Large portions of Mindanao exist entirely off of the grid. By "grid" I mean modernity, life's luxuries like running water, and running electricity. Filipinos have been labeled the highest cellphone users in the world on a per capita basis, with SMS, or, "Text Messaging" being the primary form of communication. Imagine then, how frustrating it must be for the soldiers coming south from Luzon, who are already having to adjust to language and cultural differences on top of being dropped into a remote corner of Mindanao, one without cellular signals. One such maddening post is the 57IB (Infantry Battalion) garrison in the municipality of Makilala's Barangay Batasan. The detachment's post, in that barangay's Purok #6, is without running water, electricity, and yes, also without a cellular signal.
So it was on Friday, November 11th, 2011, when Corporal (Cpl.) Hassan Sarif was tasked with picking up the next three days worth of supplies, not one but two Privates First Class (Pfc.), volunteered to accompany Cpl.Sarif on the supply run. Like their Corporal, Pfc.Dandie Garbo and Pfc.Alex Calon changed into civilian attire. Although on duty, they would be trekking 6 kilometers to the main sector garrison for their supplies, as well as charging their cellphone batteries for those rare times when the unit moved through the hills near their post, locales that offered intermittent cellphone signals. The civilian attire is meant to remove the giant bullseye taped to their foreheads since they operate in one of the most dangerous sectors on Mainland Mindanao. Aside from the BIAF, or, Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, as the military wing of the MILF is known, there are two competitive factions of the MNLF/BMA (BMA being the Bangsamoro Army, the military half of the MNLF equation), the MNLF-Misuari, and the MNLF-EC15 (Executive Council of 15, led by the Vice Mayor of Cotabato City, Muslimin Sema). Additionally, there are the three Communist Insurgencies, the CPP/NPA, the RPM-M/RPA, and the Black Fighters. The second, Rebolusyonaryong Partido Manggagawa (Revolutionary Worker's Party), and its armed wing, the Revolutionary Proletariat Army, are at the tail end of a Peace Process and for all effective purposes, have been neutralised. The last group, the Black Fighters, are a B'laan Lumad group with roughly three dozen guerillas whose chief aim seems to be cattle rustling and cannabis trafficking, luckily for the Government.
The CPP/NPA however, remains a force to be reckoned with. Although the original NPA Regional Command covering that sector- the Second Congressional District of North Cotabato Province, the Central Mindanao Committee, or CMC, disintegrated under the internal pressures wrought by what the CPP now calls, its "Second Great Rectification," when the CMC rejected CPP founder and chief ideologue Jose Maria "Joma" Sison's strict "My way or the hiway" ethos vis a vis Orthadox Maoism, the sector has bounced back under NPA control quite strongly. Today the sector is controlled by the SMRC, or, Southern Mindanao Regional Committee. The SMRC, whose AOR, or Area of Responsibility (as in "Area of Operation") is concentrated on Region 11, the Davao Region, but also covers what remains of the NPA's once extremely formidable presence in that province, North Cotabato. The specific Front, or guerilla unit operating in Makilala is Front 51, the Matanggol Roque Command. Covering Antipas, Arakan, and M'lang, as well as Makilala, Front 51 has proved itself equipped to dance toe to toe with the AFP for the long haul.
As Cpl.Sarif and Pfcs.Garbo and Calon left their post, they made a mistake all too common of lax soldiers, and stuck to a regular routine. Instead of following the ridge line, slowly, they traipsed down the footpath meandering next to a creek on the valley floor. Approaching them from the opposite direction was a 16 year old B'laan Tribesmen leading his goats to a higher pasture. The young shepard would later recall that Pfc.Calon, the only one of the three carrying a weapon, was walking to the rear as Cpl.Sarif and Pfc.Garbo were deep in conversation. The report of a rifle echoed all through the mountain valley.
Pfc.Alex Calon was killed instantly by a aniper's bullet that tore through the side of his head. As the shepard scrambled with his goats, Cpl.Sarif and Pfc.Garbo helplessly fell to their bellies, with no idea where the shot came from. In quick sucession both men were critically wounded as well. Playing dead, the two surviving men were able to recover Pfc.Calon's M16 and service issued 45 caliber pistol, before escaping under the cover of darkness. Almost always, NPA sniping incidents are the result of Irregulars, members of the NPA Irregular Force, "Milisya ng Bayan," or, "Village Militia."
Showing posts with label 57IB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 57IB. Show all posts
Friday, December 16, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
NPA Armed Contacts for the Fourth Quarter of 2011, Part VII: He Say, She Say, NPA Guerilla or Simply a Martyr for the Masses?
The municipality of Arakan, in North Cotabato Province's Arakan Valley sits at the junction of three provinces:
1) Bukidnon
2) Davao del Sur
3) North Cotabato
Anf therefore it is a textbook NPA territory in that the New People's Army concentrates on such convergent borders as Operational Centres of Gravity. More simply put, such borderlands are the preferred operational area for the NPA. A rather isolated area despite it also being on the border of Davao City, a good amount of the population are Lumad, or Animist Hilltribesmen, Manobo and B'laan.
As I noted recently, the parish priest in Arakan, up until October 17th, 2011, anyway, was Father Fausto "Tatay Pops" Tentorio. An Italian priest of the PIME Order, he concentrated on working with Lumad and of course, culturally raped them as he tried to seduce them into converting to the "one true faith." Dangling minor infrastructural trinkets like bamboo framed and palm leaf thatched one room schoolrooms and potable water projects, tantalising enticements when the Government has been all but non-existent in most of the town's barangays. Like most PIME missionary priests capturing souls on Mindanao he co-operated with the multi-sectoral front groups of the Filipino Left. This in turn earned Tentorio a prominent placement on the Military's Order of Battle, or, "OB." OBs are used to collate targets in a given sector and priming them for neutralisation, ranks them according to importance. Father Tentorio ranked very high.
Be that as it may, as I noted in that aforementioned entry dedicated to Father Tentorio's murder, he most definitely was NOT killed by the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, the nation's military. As Tentorio himself admitted, local Right Wing Lumad paramilitaries had tried to murder him at least one time already and had never stopped harrasing him owing to his partisan involvement in the illegal logging issue. Like the Catholic Church as a whole in the Philippines- much to their credit- are very pro-environment. If anyone wanted him dead it was someone who profits had taken a hit due to Father Tentorio's anti-logging polemics.
Filipino priests are killed fairly often and virtually nobody knows their names. There are no international news crews, no representative from the Vatican delivering a hand written note of condolence from the Pope. White skin is worth its weight in gold here on Mindanao, with Filipinos tripping over themselves when a foreigner catches a bad break. This unfortunate reality became oh so apparent on October 20th, 2011, less than 35 hours after Father Tentorio's murder.
That morning 35 year old Noli Badol, the unofficial chief of Sitio Upper Lumbo, in Arakan's Barangay Kabalantian, stepped out of his home badly in need of a cup of coffee. Walking a short distance to the home of his friend Ramon Batoy, also aged 35. The two men, like just about every man in that sitio laboured hard as sharecroppers. Living and working on land owned by Mayor Van Doloroso Cadungon of the adjacent municipality of Antipas, half of everything they harvested went to their landlord.
As Ramon's wife Gemma, six months pregnant, brewed some coffee, she also began tending to the needs of her four young children. As she walked to and fro she chanced a glance out the open doorway and was shocked to see a very large detachment of AFP entering the village on foot and in full combat array. Nervously she tried to convince Noli, as the sitio "chief," to go outside and talk to the soldiers and find out what exactly was going on. Not having much of an argument not to, Noli left the house and approached the detachment's commanding officer, Second Lieutenant (2Lt.) Edemer Malucon, and introduced himself. Although Ramon and Gemma couldn't hear what was being said they clearly understood the jist of it as voices rose and body language turned aggressive. Without warning Lieutenant Malucon raised his M16 in the air and brought its stock crashing down upon Noli Badol's head.
Noli collapsed upon the ground as three soldiers moved in and began kicking him in the face and body. Within a minute 2LT.Malucon ordered them to hogtie the nearly unconscious Noli who was then left face down, tied and in the mud. Visibly angry Malucon and the three soldiers who had attacked Noli then approached the nearest house, that of Ramon and Gemma Batoy. Malucon informed the couple that he and his men would be searching the small home. Ramon asked the officer if he had a search warrant with him to which 2Lt.Malucon replied that in the case of suspected NPA guerillas a warrant wasn't necessary, and then took the palm of his hand and pressed Ramon's forehead roughly as if to move him out of the way. Propelled backwards, almost losing his balance and falling onto the floor, Ramon then ordered the four men out of his home. Told to go fuc* himself Ramon instead picked up his "bolo" (machete) and left a 2cm deep gash along the whole side of Malucon's neck. Had Ramon been able to fully connect he would have decapitated 2Lt.Malucon.
As the blood poured out of the officer's neck one of the three soldiers with him shot Ramon to death. Soldiers outside, hearing gunfire, did what most AFP soldiers do in such situations, they immediately opened fire on everything around them, badly strafing seven homes, all full of people. As a medic tended to Malucon's neck the three soldiers inside the Batoy home dragged Ramon's lifeless body out of the house and threw it in the mud, face down, next to Noli.
Noli's eight months pregnant wife quickly learned that her husband was being detained and knowing all that that entails she got hysterical and tried to rush past the AFP cordon around Noli and Ramon's body, causing the nervous soldiers to once again let loose. Ramon's wife Gemma had managed to get three of her kids out of the house before that last strafing but turned hysterical herself when she realised that her eldest, an 8 year old son, was still inside their plywood shack. She was soon joined by Ramon's mother, 76 year old Elena Filomeno Batoy and Ramon's brothers Celso, 47 years old, and 44 year old Roger, who had been wounded in his left foot during that last strafing. The three began yelling at the soldiers which promptly earned both brothers a beat down that ended up with them being hogtied and joining Noli and Ramon's lifeleSs body.
At 11AM, as Ramon's body was already well into decomposition under the tropical sun, the soldiers commandeered a villagers "caraboa" (water buffalo) and cart and loaded their three hogtied prisoners and Ramon's now putrid body into the back to transport into the more populated section of Barangay Kabalantian where their military transports awaited them. First however, they propped up Ramon's body to a sitting position, despite his intestines hanging out, and strapped an M1F to his body before taking photos. They then began the long trip back towards "civilisation."
The soldiers taking part in that sordid affair were a composite deatchment from the 57IB (Infantry Battalion), 38IB, and the 5th Company of the 3SFBn (3rd Special Forces Battalion, aka "Airborne"), the last being 2Lt.Malucon's battalion. Ramon's body was deposited at the municipal compound where it was laid upon a tarp on the town basketball court. The three prisoners:
1) Noli Badol
2) Celso Batoy
3) Roger Batoy
were all taken to 57IB Headquarters for interrogation where all three claim to have been tortured. Roger, with a bullet in his foot, was released late that first night. The next morning Noli was driven to a local radio station where he was made to confess live on the air and implicate Ramon who he stated was an NPA irregular, a member of the NPA's Milisya ng Bayan (Protective Militia) under the NPA's Front 51. As the AFP now sold it, it had received a tip from "concerned villagers" (despite the sitio not have either cellular NOR landline phone service). The tipsters had warned that Front 51, the Matanggol Roque Command of the SMRC, or, Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, had set "at least two landmines" in the sitio as it prepared to hold an "Educational Session" there. Of course Front 51 operates nowhere near Arakan, based on the Davao City side of Mount Apo. The municipality of Arakan is under the jurisdiction of the NPA's Front 53, the Herminio Alfonso Command of the SMRC. The part about "landmines" is typical AFP propaganda (both sides use semi-retarded propaganda). Command controlled IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices, as in "Bombs") are neither landmines nor are they prohibited under any extant international treaty.
The AFP says that when that composite detachment responded to villagers' concerns it encountered a large number of NPA guerillas and in the subsequent 30 minute firefight Ramon Batoy was killed and 2LT.Malucon was critically wounded. The AFP also claims to have captured one M16, one M14, and one Garand M1 from the two prisoners and Ramon, though they didn't explain how the only wound received by the AFP had been a sliced neck.
In truth Ramon certainly must have been an NPA irregular given his position as the organiser of a multi-sectoral front group, "Bantay Katubigan" (the phrase applies to a water nymph but idiomatically it means "Protection of the Waterways") and a high ranking member in one of Father Tentorio's pet projects (not suprising at all), "Bantay Kalikasan Mount Sinaka" (Protection the Environment of Mount Sinaka). Meanwhile, that first evening, October 20th, fourty-three families became "bakwits" (IDPs, as in Internally Displaced Persons, as in Refugees), taking shelter at Binoongan Elementary School in Arakan's Barangay Binoongan. The next morning, October 21st, another ninety-three families joined them for a total of 136 families. Of course the number taking shelter with family, friends, or going deeper into the bush is easily two times that number. With the majority of residents demanding that the AFP pull out of Arakan having reached critical mass after Father Tentorio's murder it should come as no suprise that the sentiment reached fever pitch after Ramon Batoy's death.
1) Bukidnon
2) Davao del Sur
3) North Cotabato
Anf therefore it is a textbook NPA territory in that the New People's Army concentrates on such convergent borders as Operational Centres of Gravity. More simply put, such borderlands are the preferred operational area for the NPA. A rather isolated area despite it also being on the border of Davao City, a good amount of the population are Lumad, or Animist Hilltribesmen, Manobo and B'laan.
As I noted recently, the parish priest in Arakan, up until October 17th, 2011, anyway, was Father Fausto "Tatay Pops" Tentorio. An Italian priest of the PIME Order, he concentrated on working with Lumad and of course, culturally raped them as he tried to seduce them into converting to the "one true faith." Dangling minor infrastructural trinkets like bamboo framed and palm leaf thatched one room schoolrooms and potable water projects, tantalising enticements when the Government has been all but non-existent in most of the town's barangays. Like most PIME missionary priests capturing souls on Mindanao he co-operated with the multi-sectoral front groups of the Filipino Left. This in turn earned Tentorio a prominent placement on the Military's Order of Battle, or, "OB." OBs are used to collate targets in a given sector and priming them for neutralisation, ranks them according to importance. Father Tentorio ranked very high.
Be that as it may, as I noted in that aforementioned entry dedicated to Father Tentorio's murder, he most definitely was NOT killed by the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, the nation's military. As Tentorio himself admitted, local Right Wing Lumad paramilitaries had tried to murder him at least one time already and had never stopped harrasing him owing to his partisan involvement in the illegal logging issue. Like the Catholic Church as a whole in the Philippines- much to their credit- are very pro-environment. If anyone wanted him dead it was someone who profits had taken a hit due to Father Tentorio's anti-logging polemics.
Filipino priests are killed fairly often and virtually nobody knows their names. There are no international news crews, no representative from the Vatican delivering a hand written note of condolence from the Pope. White skin is worth its weight in gold here on Mindanao, with Filipinos tripping over themselves when a foreigner catches a bad break. This unfortunate reality became oh so apparent on October 20th, 2011, less than 35 hours after Father Tentorio's murder.
That morning 35 year old Noli Badol, the unofficial chief of Sitio Upper Lumbo, in Arakan's Barangay Kabalantian, stepped out of his home badly in need of a cup of coffee. Walking a short distance to the home of his friend Ramon Batoy, also aged 35. The two men, like just about every man in that sitio laboured hard as sharecroppers. Living and working on land owned by Mayor Van Doloroso Cadungon of the adjacent municipality of Antipas, half of everything they harvested went to their landlord.
As Ramon's wife Gemma, six months pregnant, brewed some coffee, she also began tending to the needs of her four young children. As she walked to and fro she chanced a glance out the open doorway and was shocked to see a very large detachment of AFP entering the village on foot and in full combat array. Nervously she tried to convince Noli, as the sitio "chief," to go outside and talk to the soldiers and find out what exactly was going on. Not having much of an argument not to, Noli left the house and approached the detachment's commanding officer, Second Lieutenant (2Lt.) Edemer Malucon, and introduced himself. Although Ramon and Gemma couldn't hear what was being said they clearly understood the jist of it as voices rose and body language turned aggressive. Without warning Lieutenant Malucon raised his M16 in the air and brought its stock crashing down upon Noli Badol's head.
Noli collapsed upon the ground as three soldiers moved in and began kicking him in the face and body. Within a minute 2LT.Malucon ordered them to hogtie the nearly unconscious Noli who was then left face down, tied and in the mud. Visibly angry Malucon and the three soldiers who had attacked Noli then approached the nearest house, that of Ramon and Gemma Batoy. Malucon informed the couple that he and his men would be searching the small home. Ramon asked the officer if he had a search warrant with him to which 2Lt.Malucon replied that in the case of suspected NPA guerillas a warrant wasn't necessary, and then took the palm of his hand and pressed Ramon's forehead roughly as if to move him out of the way. Propelled backwards, almost losing his balance and falling onto the floor, Ramon then ordered the four men out of his home. Told to go fuc* himself Ramon instead picked up his "bolo" (machete) and left a 2cm deep gash along the whole side of Malucon's neck. Had Ramon been able to fully connect he would have decapitated 2Lt.Malucon.
As the blood poured out of the officer's neck one of the three soldiers with him shot Ramon to death. Soldiers outside, hearing gunfire, did what most AFP soldiers do in such situations, they immediately opened fire on everything around them, badly strafing seven homes, all full of people. As a medic tended to Malucon's neck the three soldiers inside the Batoy home dragged Ramon's lifeless body out of the house and threw it in the mud, face down, next to Noli.
Noli's eight months pregnant wife quickly learned that her husband was being detained and knowing all that that entails she got hysterical and tried to rush past the AFP cordon around Noli and Ramon's body, causing the nervous soldiers to once again let loose. Ramon's wife Gemma had managed to get three of her kids out of the house before that last strafing but turned hysterical herself when she realised that her eldest, an 8 year old son, was still inside their plywood shack. She was soon joined by Ramon's mother, 76 year old Elena Filomeno Batoy and Ramon's brothers Celso, 47 years old, and 44 year old Roger, who had been wounded in his left foot during that last strafing. The three began yelling at the soldiers which promptly earned both brothers a beat down that ended up with them being hogtied and joining Noli and Ramon's lifeleSs body.
At 11AM, as Ramon's body was already well into decomposition under the tropical sun, the soldiers commandeered a villagers "caraboa" (water buffalo) and cart and loaded their three hogtied prisoners and Ramon's now putrid body into the back to transport into the more populated section of Barangay Kabalantian where their military transports awaited them. First however, they propped up Ramon's body to a sitting position, despite his intestines hanging out, and strapped an M1F to his body before taking photos. They then began the long trip back towards "civilisation."
The soldiers taking part in that sordid affair were a composite deatchment from the 57IB (Infantry Battalion), 38IB, and the 5th Company of the 3SFBn (3rd Special Forces Battalion, aka "Airborne"), the last being 2Lt.Malucon's battalion. Ramon's body was deposited at the municipal compound where it was laid upon a tarp on the town basketball court. The three prisoners:
1) Noli Badol
2) Celso Batoy
3) Roger Batoy
were all taken to 57IB Headquarters for interrogation where all three claim to have been tortured. Roger, with a bullet in his foot, was released late that first night. The next morning Noli was driven to a local radio station where he was made to confess live on the air and implicate Ramon who he stated was an NPA irregular, a member of the NPA's Milisya ng Bayan (Protective Militia) under the NPA's Front 51. As the AFP now sold it, it had received a tip from "concerned villagers" (despite the sitio not have either cellular NOR landline phone service). The tipsters had warned that Front 51, the Matanggol Roque Command of the SMRC, or, Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, had set "at least two landmines" in the sitio as it prepared to hold an "Educational Session" there. Of course Front 51 operates nowhere near Arakan, based on the Davao City side of Mount Apo. The municipality of Arakan is under the jurisdiction of the NPA's Front 53, the Herminio Alfonso Command of the SMRC. The part about "landmines" is typical AFP propaganda (both sides use semi-retarded propaganda). Command controlled IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices, as in "Bombs") are neither landmines nor are they prohibited under any extant international treaty.
The AFP says that when that composite detachment responded to villagers' concerns it encountered a large number of NPA guerillas and in the subsequent 30 minute firefight Ramon Batoy was killed and 2LT.Malucon was critically wounded. The AFP also claims to have captured one M16, one M14, and one Garand M1 from the two prisoners and Ramon, though they didn't explain how the only wound received by the AFP had been a sliced neck.
In truth Ramon certainly must have been an NPA irregular given his position as the organiser of a multi-sectoral front group, "Bantay Katubigan" (the phrase applies to a water nymph but idiomatically it means "Protection of the Waterways") and a high ranking member in one of Father Tentorio's pet projects (not suprising at all), "Bantay Kalikasan Mount Sinaka" (Protection the Environment of Mount Sinaka). Meanwhile, that first evening, October 20th, fourty-three families became "bakwits" (IDPs, as in Internally Displaced Persons, as in Refugees), taking shelter at Binoongan Elementary School in Arakan's Barangay Binoongan. The next morning, October 21st, another ninety-three families joined them for a total of 136 families. Of course the number taking shelter with family, friends, or going deeper into the bush is easily two times that number. With the majority of residents demanding that the AFP pull out of Arakan having reached critical mass after Father Tentorio's murder it should come as no suprise that the sentiment reached fever pitch after Ramon Batoy's death.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
The Killing of Father Fausto Tentorio in North Cotabato Province, Business as Usual
Just yesterday I posted about the villagers in Valencia City's Barangay Guinoyuran marking the 20th Anniversary of Father Nerilito "Neri" Satur's brutal murder. Father Neri, the Assistant Parish Priest for Guinoyuran who had been concurrently serving his adopted community as a "Forest Guard," Filipino-speak for "forest ranger," died on October 14th, 1991. Neri had been appointed as one of five Catholic clergymen from the Diocese of Bukidnon, by its then-Bishop Gaudencio Rosales, to serve as Forest Guards. Bishop Rosales had done so in order to enforce Bukidnon Province's moratorium on logging, implemented by the DENR (Department of Energy and Natural Resources) in late-1986.
Opposing Father Neri's environmental partisanship were a group of Higaon-on Tribal CAAs, or Civilian Armed Auxiliaries, more commonly called "CAFGUS" in reference to the most common of the CAA entities, the Civilian Auxiliary Force Geographical Unit, though at the time it signified Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit. This detachment, the Guinoyuran Post, had gravitated towards organised criminal activity. Even today, 20 years later, that part of the island is still very remote and so the CAAs made money in the tablon-tablon, or illegal logging trade that fed three full time saw mills in just Valencia alone (which hadn't been made a city at that point in time.
By October of 1991 Father Neri had confiscated nearly 7,000 board feet of prime timber, an astounding amount and all the more so when one realises that the then-30 year old priest had but 11 months guarding the jungle around his adopted village. On the day in question, October 14th, 1991, Neri left the rectory where he lived in Valencia proper and picked up his friend and assistant, 20 year old Jacqueline for the long ride over the 18 kilometer dirt track leading uphill to Barangay Guinoyuran. The barangay was holding its patron saint fiesta at which Father Neri was scheduled to perfom a Mass. Finishing by the early afternoon Jacquelin and Neri gathered their few belongings and began their long ride down hill into the centre of Valencia. The sordid tale is told in its entierty in the post entitled, "Remembering Father Nerilito "Neri" Dazo Satur."
Ironically, while lamenting a time and place which relegates people who devote their lives towards helping others (or so the story goes) as mere game or a hunted quarry, I learned that yet another Catholic priest had lost his life to Mindanao's almost senseless violence just that very morning. Father Fausto Tentorio, known to his parishoners as "Tatay Pops" (Father Pops), an Italian priest who has lived and worked on Mindanao for well over three decades was shot to death as he was about to leave his parish on the Bukidnon, Davao del Sur, and North Cotabato Provincial borders for the long hard ride to North Cotabato's capital, Kidapawan City for the Diocesan Monthly Presbyterium at the Bishop's Residence.
A member of PIME, or the Pontificium Institutum Missionum Exterarum (Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions from the original Latin), a Vatican-based Order devoted to missionary work, he arrived at PIME's Regional Headquarters in Mindanao's Zamboanga City fresh from Rome in 1978, just a year after his ordination. First assigned to Zamboanga City's Barangay Ayala in that same province of Zamboanga del Norte as an Assistant Parish Priest Father Fausto immersed himself in the local culture. Two years later, in 1980, as the Archdiocese of Zamboanga began preperations to launch the Prelature of Ipil in Zamboanga Sibugay Province, where most PIME priests were then serving in the municipality of Aurora, the Archbishop of Zamboanga felt that PIME had fufilled much of its mandate in developing new and/or struggling parishes and converting whatever Lumad (Animist Hilltribesmen) hadn't already been strong armed and shoved into the faith of "love and compassion." Needing new Lumads to ruin, Zamboanga's Bishop took the bulk of PIME's recruits, pointed them towards Kidapawan (not yet a city) in North Cotabato Province and screamed, "Go! ...Besides, the Bishop of the then-Prelature of Kidapawan was to become the Bishop in Ipil. As a Jesuit he naturally wanted to associate with Jesuits and so the Archbishop of Zamboanga obliged him by shuffling the deck. PIME, as foreigners with a negligible presence were organisationally expendable. PIME (most) moved to Kidapawan while Jesuits in Kidapawan moved to Zamboanga Sibugay Province (if Catholics cannot even get along amongst themselves how can they try to preach to the rest of us? Just a thought).
Father Fausto, with most other PIME missionary priests transferred to the Archdiocese of Cotabato and its Prelature of Kidapawan with its headquarters in the town of the same name. The Archbishop assigned Fausto to the municipality of Columbio in the neighbouring province of Sultan Kudarat where he was soon made its Mission Director. In 1985 Father Fausto was again transferred, this time to the municipality of Arakan in the province of North Cotabato, where he stayed until his death. Arakan sits in a deep valley in the foothills rising out of Maguindanao Province and leading into the bordering the aforementioned provinces of Bukidnon and Davao del Sur.
It was that same year, 1985, that another PIME missionary priest assigned to North Cotabato Province became a bizarre footnote in Philippine History. Father Tullio Favali was an Assistant Parish Priest in the municipality of Tulunan where he served beside yet another PIME missionary, the infamous Father Peter "Pads" Geremia. For the sake of brevity I will try to keep this short and sweet by only offering the scantest of outlines, though I am also composing a companion entry on the murders and kidnappings of other PIME missionary priests that have taken place on Mindanao; when people discuss Father Tullio they always talk about his having been killed by Ilaga paramilitary leader Norberto Manero Jr. The story goes that Manero killed Father Tullio and then, in line with his cultic religious beliefs he and his group ate Father Tullio's brain. The story has become iconic of the anarchy always associated with our fair isle, Mindanao. The problem though is that none of it is true. Norberto Manero Jr. did NOT kill Father Tullio. Norberto Manero Jr. did NOT cannabalise Father Tullio, let alone eat his brain. Again, that will be discussed in the companion entry I will post just after this one goes up. Likewise, the KFR, or Kidnapping for Ransom of PIME Fathers Giancarlo Bossi and Giuseppe Bendetti and the murder of Father Salvador Carzedda will also be discussed at length in that same entry.
Father Fausto himself had been no stranger to the wanton violence and two faced gross assaults that characterise life on Mindanao. On October 6th, 2003 Fausto and four lay assistants drove by motorcycle to the municipality of Kitaotao in Bukidnon Province to speak to a Barangay Captain about Fausto's then-nascent organisation, TIKULPA (Tinananon Kulamanon Lumadong Panaghiusa). Once in the town's Barangay Poblacion they switched to ponies for the ride up country to the town's Barangay Sagundanon. Arriving at the midway point in Barangay Kabalantian at 3PM he was told by villagers that Alamara paramilitary soldiers were waiting at their intended destination of Barangay Sagundanon to ambush and kill Fausto, the Barangay Captain being the father of two Alamara leaders and an uncle to the highest ranking Alamara in that municipality, Kumander Bansilan.
Alamara is one of several tribal-based force multipliers co-opted under the CAFGU programme though run under an entirely different protocol according to a sub-directory (OPlan Alsa Lumad) of the formerano COIN (Counterinsurgency) blueprint Bantay Laya II. Taking tribes existing in the hinterlands and using elements within them as a counterweight to the Maoists (NPA) sounds real good on paper and indeed, if properly managed it could be just that, the reality is quite different. Taking cultures that thrive on violence and giving them the means to create even more sophisticated violence must be micro-managed. In any event, I digress too much as usual, back to the show...
Villagers in Barangay Kabalantian saved Father Tentorio's life by warning him of what awaited him and his four layworkers. Too far up country to make it back to the town proper safely before nightfall the nervous missionary priest availed himself to the villagers' hospitality. Shacking up with the layworkers and more than a dozen villagers nervously excited to have a rare visitor amongst them, all the more so that it was a priest, a person of respect, they all catiously laid awake praying to survive the long night ahead. At nightfall the Bagani solders walked out of the jungle having skirted the rutted trail as they moved downhill from Father Tentorio's original destination in the hopes that they would be able to waylay the priest and his companions.
As the paramilitary soldiers began searching the villager's homes a quick thinking man suggested that the Bagani join him and other villagers who were heading to another barangay for a party. At first reluctant the soldiers stomachs did the final convincing when that same villager promised that "lechon baboy" (roast pig) was on the menu. In the end a yearning for pork saved Father Fausto and as soon as the Bagani had left guided by that same quick thinking villager, the group rushed headlong down the trail on their ponies and back into the town proper.
PIME, Father Fausto's Order is a product of the Church liberalisation that grew out of Vatican II where the Roman Catholic Church sought to engage non-Catholics with inter-faith encounters and a greater respect for other ways of life. Priests such as Father Fausto sought to "protect" indigenous cultures although, since they are also evangelising (as in "converting") they too are engaging in a large amount of hypocrisy. Moreover, wherever PIME goes division and anomosity follows. Though, like the majority of Catholic institutions in the Philippines PIME supports environmental causes, it often does so without respecting traditional practices like the typical slash and burn farming upon which most Lumad Tribes subsist. While PIME supports indigenous languages it does so by using these languages to try and change fundamental aspects of tribal culture.
There is a tendency amongst many Westerners to see indigenous groups as somehow more authentic, more in touch with their own environments, and somehow more wiser and noble than other more adaptative cultures and outlooks. Truth be told, every Lumad Tribe practiced slavery well into the 1960s and most practiced human sacrifice well into the 20th Century. Most continue to engage in child marriage, most disdain modern educational systems, and most continue to live in unhygienic environments where less than 10% have sufficient nutrition. So what do foreign priests like those of the PIME Order hope to accomplish? They don't concentrate on THOSE aspects...Of course they are no different than the Bible-thumping Protestant missionaries who rail against indigenous values. In the end both hope to bring the "poor" and "backwards" Lumad to Christ. In doing so the Lumad will lose the richest part of their culture, the spiritual aspect. In other words, PIME priests can learn five languages, dress the part (Father Germia is famous for wearing a B'laan turban) and even smile as shaman bless tribal festivities but in the end they are EXACTLY like their chauvenistic Protestant counterparts.
People wonder how someone could think to kill a priest. If one is aware of the dynamics involved the thought then becomes, "Who would anyone NOT want to kill a priest?" Before Father Fausto arrived in Arakan in 1985 the Manobo Lumad living there were fully united. There was no division. Yes, they suffered from periodic encroachment, from both Maguindanowans (Muslims) and Illongos (Christian lowlanders), but united they were able to retain their core values, those things that mattered most to them. Today? Even those organisations founded by Father Fausto himself have fractured into hate-filled factions. The change brought by PIME has irrevocably harmed the Manobo of Arakan AND IF we are to truly discuss the life of Father Fausto we must honestly consider that irrefutable truth.
By 1985, the year Father Fausto arrived in Arakan the Kidapawan Diocese had already had 70 members murdered for Church-related activities. Like most Dioceses in Mindanao Kidapawan was riddled with adherants of Liberation Theology, a creed that grew out of the social unrest of early-1960s Latin America and fixated upon Marxism as the proper orientation for social change. This is what led to the aforementioned murder of Father Tullio Favali in that same year. Ironically it was Father Peter "Pads" Geremia who had been the actual target. Safe to say that many within the Diocese had already made the short hop out of Liberation Theology and into bonafide armed "resistance." Many PIME missionary priests made it onto AFP Orders of Battle, lists of targets for neutralisation although one should not assume that this necessarily relegates neutralisation to violence. Revocation of one's Immigration status, as just one example, works just as well.
At the same time the hunger for land meant that such priests had become the walking targets for businessmen and politicians in both the Muslim and the Christian communities. How much more so when mining and timber concessions enter the mix? The list of those who would like to see such priests disappear, by any means possible, is long indeed.
On the day in question, Monday, October 17th, 2011, at 730AM Father Fausto Trentorio walked from the "convento," the rectory in the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish compound to the building's carport and opened the door to his burgandy Suzuki Jimmy. As he opened the door he turned to face a man wearing a full motorcycle helmet who quickly raised his right arm and in quick succession fired ten rounds from his 9MM pistol. The first three rounds, conventional ball peen bullets all struck Father Fausto in his abdomen, causing him to collapse onto the SUV's front seat. The final seven, all hollow point, struck his neck and head killing him immediately. Running the 50 meters from the carport to the road the gunman hopped onto the back of an idling motorcycle which quickly drove out of Arakan's Barangay Poblacion and into nearby Davao City. Assistants rushed Father Fausto to the neighbouring municipality of Antipas and its small public hospital but of course he was declared DOA, probably having died just after falling from the first rounds.
There are at least two eyewitnesses now being "guarded," and I use that word very loosely, by the PNP, or Philippine National Police. Directly across the street from the church compound is an elementary school whose staff and students had been in the middle of a school function outside when the murder took place. Moreover, soldiers from the 3rd Special Forces Battalion (Airborne), the element now with Operational Control over Arakan, were on hand and yet nobody raised an eyebrow as ten rounds were fired. The shots were heard, as both students and staff had remarked about them but nevertheless, nothing. This of course has ignited a firestorm of rumor and innuendo in which the AFP, or the Armed Forces of the Philippines gets to wear the Guilty Hat as it so often does.
It is no secret that Father Fausto was a Leftist, and that his name WAS on past Orders of Battle for the 57IB (Infantry Battalion), the element with previous Operational Control over the municipality. However, that is a far cry from culpability. The 3rd SF (Special Forces) isn't going to dirty itself in such a localised objective. They aren't there for the long haul and couldn't actually care less about Father Fausto. SOCOM, or Special Operations Command operates in tactical mode. Killing someone who doesn't pull the trigger is not a tactical operation. Strategic Operations are an entirely different ball game. The 57IB? They definitely have strategic concerns but with that sector removed from their playing field the killing of a priest has a pis* poor cost benefit ratio. Of course that doesn't mean the 57IB still doesn't harbour some ill feelings but I don't think it is plausible. Not suprisingly Father Fausto's buddies in the NPA don't agree with me with the NEMRC, or Northeast Mindanao Regional Committee going so far as to accuse the 57IB outright. Of course Arkan lies within the SMRC (Southern Mindanao Regional Committee), NOT the NEMRC and the NEMRC seems to be unaware that Arakan is now outside the 57IB's Area of Responsibility. Propaganda, no matter the source, is usually geared towards such semi-retarded backfill.
In the interest of presenting all the facts however, I need to add the following: Just two days before the killing a PNP checkpoint in the municipality stopped a motorcycle whose driver had a rice sack with nine M16s in it. Taking him to the MPO, or Municipal Police Office as police stations are called, handed him and his "sack" to the town's Police Director received an SMS (text) from the CO, or Commanding Officer of the 3rd SF garrison informing him that the rifles were his. Why the AFP would transport a squad worth of rifles by a civilian carrying a rice sack is, I admit, questionable but one must remember that this IS Mindanao were both the AFP and the PNP regularly sell their weaponry, as well as rent it out.
Then, the evening before Father Fausto's killing two AFP trucks were slowly moving through Barangay Poblacion. When concerned residents questioned the PNP they were informed that it was simply SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for impending PDOs, or Peace and Development Operations.
Under the current ISP (Internal Security Plan), Oplan Bayanihan (Operational Plan Helping Each Other) the AFP has reversed the previous paradigm of 80:20 Tactical:CMO (Combat:Hearts and Minds type community service operations) to the inverse 80:20 (CMO:Tactical, with Tactical now predominantly being intelligence driven as opposed to the former manner which was almost entirely reactive). In other words, where as the AFP concentrated on winning insurgencies by force it now aims to do so by eliminating insurgency's root causes, things like poverty, poor hygeine, lack of infrastructure, etc. In doing this the Army is concentrating its deployments on PDTs, or Peace and Development Teams. The only problem with the answer offered to residents by the PNP is that PDTs do not work at night.
Still, I do not see this as an AFP-connected action. More likely than not it is simply a member of one of those opposing factions I mentioned. When Father Fausto arrived in Arakan in 1985 there was an organisation known as "LUMAD-Mindanao," then standing on its last legs. Like most such groups it was organised by multi-sectoral front organisations as a way in which to both recruit new members for the NPA as well as to serve as an above board arm of the movement and a way in which to funnel materiel support to the Left. Then Father Fausto helped found a successor organisation, "PANAGTAGBO," (Encounter), and finally its current incarnation, "MALUPA," (Manobo Lumadnong Panghiusa), the sister-organisation to the previously mentioned "TIKULPA" in Bukidnon Province. MALUPA, in 2004, began fracturing into its current two main factions, Father Fausto led one faction.
As for Father Fausto's environmental concerns, Arakan is not blessed with great mineral wealth nor is there much room for heavy logging with its virgin timber and most second growth being long gone, though he did lead re-forestation efforts but THAT isn't something that would generate high levels of anomosity. I am always saddened to see ignorance spread as when self described "Anti-Mining Advocates" start blaming incidents such as this murder on the victim's "opposition to mining." Not only does Arakan not have a single commercial mine, it doesn't even have small-scale, so called Artisinal Mining! In fact, in the entire province of North Cotabato there are merely two pending EXPLORATION applications, neither which come anywhere near the Arkan Valley, not to mention the town of Arkan!
With Father Fausto Tentorio now laid out in a blue coffin for his wake inside the parish church, Father Peter "Pads" Geremia who now serves as Diocesan Co-ordinator of Tribal Activities in addition to his recently re-shouldering parish responsibilities in Columbio, in Sultan Kudarat Province, convinced Father Fausto's parishoners that a more suitable coffin could be fashioned from one of the mahogany trees Father Fausto had planted within the compound. As the coffin is being fashioned the PNP has somehow convinced PIME, Father Fausto and Geremia's Order, to allow the PNP's PRO-12, or Police Regional Office for Region 12, to perform one of two autopsies planned for the priest's remains. His death has become not only a national matter but an international cause celebre as well. The Vatican says that each year 30 to 35 missionary priests are murdered or killed in war the world over. PIME has 80 fallen priests all on its own so that Father Fausto's death is neither a suprise nor even unusual and yet it seems to shock even Filipinos when a foreigner is killed.
Opposing Father Neri's environmental partisanship were a group of Higaon-on Tribal CAAs, or Civilian Armed Auxiliaries, more commonly called "CAFGUS" in reference to the most common of the CAA entities, the Civilian Auxiliary Force Geographical Unit, though at the time it signified Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit. This detachment, the Guinoyuran Post, had gravitated towards organised criminal activity. Even today, 20 years later, that part of the island is still very remote and so the CAAs made money in the tablon-tablon, or illegal logging trade that fed three full time saw mills in just Valencia alone (which hadn't been made a city at that point in time.
By October of 1991 Father Neri had confiscated nearly 7,000 board feet of prime timber, an astounding amount and all the more so when one realises that the then-30 year old priest had but 11 months guarding the jungle around his adopted village. On the day in question, October 14th, 1991, Neri left the rectory where he lived in Valencia proper and picked up his friend and assistant, 20 year old Jacqueline for the long ride over the 18 kilometer dirt track leading uphill to Barangay Guinoyuran. The barangay was holding its patron saint fiesta at which Father Neri was scheduled to perfom a Mass. Finishing by the early afternoon Jacquelin and Neri gathered their few belongings and began their long ride down hill into the centre of Valencia. The sordid tale is told in its entierty in the post entitled, "Remembering Father Nerilito "Neri" Dazo Satur."
Ironically, while lamenting a time and place which relegates people who devote their lives towards helping others (or so the story goes) as mere game or a hunted quarry, I learned that yet another Catholic priest had lost his life to Mindanao's almost senseless violence just that very morning. Father Fausto Tentorio, known to his parishoners as "Tatay Pops" (Father Pops), an Italian priest who has lived and worked on Mindanao for well over three decades was shot to death as he was about to leave his parish on the Bukidnon, Davao del Sur, and North Cotabato Provincial borders for the long hard ride to North Cotabato's capital, Kidapawan City for the Diocesan Monthly Presbyterium at the Bishop's Residence.
A member of PIME, or the Pontificium Institutum Missionum Exterarum (Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions from the original Latin), a Vatican-based Order devoted to missionary work, he arrived at PIME's Regional Headquarters in Mindanao's Zamboanga City fresh from Rome in 1978, just a year after his ordination. First assigned to Zamboanga City's Barangay Ayala in that same province of Zamboanga del Norte as an Assistant Parish Priest Father Fausto immersed himself in the local culture. Two years later, in 1980, as the Archdiocese of Zamboanga began preperations to launch the Prelature of Ipil in Zamboanga Sibugay Province, where most PIME priests were then serving in the municipality of Aurora, the Archbishop of Zamboanga felt that PIME had fufilled much of its mandate in developing new and/or struggling parishes and converting whatever Lumad (Animist Hilltribesmen) hadn't already been strong armed and shoved into the faith of "love and compassion." Needing new Lumads to ruin, Zamboanga's Bishop took the bulk of PIME's recruits, pointed them towards Kidapawan (not yet a city) in North Cotabato Province and screamed, "Go! ...Besides, the Bishop of the then-Prelature of Kidapawan was to become the Bishop in Ipil. As a Jesuit he naturally wanted to associate with Jesuits and so the Archbishop of Zamboanga obliged him by shuffling the deck. PIME, as foreigners with a negligible presence were organisationally expendable. PIME (most) moved to Kidapawan while Jesuits in Kidapawan moved to Zamboanga Sibugay Province (if Catholics cannot even get along amongst themselves how can they try to preach to the rest of us? Just a thought).
Father Fausto, with most other PIME missionary priests transferred to the Archdiocese of Cotabato and its Prelature of Kidapawan with its headquarters in the town of the same name. The Archbishop assigned Fausto to the municipality of Columbio in the neighbouring province of Sultan Kudarat where he was soon made its Mission Director. In 1985 Father Fausto was again transferred, this time to the municipality of Arakan in the province of North Cotabato, where he stayed until his death. Arakan sits in a deep valley in the foothills rising out of Maguindanao Province and leading into the bordering the aforementioned provinces of Bukidnon and Davao del Sur.
It was that same year, 1985, that another PIME missionary priest assigned to North Cotabato Province became a bizarre footnote in Philippine History. Father Tullio Favali was an Assistant Parish Priest in the municipality of Tulunan where he served beside yet another PIME missionary, the infamous Father Peter "Pads" Geremia. For the sake of brevity I will try to keep this short and sweet by only offering the scantest of outlines, though I am also composing a companion entry on the murders and kidnappings of other PIME missionary priests that have taken place on Mindanao; when people discuss Father Tullio they always talk about his having been killed by Ilaga paramilitary leader Norberto Manero Jr. The story goes that Manero killed Father Tullio and then, in line with his cultic religious beliefs he and his group ate Father Tullio's brain. The story has become iconic of the anarchy always associated with our fair isle, Mindanao. The problem though is that none of it is true. Norberto Manero Jr. did NOT kill Father Tullio. Norberto Manero Jr. did NOT cannabalise Father Tullio, let alone eat his brain. Again, that will be discussed in the companion entry I will post just after this one goes up. Likewise, the KFR, or Kidnapping for Ransom of PIME Fathers Giancarlo Bossi and Giuseppe Bendetti and the murder of Father Salvador Carzedda will also be discussed at length in that same entry.
Father Fausto himself had been no stranger to the wanton violence and two faced gross assaults that characterise life on Mindanao. On October 6th, 2003 Fausto and four lay assistants drove by motorcycle to the municipality of Kitaotao in Bukidnon Province to speak to a Barangay Captain about Fausto's then-nascent organisation, TIKULPA (Tinananon Kulamanon Lumadong Panaghiusa). Once in the town's Barangay Poblacion they switched to ponies for the ride up country to the town's Barangay Sagundanon. Arriving at the midway point in Barangay Kabalantian at 3PM he was told by villagers that Alamara paramilitary soldiers were waiting at their intended destination of Barangay Sagundanon to ambush and kill Fausto, the Barangay Captain being the father of two Alamara leaders and an uncle to the highest ranking Alamara in that municipality, Kumander Bansilan.
Alamara is one of several tribal-based force multipliers co-opted under the CAFGU programme though run under an entirely different protocol according to a sub-directory (OPlan Alsa Lumad) of the formerano COIN (Counterinsurgency) blueprint Bantay Laya II. Taking tribes existing in the hinterlands and using elements within them as a counterweight to the Maoists (NPA) sounds real good on paper and indeed, if properly managed it could be just that, the reality is quite different. Taking cultures that thrive on violence and giving them the means to create even more sophisticated violence must be micro-managed. In any event, I digress too much as usual, back to the show...
Villagers in Barangay Kabalantian saved Father Tentorio's life by warning him of what awaited him and his four layworkers. Too far up country to make it back to the town proper safely before nightfall the nervous missionary priest availed himself to the villagers' hospitality. Shacking up with the layworkers and more than a dozen villagers nervously excited to have a rare visitor amongst them, all the more so that it was a priest, a person of respect, they all catiously laid awake praying to survive the long night ahead. At nightfall the Bagani solders walked out of the jungle having skirted the rutted trail as they moved downhill from Father Tentorio's original destination in the hopes that they would be able to waylay the priest and his companions.
As the paramilitary soldiers began searching the villager's homes a quick thinking man suggested that the Bagani join him and other villagers who were heading to another barangay for a party. At first reluctant the soldiers stomachs did the final convincing when that same villager promised that "lechon baboy" (roast pig) was on the menu. In the end a yearning for pork saved Father Fausto and as soon as the Bagani had left guided by that same quick thinking villager, the group rushed headlong down the trail on their ponies and back into the town proper.
PIME, Father Fausto's Order is a product of the Church liberalisation that grew out of Vatican II where the Roman Catholic Church sought to engage non-Catholics with inter-faith encounters and a greater respect for other ways of life. Priests such as Father Fausto sought to "protect" indigenous cultures although, since they are also evangelising (as in "converting") they too are engaging in a large amount of hypocrisy. Moreover, wherever PIME goes division and anomosity follows. Though, like the majority of Catholic institutions in the Philippines PIME supports environmental causes, it often does so without respecting traditional practices like the typical slash and burn farming upon which most Lumad Tribes subsist. While PIME supports indigenous languages it does so by using these languages to try and change fundamental aspects of tribal culture.
There is a tendency amongst many Westerners to see indigenous groups as somehow more authentic, more in touch with their own environments, and somehow more wiser and noble than other more adaptative cultures and outlooks. Truth be told, every Lumad Tribe practiced slavery well into the 1960s and most practiced human sacrifice well into the 20th Century. Most continue to engage in child marriage, most disdain modern educational systems, and most continue to live in unhygienic environments where less than 10% have sufficient nutrition. So what do foreign priests like those of the PIME Order hope to accomplish? They don't concentrate on THOSE aspects...Of course they are no different than the Bible-thumping Protestant missionaries who rail against indigenous values. In the end both hope to bring the "poor" and "backwards" Lumad to Christ. In doing so the Lumad will lose the richest part of their culture, the spiritual aspect. In other words, PIME priests can learn five languages, dress the part (Father Germia is famous for wearing a B'laan turban) and even smile as shaman bless tribal festivities but in the end they are EXACTLY like their chauvenistic Protestant counterparts.
People wonder how someone could think to kill a priest. If one is aware of the dynamics involved the thought then becomes, "Who would anyone NOT want to kill a priest?" Before Father Fausto arrived in Arakan in 1985 the Manobo Lumad living there were fully united. There was no division. Yes, they suffered from periodic encroachment, from both Maguindanowans (Muslims) and Illongos (Christian lowlanders), but united they were able to retain their core values, those things that mattered most to them. Today? Even those organisations founded by Father Fausto himself have fractured into hate-filled factions. The change brought by PIME has irrevocably harmed the Manobo of Arakan AND IF we are to truly discuss the life of Father Fausto we must honestly consider that irrefutable truth.
By 1985, the year Father Fausto arrived in Arakan the Kidapawan Diocese had already had 70 members murdered for Church-related activities. Like most Dioceses in Mindanao Kidapawan was riddled with adherants of Liberation Theology, a creed that grew out of the social unrest of early-1960s Latin America and fixated upon Marxism as the proper orientation for social change. This is what led to the aforementioned murder of Father Tullio Favali in that same year. Ironically it was Father Peter "Pads" Geremia who had been the actual target. Safe to say that many within the Diocese had already made the short hop out of Liberation Theology and into bonafide armed "resistance." Many PIME missionary priests made it onto AFP Orders of Battle, lists of targets for neutralisation although one should not assume that this necessarily relegates neutralisation to violence. Revocation of one's Immigration status, as just one example, works just as well.
At the same time the hunger for land meant that such priests had become the walking targets for businessmen and politicians in both the Muslim and the Christian communities. How much more so when mining and timber concessions enter the mix? The list of those who would like to see such priests disappear, by any means possible, is long indeed.
On the day in question, Monday, October 17th, 2011, at 730AM Father Fausto Trentorio walked from the "convento," the rectory in the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish compound to the building's carport and opened the door to his burgandy Suzuki Jimmy. As he opened the door he turned to face a man wearing a full motorcycle helmet who quickly raised his right arm and in quick succession fired ten rounds from his 9MM pistol. The first three rounds, conventional ball peen bullets all struck Father Fausto in his abdomen, causing him to collapse onto the SUV's front seat. The final seven, all hollow point, struck his neck and head killing him immediately. Running the 50 meters from the carport to the road the gunman hopped onto the back of an idling motorcycle which quickly drove out of Arakan's Barangay Poblacion and into nearby Davao City. Assistants rushed Father Fausto to the neighbouring municipality of Antipas and its small public hospital but of course he was declared DOA, probably having died just after falling from the first rounds.
There are at least two eyewitnesses now being "guarded," and I use that word very loosely, by the PNP, or Philippine National Police. Directly across the street from the church compound is an elementary school whose staff and students had been in the middle of a school function outside when the murder took place. Moreover, soldiers from the 3rd Special Forces Battalion (Airborne), the element now with Operational Control over Arakan, were on hand and yet nobody raised an eyebrow as ten rounds were fired. The shots were heard, as both students and staff had remarked about them but nevertheless, nothing. This of course has ignited a firestorm of rumor and innuendo in which the AFP, or the Armed Forces of the Philippines gets to wear the Guilty Hat as it so often does.
It is no secret that Father Fausto was a Leftist, and that his name WAS on past Orders of Battle for the 57IB (Infantry Battalion), the element with previous Operational Control over the municipality. However, that is a far cry from culpability. The 3rd SF (Special Forces) isn't going to dirty itself in such a localised objective. They aren't there for the long haul and couldn't actually care less about Father Fausto. SOCOM, or Special Operations Command operates in tactical mode. Killing someone who doesn't pull the trigger is not a tactical operation. Strategic Operations are an entirely different ball game. The 57IB? They definitely have strategic concerns but with that sector removed from their playing field the killing of a priest has a pis* poor cost benefit ratio. Of course that doesn't mean the 57IB still doesn't harbour some ill feelings but I don't think it is plausible. Not suprisingly Father Fausto's buddies in the NPA don't agree with me with the NEMRC, or Northeast Mindanao Regional Committee going so far as to accuse the 57IB outright. Of course Arkan lies within the SMRC (Southern Mindanao Regional Committee), NOT the NEMRC and the NEMRC seems to be unaware that Arakan is now outside the 57IB's Area of Responsibility. Propaganda, no matter the source, is usually geared towards such semi-retarded backfill.
In the interest of presenting all the facts however, I need to add the following: Just two days before the killing a PNP checkpoint in the municipality stopped a motorcycle whose driver had a rice sack with nine M16s in it. Taking him to the MPO, or Municipal Police Office as police stations are called, handed him and his "sack" to the town's Police Director received an SMS (text) from the CO, or Commanding Officer of the 3rd SF garrison informing him that the rifles were his. Why the AFP would transport a squad worth of rifles by a civilian carrying a rice sack is, I admit, questionable but one must remember that this IS Mindanao were both the AFP and the PNP regularly sell their weaponry, as well as rent it out.
Then, the evening before Father Fausto's killing two AFP trucks were slowly moving through Barangay Poblacion. When concerned residents questioned the PNP they were informed that it was simply SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for impending PDOs, or Peace and Development Operations.
Under the current ISP (Internal Security Plan), Oplan Bayanihan (Operational Plan Helping Each Other) the AFP has reversed the previous paradigm of 80:20 Tactical:CMO (Combat:Hearts and Minds type community service operations) to the inverse 80:20 (CMO:Tactical, with Tactical now predominantly being intelligence driven as opposed to the former manner which was almost entirely reactive). In other words, where as the AFP concentrated on winning insurgencies by force it now aims to do so by eliminating insurgency's root causes, things like poverty, poor hygeine, lack of infrastructure, etc. In doing this the Army is concentrating its deployments on PDTs, or Peace and Development Teams. The only problem with the answer offered to residents by the PNP is that PDTs do not work at night.
Still, I do not see this as an AFP-connected action. More likely than not it is simply a member of one of those opposing factions I mentioned. When Father Fausto arrived in Arakan in 1985 there was an organisation known as "LUMAD-Mindanao," then standing on its last legs. Like most such groups it was organised by multi-sectoral front organisations as a way in which to both recruit new members for the NPA as well as to serve as an above board arm of the movement and a way in which to funnel materiel support to the Left. Then Father Fausto helped found a successor organisation, "PANAGTAGBO," (Encounter), and finally its current incarnation, "MALUPA," (Manobo Lumadnong Panghiusa), the sister-organisation to the previously mentioned "TIKULPA" in Bukidnon Province. MALUPA, in 2004, began fracturing into its current two main factions, Father Fausto led one faction.
As for Father Fausto's environmental concerns, Arakan is not blessed with great mineral wealth nor is there much room for heavy logging with its virgin timber and most second growth being long gone, though he did lead re-forestation efforts but THAT isn't something that would generate high levels of anomosity. I am always saddened to see ignorance spread as when self described "Anti-Mining Advocates" start blaming incidents such as this murder on the victim's "opposition to mining." Not only does Arakan not have a single commercial mine, it doesn't even have small-scale, so called Artisinal Mining! In fact, in the entire province of North Cotabato there are merely two pending EXPLORATION applications, neither which come anywhere near the Arkan Valley, not to mention the town of Arkan!
With Father Fausto Tentorio now laid out in a blue coffin for his wake inside the parish church, Father Peter "Pads" Geremia who now serves as Diocesan Co-ordinator of Tribal Activities in addition to his recently re-shouldering parish responsibilities in Columbio, in Sultan Kudarat Province, convinced Father Fausto's parishoners that a more suitable coffin could be fashioned from one of the mahogany trees Father Fausto had planted within the compound. As the coffin is being fashioned the PNP has somehow convinced PIME, Father Fausto and Geremia's Order, to allow the PNP's PRO-12, or Police Regional Office for Region 12, to perform one of two autopsies planned for the priest's remains. His death has become not only a national matter but an international cause celebre as well. The Vatican says that each year 30 to 35 missionary priests are murdered or killed in war the world over. PIME has 80 fallen priests all on its own so that Father Fausto's death is neither a suprise nor even unusual and yet it seems to shock even Filipinos when a foreigner is killed.
Monday, October 10, 2011
NPA Armed Contacts for the Fourth Quarter of 2011, Part I: The Release of Four BJMP Personnel
In my entry, "NPA Armed Contacts for the Third Quarter of 2011, Part," I discussed the NPA's capturing of four BJMP, or Bureau of Jail Management and Prisons, employees during an operation to free high ranking NPA guerilla Dennis Rodinas in July of 2011. With the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines' capture of a large NPA encampment in the municipality of Cateel, in Davao Oriental Province on May 29th, 2011, Front 20, the Conrado Heredia Command of the SMRC, or Southern Mindanao Regional Committee ceased functioning as the Custodial Command of Mindanao. Instead Front 53, the Herminio Alfonso Command of the SMRC assumed that duty. So it was that after initially being taken captive by Front 88 of the NCMRC, or Northcentral Mindanao Regional Committee the four men:
1) Inspector Murphy Bomoway Todyog, Warden of the Misamis Occidental Provincial Jail in Ozamiz City
2) Inspector Erico Dacillo Llamasares, Warden of the Cagayan del Oro City Jail who had been hitching a ride home in a round about fashion
3) Special Jail Officer 3 Rogelio Begontes
4) Jail Officer 1 Rolando Delta Bajoyo Jr.
were passed from NPA Front to Front until they reached the Custodial Command, Front 53, which is centered upon the border of Davao City and North Cotabato Province. The capture of BJMP personnel created quite a stir because heretofore such functionaries were considered verboten as they are technically non-combatants although a creative interpretation of IHL/LOAC, or International Humanitarian Law/Laws of Armed Conflict CAN render them otherwise. In any event it definitely marked a turning point in the NPA's 42 year old insurgency and sent a definite chill up the spine of many a civil servant. All the more so when, on August 10th, the NPA formally bestowed POW (Prisoner of War) Status upon the four men. Obstensibly a positive development in the immediate sense because it guaranteed civil treatment of the four men in accordance with the Geneva Convention since the NPA, via its above board representative the NDFP, or National Democratic Front of the Philippines, and the Government, had jointly inked the CARIHLHR, or Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights as the first of four projected Interim Agreements of the GPH-NDFP Peace Process is known.
However, the conferring of POW Status boded poory for the long term because it had shown that the NPA was willing to ratchet up the stakes and would now possibly be focusing on capturing more than AFP, PNP (Philippine National Police), and CAAs (Civilian Active Auxiliaries as the cornerstone of the AFP tactical facet of its COIN, aka Counterinsurgency Programme are collectively known). If the NPA was now willing to capture BJMP personnel who would be immune? Conceivably any state representative was now fair game.
The actual rationale behind this "widening" of the conflict was the impasse in the GHP-NDFP Peace Process. As I have discussed in depth in my "GPH-NDFP Peace Process" entries the Talks began wonderfully in Oslo, Norway in February of 2011 but with an undercurrent of tension related to the failure of the Government to uphold the bi-lateral Joint Agreement known as JASIG, or the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees that both sides had entered into way back in 1995. Since again, I have discussed JASIG in depth in my aforementioned "GPH-NDFP Peace Process" entries, I will not bore my readership with yet another recounting except to say, for brevity's sake, that it involved the protection of all CPP/NPA members directly involved in the Peace Process from arrest and subsequent detention. With well over a dozen (at one point nearly two dozen) figures in prison the Government's upholding of JASIG leaves a lot to be desired.
In every NPA capture of the last decade prisoners have been released at about the two week mark with a couple of exceptions lasting more or less four weeks. The four BJMP prisoners have spent nearly four months incognito. During these ften weeks major AFP tactical operations have taken place in what the AFP likes to optimistically label "Search and Rescue Missions" but what in reality actually amount to a "gross disregard for the lives of such prisoners." Indeed, the four men had been scheduled for release on October 5th after being offered in exchange for an AFP SOMO/SOMA (Stop of Military Operations/Stop of Military Action) on September 29th. When the desired SOMO/SOMA didn't materialise the NPA opted to still go forward with the planned releases setting the aforementioned date of October 5th. When, on October 4th the AFP began amping up the intensity in its tactical operations the NPA scuttled the planned release. Specifically cited was an operation by the 57IB (Infantry Battalion) within the municipality of Magpet in North Cotabato Province. Only after North Cotabato Governor Emmylou Talino Mendoza screamed bloody murder did the 57IB sheepishly cut the operation short and pull out of town. Having achieved this extremely minor concession atop the larger promise of the Government in Manila to work on the JASIG issue, the four men were released on Saturday, October 8th, in Magpet's Barangay Balite.
During the three hour propaganda fest the mayors of two Bukidnon Provincial towns, Kibawe and Kitaotao joined the Mayor of Makilala (North Cotabato Province) in sitting through that uber-boring snooze fest as Front 53's leader, Ka Jody, enjoyed his first hand over and put everybody to sleep with non-sensical claptrap about Mao and the Revolution. Also on hand were representatives of local multi-sectoral front groups as well as Governor Mendoza, Vice Governor Gregorio Ipong and Catholic clergyman of the Liberation Theological cesspool UCCP, and other assorted hanger ons desperate to share in an event the nation's media ignored.
The four released men were immediately driven to Kidapawan City, the provincial capital of North Cotabato where yet another propaganda fest- this time for the Government- took place at the Bishop's Official Residence. There Mr.Bajoyo, now in tears, mooned over the NPA, and I quote verbatim, "We are so grateful that the NPA treated us so well, they treated us like brothers." Stockholm Syndrome anyone? In more important news perhaps, the two senior men, Warden Inspectors Todyog and Llamasares are now under investigation for their roles, if any, in the NPA operation that sent them obstensibly into captivity. The van transporting several inmates including a very high value NPA prisoner, the object of the NPA operation that led to the four BJMP personnel being taken, was without a security escort and more importantly, had taken an unsual route. Seeing as how that route is never taken it stands to reason that the NPA had inside assistance since Front 88 was able to implement a checkpoint in advance of the van's arrival. Maybe a couple of men wish they hadn't been "released."
1) Inspector Murphy Bomoway Todyog, Warden of the Misamis Occidental Provincial Jail in Ozamiz City
2) Inspector Erico Dacillo Llamasares, Warden of the Cagayan del Oro City Jail who had been hitching a ride home in a round about fashion
3) Special Jail Officer 3 Rogelio Begontes
4) Jail Officer 1 Rolando Delta Bajoyo Jr.
were passed from NPA Front to Front until they reached the Custodial Command, Front 53, which is centered upon the border of Davao City and North Cotabato Province. The capture of BJMP personnel created quite a stir because heretofore such functionaries were considered verboten as they are technically non-combatants although a creative interpretation of IHL/LOAC, or International Humanitarian Law/Laws of Armed Conflict CAN render them otherwise. In any event it definitely marked a turning point in the NPA's 42 year old insurgency and sent a definite chill up the spine of many a civil servant. All the more so when, on August 10th, the NPA formally bestowed POW (Prisoner of War) Status upon the four men. Obstensibly a positive development in the immediate sense because it guaranteed civil treatment of the four men in accordance with the Geneva Convention since the NPA, via its above board representative the NDFP, or National Democratic Front of the Philippines, and the Government, had jointly inked the CARIHLHR, or Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights as the first of four projected Interim Agreements of the GPH-NDFP Peace Process is known.
However, the conferring of POW Status boded poory for the long term because it had shown that the NPA was willing to ratchet up the stakes and would now possibly be focusing on capturing more than AFP, PNP (Philippine National Police), and CAAs (Civilian Active Auxiliaries as the cornerstone of the AFP tactical facet of its COIN, aka Counterinsurgency Programme are collectively known). If the NPA was now willing to capture BJMP personnel who would be immune? Conceivably any state representative was now fair game.
The actual rationale behind this "widening" of the conflict was the impasse in the GHP-NDFP Peace Process. As I have discussed in depth in my "GPH-NDFP Peace Process" entries the Talks began wonderfully in Oslo, Norway in February of 2011 but with an undercurrent of tension related to the failure of the Government to uphold the bi-lateral Joint Agreement known as JASIG, or the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees that both sides had entered into way back in 1995. Since again, I have discussed JASIG in depth in my aforementioned "GPH-NDFP Peace Process" entries, I will not bore my readership with yet another recounting except to say, for brevity's sake, that it involved the protection of all CPP/NPA members directly involved in the Peace Process from arrest and subsequent detention. With well over a dozen (at one point nearly two dozen) figures in prison the Government's upholding of JASIG leaves a lot to be desired.
In every NPA capture of the last decade prisoners have been released at about the two week mark with a couple of exceptions lasting more or less four weeks. The four BJMP prisoners have spent nearly four months incognito. During these ften weeks major AFP tactical operations have taken place in what the AFP likes to optimistically label "Search and Rescue Missions" but what in reality actually amount to a "gross disregard for the lives of such prisoners." Indeed, the four men had been scheduled for release on October 5th after being offered in exchange for an AFP SOMO/SOMA (Stop of Military Operations/Stop of Military Action) on September 29th. When the desired SOMO/SOMA didn't materialise the NPA opted to still go forward with the planned releases setting the aforementioned date of October 5th. When, on October 4th the AFP began amping up the intensity in its tactical operations the NPA scuttled the planned release. Specifically cited was an operation by the 57IB (Infantry Battalion) within the municipality of Magpet in North Cotabato Province. Only after North Cotabato Governor Emmylou Talino Mendoza screamed bloody murder did the 57IB sheepishly cut the operation short and pull out of town. Having achieved this extremely minor concession atop the larger promise of the Government in Manila to work on the JASIG issue, the four men were released on Saturday, October 8th, in Magpet's Barangay Balite.
During the three hour propaganda fest the mayors of two Bukidnon Provincial towns, Kibawe and Kitaotao joined the Mayor of Makilala (North Cotabato Province) in sitting through that uber-boring snooze fest as Front 53's leader, Ka Jody, enjoyed his first hand over and put everybody to sleep with non-sensical claptrap about Mao and the Revolution. Also on hand were representatives of local multi-sectoral front groups as well as Governor Mendoza, Vice Governor Gregorio Ipong and Catholic clergyman of the Liberation Theological cesspool UCCP, and other assorted hanger ons desperate to share in an event the nation's media ignored.
The four released men were immediately driven to Kidapawan City, the provincial capital of North Cotabato where yet another propaganda fest- this time for the Government- took place at the Bishop's Official Residence. There Mr.Bajoyo, now in tears, mooned over the NPA, and I quote verbatim, "We are so grateful that the NPA treated us so well, they treated us like brothers." Stockholm Syndrome anyone? In more important news perhaps, the two senior men, Warden Inspectors Todyog and Llamasares are now under investigation for their roles, if any, in the NPA operation that sent them obstensibly into captivity. The van transporting several inmates including a very high value NPA prisoner, the object of the NPA operation that led to the four BJMP personnel being taken, was without a security escort and more importantly, had taken an unsual route. Seeing as how that route is never taken it stands to reason that the NPA had inside assistance since Front 88 was able to implement a checkpoint in advance of the van's arrival. Maybe a couple of men wish they hadn't been "released."
Monday, June 27, 2011
NPA Armed Contacts,Second Quarter of 2011,Part V:Front 51 Reeks Havoc in North Cotabato Province and Front 18 Spills Blood in Davao Oriental Province
On June 5th,2011 18 year old Renel Jeff Haganas,an NPA Irregular under Front 51,the Magtanggol Roque Command of the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee (SMRC) and a resident of Makilala in North Cotabato paid the ultimate price for having guided the AFP,or Armed Forces of the Philippines,in its search for Front 51's camp last March.As the teenager was walking in Barangay Biangan his fellow NPA guerillas approached him and shot him in the face.Often times,NPA member or not,the AFP will"interrogate"individuals in an extreme manner after which,no matter your convictions,you aren't left with very much choice but to comply with the military's demands.Having co-operated though,young Mr.Haganas made the fatal mistake of assuming his betrayal would remain undiscovered.The camp in question,in Makilala's Barangay New Israel,wasn't that important.In fact,iit wasn't even in use when the AFP"captured"it,but the act of co-operation isn't taken lightly by the NPA and so the young man was made an example of.
On June 11th Front 51 launched an assault under the command of"Ka Enoy"on a temporary post of the 6DRC,or 6th Division Reconaissance Company,under 1Lt (First Lieutenant) Rito Petinglay in Makilala's Purok #6 in Barangay Batasan.The 30 minute firefight ended up killing PFC.(Private First Class) Arnie Agata but the NPA was unable to overrun the post and so withdrew into the jungle on the lower slopes of Mount Apo.
Two days later,on June 13th,in the municipality of Arakan,also in North Cotabato Province,Front 51 launched an assault on a CAFGU post in Barangay Anapolon but withdrew without success as the CAAs repulsed the assault without incurring,nor inflicting,any casualties.CAFGU,or Civilian Auxiliary Force Geographical Unit,is one of four entities that collectively form the CAA (Civilian Active Auxiliary) programme,which is itself the cornerstone of the AFP's counterinsurgency programme.Members,known as"CAAs,"are enlisted from within the community of deployment.Receiving a minimum of military training they are then issued uniforms and AFP weaponry,usually ancient M1s (Garands).They serve under an AFP NCO (Non-Commisioned Officer) who serves as a cadre but are often deployed rudderless into the field.
That same day,June 13th in the municipality of Magpet's Sito Kata Kulo in Barangay Basak,also in North Cotabato Province, the NPA's Front 51 launched an ambush against two 6 X 6 trucks full of soldiers from the 57IB (Infantry Battalion) as it patrolled that sector.Ten guerillas detonated an IED (Improvised Explosive Device,as in"bomb") that disabled the first of the two trucks and then launched a cross-fire barrage that precipitated a 10 minute firefight.Neither side suffered any casualties before the NPA withdrew into the bush.
The next day,June 14th,the 57IB launched an assault on a nine bunker NPA camp in the municipality of Makilala.After a 3 hour engagement that ended just after 9AM the soldiers were able to lay claim to some very minor IED components and not much else.Five of the bunkers were underground showing that it had been a substantial position but as usual the AFP allowed the NPA a clear route of withdrawal as opposed to actually trying to neutralise their enemy.
On June 15th the AFP launched a major push into Makilala.Deploying most of 3 IBs,the 39th,40th and the 57th,they softened the ground with airstrikes by OV-10 Broncos and MG520 helicopters before unleashing the ground assault on June 16th.On June 13th engagements had created 240 IDPs,or Internally Displaced Persons (i.em"Refugees") but by the 16th there were nearly 3000 who as of today,June 27th,remain in limbo.The AFP finished its operation on June 18th and claimed to have killed 4 NPA guerillas,two of whom they fully identified:
1) Alexander Selano
2) Miguel Oscio
The NPA though says that none of its guerillas were killed and that those two names belong to villagers who are neither dead nor NPA members.Moreover,the NPA claims to have killed 7 soldiers.
On June 25th the Mayor of Makilala,Rudy Goagdan,announced that the municipality was implementing a new programme designed to triage AFP casualties in the field.One would imagine that a huge military like the AFP would have trained combat medics but it does not.Those rare soldiers cross trained as medics are not even equipped to deal with snakebite and so those unlucky enough to be wounded critically in the field more often than not don't make it to the landing point for the long helicopter ride to AFP Hospitals which are only found in Division Headquarters and even then do a piss poor job of caring for their wounded.The programme,"OPlan Sagip Buhay,"or,"Operational Plan Lifesaver,"is also being offered to NPA casualties.It seems that Mayor Goagdan is taking a cue from Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of Davao City.
Some might remember how in another recent"NPA Armed Contacts,Second Quarter of 2011"entry I discussed the AFP's Scout Rangers overrunning a huge NPA camp in the municipality of Cateel in Davao Oriental Province in late May.Among the NPA casualties were 3 guerillas extremely critically wounded.Evacuated by the NPA to a friendly hospital in Surigao del Sur Province their commander was still deeply concerned,especially so because the lone female casualty,Vanessa"Ka Eching"Tropico de los Reyes of Davao City's Calinan District is his lover.Having a working relationship with Vice Mayor Duterte he called in a big favour.Duterte then used the city's helicopter and personally rode on the flight to retrieve the three casualties whom he then delivered to Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City.Duterte's relationship with the NPA has unfortunately served as a model for other city mayors on Mindanao.
Back when Duterte was a City Prosecutor in the mid-1980s he began playing both sides of the fence.At the time Davao City was in open warfare with the NPA,the organisation then having a parallel government that controlled large portion's of the island'sargest city.In 1984 there was an upsurge in vigilantism inspired by NPA Surrenderees (NPA Defectors) who formed Right Wing paramilitaries.By 1986 the most powerful of the Right Wing groups,Alsa Masa,or Masses Arise,was enjoying an annual budget of US 9,000,a fortune even now in local standards,courtesy of the Davao City budget.Taking strategems learned from his father,a long serving governor of Davao Province (originally there was 1 province,long since sub-divided into four) and reached out to the NPA's powers that be.Consigning 4 of the city's outlying rural districts to the NPA,he received in exchange a commitment by the Maoist guerillas not to operate in any other part of the city.Having taken a terrible beating in other city districts the NPA cut its losses and agreed.
Duterte capitalised on the deal by riding it into cityhall in the mayoral elections.Not long after other local warlords cum mayors copied Duterte's gameplan and brokered deals of their own and so cities like Cagayan del Oro,Iligan,Butuan and Zamboanga avoided the bloodshed that has continued to soak the countryside.Another mayor who copied Duterte's deal with the devil was Francisco Rabat,a long serving mayor in the municipality of Mati,in Davao Oriental Province.Just as in Davao City Rabat kept the NPA out of the town proper by offering them carte blanche in rural,outlying portions of his municipality.In 2007 his daughter Michelle Rabat won the mayoral election and simply assumed that her father's agreement was transferrae to her administration.
On June 7th,2011 Ms.Rabat discovered,much to her suprise,that it wasn't.At 7PM that evening the town's newly installed CCTV system (Closed Circuit Television) zeroed in on the city's bus terminal.Located between that terminal and the adjoining public market was a small MPO (Municipal Police Office) post.Standing outside the post was PO3 Alfredo Salva,cradling his M16.The cameras watched as six men walked towards the post,four of them spreading out as sentinels.Two of the men continued walking towards the unsuspecting police officer and as one of them suddenly pointed a pistol at him,the other lunged for his M16.The quick thinking police officer instantly raised the barrel and shot both of them but as he did this one of the four sentinels ran over and shot the officer in the face with a 45 caliber pistol,instantly killing him.He then reached down and pried the M16 from his hands and disappeared into the evening with his three companions,leaving behind the other two guerillas,one of whom had already died.
Of the two NPA guerillas shot by Officer Salva,the fatality was identified as Ramil"Ka Bunso"Sallanes and the critically wounded guerilla was positively identified as Ariel"Ka Gary"Manuray,both of Front 18,the Wilfredo Zapanta Command,Southern Mindanao Regional Committee (SMRC).Manuray was transported to Davao City where he is being held at the same hospital as the aforementioned three wounded guerillas rescused by Vice Mayor Duterte,the Southern Philippines Medical Center.Guarded by AFP soldiers he also lies in critical condition.Mayor Michelle Rabat broke the virtual code of silence on June 25th and discussed the deal her father made.It is no secret to those dealing in the island's counterinsurgency mileu but the fact that the Mayor actually discussed it openly is a huge shock.That she did so hours before Makilala's Mayor Goagdan offered succor to wounded NPA guerillas does make the latter's offer much more understandable.As humane an offer as it is it is troubling that Government officials blur the lines in an already heavily intertwined dynamic.Battling the NPA is difficult enough without having officials cross the line from adversary to ally,all the while skippin disaffected bystander (as if any official on Mindanao could ever be one).
The Church-based sectoral front organisation"Exodus for Peace"is appealing to Major General Segovia of the 10ID (Infantry Division) to release those three NPA guerillas rescued by Vice Mayor Duterte of Davao City.The group reminded Segovia that the NPA always safely releases its AFP and PNP (Philippine National Police) POWs (Prisoners of War).The group says releasing the three would be a wonderful Goodwill Gesture to which Segovia responded that in fact the Government has accorded the NPA many Goodwill Gestures only to have the group repay the Government with bloody attacks.Besides Major General Segovia said,they were charged by the courts on June 5th with Frustrated Murder so it is now a judicial issue.
On June 11th Front 51 launched an assault under the command of"Ka Enoy"on a temporary post of the 6DRC,or 6th Division Reconaissance Company,under 1Lt (First Lieutenant) Rito Petinglay in Makilala's Purok #6 in Barangay Batasan.The 30 minute firefight ended up killing PFC.(Private First Class) Arnie Agata but the NPA was unable to overrun the post and so withdrew into the jungle on the lower slopes of Mount Apo.
Two days later,on June 13th,in the municipality of Arakan,also in North Cotabato Province,Front 51 launched an assault on a CAFGU post in Barangay Anapolon but withdrew without success as the CAAs repulsed the assault without incurring,nor inflicting,any casualties.CAFGU,or Civilian Auxiliary Force Geographical Unit,is one of four entities that collectively form the CAA (Civilian Active Auxiliary) programme,which is itself the cornerstone of the AFP's counterinsurgency programme.Members,known as"CAAs,"are enlisted from within the community of deployment.Receiving a minimum of military training they are then issued uniforms and AFP weaponry,usually ancient M1s (Garands).They serve under an AFP NCO (Non-Commisioned Officer) who serves as a cadre but are often deployed rudderless into the field.
That same day,June 13th in the municipality of Magpet's Sito Kata Kulo in Barangay Basak,also in North Cotabato Province, the NPA's Front 51 launched an ambush against two 6 X 6 trucks full of soldiers from the 57IB (Infantry Battalion) as it patrolled that sector.Ten guerillas detonated an IED (Improvised Explosive Device,as in"bomb") that disabled the first of the two trucks and then launched a cross-fire barrage that precipitated a 10 minute firefight.Neither side suffered any casualties before the NPA withdrew into the bush.
The next day,June 14th,the 57IB launched an assault on a nine bunker NPA camp in the municipality of Makilala.After a 3 hour engagement that ended just after 9AM the soldiers were able to lay claim to some very minor IED components and not much else.Five of the bunkers were underground showing that it had been a substantial position but as usual the AFP allowed the NPA a clear route of withdrawal as opposed to actually trying to neutralise their enemy.
On June 15th the AFP launched a major push into Makilala.Deploying most of 3 IBs,the 39th,40th and the 57th,they softened the ground with airstrikes by OV-10 Broncos and MG520 helicopters before unleashing the ground assault on June 16th.On June 13th engagements had created 240 IDPs,or Internally Displaced Persons (i.em"Refugees") but by the 16th there were nearly 3000 who as of today,June 27th,remain in limbo.The AFP finished its operation on June 18th and claimed to have killed 4 NPA guerillas,two of whom they fully identified:
1) Alexander Selano
2) Miguel Oscio
The NPA though says that none of its guerillas were killed and that those two names belong to villagers who are neither dead nor NPA members.Moreover,the NPA claims to have killed 7 soldiers.
On June 25th the Mayor of Makilala,Rudy Goagdan,announced that the municipality was implementing a new programme designed to triage AFP casualties in the field.One would imagine that a huge military like the AFP would have trained combat medics but it does not.Those rare soldiers cross trained as medics are not even equipped to deal with snakebite and so those unlucky enough to be wounded critically in the field more often than not don't make it to the landing point for the long helicopter ride to AFP Hospitals which are only found in Division Headquarters and even then do a piss poor job of caring for their wounded.The programme,"OPlan Sagip Buhay,"or,"Operational Plan Lifesaver,"is also being offered to NPA casualties.It seems that Mayor Goagdan is taking a cue from Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of Davao City.
Some might remember how in another recent"NPA Armed Contacts,Second Quarter of 2011"entry I discussed the AFP's Scout Rangers overrunning a huge NPA camp in the municipality of Cateel in Davao Oriental Province in late May.Among the NPA casualties were 3 guerillas extremely critically wounded.Evacuated by the NPA to a friendly hospital in Surigao del Sur Province their commander was still deeply concerned,especially so because the lone female casualty,Vanessa"Ka Eching"Tropico de los Reyes of Davao City's Calinan District is his lover.Having a working relationship with Vice Mayor Duterte he called in a big favour.Duterte then used the city's helicopter and personally rode on the flight to retrieve the three casualties whom he then delivered to Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City.Duterte's relationship with the NPA has unfortunately served as a model for other city mayors on Mindanao.
Back when Duterte was a City Prosecutor in the mid-1980s he began playing both sides of the fence.At the time Davao City was in open warfare with the NPA,the organisation then having a parallel government that controlled large portion's of the island'sargest city.In 1984 there was an upsurge in vigilantism inspired by NPA Surrenderees (NPA Defectors) who formed Right Wing paramilitaries.By 1986 the most powerful of the Right Wing groups,Alsa Masa,or Masses Arise,was enjoying an annual budget of US 9,000,a fortune even now in local standards,courtesy of the Davao City budget.Taking strategems learned from his father,a long serving governor of Davao Province (originally there was 1 province,long since sub-divided into four) and reached out to the NPA's powers that be.Consigning 4 of the city's outlying rural districts to the NPA,he received in exchange a commitment by the Maoist guerillas not to operate in any other part of the city.Having taken a terrible beating in other city districts the NPA cut its losses and agreed.
Duterte capitalised on the deal by riding it into cityhall in the mayoral elections.Not long after other local warlords cum mayors copied Duterte's gameplan and brokered deals of their own and so cities like Cagayan del Oro,Iligan,Butuan and Zamboanga avoided the bloodshed that has continued to soak the countryside.Another mayor who copied Duterte's deal with the devil was Francisco Rabat,a long serving mayor in the municipality of Mati,in Davao Oriental Province.Just as in Davao City Rabat kept the NPA out of the town proper by offering them carte blanche in rural,outlying portions of his municipality.In 2007 his daughter Michelle Rabat won the mayoral election and simply assumed that her father's agreement was transferrae to her administration.
On June 7th,2011 Ms.Rabat discovered,much to her suprise,that it wasn't.At 7PM that evening the town's newly installed CCTV system (Closed Circuit Television) zeroed in on the city's bus terminal.Located between that terminal and the adjoining public market was a small MPO (Municipal Police Office) post.Standing outside the post was PO3 Alfredo Salva,cradling his M16.The cameras watched as six men walked towards the post,four of them spreading out as sentinels.Two of the men continued walking towards the unsuspecting police officer and as one of them suddenly pointed a pistol at him,the other lunged for his M16.The quick thinking police officer instantly raised the barrel and shot both of them but as he did this one of the four sentinels ran over and shot the officer in the face with a 45 caliber pistol,instantly killing him.He then reached down and pried the M16 from his hands and disappeared into the evening with his three companions,leaving behind the other two guerillas,one of whom had already died.
Of the two NPA guerillas shot by Officer Salva,the fatality was identified as Ramil"Ka Bunso"Sallanes and the critically wounded guerilla was positively identified as Ariel"Ka Gary"Manuray,both of Front 18,the Wilfredo Zapanta Command,Southern Mindanao Regional Committee (SMRC).Manuray was transported to Davao City where he is being held at the same hospital as the aforementioned three wounded guerillas rescused by Vice Mayor Duterte,the Southern Philippines Medical Center.Guarded by AFP soldiers he also lies in critical condition.Mayor Michelle Rabat broke the virtual code of silence on June 25th and discussed the deal her father made.It is no secret to those dealing in the island's counterinsurgency mileu but the fact that the Mayor actually discussed it openly is a huge shock.That she did so hours before Makilala's Mayor Goagdan offered succor to wounded NPA guerillas does make the latter's offer much more understandable.As humane an offer as it is it is troubling that Government officials blur the lines in an already heavily intertwined dynamic.Battling the NPA is difficult enough without having officials cross the line from adversary to ally,all the while skippin disaffected bystander (as if any official on Mindanao could ever be one).
The Church-based sectoral front organisation"Exodus for Peace"is appealing to Major General Segovia of the 10ID (Infantry Division) to release those three NPA guerillas rescued by Vice Mayor Duterte of Davao City.The group reminded Segovia that the NPA always safely releases its AFP and PNP (Philippine National Police) POWs (Prisoners of War).The group says releasing the three would be a wonderful Goodwill Gesture to which Segovia responded that in fact the Government has accorded the NPA many Goodwill Gestures only to have the group repay the Government with bloody attacks.Besides Major General Segovia said,they were charged by the courts on June 5th with Frustrated Murder so it is now a judicial issue.
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