Peace Processes are a lot like the wars they aim to rectify. As any soldier can tell you, war is a whole lot of boredom and waiting around and just when you think waiting is all that you will do, a fantastic amount of action spins your head right around. The GPH, or the Government of the Philippines, and the NDFP, or the National Democratic Front of the Philippines are together engaged in a Peace Process that is no exception. After a beautiful beginning in February of 2011 when both sides met in Oslo, Norway, the Talks soon teetered on the verge of collapse over the GPH's stalling tactics. The particular issue utilised was a Joint Agreement signed back in 1995 with the Ramos Administration. Known as JASIG, or the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees, it was meant to protect all NDFP members directly involved in the GPH-NDFP Peace Process and exempt them from both arrest and state sanctioned violence.
JASIG has been manipulated by the Philippine Government for nearly seven years now. In 2004 the NDFP stepped away from the table over then-President Gloria Arroyo's sucessful lobbying of the United States to have the CPP/NPA, or Communist Party of the Philippines and its military arm, the New Peoples Army, blacklisted as a terrorist organisation. When Arroyo began to lobby the European Union as well the NDFP, the entity representing the CPP/NPA in the Peace Process, said "Enough!" and backed out of the Talks. Out of spite as much as from having manipulated the situation to net this very result the Arroyo Government suspended JASIG in September of 2005.
The Arroyo Government then re-implemented JASIG in August of 2009 after both sides agreed to come back to the table, an eventuality that never materialised until the changing of Administrations in 2010. The Government's uni-lateral suspension of JASIG was illegal since it was a bi-lateral Agreement ratified by both sides, ergo one side couldn't legally suspend such an Agreement without concurrence by the other. Aggravating the Government's action was the fact that from that suspension in 2005 all the way up until re-implementation in late 2009 the Government targeted known JASIG-covered personalities so that the suspension of JASIG was not meant merely to intimidate the CPP/NPA/NDFP but instead was designed as a way in which to further complicate an already veritable Gordian Knot of a Peace Process. In fact, the majority of the 26 incarcerated JASIG-covered personalities had been taken into custody during the suspended interim, from 2005 to 2009.
Then, when the NDFP finally did come back to the negotiating table in February of 2011 the Government Peace Panel's Chairman Alexander "Alex" Padilla assured his NDFP counterpart, Luis G.Jalandoni, that he would throw his weight into the issue to help gain the freedom of incarcerated JASIG-covered individuals. In fact, in the Oslo Joint Statement given at that First Round of the new cycle, Padilla actually said, "
On July 26th, 2011 the GPH Peace Panel had emissaries present, as did the Nowegian Government, when the long awaited JASIG Verification Process took place in a Dutch courtroom. As each NDFP member was offered JASIG protection his or her actual name, nom de guerre, and pseudonym especially for the Peace Process was entered onto an encrypted computer disc. Likewise with the photograph of each of those people. After the European Union placed the CPP/NPA onto its list of terrorist organisations the Dutch authorities raided the bank safe deposit box containing these encrypted discs. According to the NDFP, the investigators damaged a good many things. Apparently one such thing was the cipha disc which was to be used to de-code the encrypted photos and particulars of each JASIG-covered individual.
Chairman Padilla did not help things when he rubbed that failed Verification into the faces of the CPP/NPA/NDFP leadership. Said Padilla, "In the first place, they should not have used encrypted diskettes to store the pictures since JASIG called for individual photographs. Then their diskettes could not be opened. The failure of the verification process was entirely the fault of the NDF(P).". As if THAT hadn't been acidic enough Padilla re-hammered that dull nail, "The failure was theirs and theirs alone." Gee Alex, you have just proven exactly why attorneys should never be allowed to handle diplomatic issues. In fact, JASIG DOES call for "photos of each individual" but a diskette is merely a "storage format" and JASIG has absolutely nothing to say about THAT subject.
Still, trying to seem as if the Government is actually applying some elbow grease Padilla played another card ashortly before that July 26th Verification Process knowing full well that he would seek redress no matter HOW well the NDFP managed to link incarcerated individuals to the Peace Process. In June Padilla had arranged to have four more JASIG-covered individuals released, though he carefully choreographed the action. On July 22nd, 2011 Padilla had three of the individuals ordered released and arranged for a fourth to be let go on August 3rd as a way in which to make any complaint by Jalandoni et al on this issue look ridiculous. "How can people accuse the Government of not putting effort into solving the JASIG impasse IF three JASIG-protected individuals were released mere days before the scheduled Verification? Without even waiting for that the Government had three released. Even when the NDFP failed in the Verification Process the Government STILL had ANOTHER JASIG-protected person released!"
The four individuals:
1) Jaime "Jimmy" Soledad, 61 years old and the Secretary of the Southern Leyte Front of the NPA at the time of his arrest as well as the Secretary of the Leyte Committee of the CPP and therefore sat upon the Eastern Visayas Regional Committee of the CPP as did his wife Clarita Luego Soledad, now aged 54. On March 20th, 2008 the couple travelled to Luzon to rendevouz with a cousin of Clarita's, Vilma Madrazo of Cavite Province. Obstensibly Ms.Madrazo had asked them to travel there because she was interested in purchasing a small commercial property owned by the couple (in Clarita's name, never mind the fact that they are closet Capitalists). However, cousin Vilma had sold her services to the AFP and was trying to collect a decent bounty.
As the Soledads walked up to Vilma in front of the 7-11 convenience store in the municipality of Bacoor's Barangay Molino #3, on Daang Hari in front of the Camella Springfield Sub-division, they didn't notice several plainclothes Military Intelligence assets moving slowly towards them. As the Soledads turned to walk towards a waiting "sikad" (Triksiad, motorised taxi composed of an offroad motorcycle fitted into an aluminum shell with vinyl benches for passengers) the three were grabbed and cuffed behind their backs. Three unmarked vehicles raced to the scene of the arrest. Pushed inside an Isuzu Adventure, the middle vehicle, the three had hoods placed over their heads and ordered to remain quiet.
Two hours later the three were ushered into the Headquarters of the 2ID (Infantry Division) and the interrogations began. Vilma's 'arrest" had been for show so as to protect her and so she was released as soon as the Soldades were ushered into a separate interrogation room. Unfortunately for the Soledad's the situation was much more serious in their case. Both husband and wife had been arrested on the basis of warrants issued in 2000 for a mass grave in the municipality of Baybay, on Leyte. Much to their suprise the next day the AFP discovered that the 2000 Warrant had been voided in 2004 as the Government tried to jump start the Peace Process. While that development allowed Clarita to re-gain her freedom Jimmy was still in a lot of trouble with two other warrants. One of those two related to yet another mass grave on Leyte, in the town of Inopacan. Transferred to Leyte Provincial Jail, Jimmy spent the next 40 months not knowing how it would all turn out.
Ordered released on July 22nd, 2011, thanks to Chairman Padilla, it took until July 25th for the Leyte Provincial Government to verify that indeed all charges had been summarily dropped for "Lack of Evidence." Soledad had only been arrested by virtue of Command Responsibility regarding the aforementioned mass grave in Inopacan. A relic from the purges of the mid-1980s, which in the Visayas Region of the Central Philippines was given the rather innocuous label, "OPlan UOD" (Operational Plan UOD). The campaign sprang out of the same rank paranoia that first infested Mindanao (which I will discuss briefly in the case of the third detainee released). "Command Responsibility" is a military doctrine that holds all senior officers responsible for any illegal conduct on the part of their subordinates. Since Soledad was the highest ranking NPA personality in Leyte when those terrible killings took place he was the unlucky camper put upon the hotseat for it. Of course AS the highest ranking NPA commander at the time it was certainly his handiwork.
2) Jovencio "Ka Dawa/Ka Rudy" Balweg Sr., Secretary of Abra Operational Command of the NPA, as well as serving as the Command's Political Secretary, in addition to his holding a seat on the Executive Committee of the Illocos-Cordillera Regional Committee of the CPP, definitely a high value target. A Tingguian Tribesman (akin to the Lumad of Mindanao, Animist Hilltribes) from the municipality of Malibcong in Abra Province, he joined the NPA in 1979 along with his brother, Father Conrado "Ka Ambo" Balweg, a Roman Catholic priest of the SVD Order (Societas Verbi Divini aka Society of the Divine Word, a Dutch/German order sometimes referred to as Steyler). Father Conrado was forced into joining the NPA along with three fellow SVD priests after their protests against the Cellophil Resources Corporation earned them places on the AFP's Order of Battle (a list of military targets). Father Conrado quickly rose to the top after joining by taking part in 29 tactical operations that first year. Killing fourty-six soldiers and six military assets he earned himself a P200,000 bounty in 1980 terms, a fabulous amount.
Ex-communicated not long after earning that steep bounty Father Conrado married a fellow guerilla, Corazon "Ka Azon" Cortel and together the couple broke from the CPP/NPA/CPA (CPA being "Cordillera Peoples Army" the name given to the Tingguian and Igorot NPA elements operating in the Cordilleras) founding the CPLA, or the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army, in March of 1986. an organisation that two months ago, on July 6th, 2011, finally inked a Final Peace Agreement (albeit with only one of several CPLA factions). Unfortunately neither Father Conrado nor his wife lived to see it. Father Conrado was murdered by his brother Jovencio in their parent's home on New Years Eve 1999. Conrado knew that he stood a good chance of catching his brother without bodyguards at the family home in Malibcong's Barangay Buanao. He and one other guerilla made their way to the house and ended another chapter in the Philippine Insurgency.
Corazon died a natural death. En routue to the 5ID Headquarters at Camp Upi in the municipality of Gamu in Isabela Province in 2008 she suffered a massive heart attack and died before arriving at the camp hospital, at age 48. At the time of her death Corazon was the CPLA's Chief of Staff (Balweg Faction) and had been travelling to the 5ID to harrangue its comanding officer over the Government's failure to abide by Livlihood Guarantees that were part and parcel of the Mount Data Agreement, a GPH-CPLA Interim Agreement signed in the town of Mount Data on September 13th, 1987.
Jovencio was arrested on May 18th, 2009 at a PNP checkpoint near his home in Baguio City's Barangay Satellite Market Camp #7 in Mountain Province in the CAR, or Cordillera Autonomous Region. The checkpoint, jointly operated by Baguio City CPO (City Police Office) and PRO-CAR, or Police Regional Office of the Cordillera Autonomous Region, matched his face to a flyer hanging mere meters away. Balweg then produced identification in the name of his cousin, Ignacio Madella, a professor at Mountain State Agricultural College. Balweg had relocated to Baguio to lay low as he sought treatment for hypertension that had led to two strokes and a serious case of spinal stenosis.
Brought to PRO-CAR Headquarters Balweg quickly asmitted who he was and without much pressure agreed to arrange the peaceful surrender of his wife Carmen, known by the nom de guerre "Ka Dumay," and herself also a high ranking member of both the CPP and NPA. They both then had one of their sons, Jovencio Balweg Jr., also an NPA member, surrender as well.
3) Maria Luisa "Ka Mariam/Ka Byul" Pucray, Secretary of the NCMRC, or Northcentral Mindanao Regional Committee at the time of her arrest in February of 2010. She and NPA member Alan Solis, a Medical Secretary with the WMRC, or the Western Mindanao Regional Committee, the weakest of the five Regional Committees on Mindanao and all but inactive at this point. Ms.Pucray was found possesing the requisite hand grenade that almost all senior NPA figures carry when they run a chance of detection and/or arrest. The two were in a station wagon and attempting to transit an AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines checkpoint in the municipality of Katipunan in Zamboanga del Norte Province.
Ms.Pucray was the leader, or Secretary of Front 12 of the now defunct NMC, the Northern Mindanao Committee in the mid-1980s. In early 1985 four of her guerillas murdered Lorenzo Coloso and his wife Corazon Pacana Coloso in front of their home in the municipality of El Salvador's Barangay Kalabaybay in Misamis Oriental Province. The four guerillas had been sent to divest the couple of a reputed cache of weapons. Finding only a damaged BB gun the guerillas became enraged and after dragging the hogtied couple outside blew the backs of their skulls off.
Mrs.Coloso was the sister of then-Misamis Oriental Provincial Govenor Fernando Pacana as well as Lieutenant Colonel Virgilio Pacana of the AFP. Both brothers called in favours from the RUC, or Regional Unified Command, a now defunct clearing house for all AFP and PNP (Philippine National Police) detachments in a given region. Copying a sucesful strategem of former President Ramon Magsaysay from his days as the Secretary of National Defense the RUC recruited low ranking NPA guerillas and cadres to serve as DPAs, or Deep Penetration Agents. At the time of Magsaysay's plan in the early 1950s, the Huk Rebellion was in danger of overtaking Manila. At the behest of his mentor, an American Sr.Officer, Magsaysay created a DPA Programme. DPAs, or Deep Penetration Agents go undercover for long periods of time so as to rise to positions of trust and power and thereafter provide intelligence of the highest value.
In just NMRC and NEMRC (the latter being the Northeast Mindanao Regional Committee) the NPA had well over 4,000 guerillas and controlled 75% of the barangays within both AORs, or Areas of Responsibility (as in "Areas of Responsibility"). In the Summerer of 1985 the RUC called in its markers and began cashing in its chips. From December of 1985 to February 12th, 1986 the RUC killed more than 400 NPA Regulars and 90 of them were killed in just a single tactical operation, the February 12th raid on the NMRC's main camp. In addition, RUC captured 156 Regulars in that same time period and that doesn't touch upon Surrenderees, guerillas who voluntarily surrendered to the Government for whatever reason. The NPA suffered a 29% reduction in manpower between those two Committees in just a 75 day period. Moreover, in June of 1985 Ms.Pucray had begun purging her unit, Front 12, torturing and executing suspected DPAs.
The end result, especially after that fabulous capture of the NMRC's main camp in which 90 guerillas were killed was an intence paranoia and it was none other than Ms.Pucray who came up with what she eventually labelled, "Kampanyang Ahos," the Garlic Campaign, building upon the purges she had instituted within Front 12 back in June. The label comes from a naïve mistake. DPAs were referred to as "Zombies." The NPA associated the old "garlic as a prophylactic against vampirism" tale with zombies. In other words, in the NPA's mind, garlic would keep the zombies from harming the NPA. The result was a series of purges, with at least five mass graves along Mindanao's northern coast from Cagayan del Oro City (Barangay Taglimao's Sitio Nabitay) in Misamis Oriental Province on over to the municipality of Las Nieves in Agusan del Norte Province. It was Pucray's Front 12 that led that disgusting spate of bloodlust. When she was charged in 2000, along with two other high ranking NPA in those two AORs:
1) Sammy Buntag
2) Laureto Cagals
and the CPP/NPA hierarchy including the movement's founder and chief ideologue Jose Maria "JOMA" Sison, Ms.Pucray dared to blame the mass graves on the AFP, until scores of eye witnesses began surfacing. Though she remained free until her 2010 arrest, Pucray did finally accept responsibility though not as an individual. Offering families of victims a P10,000 indemnification ($200) and a letter calling the victims, collectively, "Heroes of the Revolution."
4) Gliceria "Ka Choy" Pernia, released August 3rd, 2011 from Albay Provincial Jail on Luzon. His incarceration resulted in a botched rescue attempt by fellow NPA guerillas on September 16th, 2009 as the BJMP, or Bureau of Jail Management and Penology was transporting him back to the jail from a court appearance. As the van drove through the municipality of Guinobatan's Barangay Binogsacan in Albay Province guerillas assaulted the van in a daylight ambush in the middle of that town. He was being held for Murder, Multiple Murder, and Hiway Robbery.
Of course the release of these four detainees has done nothing to alleviate the current impasse. On September 6th, 2011, Norwegian Ambassador Tor Lundh, who does double duty as Facilitator of the GPH-NDFP Peace Process, invited GPH Chairman Alex Padilla and NDFP Chairman Luis G.Jalandoni for a private lunch at his official residence in Makati. Contrary to what the media has been claiming, Jalandoni did NOT agree to attend a Formal Round in late October or early November. In fact, on September 8th, NDFP Panelist Fidel Agcaoili dispelled such notions by firmly stating that the next Round can ONLY take place three weeks AFTER all detained JASIG-protected personalities are released. Don't hold your breath.
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