particular plot ended in a negotiated settlement that Arroyo reneged on).Cliques like"RAM"sought to overcome the deeply entrenched corruption of the sort found in the Garcia Case.Though both the President and the bulk of the AFP's senior officers wanted to sweep this unsightly stain underneath the carpet,media scrutiny and the threat of provoking another coup attempt finally swayed President Arroyo into supporting the General Court Martial.
On the prosecutorial end of the Court Martial process JAGO empanelled,in addition to the Presiding Officer,Major General Theodosio,CO of CENCOM (Central Command) General Court Matials have 6 other panellists for a total of 7 members:
1) Major General Pedro Cabuay,then serving as the Commanding Officer (CO) of the 2ID (Infantry Division)
2) Major General Allan Cabalquinto,then the CO of SOLCOM (Southern Luzon Regional Command) but about to be laterally transferred to CO of NCRCOM (National Capitol Region Command)
3) Major General Edwin Vargas,
4) Rear Admiral Abraham Abesamis,AFP Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications,Electronics and Information Systems
5) Major General Jaime Viernes,PAF (Philippine Air Force) Inspector General
6) Colonel Caridad Aguilar,JAGO,serving as Law Member of Panel
Garcia was represented by civilian attorney,Constantino de Jesus though technically de Jesus was relegated to the position of"Advisor"to an appointed panel of 3 defense representatives,all senior officers.
Scheduled to convene on November 16,2004 at 1PM in Courtroom #2,Torres Hall of Justice in Camp Aguinaldo with Major Emmanuel Theodosio presiding.Meanwhile,the Ombudsman had moved forward in his case against Garcia.On October 27th Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo had petitioned the Sandiganbayan for forfeiture of Garcia's ill gotten assets via a Writ of Preliminary Attachment,citing RA (Republic Act) #1379 as his pretext in doing so.Two days later,on October 29th the Sandigbayan granted the Ombudsman's Petition and issued the Writ.So it was on November 2nd,while still confined to his quarters that Garcia learned that the Ombudsman had finally dropped the hammer in what Garcia knew would simply be the first of a great many civil court hearings.
Having gotten the desired Suspension to keep Garcia in stir Marcelo now followed through on 4 charges of Perjury related to SALNs from 1997,1998,1999 and 2000.The charges concern 4 vehicles not listed on those statements as well as just 1 savings accout in AFPSLAI (Armed Forces and Police Savings and Loan Association Incorporated).Filed on October 28th,2004 it wasn't until Novemver 9th that Garcia was arraigned on what must have seemed absolutely trivial matters to him.On the part of the Ombudsman,the charges were filed in order to obtain legal pretext to implement a Bureau of Immigration HDO (Hold Departure Order which bars a subject from legally departing the country and prevents all internationl departures via airtravel).Each charge carried a sentence of 1 month to 6 years and all were bailable in the amount of P6,000 (~$110) per charge.Only bothering to arraign on a single one pf the charges it was given to the 3rd Division of the Sandiganbayan.
In the Philippines the position of Ombudsman works in a symbiotic relationship with the"Sandiganbayan,"or"Protection of the People's Honour,"in a far from literal translation of the Tagalog.Unlike the Ombudsman the Sandiganbayan is an entirely Filipino concept.An early Marcos Era innovation,it is a judicial entity that only deals with government corruption.The Ombudsman serves as the prosecuting entity and initiates investigations as well as charges.In the case of the Garcia Perjury charge,each of the 4 charges was given to a different one of the Sandiganbayan's 4 divisions.
On Nove$ber 17th Garcia filed a Petition with the Supreme Court to nullify the Writ of Preliminary Attachment granted by the Sandiganbayan,arguing jurisdictional issues.The Supre Court was the venue because the Sandiganbayan is parallel to the Court of Appeals.Ergo any real challenge to the Sandiganbayan must be addressed by the higher court.The very next day marked Garcia's 56th birthday and without his mandatory retirement from the AFP.Chief of Staff than had Garcia pulled from Confinement to Quarters and transferred to the brig (military prison) in the basement of IS-AFP (AFP Intelligence Service) elsewhere within Camp Aguinaldo.From his luxurious home (by Philippine standards as well as comparatively speaking) to a basement cell measuring 3 by 4 meters and containing a slab bed and ancient toilet.Interestingly,the AFP's own Chief of Staff seemed entirely ignorant of the Abadilla Doctrine which precludes retirement under pending charges in the Military System of Justice.By the same token Garcia's attorney Constantino de Jesus failed to cite this very simple military principle but then that is incredibly easy to understand since Mr.de Jesus is a civilian.Still,he served his client well by correctly citing the original Order of Detainment by former Chief of Staff Abaya.General Abaya had ordered Garcia to be Confined to Quarters,NOT incarcerated.Ergo Abaya was ordered to remove Garcia from his cell and to find appropriate quarters commensurate with his former Officers Quarters.
I will stop here and save the rest for a subsequent entry which will begin with the Court Martial Proceedings themselves.
Indeed,in that petition Clarita included a 4 paged,handwritten note where she amazingly stated that because she is the wife of a Philippine General,such large sums of cash were not at all unusual.In fact,she explained that because General Garcia was the top Comptroller for the entire Philippine Military,companies wishing to win valuable contracts often gave the General large cash gifts.She said that companies with AFP Contracts,or those simply hoping to snare such Contracts provided her and her family with Business Class air travel,envelopes containing $10 to 20,000 in cash scot free and other similarly lavish"gifts."She must have been in a very talkative mood because Clarita also described how she had 5 AFP drivers,an AFP Security Detail,a 16,000 liter a month gasoline"allowance"(4,000 gallons) and an AFP cook who provided her with piano concertos upon request.The woman ACTUALLY said this.Now,there is"stupid"and there is"REALLY STUPID."This woman left"REALlY STUPID" alone decades ago and is probably past"INSANE"at this point.How much more so when she went and repeated all these amazing facts in an Affadavit executed in the presence of a US official?
The whole thing began unraveling on December 19,2003 when 2 of the Garcias' 3 sons stepped off of a plane in the American city of San Francisco.Sons Juan Paolo and Ian Carl,dual Philippine/American citizen like their mother,were bringing some cash as a favour to youngest brother Timothy Mark.The youngest Garcia was about to buy a condominium in New York City and needed a sufficient down payment.Most people would simply handle such a chore via bank transfer,or alternatively via commercial cash transfer service.In fact,there are more than a couple of ways in which to move money between the Philippines and the United States.Clarita Garcia had a habit though of carrying large sums of cash anytime she left the Philippines.Always above board Mrs.Garcia never thought twice about the Customs Delaration Form one fills out on the plane as it approaches its destination.In fact,on December 17th when she asked Juan Paolo to do this errand for Timothy Mark she had specifically reminded her eldest son to Declare the cash upon arrival.
Walking up to the Customs Officer Juan Paolo did exactly that.The problem however was that he only declared $1,000.Upon searching the 2 brothers Customs discovered $100,000 secreted in both of their carry on bags.As is the case in such matters both of the Garcia brothers were charged with"Bulk Cash Smuggling,""Conspiracy to Commit Bulk Cash Smuggling"and"Failure to Declare a Monetary Instrument."Clarita brought even larger sums into the US.It was never an issue as long as one fully declared it.Why then did this happen?According to Clarita's Affadavit Juan Paolo was a"risk taker"and"quite spoiled."In his own defence Juan Paolo simply wanted to"avoid unnecessary hassles."Greed and Sloth are 2 of the so-called"Cardinal Sins."
Months before Mrs.Garcia idiotically,almost literally placed around the neck of each family member the General himself was the first to take the that intial misstep on their collective descent into a living hell.On January 12,2004,just days after his 2 sons made their own formal request to retain the confiscated cash,General Garcia filled out a Claims Form along with a 2 page handwritten letter on AFP stationary and sent it to the US Office of Fines,Penalties and Foreitures.Trying to hold onto the seized $100,000 Garcia explained that the money was entirely licit in nature.Asked its source,General Garcia claimed that he had legally generated the money via"savings,honoraria and dividends from savings."When asked the purpose of its importation,he wrote that his youngest son Timothy Mark was buying a condominium in New York City and badly needed the money as a downpayment in the transaction,along with tuition fees for his next semester at the Parsons School of Design.Garcia added that a portion of the money was to fund a family holiday in New York City over Xmas.The claim,and its alibi are entirely normal in the American scheme of things though the stationary seems to have set things in motion so far as the American Government was concerned.Still,for the moment General Garcia must have felt himself invincible and so he put the incident behind him.
All arrests of foreign nationals by American Federal Authorities are automatically reported to the relevant authorities in their country of origin.A routine transmission sent to the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation,the Philippines' top law enforcement entity alerted the Philippine Government that the 2 young men had been involved in an unsavory enterprise.Made aware of the familial connection,the NBI contacted the AFP via back channels to make them aware that there very well could be a problem down the line.AFP Chief of Staff Narciso Abaya was made aware of that notification at the beginning of February,2004 and voila,the proverbial shi* hit the fan.General Abaya promptly notified Vice Admiral Ariston de los Reyes Jr. who was then commanding OEPSA,the AFP's Office of Ethical Standards and Public Accountability.Of course,as Chief of Staff,Abaya was well aware of what Garcia had been involved in because-if we accept latent testimony (and a whole lot of accusations and suppositioning) all Chiefs of Staff have been sharing in the various slush funds that have been created throught General Staff.Even if one rejects the military principle of Command Responsibility the Comptrollership is directly under the Chief of Staff and controls the finances of the entire military do that there isn't any room for doubt when considering the possibility that Chief of Staff Abaya MIGHT have known of Garcia's pilfrage.He absolutely knew of it.Ergo the Directive to OESPA is what Americans like to call a"CYA" (Cover Your As*) move.Abaya merely wanted to make himself invulnerable to prosecution.In fact,1 day before his mandatory retirement later in the year Chief of Staff Abaya's mindset would be made abundantly clear to observers.
Lieutenant General de los Reyes immediately obtained Garcia's SALNs,or"Statement of Assets,Liabilities and Networth),an annual statement to the Government by all AFP officers (and other government personnel) which serves to vet personnel living far above their legitimate income level.Right away glaring anomalies became apparent.As a Major General Garcia's income was roughly P36,000 (~$680)a month,or in annual terms less than P435,000 (~$8,300)a year.When comparing this to the Immigration print out which recorded all inbound and outbound commercial air travel he found that the General and his wife Clarita were spending more than his annual salary just on airline tickets.
Since this was a back door investigation OESPA didn't go for the jugular and apply for BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) records,or search on the family's collective holdings.It was clear that something was really wrong and so Vice Admiral de los Reyes warned Chief of Staff Abaya to take appropriate measures.By the last week of March General Garcia's world began to crack.He was told point blank that there were some concerns and that instead of creating waves they were simply going to give him a lateral transfer from his current position as Deputy Chief of Staff,Comptroller (J6) to Deputy Chief of Staff,Planning (J5).It was a 2 Star (Major General) to 2 Star posting so that Garcia wouldn't be taking a cut in pay,or power,but the word was out,he was on the way down and going fast.
Major General Garcia had held J6 since March 28,2001,almost 3 years to the day and such lateral transfers rarely if ever took place,and never after such a length of time in that it was non-sensical to waste a man's training and familiarity with the position just to move him sideways.That Garcia was being pulled out of J6,which literally controlled the entire military's purse strings bespoke serious concerns related to financial malpractice.All the more so because J5 had the least budget of any Deputy Chief of Staff.The transfer was effective April 4th,ironically just 2 days before Clarita Garcia paid a personal visit to ICE in the US.This visit,on April 5th and 6thwas the source of her famous,semi-retarded Affadavit.Knowing that her husband is being scored over that lousy $100,000 she STILL walked into that office,presented her 4 paged handwritten statement.Then,adding insult to injury she voluntarily agreed to sit down with an ICE agent and spill the beans.
By the Summer of 2004 the US Government began its own serious investigation into the Garcia Family.Trying to couch the inquiry in Politically Correct terms the Americans sold it as a look see at possible Money Laundering violations.To accuse the AFP Comptroller of embezzlement would fall on the wrong side of the very important US-Philippine military and strategical geopolitical alliance.The Arroyo Government was a ready and willing (though never quite able) partner in the new American crusade,the"War on Terror."It therefore behooved the Americans to couch the examination in less than caustic tones.On September 10,2004,David E.Meisner,then servince as the ICE Attache at the Manila Embassy informally briefed the Ombudsman on recent discoveries made in the US with regard to the Garcia family.ICE had uncovered 3 very expencive American properties owned outright by the family.2 of those properties,New York City condominiums were worth a combined $1.4 Million (P7 Million plus).In addition,just scanning currency declarations made by the 5 family members since 1990.Checking the sane Customs Declarations the Garcia brothers had failed to comply with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement determined that the family had brought well over $500,000 to the US from the Philippines AND IF the Non-Declaration in December of 2003 represented any type of behavioral pattern the family could have easily imported several million US Dollars,all on a single member's salary of $650 (P36,000) a month OR LESS (he had only held J6 for roughly 36 months).
On September 14,2004 Attache Meisner followed standard American diplomatic protocol and formally notified the Philippine Ombudsman that ICE was now formally investigating General Garcia and his family,and that the investigation had thus far uncovered the details I just discussed in my previous paragraph.Meisner noted that these facts represented possible violations of American Money Laundering statutes.Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo conferred with his staff for 2 days and on September 17th formally inplemented a full dress investigation of General Garcia.Marcelo's staff then immediately contacted the AFP to obtain Garcia's AFP service record along with his SALNs (Statements on Assets,Liabilities and Networth)from 1990 onward.The AFP,not suprisingly,was far from co+operative.on September 20th Marcelo had his attorneys subpoena the AFP for the desired records.Now legally required to comply,the AFP turned over the desired materiel the very next day,September 21st.
By September 27th,just 10 days after formally starting his investigation,the Ombudsman issued its findings via a formal reccomendation to AFP Chief of Staff Abaya that Garcia should be placed on 6 months Preventive Suspension,without pay and effective immediately.From this point things began snowballing incredibly fast.IF General Garcia thought he had dodged that bullet he absolutely would have no illusions that things had suddenly and irrevocably changed.Subsequently,on September 28th Garcia was formally placed on 6 Months Preventative Suspension,Without Pay and confined to his official quarters,to begin the following day,September 29,2004.Luckily for Garcia his"quarters"while not posh,were certainly comfortable.Living on JOQ,#22 Gallego in Camp Aguinaldo,it was here that the now disgraced officer would spend his last anti-climatic months as an AFP officer.Having become the first AFP General to endure suspension,and the first serving general to even undergo investigation,things would soon get a lot worse.The Suspension was primarily designed to comtrol Garcia's movements as well as to preserve legal jurisdiction.On November 18th Garcia would turn 56,the age of mandatory retirement in the AFP.At that point Garcia could disappear so it was extremely important to control his movement in the preliminary stages of the case.Likewise,if the AFP failed to suspend him before that date they would lose all legal jurisdiction over him.Suspension kept him in stasis.While AFP Chief of Staff Abaya wished to avoid moving forward in prosecution of Garcia he also recognised the ramifications of failing to appear as if he been vigilant and taken proper steps to legally ajudicate the issues raised.
General Abaya's effort at stonewalling the prosecution hit a brickwall on October 4,2004.That day the columnist Jarius Bondoc of the Manila daily,"Philippine Star"broke the case wide open.Here to fore kept out of the. Public arena Bondoc,relying on a source in the Ombudsman's Office broke the sordid tale in his column,"Gotcha."The revelations were stunning and segueing directly into damage control mode then President Gloria M.Arroyo (GMA) immediately ordered Abaya to go on the offencive and call a Press Conference at General Headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo.At the hastily convened press conference slash media bloodbath Abaya claimed that the AFP was aggressively pursuing not only Garcia but anyone else who might be involved on any level.Abaya had tried,and failed to convince Garcia to personally appear with him,knowing that a failure to produce him would only whet the media-and by relation-the public's appetite for blood.General Abaya had tried his best but Bondoc had beaten him to the punch with a mere 25 days to go before the Chief of Staff was set to retire.
The case naturally catapulted to the forefront of public consciousness and so it became the fodder of the political opposition.Congress hastily convened Hearings on the matter."Inviting"General Garcia to appear before them they set the date for the first hearing for October 11,2004.In a stroke of"bad luck"Garcia was unable to appear.Suffering from various physical maladies the good General had been taken to the University of Santo Tomas Hospital where"concerned"physicians admitted him at once.As the second and then third Hearings transpired without him Garcia was finally released on October 16th and very quickly returned to his quarters at Camp Aguinaldo.Ergo,when the fourth Congressional Hearing took place on October 18th Garcia didn't have any choice but to comply.
The fourth Hearing was remarkable for the number of times Garcia refused to answer even the most innocuous of questions.Citing his Constitutional Right not to incriminate himself no less than 30 times he managed to tee off even the most sympathetic of Congressmen and women.
As Garcia had lain in the hospital Chief of Staff Abaya had been finishing his"CYA"contingency measures.On October 12th Abaya had ordered JAGO (Judge Advocates Office,the military prosecutorial system to initiate a preliminary investigation of Garcia and to supply recommendations to the Chief of Staff as to whether or not the AFP should convene a General Court Martial for the Garcia Case.With what surely must have been an exhausted sigh Chief of Staff General Narciso Abaya turned 56 on October,29,2004 and was put out to pasture.On November 10th his successor General Efren Abreu,having received the JAGO Report from its lead investigator,Lieutenant Colonel Al Parras the day before,formally ruled that a General Court Martial would be convened on charges Garcia violated 2 Articles of War:
1) Article 96:Conduct Unbecoming of an Officer and a Gentleman
2) Article 97:Conduct Prejudicial to Good Order and Military Discipline
Later JAGO would add an additional Article,#95 which dealt with the revelation that Garcia had obtained an American Green Card,making him a Legal Resident of the US (his family also have them).Parras,the Executive Officer of JAGO(2nd in Command) was the Commander of JAGO's"Military Justice Division"had an easy enough job as far as ascertainment of relevant facts but conversely had to exhibit almost superhuman will to buckle down amid the threats and skull popping pressure of bringing down a virtually parallel system within the AFP.Not only had the previous Chief of Staff,General Abaya been dead set against pursuing this case,President Arroyo concurred.Her Executive Secretary Ignacio Buyne had been doing his best to sway public opinion since the story broke on October 4th.Joining him on his bandwagon was Arroyo appointee,Secretary of National Defense,Raul Gonzalez.Gonzalez actually had the gall to strongly suggest that the Garcias were living within their means.As he saw it,the extremely expencive properties could very easily be rationalised as bullish appreciation.Gonzalez remarked how his own condo in Manila had more than quadrupled in price in just 4 years.He said this with a straight face mind you and so the adjective"bullish" is indeed an apt one.Buyne for his rationalisation,portrayed it as a case of the political opposituon trying to besmirch the entire AFP as they dragged President Arroyo into the gutter.
In the end it wasn't the court of public opinion which motivated President Arroyo but rather the perrenial threat of a coup.All Philippine Coups,Attempts and Plots are entirely driven by the AFP.Counter-intuitively the AFP will not muster its foot soldiers to protect scumbags like Garcia.Rather they are primarily driven by earnest young junior officers imbued with integrity and idealism.In July of 2003 the President had nearly fallen in the Oakwood attempt (I have posted in previous AFP entries about all 3 coup attempts against the Arroyo Presidency,this particular plot ended in a negotiated settlement that Arroyo reneged on).Cliques like"RAM"sought to overcome the deeply entrenched corruption of the sort found in the Garcia Case.Though both the President and the bulk of the AFP's senior officers wanted to sweep this unsightly stain underneath the carpet,media scrutiny and the threat of provoking another coup attempt finally swayed President Arroyo into supporting the General Court Martial.
On the prosecutorial end of the Court Martial process JAGO empanelled,in addition to the Presiding Officer,Major General Theodosio,CO of CENCOM (Central Command) General Court Matials have 6 other panellists for a total of 7 members:
1) Major General Pedro Cabuay,then serving as the Commanding Officer (CO) of the 2ID (Infantry Division)
2) Major General Allan Cabalquinto,then the CO of SOLCOM (Southern Luzon Regional Command) but about to be laterally transferred to CO of NCRCOM (National Capitol Region Command)
3) Major General Edwin Vargas,
4) Rear Admiral Abraham Abesamis,AFP Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications,Electronics and Information Systems
5) Major General Jaime Viernes,PAF (Philippine Air Force) Inspector General
6) Colonel Caridad Aguilar,JAGO,serving as Law Member of Panel
Garcia was represented by civilian attorney,Constantino de Jesus though technically de Jesus was relegated to the position of"Advisor"to an appointed panel of 3 defense representatives,all senior officers.
Scheduled to convene on November 16,2004 at 1PM in Courtroom #2,Torres Hall of Justice in Camp Aguinaldo with Major Emmanuel Theodosio presiding.Meanwhile,the Ombudsman had moved forward in his case against Garcia.On October 27th Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo had petitioned the Sandiganbayan for forfeiture of Garcia's ill gotten assets via a Writ of Preliminary Attachment,citing RA (Republic Act) #1379 as his pretext in doing so.Two days later,on October 29th the Sandigbayan granted the Ombudsman's Petition and issued the Writ.So it was on November 2nd,while still confined to his quarters that Garcia learned that the Ombudsman had finally dropped the hammer in what Garcia knew would simply be the first of a great many civil court hearings.
Having gotten the desired Suspension to keep Garcia in stir Marcelo now followed through on 4 charges of Perjury related to SALNs from 1997,1998,1999 and 2000.The charges concern 4 vehicles not listed on those statements as well as just 1 savings accout in AFPSLAI (Armed Forces and Police Savings and Loan Association Incorporated).Filed on October 28th,2004 it wasn't until Novemver 9th that Garcia was arraigned on what must have seemed absolutely trivial matters to him.On the part of the Ombudsman,the charges were filed in order to obtain legal pretext to implement a Bureau of Immigration HDO (Hold Departure Order which bars a subject from legally departing the country and prevents all internationl departures via airtravel).Each charge carried a sentence of 1 month to 6 years and all were bailable in the amount of P6,000 (~$110) per charge.Only bothering to arraign on a single one pf the charges it was given to the 3rd Division of the Sandiganbayan.
In the Philippines the position of Ombudsman works in a symbiotic relationship with the"Sandiganbayan,"or"Protection of the People's Honour,"in a far from literal translation of the Tagalog.Unlike the Ombudsman the Sandiganbayan is an entirely Filipino concept.An early Marcos Era innovation,it is a judicial entity that only deals with government corruption.The Ombudsman serves as the prosecuting entity and initiates investigations as well as charges.In the case of the Garcia Perjury charge,each of the 4 charges was given to a different one of the Sandiganbayan's 4 divisions.
On Nove$ber 17th Garcia filed a Petition with the Supreme Court to nullify the Writ of Preliminary Attachment granted by the Sandiganbayan,arguing jurisdictional issues.The Supre Court was the venue because the Sandiganbayan is parallel to the Court of Appeals.Ergo any real challenge to the Sandiganbayan must be addressed by the higher court.The very next day marked Garcia's 56th birthday and without his mandatory retirement from the AFP.Chief of Staff than had Garcia pulled from Confinement to Quarters and transferred to the brig (military prison) in the basement of IS-AFP (AFP Intelligence Service) elsewhere within Camp Aguinaldo.From his luxurious home (by Philippine standards as well as comparatively speaking) to a basement cell measuring 3 by 4 meters and containing a slab bed and ancient toilet.Interestingly,the AFP's own Chief of Staff seemed entirely ignorant of the Abadilla Doctrine which precludes retirement under pending charges in the Military System of Justice.By the same token Garcia's attorney Constantino de Jesus failed to cite this very simple military principle but then that is incredibly easy to understand since Mr.de Jesus is a civilian.Still,he served his client well by correctly citing the original Order of Detainment by former Chief of Staff Abaya.General Abaya had ordered Garcia to be Confined to Quarters,NOT incarcerated.Ergo Abaya was ordered to remove Garcia from his cell and to find appropriate quarters commensurate with his former Officers Quarters.
I will stop here and save the rest for a subsequent entry which will begin with the Court Martial Proceedings themselves.
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