As I have noted in umpteenth recent entries the current impasse in the GPH-NDFP Peace Process is absolutely centered upon the 1995 Joint Agreement so catchily named "JASIG." The document, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, is a bi-lateral agreement with uni-lateral scope in that its entire reason for being is so that those CPP/NPA members directly involved in the NDFP half of the Peace Process can run around with Mao's "Little Red Book" (or maybe just the Amazon DVD of "Amado Guerrero's Thoughts on Sashimi") without running into an AFP/PNP dragnet that costs him or her several years of their life. In plainspeak, the document is meant to serve as a "Get Out of Jail Free" card for any CPP/NPA member serving as a "Consultant" to the NDFP in the Peace Process.
With well over a dozen "Consultants" still in stir and the JASIG Verification Process having ground to a halt AGAIN on July 25th, 2011, when the NDFP was unable to verify a single member, the GPH Peace Panel said that the jig is up. To retaliate the NPA on Mindnao captured two prison wardens, two prison guards, a mayor, two soldiers, and of course six door to door "banig" (sleeping mat) salesmen who had the misfortune to cross paths with a paranoid NPA cadre while trying to pawn off sleeping mats on the border of Davao City and Bukidnon Province.
The six men:
1) Julieto Sarsaba
2) Ronald Boiles
3) James Mabaylan
4) Ernesto Callo Jr.
5) Segundino Dailo Jr.
6) Nelson Bagares
all residents of Initao, a municipality in Misamis Oriental Province. The men had just about crossed the border into Davao City's Barangay Lumiad, in Paquibato District when ten well armed guerillas from NCMRC's Front 88 stopped them. Suscpiciously the guerillas began interrogating them and not satisfied with the answers given, informed the six men that they were being "captured."
As I have noted ad naseum in other entries, the salesmen's sad twist of fate took place within the AOR, or Area of Responsibility (as in "Area of Operation") of the NCMRC, or Northcentral Mindanao Regional Committee of the NPA. The NCMRC entered existence upon the backs of several hundred murdered cadres, guerillas and simple, uninvolved villagers in the hellish days of Kampanyang Ahos (Garlic Campaign) in which the NPA's Front 12 pulled a Pol Pot and began murdering dozens of its own with tree limbs, hammers, and so on and so forth. Kampanyang Aho's stark paranoia was contagious and so Leyte and Samar in the NPA's Eastern Visayas launched Operation UOD, Southern Luzon (Southern Tagalog) had its own bout of murderous rage, and so on so that by the time it was all said and done more than 3,000 of the NPA,s 25,000 regulars had been offed, to say noting of irregulars and assorted civilians whose only crime was living in an NPA controlled barangay and not giving a rat's as* about the NPA.
Irony isn't always sweet. Co-incidentally, and this does tie in very neatly, the leader of Front 12 who is personally responsible for Kampanyang Ahos was none other than Maria Luisa Pucray who at time used the nom de guerre "Ka Mariam" but who these days is known as "Ka Byul." Ms.Pucray happens to be one of those aforementioned incarcerated JASIG-protected "Consultants." Front 88 contacted the SMRC, or Southern Mindanao Regional Committee's Operational Command, the Merardo Arce Command to notify it that they had just taken six civilians suspected of being AFP assets. An hour and a half later Front 88 was instructed to rendevouz with the Operational Command's armed element, the 1st Pulang Bagani Company who would then take custody of the prisoners once Front 88 had entered Davao City's Sitio Carbon, in Paquibato District's Barangay Lumiad.
The NPA's capturing of these six salesmen was part and parcel of a revised policy on captives. Whereas before captives were rarely held longer than two weeks, the six men, two soldiers, Mayor Dano of Lingig, and four prison employees were all held for at least ten weeks, the point being that IF the Government refused to keep its word vis a vis JASIG, the NPA would show and prove just how easy it was for it to snatch, grab, and hold for months, maybe even years, those serving the Government.
Assured by Vice Governor Norris Babiera of Misamis Oriental Province, the home to all six salesmen, that Manila was about to offer a gesture via the release of the most important NPA slash JASIG detainees BUT ONLY IF the NPA showed that it was willing to compromise as well by releasing its 15 captives on Mindanao. After all but the six were released the NPA then released the six civilians as well along with their collective earnings of P54,075 ($1,000). On Tuesday evening, October 11th, 2011, the 1st Puland Bagani Company brought the six captives to the Davao City-Bukidnon border where the group met with Bishop Felixberto Calang, the Chairman of the NGO, "Sowing the Seeds for Peace in Mindanao," an NGO under the auspices of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, popularly known as "Aglipayan," after the Church's founder,
Bishop Calang then immediately drove all six of the newly released men to Cagayan del Oro City in their home province of Misamis Oriental Province. Upon entering the city they proceeded to an Aglipayan church in that city's Barangay Bulua. There the men's loved ones were waiting as was that province's Vice Governor, Norris Babiera who had assumed the role of negotiator during the 50-odd day ordeal.
To reciprocate the GPH Peace Panel held an unscheduled meeting on Wednesday, October 12th, on the JASIG imbroglio.
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