NPA Armed Contacts for the Fourth Quarter of 2011, Part VIII: A Blast from the Past Returns as Retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Noble Tangles with the NPA, or So They Say

The Flag of the Federal Republic of Mindanao, Utilised by Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Noble in his October of 1990 Coup Attempt, Designed by Mindanao Independence Movement Leader Reuben Canoy


Although this IS an entry about the NPA...I happen to be a huge proponent for Mindanowan Independence and indeed, a federalised republic is the only form that could possibly work in this island of many faiths, ethnicities, and languages. However, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Noble's "Declaration of Independence" was never about Mindanao per se (and that ridiculous flag is just one of many pieces of evidence. Imagine that the other two groups would stand for the Cross being twice as big as the other two symbols?). Noble was a RAMista, a member of the Reform the Armed Forces clique within the Armed Forces of the Philippines, or AFP, that has incorrectly been pigeonholed as actually being a true "Reformist Movement." Indeed, when RAM changed its name to Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabansa, or, Revolutionary National Alliance in 1990, it was merely taking off its mask. Like so many things I discuss, RAM is a complicated subject well deserving of a series of posts, though, my main concern is how RAM figured into the schema of post-Marcos Mindanao, and then, not even vis a vis my current entry's main subject, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Noble.

Yes, this is all about that one aforementioned RAMista, and how HE figured into Mindanao in the late 1980s and early 1990s; After RAM launched the audacious coup that toppled Dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, Noble was hand picked to become the Chief of Staff for the nation's first post-Marcos President, Corazon "Cory" Aquino after she rode her husband's murder into office. RAM got its much discussed "reform" but it was far from through. By 1989 RAM would lead three of the six coup attempts against Aquino (with RAMistas playing significant parts in the other three attempts) and did so in bed with Marcos' "Loyalists," as they came to be known.

After the December 1989 RAM coup attempt failed Lieutenant Colonel Nobel, then serving as a lowly BATCOM (Battalion Commander) after his fall from grace, took more than 200 men from his 36IB (Infantry Battalion), 140 Higaon-on Tribesmen from a Lumad paramilitary personly trained by Noble and another 200-odd Higaon-on hangers on, and went into the jungle to avoid capture. Centered west of the municipality of Esperanza in Agusan del Sur Province, near the Bukidnon Provincial Line, Mindanao's own "Captain Kurtz" played Apocalypse Now for the next 10 months.

Then, on October 4th, 1990, Major Agapito Carbeno, who had defected to Noble some time before, led a Higaon-on force in capturing the 402nd Infantry Brigade's Headquarters in Butuan City, in Agusan del Norte Province, with a small airfield and proximity to a commercial port. As being captured Noble, in a captured Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) was leading more than 400 men towards Cagayan del Oro City, nearly 400 kilometers* to the west, along the northern coast, and the largest population centre in Northern Mindanao. Moreover, it held the 4th Infantry Division (ID) which at that point controlled half of Mindanao, the entire nortern and eastern coasts, and the southern as far as Davao City (*as the crow flies the two cities are less than 120 km apart but the one road linking them, even today nearly 22 years later is a two lane road only paved in some sections, twisting and turning si often that it can take one all day to cover it, though it is beautiful for most of it if that makes up for it).

Arriving in Cagayan del Oro City his men dismounted from their 6 x 6 trucks, wearing red, white, and blue arm bands, they marched in back of the slowly moving APC as crowds cheered, having heard on the radio that Noble and his force were en route and declaring Mindanao independent. Another person who had that radion announcement was Brigadier General Miguel Sol, and after hearing it he packed his bags and fled, leaving stupified probationary soldiers guarding the gates to Camp Evangelista. In a heavy downpour at the tail end of the Western Monsoon Noble climbed out of the hatch of his APC and approached the terrified guards. After gently telling them they were free to go or to join him, they joined him.

Entering the base he made his way to the "White House" as the Division Headquarters was known. With his Second in Command, fellow RAM member, Lieutenant Colonel Victor Efre, he began what he hoped would be a long stay. An hour after the 402nd Brigade Headquarters fell in Butuan a bomb detonated at Fort Bonifacio in Makati, in Metro Manila, but other than some isolated incidents the action was not going as Noble had hoped it would. The actual plan had been to set a template for isolated pockets of rebellion and with them to build a momentum that would eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later, lead Noble and his comrades in RAM to the halls of Bonifacio and Military Headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo in Metro Manila's Quezon City.

As day broke President Aquino vowed to crush the coup and also vowed not to negotiate. Of course she did, via Senator Aquino Pimentel, a former Mayor of Cagayan del Oro City who maintained a home in the city. Pimentel hopped aboard a Government Fokker and flew down to Cagayan del Oro City's Lumbia Airport, having had connections within RAM intercede for him with Noble. All during the day Noble and Pimentel bantered back and forth but as it became clear that the chance had passed Noble began looking for an out. After briefly planning a withdrawal back into the jungle Noble called it a day and told Pimentel he would surrender. Senator Pimentel sent a car to fetch him and Lieutenant Colonel Efre and at 3AM, Saturday, October 6th, 1990, the 7th Coup Attempt against President Aquino officialy ended, with Noble becoming a curious historical footnote...

Noble was merely 42 years old when this transpired. Unlike many of his mates in RAM he receded from the spotlight, content to remain in the jungles of Mindanao, amongst the Higaon-on Tribesmen he came to respect and love. Noble ended up homesteading a tract near a Higaon-on settlement in the municipality of Impasug-ong, in Bukidnon Province. In that town's Barangay Sayawan, in Sitio Gata, he led a quiet life. Indeed, apparently the NPA didn't even realise its arch nemesis was in the region. On Monday, November 7th, 2011, as the sun began rising in the sky, seven men robbed Lieutenant Colonel's farmhouse. Netting one cellphone, a 12 gauge shotgun and a rusty 38 caliber revolver and a bit more than P4,000 ($95), thet quickly escaped into the jungle.

Noble was out of town, as he often is, so his caretaker, unsure what to do, phoned Impasug-ong's MPO, or Municipal Police Office. As just about any police officer in this part of this world will do, the MPO Director (as in Chief of Police) authoritatively declared that the NPA had "attacked" Lieutenant Colonel Noble's farm. Seven guerillas? Stealing cash? A cellphone? The fact that Noble is still alive means that the NPA was unaware he was living there. This was one that can't be pinned on the Maoists.

NPA Armed Contacts for the Third Quarter of 2011, Part V: Open Season on Mining Companies

In terms of exploitable natural resources, no Philippine island even comes close to Mindanao. Indeed, the island holds the world's second richest gold deposit and it may in fact be deemed THE richest before all is said and done. It goes without saying then that such an abundance of natural resources goes hand in hand with some of life's most troubling aspects; organised crime, rank corruption, degradation of entire communities as greedy carpetbaggers, domestic and foreign, run roughshod over the island's lansdcape - physically as well as culturally.

With astronomical amounts of revenue at stake mining on Mindanao also attracts insurgent organisations who prey upon all involved in the dynamic. Both small scale, so called artisnal miners AND huge foreign based multi-national corporate outfits are sucked into the vortex, forced into financing bloody political struggles they barely understand and care about even less about. Representatives from the various armed groups make the rounds, collecting steep fees which are then used to fund the continuous bloodletting. While all politically organised armed groups extort in this manner, the NPA has turned its strong armed robbery into a fine art, a template used not only all over the island of Mindanao of course but throughout the Philippines as a whole. Known by a much more Politically Correct euphanism, "Revolutionary Taxes," even participants in the service economies springing up around the smallest scale artisinal operations are targetted. A habal-habal driver, as off road motorcyclists for hire who serve as the only form of public transportation in some far flung mining communities are known, are "taxed" at P500 ($11) per month, roughly 10% of gross monthly earnings. If a driver is unable to pay he must be able to offer three small bags of unmilled rice or one small bag milled. Noone is exempt and noone is overlooked.

Of course the NPA's rationale is that all "governments" tax their constituents. However, the NPA's constituents, willing or otherwise, are still bound by the Philippine Government's rules of taxation so that the NPA, to its constituency, is having them shoulder an extremely unfair burden by essentially double dipping, at least from the taxpayers' perspective. What does a taxpayer to the NPA receive in return? The payor is entitled to understand that they PROBABLY won't be troubled by the NPA for another 4 weeks. Essentially the payor is no different from a victim in a mafia extortion scheme. While it is very true that the Government provides precious little to the dirt poor peasantry composing the bulk of Mindanao's, neigh, the Philippine's overall population, does the same hold true for the multi-national corporations who are paying up to 20% of their gross revenue each month?

Multi-national corporations already pay the Government a fair share of taxes, although there are exemptions in the pre-production phase of mining agreements. Once revenue trickles in though, the Philippine Government rarely misses a centavo. This by the way is on top of the already tendered bribes that secured and expedited such agreements in the first place. Unlike the nation's vast underclass that receives practically no services for its tax burden corporations, foreign or otherwise receive the best the nation offers (granted, that isn't saying much): security, expedited bureaucratic processes in a nation where, for example, it can take literally 6 months for the post office to send a letter from Manila to Mindanao, and are provided with at least one "Fixer" to serve at said company's beck and call. Again, it really isn't saying much but at least it is a whole lot more than the average Filipino ever enjoys.

What if a corporation simply said no to paying its "Revolutionary Taxes?" Unlike the nation's poor who cannot even imagine that option, corporations doing business on Mindanao are always well armed. Those operating outside of the island's two largest population centres, Davao City in Davao del Sur Province and Cagayan del Oro City in Misamis Oriental Province, tend to organise and employ their own paramilitaries, albeit via the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines SCAA programme. SCAA, or Special Citizens Active Auxiliary is a component within the AFP's CAA module. Aaaaah, the Filipino penchant for acronyms, this acronym, CAA, stands for Citizen Active Auxiliary, though most laypeople simply refer to it as CAFGU, or Citizens Auxiliary Force Geographical Unit, the CAA's most visible component. The CAA is the cornerstone of the AFP's Counterinsurgency apparatus, despite the song and dance about the touchy-feely Hearts and Minds ideation at the root of the military's OPlan Bayanihan. Bayanihan, by its simplest definition is an 80:20 Programme, with the 20% being devoted towards Tac Ops (Tactical Operations, as in "Combat") and the other 80% dedicated to a non-violent strategy rooted in community based intervention at the grass roots level. That sounds grand, doesn't it? The problem though is that EVEN IF the AFP is sincere in this shift of policy, and for the most part it isn't, you cannot unveil your new Counterinsurgency strategy at a press conference in Manila and expect linemen on Mindanao to shift gears 39 years into the game. Re-training is absolutely necessary and yet even when brigades are re-trained, as they periodically are, they aren't getting more than a single afternoon of lectures to try and re-orient them.

With that understood, the SCAAs are given very little training and absolutely none of it is of a non-tactical nature. SCAAs are not groomed to smile at children and paint the bamboo hovel serving as the village schoolhouse. They are very simply tasked with protecting their employer's business (and all too often "business interests" as well) by any means necessary. They kill and are killed and though they are obstensibly under the command structure, if not the actual command of an AFP cadre battalion, they generally are given carte blanche to do as they please. Their employer recruits them and they then become employees of a given corporation upon enlistment, ergo their loyalty isn't to the state but to that particular corporation. With between a single platoon (27 to 35 men) and a single COY, or company (100 to 120 soldiers) all armed with M4s, M14s or M16s (as opposed to the 30 caliber Garands typically distributed to CAFGU CAAs) corporations naturally begin to feel that they are immune to threats given by the NPA. What happens when corporations turn off the Peso spigot?


The Third Quarter of 2011 began with the consequences of such a decision having led to a marked reaction by the Maoists. Twenty guerillas from Front 14 (NEMRC,or Northeast Mindanao Regional Committee) in a detachment led by Renato "Ka Friday" Saysay stormed Quarry #9 in the municipality of Rosario's Barangay Bayugan #3, in Agusan del Sur Province. Their goal was oh so simple, to instruct Rosario resident Roger Sawe on the need to pay one's share of "Revolutionary Taxes." Mr.Sawe is the owne of DBEC, or Datu Bulawanon Exploration Company. This past April, 2011, DBEC entered into a rather lucrative partnership with multi-national Belvedere Asset Inc. According to Philippine Law a foreign owned corporation is limited to a 40% share in mining concessions. Known as a "60:40," a foreign owned company wishing to set out a shingle anywhere in the Philippies must first enter into a minority share partnership with a Philippine based company OR else buy into such a company as long as that buy in doesn't surpass a 40% share.

Belvedere is a shell corporation for the Mali-based TTEC, or Think Environmental Company Limited. Datu Bulawanon on the other hand already holds the rights to a 846 hectare gold operation via a Special Extraction Permit issued in November of 2009. A Philippine version of a match made in heaven.

Upon entering Quarry #9 the NPA burned one excavator and three dump trucks after divesting a caretaker of a 45 caliber pistol for good measure. Afterwards the guerillas withdrew to the Surigao del Sur Provincial border on the other side of the Diwata Mountain Range. The incident was the first NPA action in the barangay since Janurary past (2011) when Front 14 overran AY 76 Security Agency, a firm employing private guards for small scale mines and low volume goldmills. Owned by retired AFP, or Armed Forces of the Phillipines Brigadier General Alexander "Alex" Yapching, in an incident I covered in an "NPA Armed Contacts for the First Quarter of 2011" entry.


On Saturday afternoon, August 6th, 2011, the employees of Nano Mines Trading were milling about the company compound in the municipality of Impasug-ong's Barangay Kapitan Bayong, having finished with yet another long week's worth of drudgerry preparing chromite for shipping. Nano is one of two foreign-owned corporations in Impasug-ong serving as middlemen to the four chromite mining operations in that town. Bukidnon Province isn't particularly keen on foreign-owned corporations raping the environment but the two firms fill a niche that supports the aforementioned mining operations, all Lumad owned. Lumad, or Animist Hill Tribesmen, are the most marginalised of Mindanowan demographics. Bukidnon's Provincial Government sees the four chromite mines as a way in which Lumads can achieve self sufficiency. More than 500 nuclear families are supported by the 4 mines, each 20 hectares in size and adjacent to one another. Hiring mining companies, usually multi-national corporations to engage in the actual minieral extraction so that for simply allowing the mining to proceed the particular Lumad band collects 60% of the profit without investing a centavo.

Chromite is a bulk ore, with tonnage as the basic increment. In addition the ore must be processed before shipping and so there is a vital niche. Nano Mines Trading fills part of that niche, handling the output from two of the four mining operations. Centered in Barangay Bayong's Purok #5, Nano's controlling owner, Kumar Jainini, is known as a man who is serious about his business. An Indian national, Mr.Jainini spends most of his nights in the company compound despite his leasing a condominium in Cagayan del Oro City, in the adjoining province of Misamis Oriental. The afternoon of August 6th found him hard at work at his office within the compound. As Mr.Jainani sat and examined his shipping records he was distracted by screaming coming from the compound yard.

At just after 2PM 40 NPA guerillas from Front 4A (NCMRC or Northcentral Mindanao Regional Committee) quickly approached the compound on foot. Encountering a group of four company labourers just leaving the yard the employees quickly recognised that the NPA was in the midst of an assault on their workplace. The four labourers turned heel and attemped to warn their co-workers. Before any of them could do so however the NPA guerillas nearest them opened fire hitting all four:

1) Raymond Castro, 19 years old, killed immediately

2) Jose Castro, his brother, aged 21 and crtically wounded

3) Victor Aparellas, aged 23 and also critically wounded

4) The fourth man, identity not released, was also critically wounded but was quickly pulled out of the line of fire by a pair of NPA gunmen.


During the next couple of minutes seven other employees were wounded as well in varying degees. After grabbing two cell phones and a chainsaw the NPA withdrew, having failed to captured the primary owner of the company, Mr.Jainani who was able to make his way safely out of a hole in the compound wall as the initial assault took place and the commotion caught his attention. The NPA force fractured into smaller detachments who peeled off in separate directions before rendevouzing on the border of the nearby municipalities of Quezon and Kisolon. Meanwhile, some of the wounded employees were rushed to Kisolon Emergency Hospital in the nearby town of Sumilao. There both Jose Castro and Victor Aparellas were both declared Dead on Arrival. The fourth man who had been pulled out of the line of fire was found to have also have died during the attack. The rest of the wounded personnel were taken to other area hospitals without any further tragedies taking place.

Much later that same day, August 6th, PRO-10, or Police Regional Office for Region 10, via its RSOG, or Regional Special Operations Group, was able to nab prison escapee Rustic Brandia of Malaybalay City in that same province, Bukidnon, whom they accuse of being both an NPA guerilla as well as having served as a "Spotter" on that particular tactical operation. When NPA launch an assault on a static target like a CAA garrison or a mining company base camp there will be three elements:

1) Strike Force, attacks the target

2) Blocking Force, blocks any re-inforcements, as well as in some cases the withdrawal of an opposition force

3) Spotting Force, scouts certain positions both as an advance force for the Striking Force as well as to warn the Blocking Force of any movement along routes of re-inforcement

Bradia's elder brother Moises Bradia was a mid-ranking guerilla in the NPA's NCMRC, or North Central Mindanao Regional Committee. During a heated firefight in late August, 2007 Moises threw a hand grenade at a detachment of PNP, or Philippine National Police from the Malaybalay City MPO, or Municipal Police Office, killing PO2 Roy Francisco and wounding four of his fellow police officers in the process. The attack took place in the Brandia family home in Malaybalay City's Barangay #9, Purok #5 when five MPO officers came to serve a warrant for Rape, having had no idea that Moises Brandia was a moderately high ranking guerilla. Mid-Level and High Level NPA members always carry a hand grenade when out of the bush to be used in such situations. Brandia was then able to escape though he had also critically wounded his own mother inadvertantly in the blast. In the end she recovered.


It is worth noting that August 6th, 2011 was also the day upon which the Mayor of Lingig, Henry Santos Dano was captured by the NPA Front 20 (Conrado Heredia Command, SMRC, or Southern Mindanao Regional Committee) along with his two military bodyguards from the 75IB (Infantry Battalion). All three remain in captivity as of this posting, August 28th, 2011.