NPA Checkpoints on Mindanao's National Hiways is not new, nor is it shocking in the least. Howevet, since 1993 the NPA has never attempted to implement a checkpoint during daylight hours. On Wednesday, January 18th, 2012, at 130AM, the NPA's Front 53 of the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, or, SMRC in shorthand, deployed 30 guerillas into the Bukidnon Provincial municipality of Kitaotao's Sitio Malo -os, in Barangay Sinuda, just up the road from the Sumifru-owned banana facility, and lay in wait for trucks belonging to Sumifru sub-contractors.
Bantuanon had refused a demand from SMRC for "Revolutionary Taxes, " quarterly payoffs that allow one to operate unmolested in NPA-controlled areas. The NPA's general operating procedure is to wait six months, and then, if mo money or goods are forthcoming, exact retribution with a very public act of violence. Usually this is exacted by burning Millions in Pesos worth of goods and property.
At 3AM that morning, two trucks left Sumifru fully loaded with bananas en route to Davao City and its busy port on Mindanao's Southern Coast. The first truck, a straight truck owned by JY Compay of GenSan (General Santos City), and operated by its owner, Jun Yee, drove a kilometer away from Sumifru and was then compelled to slow down at what appeared to be an Armed Forces of the Philippines,or AFP, Checkpoint. Like almost all AFP Checkpoints this one, manned by a full platoon (30 soldiers) in AFP fatigues, even had the requisite metal sign upon which was stated that vehicles were undergoing serving in the 23IB (Infantry Battalion). As Yee scanned the checkpoint, a tractor trailer owned by Bantuanon Trucking of the Davao del Sur Provincial municipality of Santa Cruz, rolled to a stop behind him.
As both trucks idled they were stunned when the kindly "soldiers" manning the checkpoint suddenly began screaming at both drivers, with the barrels of their assault rifles drawn down on them. Brusquely yanked from their cabs, both Yee and the other driver, Romeo Sajulga, watched in shocked silence as Molotov Cocktails were used to set both trucks ablaze. Yee's straight truck was totally burned but only Bantuanon Trucking's trailer was burned since the anPA had made a concerted effort to unhitch the trailer.
Responding to reports of the NPA's tactical operation, the AFP's 8IB deployed a platoon under Second Lieutenant Gaspar from a forward base in the municipality of Maramag in a three truck convoy carrying a platoon of soldiers. As the convoy entered the municipality of Quezon's Batangay Palacapao it entered a dead zone with no communication ability. Driving along Overlook Ridge the convoy sped into Sitio Zigzag and found themselves driving straight into an NPA ambush. After the initial IED, or Improvised Explosive Device detonated, critically wounding four AFP soldiers (AFP brass have merely reported four minor wounds, and true to form, the NPA is claiming that the four wounded were actually killed, and twelve more soldiers were wounded):
1) Corporal Ongcoy
2) Private First Class (PFC) Senes
3) PFC.Pactol
4) Private Palahan
a fierce firefight broke out...As the platoon scrambled for cover the NPA Blocking Force that had engaged them was already moving down hill into the valley below. In a series of running engagements both sides eventually found themselves in Barangay Puntian where more pitched engagements took place. Calling in air cover from Davao City, a pair of MG520 helicipters responded, albeit with no effect whatsoever.
Showing posts with label Herminio Alfonso Command. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Herminio Alfonso Command. Show all posts
Monday, June 4, 2012
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.
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."
GPH-NDFP Peace Process for the Third Quarter, Part IV: Rodrigo Duterte Takes Off his Mask
For the longest I have been discussing Davao City warlord Rodrigo "Roddy" Duterte and his "friendship" with the NPA. Duterte, currently serving as Davao City's Vice Mayor under his daughter, Bench Warmer- I mean- Mayor, Sarah "Inday" Duterte Carpio makes no secret of his respect and admiration of the Maoist NPA and its objectives. Soon after first gaining power in the city in the late 1980s Duterte entered into what was initially a relationship of convenience with local NPA leader Leonicio Parago who is much better known by his nom de guerre "Ka Parago."
At the time much of Davao City was a battlefield with the NPA and various state sponsored paramilitaries duking it out with the non-combatants serving as cannon fodder for both sides. Enter Rodrigo Duterte. The son of a former provincial governor Duterte learned to play the game early on. Graduating law school he became a city prosecutor in Davao City, or what used to be called a City Fiscal, after a short stint as an instructor at the PNP, or Philippine National Police Academy in Manila. It was in this capacity that Duterte first came close to the NPA. By the end of 1985 Duterte's mother Soledad, known popularly as "Nanay Soleng," had fortuitously become the Davao Regional Chairperson of Corazon "Cory" Aquino's "Yellow Friday Movement." At the time Duterte himself had risen in the City Fiscal Office to the position of Special Counsel, charged with dealing with detained high ranking NPA figures. These two parallel tracks converged in 1986 when newly elected President Cory Aquino had Duterte appointed OIC (Officer in Charge) Vice Mayor of the City.
By 1987 Duterte began readying himself for the 1988 Mayoral Election in which he would be bucking the system by running for Mayor against Aquino's hand picked candidate, Zafiro Respicio. Though Duterte held a chance on his own owing to an inherent advantage offered by three other strong candidates besides Respicio throwing their hats into the ring, thus splitting the vote five ways, Duterte naturally sought to solidify his candidacy and therefore came up with a very risky but nevertheless ingenious scheme. As leader of the Aquino political machine in the Davao Region Duterte's mother became, in 1986, the Government's Chairperson in the brand new GPH-NDFP Peace Process which ridiculously had been engineered at the sub-regional level, as if a nationwide peace process wouldn't be complicated enough in a country with hundreds of ethnicities and languages (of course in those days the GPH was still the "GRP" and the NDFP was still the "NDF"). This position allowed Duterte, by tagging along with his mother, to capitalise on relationships already made in his role as Special Counsel at the City Fiscal's Office.
So it was that the NPA and Duterte made their "deal." In exchange for the NPA guaranteeing Duterte the vote in all NPA controlled barangays and districts Duterte vowed to run interference on the Government's side in allowing the NPA to carve out a large enclave comprising three of the city's outlying districts, an arrangement that exists until the present. Aside from merely gaining power Duterte, much to his credit, realised that he could use that initial deal as the foundation of a far more important arrangement that would benefit the entire region above and beyond Duterte's own narrow and purient interests. When he won election as Mayor in 1988 Duterte realised that the only way to build a power base in which his role was non-negotiable was to first, end the bloodshed that turned Davao City into the nation's most violent municipality bar none. Then, after reversing the municipality's status into that of a peaceful and stable community, make it conducive to investment and that Pilippine Holy Grail, "Peace and Development." Again, to his credit, Duterte had realised something most Philippine officials have yet to understand, "Peace and Development" is a universal value that must be applicable to ALL demographic shareholders. IF Bisaya, as the Christians on Mindanao are usually collectively labeled, needed to enjoy a stable, peaceful environment, so did the Moros, as the Filipino Muslims on Mindanao are collectively labeled. If Liberal Democratic groups desired employment opportunities with long term security, so did the multi-sectoral front organisations backing the NPA. Ergo, Duterte set about meeting all his constituents' needs.
Meeting with emmisaries of Ka Parago Duterte eventually brokered an agreement that relegated the NPA to those same aforementioned three city districts:
1) Paquibato
2) Toril
3) Marilog
and to a lesser extent the districts of Baguio and Calinan. In these three districts Duterte gave the NPA carte blanche to run a parallel government and run it as they saw fit. While Duterte couldn't do much in the way of keeping the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, out of the NPA enclave it has often run heavy interference, most notably in the Summer of 2010 when, under Duterte's daughter, Mayor Carpio, the city withdrew its funding and co-operation for AFP tactical operations within the entire city (aside from the anti-terrorism Task Force Davao). Since then the city government and the AFP have managed to reconcile to an uneasy working relationship with each "respecting" the others' strong ideological stance but there is still no co-operation.
Vice Mayor Duterte betrays his position with little regard to what others will think or say. Having built Davao City into a bastion of economic stability on the back of his "no principles" political stance he has himself been given carte blanche by the region's movers and shakers. As long as the pesos keep pouring in, Duterte can step on anyone and anything he wants. Part of Duterte's shtick has been acting as the pointman on any NPA captures of Government personnel, anywhere on the island. Because of the warm relationship that the Maoists share with Duterte anyone captured by the guerillas is bery quickly handed off to the NPA "Custodial Front," Front 20, which encamps on the edge of Davao City. However, Front 20, the Conrado Heredia Front took a bad blow in late May of 2011 when the AFP's 6th Scout Rangers Company backed by the 25IB (Infantry Battalion) overan a rendevouz of four NPA Fronts in the municipality of Cateel, in Davao Oriental Province. Since then Front 53, the Herminio Alfonso Command, has assumed the role of Custodial Front though it too also encamps on a different section of Davao City's border.
Whenever the NPA captures a soldier or police officer Big Daddy Duterte "negotiates" their release with the NPA. It is absolutely win:win for Duterte in that it further endears him to the disparate political factions on the island, further entrenches his position as irreplacable peace maker and perhaps most of all, guarantees the publicity loving Duterte gads and gads of media exposure and face time. Conversely, when guerillas find themselves in difficult positions it is Big Daddy who comes to their rescue. When the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, attacked that camp in Cateel and three NPA guerillas were critically wounded (including the lover of Front 20's Secretary, or leader) it was Duterte himself that took a Government helicopter to actually go out and pick up the three wounded fighters. He then had all three flown to Davao City for lifesaving treatment while hundreds, neigh thousands of Duterte's own constituents are too poor to even purchase Tylenon to ease the rigours of child birth.
During the Cristmas Season of 2010 Duterte and Mayor Carpio actually travelled the NPA's regional camp on the outskirts of Davao City's Paquibato District. The NPA has no qualms about capturing mayors and yet Duterte neglected to even bring a single bodyguard. As he said then, he and local guerilla leader Leonicio "Ka Parago" Pitao are "old friends." How much more apparent was it when on, August 29th, 2011, Duterte had supper with NDFP Peace Panel Chairperson, Luis G.Jalandoni. Jalandoni extended an invitation- which Duterte accepted without reservation- to serve as a Resource Person on the NDFP Peace Panel. Normally anyone serving in Government would blanche at such an offer. For one thing, it contravenes the Philippine Constitution and violates at least three laws to say nothing of the serious ethical breeches that would ensue. Anyone even considering such an offer would spend days (at least) consulting both with his or her attorneys as well as well as with Manila. The normal course of affairs a mayor, or vice-mayor, would have to consult the DILG, or the Department of the Interior and Local Government for its guidance and indeed, its permission. Duterte though? The next morning he giddily sent out a Group SMS (a text to all Philippine journalists "approved" by him personally) explaining that he had happily accepted the offer at supper.
On the Sunday morning edition of Duterte's two weekly television shows, "Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa" ("From the Masses, to the Masses" in Cebuano, aka the Bisaya Language) he explained just why he always acts as the pointman when the NPA captures Government personnel but NEVER does so when private citizens are taken by the Maoists, or at least tried to...Vis a vis the six door to door salesman from Misamis Oriental Province who were taken by the NPA's Front 88 of the Northcentral Mindanao Regional Comittee on August 10th, 2011, just before they crossed into Davao City's Paquibato District from the municipality of San Fernando in Bukidnon Province. According to Front 88 the six men:
1) Nelson Bagares
2) James Maybaylan
3) Ronald Boiles
4) Ernesto Callo
5) Segundino Dailo Jr.
6) Julieto Sarsabo
are spies. As "proof" the NPA ridiculously points out that all six men sold sleeping mats (most rural Filipinos don't use beds) and were deep in the bush where settlement is very sparse. Ergo, why would six men congregate in an area where even one man would be hard pressed to sell even two mats in an entire day? Moreover the NPA says, some of the men were telling people they encountered that they were ex-NPA themselves and trying to seduce locals into discussing the NPA in hopes of gleaning intelligence. In my post focusing on the initial abduction of these six men I noted that it was the forbear of the Northcentral Mindanao Regional Committee that was single handedly responsible for the murderous NPA purges that began with Kampanyang Ahos (the Garlic Campaign) in 1985 and soon spread across the entire nation. As I noted then, it seems that the NPA hasn't learned much from its garish mistakes.
The wives of five of the men (only Julieto Sarsabo had noone representing him) travelled to Davao City in late August to personaly beg Vice Mayor Duterte to intercede with his NPA comrades (pun intended) to seek their husbands' safe release. On the show in question Duterte explained that he could not seek the mens' release because he is no longer "objective." Of course Duterte has never been objective when it comes to the NPA, least not since 1988, but his excuse fails to explain why- to my knowledge- he has never once interceded on behalf of private citizens. So, his joining the NDFP Peace Panel now allows Duterte to abdicate his sworn responsibilities to the citizens of the Philippines. I wish I could say that I was shocked or suprised but unlike Duterte, I cannot lie.
However, even I was suprised when Duterte said the following, in Bisaya, "Dili maayo tanawon sa tawa nga moduwa ko ba, mogunit ka sa politikanhong pag-istorya tapos maneuvering sa NPA ug asa positions. That isn't smart." Idiomatically, in English, "I must stop interceding on the part of NPA prisoners because it would be unethical if I continued doing that. Moreover, if I keep travelling to NPA positions in order to intercede, the OTHER SIDE (emphasis is ALL mine) to track my movements and in that way compromise NPA encampments. That isn't smart." So now the Government Duterte has sworn to defend and uphold is "the other side"? I admit, his gall left me dumbfounded. He belongs on the AFP Order of Battle as much as any NPA leader, with a value equal to Ka Parago.
As if all that isn't jaw dropping enough, on the following Sunday, on that same show, Duterte back pedaled furiously saying the following while speaking in English, "One thing I can assure you, I am a Government employee and I swear to defend the Constitution of the Government of the Philippines. I will never, never, and never give an advice that may destroy our land [sic]." Of course Manila had reacted to the preceding Sunday's comments but not nearly as much as it should of. The ignorance represented by Duterte swearing he will never act against the Constitution even as he officialy declares himself aligned with the NDFP, an entity sworn to contravene that same Constitution is beyond words.
At the time much of Davao City was a battlefield with the NPA and various state sponsored paramilitaries duking it out with the non-combatants serving as cannon fodder for both sides. Enter Rodrigo Duterte. The son of a former provincial governor Duterte learned to play the game early on. Graduating law school he became a city prosecutor in Davao City, or what used to be called a City Fiscal, after a short stint as an instructor at the PNP, or Philippine National Police Academy in Manila. It was in this capacity that Duterte first came close to the NPA. By the end of 1985 Duterte's mother Soledad, known popularly as "Nanay Soleng," had fortuitously become the Davao Regional Chairperson of Corazon "Cory" Aquino's "Yellow Friday Movement." At the time Duterte himself had risen in the City Fiscal Office to the position of Special Counsel, charged with dealing with detained high ranking NPA figures. These two parallel tracks converged in 1986 when newly elected President Cory Aquino had Duterte appointed OIC (Officer in Charge) Vice Mayor of the City.
By 1987 Duterte began readying himself for the 1988 Mayoral Election in which he would be bucking the system by running for Mayor against Aquino's hand picked candidate, Zafiro Respicio. Though Duterte held a chance on his own owing to an inherent advantage offered by three other strong candidates besides Respicio throwing their hats into the ring, thus splitting the vote five ways, Duterte naturally sought to solidify his candidacy and therefore came up with a very risky but nevertheless ingenious scheme. As leader of the Aquino political machine in the Davao Region Duterte's mother became, in 1986, the Government's Chairperson in the brand new GPH-NDFP Peace Process which ridiculously had been engineered at the sub-regional level, as if a nationwide peace process wouldn't be complicated enough in a country with hundreds of ethnicities and languages (of course in those days the GPH was still the "GRP" and the NDFP was still the "NDF"). This position allowed Duterte, by tagging along with his mother, to capitalise on relationships already made in his role as Special Counsel at the City Fiscal's Office.
So it was that the NPA and Duterte made their "deal." In exchange for the NPA guaranteeing Duterte the vote in all NPA controlled barangays and districts Duterte vowed to run interference on the Government's side in allowing the NPA to carve out a large enclave comprising three of the city's outlying districts, an arrangement that exists until the present. Aside from merely gaining power Duterte, much to his credit, realised that he could use that initial deal as the foundation of a far more important arrangement that would benefit the entire region above and beyond Duterte's own narrow and purient interests. When he won election as Mayor in 1988 Duterte realised that the only way to build a power base in which his role was non-negotiable was to first, end the bloodshed that turned Davao City into the nation's most violent municipality bar none. Then, after reversing the municipality's status into that of a peaceful and stable community, make it conducive to investment and that Pilippine Holy Grail, "Peace and Development." Again, to his credit, Duterte had realised something most Philippine officials have yet to understand, "Peace and Development" is a universal value that must be applicable to ALL demographic shareholders. IF Bisaya, as the Christians on Mindanao are usually collectively labeled, needed to enjoy a stable, peaceful environment, so did the Moros, as the Filipino Muslims on Mindanao are collectively labeled. If Liberal Democratic groups desired employment opportunities with long term security, so did the multi-sectoral front organisations backing the NPA. Ergo, Duterte set about meeting all his constituents' needs.
Meeting with emmisaries of Ka Parago Duterte eventually brokered an agreement that relegated the NPA to those same aforementioned three city districts:
1) Paquibato
2) Toril
3) Marilog
and to a lesser extent the districts of Baguio and Calinan. In these three districts Duterte gave the NPA carte blanche to run a parallel government and run it as they saw fit. While Duterte couldn't do much in the way of keeping the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, out of the NPA enclave it has often run heavy interference, most notably in the Summer of 2010 when, under Duterte's daughter, Mayor Carpio, the city withdrew its funding and co-operation for AFP tactical operations within the entire city (aside from the anti-terrorism Task Force Davao). Since then the city government and the AFP have managed to reconcile to an uneasy working relationship with each "respecting" the others' strong ideological stance but there is still no co-operation.
Vice Mayor Duterte betrays his position with little regard to what others will think or say. Having built Davao City into a bastion of economic stability on the back of his "no principles" political stance he has himself been given carte blanche by the region's movers and shakers. As long as the pesos keep pouring in, Duterte can step on anyone and anything he wants. Part of Duterte's shtick has been acting as the pointman on any NPA captures of Government personnel, anywhere on the island. Because of the warm relationship that the Maoists share with Duterte anyone captured by the guerillas is bery quickly handed off to the NPA "Custodial Front," Front 20, which encamps on the edge of Davao City. However, Front 20, the Conrado Heredia Front took a bad blow in late May of 2011 when the AFP's 6th Scout Rangers Company backed by the 25IB (Infantry Battalion) overan a rendevouz of four NPA Fronts in the municipality of Cateel, in Davao Oriental Province. Since then Front 53, the Herminio Alfonso Command, has assumed the role of Custodial Front though it too also encamps on a different section of Davao City's border.
Whenever the NPA captures a soldier or police officer Big Daddy Duterte "negotiates" their release with the NPA. It is absolutely win:win for Duterte in that it further endears him to the disparate political factions on the island, further entrenches his position as irreplacable peace maker and perhaps most of all, guarantees the publicity loving Duterte gads and gads of media exposure and face time. Conversely, when guerillas find themselves in difficult positions it is Big Daddy who comes to their rescue. When the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, attacked that camp in Cateel and three NPA guerillas were critically wounded (including the lover of Front 20's Secretary, or leader) it was Duterte himself that took a Government helicopter to actually go out and pick up the three wounded fighters. He then had all three flown to Davao City for lifesaving treatment while hundreds, neigh thousands of Duterte's own constituents are too poor to even purchase Tylenon to ease the rigours of child birth.
During the Cristmas Season of 2010 Duterte and Mayor Carpio actually travelled the NPA's regional camp on the outskirts of Davao City's Paquibato District. The NPA has no qualms about capturing mayors and yet Duterte neglected to even bring a single bodyguard. As he said then, he and local guerilla leader Leonicio "Ka Parago" Pitao are "old friends." How much more apparent was it when on, August 29th, 2011, Duterte had supper with NDFP Peace Panel Chairperson, Luis G.Jalandoni. Jalandoni extended an invitation- which Duterte accepted without reservation- to serve as a Resource Person on the NDFP Peace Panel. Normally anyone serving in Government would blanche at such an offer. For one thing, it contravenes the Philippine Constitution and violates at least three laws to say nothing of the serious ethical breeches that would ensue. Anyone even considering such an offer would spend days (at least) consulting both with his or her attorneys as well as well as with Manila. The normal course of affairs a mayor, or vice-mayor, would have to consult the DILG, or the Department of the Interior and Local Government for its guidance and indeed, its permission. Duterte though? The next morning he giddily sent out a Group SMS (a text to all Philippine journalists "approved" by him personally) explaining that he had happily accepted the offer at supper.
On the Sunday morning edition of Duterte's two weekly television shows, "Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa" ("From the Masses, to the Masses" in Cebuano, aka the Bisaya Language) he explained just why he always acts as the pointman when the NPA captures Government personnel but NEVER does so when private citizens are taken by the Maoists, or at least tried to...Vis a vis the six door to door salesman from Misamis Oriental Province who were taken by the NPA's Front 88 of the Northcentral Mindanao Regional Comittee on August 10th, 2011, just before they crossed into Davao City's Paquibato District from the municipality of San Fernando in Bukidnon Province. According to Front 88 the six men:
1) Nelson Bagares
2) James Maybaylan
3) Ronald Boiles
4) Ernesto Callo
5) Segundino Dailo Jr.
6) Julieto Sarsabo
are spies. As "proof" the NPA ridiculously points out that all six men sold sleeping mats (most rural Filipinos don't use beds) and were deep in the bush where settlement is very sparse. Ergo, why would six men congregate in an area where even one man would be hard pressed to sell even two mats in an entire day? Moreover the NPA says, some of the men were telling people they encountered that they were ex-NPA themselves and trying to seduce locals into discussing the NPA in hopes of gleaning intelligence. In my post focusing on the initial abduction of these six men I noted that it was the forbear of the Northcentral Mindanao Regional Committee that was single handedly responsible for the murderous NPA purges that began with Kampanyang Ahos (the Garlic Campaign) in 1985 and soon spread across the entire nation. As I noted then, it seems that the NPA hasn't learned much from its garish mistakes.
The wives of five of the men (only Julieto Sarsabo had noone representing him) travelled to Davao City in late August to personaly beg Vice Mayor Duterte to intercede with his NPA comrades (pun intended) to seek their husbands' safe release. On the show in question Duterte explained that he could not seek the mens' release because he is no longer "objective." Of course Duterte has never been objective when it comes to the NPA, least not since 1988, but his excuse fails to explain why- to my knowledge- he has never once interceded on behalf of private citizens. So, his joining the NDFP Peace Panel now allows Duterte to abdicate his sworn responsibilities to the citizens of the Philippines. I wish I could say that I was shocked or suprised but unlike Duterte, I cannot lie.
However, even I was suprised when Duterte said the following, in Bisaya, "Dili maayo tanawon sa tawa nga moduwa ko ba, mogunit ka sa politikanhong pag-istorya tapos maneuvering sa NPA ug asa positions. That isn't smart." Idiomatically, in English, "I must stop interceding on the part of NPA prisoners because it would be unethical if I continued doing that. Moreover, if I keep travelling to NPA positions in order to intercede, the OTHER SIDE (emphasis is ALL mine) to track my movements and in that way compromise NPA encampments. That isn't smart." So now the Government Duterte has sworn to defend and uphold is "the other side"? I admit, his gall left me dumbfounded. He belongs on the AFP Order of Battle as much as any NPA leader, with a value equal to Ka Parago.
As if all that isn't jaw dropping enough, on the following Sunday, on that same show, Duterte back pedaled furiously saying the following while speaking in English, "One thing I can assure you, I am a Government employee and I swear to defend the Constitution of the Government of the Philippines. I will never, never, and never give an advice that may destroy our land [sic]." Of course Manila had reacted to the preceding Sunday's comments but not nearly as much as it should of. The ignorance represented by Duterte swearing he will never act against the Constitution even as he officialy declares himself aligned with the NDFP, an entity sworn to contravene that same Constitution is beyond words.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
NPA Armed Contacts for the Second Quarter of 2011,Part II:Release of 2 Captured Soldiers and the Battle for a 200 Man Camp in Davao Region
Sunday,May 29,2011 was a day to remember for the families of 2 captured AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) soldiers.With little warning they found that their loved ones would finally be coming home after a difficult 45 days as"guests"of the NPA.On April 14 Corporal Delfin Largo Sarocam and Private First Class (PFC) Jayson Burgos Valenzuela of the 57IB (Infantry Battalion) were escorting a former Barangay Kagawad (Councillor) Eliory Lastimosa to a community forum to orient the community on the AFP's plans to deploy a PDT (Peace and Development Team,"Hearts and Minds"mechanism that serves as the cornerstone of the present Counterinsurgency (COIN) Programme,"Operational Plan-aka OPlan-Bayanihan") into the community.
As the 3 men entered the barangay in question,Datu Puas Inda,in the North Cotabato Provincial municipality of President Roxas,they came to an NPA checkpoint manned by 20 guerillas in Sitio Dalinding.Having been waiting especially for the 3 the guerillas quickly moved to divest the soldiers of their 45 caliber sidearms and then just as rapidly bundled them off into the jungle as prisoners of Front 53,the Herminio Alfonso Command (SMRC aka Southern Mindanao Regional Committee,1 of 5 NPA Regional Committees on Mindanao).Marched overland on foot they were initially taken to a Front 53 Camp in the neighbouring town of Arakan before later being transferred to Front 20,the Conrado Heredia Command,the custodial unit for the SMRC as a whole.
As has been the case for the last 3 years the capture was almost a non-event.These goings on have become oh so common place and downright predictable.Soldiers or police officers are held for up to 90 days during which the NPA engages in repetitive propaganda exercises and issues grandiose statements to the media about the Hague and the Geneva Conventions.Local politicians and Catholic clergymen participate in this almost surreal psychodrama as the poor families of these captured soldiers lay in bed crying,wondering whether or not they will ever see their husbands,sons and fathers again.Of course they will,it is already scripted but noone outside this very narrow mileu understands that.Indeed,even most within this small world couldn't care less and so it continues.
On April 28th the requisite POL (Proof of Life) was released to the powers that be.An audio tape of each captive telling their loved ones not to worry and that they are getting enough sleep and adequate food was passed out with the de riguer"They are treating me very well."In fact they should just mass produce these POLs and simply leave the names blank,filling them in as they go.The POL package included a photo of each prisoner holding up a recently dated local newspaper so as to verify the POL's currency.Both men asked the AFP to cease and desist in their Search and Rescue Operations.Not even AFP personnel want to be rescued by the AFP.The"shoot first and don't even bother asking questions ever"mentality is enough to make any non-suicidal person nervous.The only unusual aspect was Corporal Sarocam's request that the Iglesia ng Kristo (Church of Christ) negotiate for his release.
Not to be confused with the Western-based denomination"Church of Christ,"this denomination is a homegrown sect that imparts messianic qualities to its late founder.A very rich group,as well it should be since adherants must pay cash fines for every prayer meeting and Bible study they fail to attend (or even arrive late for).Obviously Sarocam is a member and the message is code for,"Pay my fuc*en' ransom FAST."The NPA,like any insurgent organisation is continuously strapped for cash.It isn't easy when you have to pay P45 ($1.05) per 5.56MM bullet when buying from your local IB CO (Commanding Officer).Hey,at 1 US a day combat per diem you can't blame the AFP,they have needs just like the rest of us.
Fast forward to May 29th,North Cotabato Provincial Vice Governor Gregorio Ipong and Catholic Church Negotiator Father Paul Paracha eagerly drove to Barangay Balite in the provincial municipality of Magpet to await directions from Fr.Paracha's NPA contact on where to retrieve the 2 soldiers.Upon entering the barangay they were directed by cell phone to the outlying sitio of Laquiahon where the NPA had prepared its usual circle jer* of a love fest,everyone smiling for the cameras,assigned seats for local politicos and Church"leaders."The 2 soldiers then joined the priest and Vice Governor for the long drive to Kidapawan City in South Cotabato Province where they were reunited with their families at Bishop Romulo de la Cruz's Official Residence in Barangay Balindog.The Kidapawan Diocese needed to get its money's worth of publicity having had to shell out a pretty penny for PFC.Valenzuela's ransom.
On the same day that Valenzuela and Sarocam were enjoying a very brief respite before IS-AFP (AFP Intelligence Service) Debriefing began,their compatriots were busy elsewhere on the island.
The Scout Rangers 2nd Battalion,6th COY (Company) on a Recon (Reconnaisance Op) in the municipality of Cateel in Davao Oriental Province stumbled across a column of NPA guerillas from the aforementioned Front 20 and the 30 minute firefight led to the AFP rushing blindly through the dense jungle in a rarely launched Hot Pursuit Operation (despite the claims of the AFP to undertake such operations under its SOP,or Standard Operating Procedure).Why do it then?As I noted earlier in this entry Front 20,the Conrado Heredia Command,is the custodial unit of that particular NPA Regional Command,SMRC (Southern Mindanao Regional Committee).Though both captured soldiers had already been released in North Cotabato Province the AFP doesn't immediately relay these facts to its field units.The 6th Scout Ranger COY saw an opportunity to earn accolades by"rescuing"2 of their comrades in arms.
How did our fearless defenders of the Philippines aim to conduct their"Rescue Op"?Discovering a huge 200 man camp in the middle of densely packed jungle in Barangay Aliwagwag's Sitio Carampel (Karimpel) the 40 Scouts,under Capt.Aunor Balansi crawled on their bellies to within 30 meters of the camp's outlying bunkers.Setting up a loose perimeter (think of a noose,opened at one end so as to allow a clear avenue of escape).The camp also housed Front 25,the SMRC's Regional Operations Command and also served as a logistical hub for SMRC Fronts at the northern end of the SMRC's area of operations.Therefore,as luck would have it,members of Front 15,the Antonio Nerio Command were also on site.
The AFP's official narrative claims that its men crawled on their bellies to within 30 meters of the camp's large bunkers.This is not the usual AFP way in which to launch an attack but the locale is so deeply forested as to be inaccessible even to fast roping infiltration by helicopters (as IF the AFP EVER does THAT),meaning it is incredibly thickly covered with rain forest flora.So,the 30 meters bit is absolutely believable.Likewise so is the AFP boast that they opened fire on what would have been unarmed guerillas.However,to assault a 200 man camp under the element of full suprise and still fail to retrieve a single captured prisoner or even a single KIA (Killed in Action,as in dead guerillas) just defies belief.
The usual AFP "assault"involves an opened perimeter.As I noted just above,picture an open noose,laid around a camp.Now,if you are a capable officer you deploy a Blocking Force along that open end of the"noose"which serves as an avenue of escape,if not actually tying the noose shut to prevent any escape to begin with.The Blocking Force serves to mop up those guerillas rushing headlong out of the camp hoping to avoid capture or annihilation.Imagine 200 dead or captured guerillas?What a coup that would be for the AFP.In reality the AFP almost always leaves a clear avenue for escape sans Blocking Force.The camp is the prize,not its personnel.
To show you how worthless the AFP mindset is,that very same camp had been captured in June of 2010.
The 25IB had been on a Search and Rescue Op for...deja vu...2 captured AFP soldiers:
1) Staff Sergeant Bienvenido Arguelles
2) CAFGU Job Latiban
who like the soldiers mentioned at the beginning of my post had been captured at an NPA checkpoint in ComVal's (Compostela Valley Province) Monkayo,a town immediately adjacent to Cateel despite the provincial border.In that"assault"a 30 minute firefight ended with Front 20,Front 25 and Front 3,the Alejandro Lanaja Command,escaping down that requisite unmolested avenue.
In the May 29th"capture"the AFP was able to claim an actual victory in the caprure of 5 rifles:two M16s,two M14s and one M4.The June,27,2010 capture resulted in 4 IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices,as in homemade bombs) and 6 rifles whose make and variation I noted in the NPA Armed Contact/Tactical Offence entry for the relevant time period.This latest camp"capture"resulted in 3 AFP WIAs (Wounded in Actions) though the NPA is ALSO claiming to have killed 8 men there as well,including 2 junior officers.
In terms of NPA casualties there were 2 guerilla KIAs and 4 WIAs,3 of which are extremely critical.Interestingly the Front 20 contact person contacted everybody's favourite mass murderer,Vice Mayor Rodrigo"Roddy"Duterte and asked him for assistance in saving the lives of those 3 critically injured insurgents.As I noted recently Duterte long ago entered into a working relationship with the NPA's Leonicio"Ka Parago"Pitao in which Duterte"sold"him the right to operate in 4 of the city's outlying districts.
The 3 wounded guerillas:
1) Jason"Ka Jerome"Casilum,of Davao City's Calinan District
2) Ariel"Ka Diwa"Haducala,of Dinagat Island which may or may not be a province of its own depending upon the day you read this.If it isn't it will still be Surigao del Norte Province.The Supreme Court can't make up its mind on the issue.
3) Vanessa"Ka Enching"Tropico de los Reyes,also of Calinan District,Davao City
were retrieved on Wednesday,June 1st by a Davao City helicopter in which Duterte personally rode shotgun (the same copter which he openly brags about having used it to drop people head first into the ocean).The 3 were then airlifted to Davao City where Duterte has personally vowed to protect them from apprehension (hope his vow means more than it did this past Christmas when it led to Edwin Brigano's capture).The 3,along with the 4th wounded guerilla were originally taken to an NPA-friendly hospital in Bislig,Surigao del Sur Province.Virtually all NPA-friendly hospitals are in deplorable condition so that Front 20 Secretary,known by the nom de guerre"Ka Jess,"felt compelled to call in a big favour to Vice Mayor Duterte.This would never have happened had the female guerilla,Ms.de los Reyes not been Ka Jess' lover.Sadly she is now parapelgic since a bullet severed her spinal cord.She also lost 1 kidney so that her condition is extremely grave.Her shocked mother believed her daughter had been teaching Political Science at a public university in Davao City,suprise...suprise...suprise.
Touching down at 3AM on June 2nd the 3 were rushed to Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City where they remain as of this posting.
As the 3 men entered the barangay in question,Datu Puas Inda,in the North Cotabato Provincial municipality of President Roxas,they came to an NPA checkpoint manned by 20 guerillas in Sitio Dalinding.Having been waiting especially for the 3 the guerillas quickly moved to divest the soldiers of their 45 caliber sidearms and then just as rapidly bundled them off into the jungle as prisoners of Front 53,the Herminio Alfonso Command (SMRC aka Southern Mindanao Regional Committee,1 of 5 NPA Regional Committees on Mindanao).Marched overland on foot they were initially taken to a Front 53 Camp in the neighbouring town of Arakan before later being transferred to Front 20,the Conrado Heredia Command,the custodial unit for the SMRC as a whole.
As has been the case for the last 3 years the capture was almost a non-event.These goings on have become oh so common place and downright predictable.Soldiers or police officers are held for up to 90 days during which the NPA engages in repetitive propaganda exercises and issues grandiose statements to the media about the Hague and the Geneva Conventions.Local politicians and Catholic clergymen participate in this almost surreal psychodrama as the poor families of these captured soldiers lay in bed crying,wondering whether or not they will ever see their husbands,sons and fathers again.Of course they will,it is already scripted but noone outside this very narrow mileu understands that.Indeed,even most within this small world couldn't care less and so it continues.
On April 28th the requisite POL (Proof of Life) was released to the powers that be.An audio tape of each captive telling their loved ones not to worry and that they are getting enough sleep and adequate food was passed out with the de riguer"They are treating me very well."In fact they should just mass produce these POLs and simply leave the names blank,filling them in as they go.The POL package included a photo of each prisoner holding up a recently dated local newspaper so as to verify the POL's currency.Both men asked the AFP to cease and desist in their Search and Rescue Operations.Not even AFP personnel want to be rescued by the AFP.The"shoot first and don't even bother asking questions ever"mentality is enough to make any non-suicidal person nervous.The only unusual aspect was Corporal Sarocam's request that the Iglesia ng Kristo (Church of Christ) negotiate for his release.
Not to be confused with the Western-based denomination"Church of Christ,"this denomination is a homegrown sect that imparts messianic qualities to its late founder.A very rich group,as well it should be since adherants must pay cash fines for every prayer meeting and Bible study they fail to attend (or even arrive late for).Obviously Sarocam is a member and the message is code for,"Pay my fuc*en' ransom FAST."The NPA,like any insurgent organisation is continuously strapped for cash.It isn't easy when you have to pay P45 ($1.05) per 5.56MM bullet when buying from your local IB CO (Commanding Officer).Hey,at 1 US a day combat per diem you can't blame the AFP,they have needs just like the rest of us.
Fast forward to May 29th,North Cotabato Provincial Vice Governor Gregorio Ipong and Catholic Church Negotiator Father Paul Paracha eagerly drove to Barangay Balite in the provincial municipality of Magpet to await directions from Fr.Paracha's NPA contact on where to retrieve the 2 soldiers.Upon entering the barangay they were directed by cell phone to the outlying sitio of Laquiahon where the NPA had prepared its usual circle jer* of a love fest,everyone smiling for the cameras,assigned seats for local politicos and Church"leaders."The 2 soldiers then joined the priest and Vice Governor for the long drive to Kidapawan City in South Cotabato Province where they were reunited with their families at Bishop Romulo de la Cruz's Official Residence in Barangay Balindog.The Kidapawan Diocese needed to get its money's worth of publicity having had to shell out a pretty penny for PFC.Valenzuela's ransom.
On the same day that Valenzuela and Sarocam were enjoying a very brief respite before IS-AFP (AFP Intelligence Service) Debriefing began,their compatriots were busy elsewhere on the island.
The Scout Rangers 2nd Battalion,6th COY (Company) on a Recon (Reconnaisance Op) in the municipality of Cateel in Davao Oriental Province stumbled across a column of NPA guerillas from the aforementioned Front 20 and the 30 minute firefight led to the AFP rushing blindly through the dense jungle in a rarely launched Hot Pursuit Operation (despite the claims of the AFP to undertake such operations under its SOP,or Standard Operating Procedure).Why do it then?As I noted earlier in this entry Front 20,the Conrado Heredia Command,is the custodial unit of that particular NPA Regional Command,SMRC (Southern Mindanao Regional Committee).Though both captured soldiers had already been released in North Cotabato Province the AFP doesn't immediately relay these facts to its field units.The 6th Scout Ranger COY saw an opportunity to earn accolades by"rescuing"2 of their comrades in arms.
How did our fearless defenders of the Philippines aim to conduct their"Rescue Op"?Discovering a huge 200 man camp in the middle of densely packed jungle in Barangay Aliwagwag's Sitio Carampel (Karimpel) the 40 Scouts,under Capt.Aunor Balansi crawled on their bellies to within 30 meters of the camp's outlying bunkers.Setting up a loose perimeter (think of a noose,opened at one end so as to allow a clear avenue of escape).The camp also housed Front 25,the SMRC's Regional Operations Command and also served as a logistical hub for SMRC Fronts at the northern end of the SMRC's area of operations.Therefore,as luck would have it,members of Front 15,the Antonio Nerio Command were also on site.
The AFP's official narrative claims that its men crawled on their bellies to within 30 meters of the camp's large bunkers.This is not the usual AFP way in which to launch an attack but the locale is so deeply forested as to be inaccessible even to fast roping infiltration by helicopters (as IF the AFP EVER does THAT),meaning it is incredibly thickly covered with rain forest flora.So,the 30 meters bit is absolutely believable.Likewise so is the AFP boast that they opened fire on what would have been unarmed guerillas.However,to assault a 200 man camp under the element of full suprise and still fail to retrieve a single captured prisoner or even a single KIA (Killed in Action,as in dead guerillas) just defies belief.
The usual AFP "assault"involves an opened perimeter.As I noted just above,picture an open noose,laid around a camp.Now,if you are a capable officer you deploy a Blocking Force along that open end of the"noose"which serves as an avenue of escape,if not actually tying the noose shut to prevent any escape to begin with.The Blocking Force serves to mop up those guerillas rushing headlong out of the camp hoping to avoid capture or annihilation.Imagine 200 dead or captured guerillas?What a coup that would be for the AFP.In reality the AFP almost always leaves a clear avenue for escape sans Blocking Force.The camp is the prize,not its personnel.
To show you how worthless the AFP mindset is,that very same camp had been captured in June of 2010.
The 25IB had been on a Search and Rescue Op for...deja vu...2 captured AFP soldiers:
1) Staff Sergeant Bienvenido Arguelles
2) CAFGU Job Latiban
who like the soldiers mentioned at the beginning of my post had been captured at an NPA checkpoint in ComVal's (Compostela Valley Province) Monkayo,a town immediately adjacent to Cateel despite the provincial border.In that"assault"a 30 minute firefight ended with Front 20,Front 25 and Front 3,the Alejandro Lanaja Command,escaping down that requisite unmolested avenue.
In the May 29th"capture"the AFP was able to claim an actual victory in the caprure of 5 rifles:two M16s,two M14s and one M4.The June,27,2010 capture resulted in 4 IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices,as in homemade bombs) and 6 rifles whose make and variation I noted in the NPA Armed Contact/Tactical Offence entry for the relevant time period.This latest camp"capture"resulted in 3 AFP WIAs (Wounded in Actions) though the NPA is ALSO claiming to have killed 8 men there as well,including 2 junior officers.
In terms of NPA casualties there were 2 guerilla KIAs and 4 WIAs,3 of which are extremely critical.Interestingly the Front 20 contact person contacted everybody's favourite mass murderer,Vice Mayor Rodrigo"Roddy"Duterte and asked him for assistance in saving the lives of those 3 critically injured insurgents.As I noted recently Duterte long ago entered into a working relationship with the NPA's Leonicio"Ka Parago"Pitao in which Duterte"sold"him the right to operate in 4 of the city's outlying districts.
The 3 wounded guerillas:
1) Jason"Ka Jerome"Casilum,of Davao City's Calinan District
2) Ariel"Ka Diwa"Haducala,of Dinagat Island which may or may not be a province of its own depending upon the day you read this.If it isn't it will still be Surigao del Norte Province.The Supreme Court can't make up its mind on the issue.
3) Vanessa"Ka Enching"Tropico de los Reyes,also of Calinan District,Davao City
were retrieved on Wednesday,June 1st by a Davao City helicopter in which Duterte personally rode shotgun (the same copter which he openly brags about having used it to drop people head first into the ocean).The 3 were then airlifted to Davao City where Duterte has personally vowed to protect them from apprehension (hope his vow means more than it did this past Christmas when it led to Edwin Brigano's capture).The 3,along with the 4th wounded guerilla were originally taken to an NPA-friendly hospital in Bislig,Surigao del Sur Province.Virtually all NPA-friendly hospitals are in deplorable condition so that Front 20 Secretary,known by the nom de guerre"Ka Jess,"felt compelled to call in a big favour to Vice Mayor Duterte.This would never have happened had the female guerilla,Ms.de los Reyes not been Ka Jess' lover.Sadly she is now parapelgic since a bullet severed her spinal cord.She also lost 1 kidney so that her condition is extremely grave.Her shocked mother believed her daughter had been teaching Political Science at a public university in Davao City,suprise...suprise...suprise.
Touching down at 3AM on June 2nd the 3 were rushed to Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City where they remain as of this posting.
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