In my previous "GPH-NDFP Peace Process for the Third Quarter of 2011" entry, Part I, I spoke at length about the ongoing JASIG impasse. JASIG, or the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, is a 1995 Joint Agreement that was designed to protect CPP/NPA/NDFP members directly involved in the Peace Process. Back in the first and only Round of the current GPH-NDFP cycle, in February of 2011, GPH Peace Panel Chairperson Alexander "Alex" Padilla had his wingman, GPH
Panelist Pablo "Pablito" Sanidad go to work on securing the release of what was then thirteen JASIG-protected personalities.
As Mr.Sanidad quickly found out, the stated task wasn't seriously considered by either Chairperson Padilla OR his superiors in the Aquino Administration. Like Mr.Padilla, Sanidad is an old hand in Philippine politics and just like Padilla he too had seriously flirted with the Philippine Left during the Marcos Era. A truly hellish time for anyone with even a scant shheen of principals, the Left offered the only cohesive way in which to approach the almost insane hypocrisy of Fidel Marcos and the nearly fifteen years of hell he created for the Philippines and its people.
Though Sanidad gravitated towards the other end of the political spectrum after the demise of Marcos in 1985, he still likes to imagine he has managed to retain an iota of scruples and a fair amount of idealism. Who knows? Maybe he is right on both counts. By the looks of it I'm willing to buy into the whole rigamorole since unlike his compatriot Mr.Padilla, Pablo Sanidad put his money where his mouth was and kissed the GPH Peace Panel goodbye.
Of course the powers that be wasted no time in shrugging their shoulders, taking out the master list compiled in July of 2010 and simply moved on to the first runner up, Efren Moncupa. Mr.Moncupa's resume could easily be mistaken for Mr.Sanidad's except for one gigantic discrepancy; Moncupa was arrested by the Marcos Regime and then spent just over a year as a political prisoner. On April 22nd, 1982 MIG-15 (Military Intelligence Group #15) nabbed Moncupa in Metro Manila's Quezon City. In the Government's line of thought vis a vis the GPH Peace Panel, it now has a token political prisoner to trot out in front of the cameras every six weeks or so. IF the NDFP wishes to talk about the detention of prisoners, let them talk to one, so goes the rationale. So what was Mr.Moncupa arrested for you ask? Simply for SUSPECTED membership in the NDFP, which of course was absolutely verboten with the implementation of Martial Law by former dictator Marcos after 1972. As it turned out he was cleared of the charges in two separate, parallel investigations by the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines' Task Force Makabansa and the Quezon City Fiscal's Office. Although the charges involving the NDFP were dropped, Moncupa was still saddled with two other charges:
1) Illegal Posession of Firearms
2) Possesion of Seditious Material
On May 11th, 1983 Moncupa was released but was forbidden to speak publicly about his ordeal. In addition he was forbidden from leaving Metro Manila, obstensibly to prevent him from going underground like so many of his generation did. To those that knew him then, Moncupa would only smile as he described himself as having gotten through his ordeal in one piece.f course in reality the Government had put the screws to him and he promised to do anything they ask
In past incarnations Mr.Moncupa has served as an Under Secretary of Field Operations for the DAR, or the Department of Agrarian Reform, as well as having served on the Board of Administrators for the CDP, or Co-operative Development Corporation, a Government owned corporation. Just as his predecessor Pablo Sanidad, Mr.Moncupa served as an attorney who became well known for championing Human Rights and the rights of the poor. Indeed, when Sanidad was the Chairperson of FLAG, or the Free Legal Assistance Group, Moncupa served as his subordinate on FLAG's Executive Committee.
On September 20th, 2011, Mr.Moncupa got to play King for the Day as none other than P-Noy himself, yep, President Aquino swore in the newest member of the GPH Peace Panel. A man who served a year in prison for being charged with membership in the NDFP now sits with the Government negotiating WITH the NDFP, if this wasn't the Philippines it might be strange. As for how Mr.Moncupa will do, all one can ponder is whether or not Efren Moncupa will demonstrate even half the integrity of Pablito Sanidad. Moreover, when Mr.Sanidad tendered his resignation a news blackout- never a good sign- was implemented so as not to lose any of the momentum that was supposed to have been gained from the February Round in Oslo.
In fact, in the September 6th meeting in Makati where GPH Panel Chairperson Alex Padilla and his NDFP counterpart Luis G.Jalandoni shared a rushed lunch with the Norwegian Ambassador at his official residence in Makati, each man re-committed himself towards changing the status quo vis a vis the GPH-NDFP Peace Process, harnessing whatever momentum still may exist and most importantly, ALWAYS keep redundant lines of communication open so that the Chairpersons may, if they so choose, contact each other OR the Ambassador cum Facilitator personally (Ambassador Tore Lundh ALSO moonlights as the Facilitator of the GPH-NDFP Peace Process).
Chairperson Jalandoni had arrived in the Philippines on August 21st with wife Maria Consuela "Connie" Ledesma who happens to serve on the NDFP Peace Panel as well. This third visit in eleven months was primarily to push the JASIG envelope. To drum this important point home he and his wife paid a vist to most of the thirteen remaining JASIG-protected individuals still incarcerated as well as to touch bases with high ranking CPP/NPA/NDFP cadres.
Finally, Secretary Teresita Quintos Deles of OPAPP, or Office of the Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process, leaned on Congressman Joseph Emilio Abaya of Cavite Province on Luzon to author the Congressional Bill for her department's 2012 Budget. Ms.Deles is seeking a whopping P569.4 Million (US 8.5 Million). Of that astronomical amount a mere P240.29 Million is for OPAPP per se. The remaining amount, P329 Million, is for OPAPP's share of the PAMANA programme. PAMANA, or Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan, a developmemt scheme that is targeting both comprehensive governmental reform AND empowerment and improvement of 970 barangays in CAAs, or Conflict Affected Areas. Though it is nationwide it is particularly targeting Mindanao since this island has the pitiful distinction of being the most war torn of the Philippines' 7,107 islands. If one imagines that the P329 Million earmarked for PAMANA is a tad bit steep, they should realise that OPAPP is merely one of four Governmental entities kicking into the scheme. Between OPAPP and the other three:
1) DSWD, or Department of Social Welfare and Development
2) DPWH, or the Department of Public Works and Highways
3) DAR, or the Department of Agrarian Reform
The P329 Million from OPAPP is mostly earmarked for PAMANA's PDF, or Peace and Development Fund, with P291 Million going to PDF and the remaining P38 Million going for the administration and overhead relating to PDF that OPAPP must now assume. This cash will be disbursed as cash in the form of grants averaging P300,000 ($6,000) to targeted barangays for infrastructure and/or delivery of services. The picking and choosing of projects is reliant upon a mechanism popularly known as CDD (aaaaah, Filipinos and their penchant for acronyms), or, Community Driven Decisionmaking. In other words, barangays themselves will be choosing according to each community's needs as opposed to people who never even been to Mindanao, let alone CAAs and barangays, which are almost always so isolated that the local government almost never shows its face.
When the Budget made its way to the Upper House the Senate wasn't nearly as keen on the package as had been their compatriots in Congress. A couple of notable sticking points were the lack of breakdown as to how each peso will be spent. Then, Secretary Deles was questioned as to why OPAPP would be handling infrastructural development and delivery of basic services when those facets of governance are the provenance of two extant governmental entities, the aforementioned DPWH and the DSWD, respectively. When Deles stumbled the decision on the requested answers and background infi
ormation the decision was deferred. In parting Secretary Deles was also asked to bring a detailed dossier on just why she needed to have P329 Million as opposed to some other ambiguous amount in the stated hope that OPAPP's administrative costs vis a vis the PDF might be lowered substantially. In the end, as I noted, Ms.Deles did end up getting her Budget approved.
Showing posts with label JASIG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JASIG. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
GPH-NDFP Peace Process for the Third Quarter of 2011: JASIG is Still Holding Up Talks
Peace Processes are a lot like the wars they aim to rectify. As any soldier can tell you, war is a whole lot of boredom and waiting around and just when you think waiting is all that you will do, a fantastic amount of action spins your head right around. The GPH, or the Government of the Philippines, and the NDFP, or the National Democratic Front of the Philippines are together engaged in a Peace Process that is no exception. After a beautiful beginning in February of 2011 when both sides met in Oslo, Norway, the Talks soon teetered on the verge of collapse over the GPH's stalling tactics. The particular issue utilised was a Joint Agreement signed back in 1995 with the Ramos Administration. Known as JASIG, or the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees, it was meant to protect all NDFP members directly involved in the GPH-NDFP Peace Process and exempt them from both arrest and state sanctioned violence.
JASIG has been manipulated by the Philippine Government for nearly seven years now. In 2004 the NDFP stepped away from the table over then-President Gloria Arroyo's sucessful lobbying of the United States to have the CPP/NPA, or Communist Party of the Philippines and its military arm, the New Peoples Army, blacklisted as a terrorist organisation. When Arroyo began to lobby the European Union as well the NDFP, the entity representing the CPP/NPA in the Peace Process, said "Enough!" and backed out of the Talks. Out of spite as much as from having manipulated the situation to net this very result the Arroyo Government suspended JASIG in September of 2005.
The Arroyo Government then re-implemented JASIG in August of 2009 after both sides agreed to come back to the table, an eventuality that never materialised until the changing of Administrations in 2010. The Government's uni-lateral suspension of JASIG was illegal since it was a bi-lateral Agreement ratified by both sides, ergo one side couldn't legally suspend such an Agreement without concurrence by the other. Aggravating the Government's action was the fact that from that suspension in 2005 all the way up until re-implementation in late 2009 the Government targeted known JASIG-covered personalities so that the suspension of JASIG was not meant merely to intimidate the CPP/NPA/NDFP but instead was designed as a way in which to further complicate an already veritable Gordian Knot of a Peace Process. In fact, the majority of the 26 incarcerated JASIG-covered personalities had been taken into custody during the suspended interim, from 2005 to 2009.
Then, when the NDFP finally did come back to the negotiating table in February of 2011 the Government Peace Panel's Chairman Alexander "Alex" Padilla assured his NDFP counterpart, Luis G.Jalandoni, that he would throw his weight into the issue to help gain the freedom of incarcerated JASIG-covered individuals. In fact, in the Oslo Joint Statement given at that First Round of the new cycle, Padilla actually said, "
On July 26th, 2011 the GPH Peace Panel had emissaries present, as did the Nowegian Government, when the long awaited JASIG Verification Process took place in a Dutch courtroom. As each NDFP member was offered JASIG protection his or her actual name, nom de guerre, and pseudonym especially for the Peace Process was entered onto an encrypted computer disc. Likewise with the photograph of each of those people. After the European Union placed the CPP/NPA onto its list of terrorist organisations the Dutch authorities raided the bank safe deposit box containing these encrypted discs. According to the NDFP, the investigators damaged a good many things. Apparently one such thing was the cipha disc which was to be used to de-code the encrypted photos and particulars of each JASIG-covered individual.
Chairman Padilla did not help things when he rubbed that failed Verification into the faces of the CPP/NPA/NDFP leadership. Said Padilla, "In the first place, they should not have used encrypted diskettes to store the pictures since JASIG called for individual photographs. Then their diskettes could not be opened. The failure of the verification process was entirely the fault of the NDF(P).". As if THAT hadn't been acidic enough Padilla re-hammered that dull nail, "The failure was theirs and theirs alone." Gee Alex, you have just proven exactly why attorneys should never be allowed to handle diplomatic issues. In fact, JASIG DOES call for "photos of each individual" but a diskette is merely a "storage format" and JASIG has absolutely nothing to say about THAT subject.
Still, trying to seem as if the Government is actually applying some elbow grease Padilla played another card ashortly before that July 26th Verification Process knowing full well that he would seek redress no matter HOW well the NDFP managed to link incarcerated individuals to the Peace Process. In June Padilla had arranged to have four more JASIG-covered individuals released, though he carefully choreographed the action. On July 22nd, 2011 Padilla had three of the individuals ordered released and arranged for a fourth to be let go on August 3rd as a way in which to make any complaint by Jalandoni et al on this issue look ridiculous. "How can people accuse the Government of not putting effort into solving the JASIG impasse IF three JASIG-protected individuals were released mere days before the scheduled Verification? Without even waiting for that the Government had three released. Even when the NDFP failed in the Verification Process the Government STILL had ANOTHER JASIG-protected person released!"
The four individuals:
1) Jaime "Jimmy" Soledad, 61 years old and the Secretary of the Southern Leyte Front of the NPA at the time of his arrest as well as the Secretary of the Leyte Committee of the CPP and therefore sat upon the Eastern Visayas Regional Committee of the CPP as did his wife Clarita Luego Soledad, now aged 54. On March 20th, 2008 the couple travelled to Luzon to rendevouz with a cousin of Clarita's, Vilma Madrazo of Cavite Province. Obstensibly Ms.Madrazo had asked them to travel there because she was interested in purchasing a small commercial property owned by the couple (in Clarita's name, never mind the fact that they are closet Capitalists). However, cousin Vilma had sold her services to the AFP and was trying to collect a decent bounty.
As the Soledads walked up to Vilma in front of the 7-11 convenience store in the municipality of Bacoor's Barangay Molino #3, on Daang Hari in front of the Camella Springfield Sub-division, they didn't notice several plainclothes Military Intelligence assets moving slowly towards them. As the Soledads turned to walk towards a waiting "sikad" (Triksiad, motorised taxi composed of an offroad motorcycle fitted into an aluminum shell with vinyl benches for passengers) the three were grabbed and cuffed behind their backs. Three unmarked vehicles raced to the scene of the arrest. Pushed inside an Isuzu Adventure, the middle vehicle, the three had hoods placed over their heads and ordered to remain quiet.
Two hours later the three were ushered into the Headquarters of the 2ID (Infantry Division) and the interrogations began. Vilma's 'arrest" had been for show so as to protect her and so she was released as soon as the Soldades were ushered into a separate interrogation room. Unfortunately for the Soledad's the situation was much more serious in their case. Both husband and wife had been arrested on the basis of warrants issued in 2000 for a mass grave in the municipality of Baybay, on Leyte. Much to their suprise the next day the AFP discovered that the 2000 Warrant had been voided in 2004 as the Government tried to jump start the Peace Process. While that development allowed Clarita to re-gain her freedom Jimmy was still in a lot of trouble with two other warrants. One of those two related to yet another mass grave on Leyte, in the town of Inopacan. Transferred to Leyte Provincial Jail, Jimmy spent the next 40 months not knowing how it would all turn out.
Ordered released on July 22nd, 2011, thanks to Chairman Padilla, it took until July 25th for the Leyte Provincial Government to verify that indeed all charges had been summarily dropped for "Lack of Evidence." Soledad had only been arrested by virtue of Command Responsibility regarding the aforementioned mass grave in Inopacan. A relic from the purges of the mid-1980s, which in the Visayas Region of the Central Philippines was given the rather innocuous label, "OPlan UOD" (Operational Plan UOD). The campaign sprang out of the same rank paranoia that first infested Mindanao (which I will discuss briefly in the case of the third detainee released). "Command Responsibility" is a military doctrine that holds all senior officers responsible for any illegal conduct on the part of their subordinates. Since Soledad was the highest ranking NPA personality in Leyte when those terrible killings took place he was the unlucky camper put upon the hotseat for it. Of course AS the highest ranking NPA commander at the time it was certainly his handiwork.
2) Jovencio "Ka Dawa/Ka Rudy" Balweg Sr., Secretary of Abra Operational Command of the NPA, as well as serving as the Command's Political Secretary, in addition to his holding a seat on the Executive Committee of the Illocos-Cordillera Regional Committee of the CPP, definitely a high value target. A Tingguian Tribesman (akin to the Lumad of Mindanao, Animist Hilltribes) from the municipality of Malibcong in Abra Province, he joined the NPA in 1979 along with his brother, Father Conrado "Ka Ambo" Balweg, a Roman Catholic priest of the SVD Order (Societas Verbi Divini aka Society of the Divine Word, a Dutch/German order sometimes referred to as Steyler). Father Conrado was forced into joining the NPA along with three fellow SVD priests after their protests against the Cellophil Resources Corporation earned them places on the AFP's Order of Battle (a list of military targets). Father Conrado quickly rose to the top after joining by taking part in 29 tactical operations that first year. Killing fourty-six soldiers and six military assets he earned himself a P200,000 bounty in 1980 terms, a fabulous amount.
Ex-communicated not long after earning that steep bounty Father Conrado married a fellow guerilla, Corazon "Ka Azon" Cortel and together the couple broke from the CPP/NPA/CPA (CPA being "Cordillera Peoples Army" the name given to the Tingguian and Igorot NPA elements operating in the Cordilleras) founding the CPLA, or the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army, in March of 1986. an organisation that two months ago, on July 6th, 2011, finally inked a Final Peace Agreement (albeit with only one of several CPLA factions). Unfortunately neither Father Conrado nor his wife lived to see it. Father Conrado was murdered by his brother Jovencio in their parent's home on New Years Eve 1999. Conrado knew that he stood a good chance of catching his brother without bodyguards at the family home in Malibcong's Barangay Buanao. He and one other guerilla made their way to the house and ended another chapter in the Philippine Insurgency.
Corazon died a natural death. En routue to the 5ID Headquarters at Camp Upi in the municipality of Gamu in Isabela Province in 2008 she suffered a massive heart attack and died before arriving at the camp hospital, at age 48. At the time of her death Corazon was the CPLA's Chief of Staff (Balweg Faction) and had been travelling to the 5ID to harrangue its comanding officer over the Government's failure to abide by Livlihood Guarantees that were part and parcel of the Mount Data Agreement, a GPH-CPLA Interim Agreement signed in the town of Mount Data on September 13th, 1987.
Jovencio was arrested on May 18th, 2009 at a PNP checkpoint near his home in Baguio City's Barangay Satellite Market Camp #7 in Mountain Province in the CAR, or Cordillera Autonomous Region. The checkpoint, jointly operated by Baguio City CPO (City Police Office) and PRO-CAR, or Police Regional Office of the Cordillera Autonomous Region, matched his face to a flyer hanging mere meters away. Balweg then produced identification in the name of his cousin, Ignacio Madella, a professor at Mountain State Agricultural College. Balweg had relocated to Baguio to lay low as he sought treatment for hypertension that had led to two strokes and a serious case of spinal stenosis.
Brought to PRO-CAR Headquarters Balweg quickly asmitted who he was and without much pressure agreed to arrange the peaceful surrender of his wife Carmen, known by the nom de guerre "Ka Dumay," and herself also a high ranking member of both the CPP and NPA. They both then had one of their sons, Jovencio Balweg Jr., also an NPA member, surrender as well.
3) Maria Luisa "Ka Mariam/Ka Byul" Pucray, Secretary of the NCMRC, or Northcentral Mindanao Regional Committee at the time of her arrest in February of 2010. She and NPA member Alan Solis, a Medical Secretary with the WMRC, or the Western Mindanao Regional Committee, the weakest of the five Regional Committees on Mindanao and all but inactive at this point. Ms.Pucray was found possesing the requisite hand grenade that almost all senior NPA figures carry when they run a chance of detection and/or arrest. The two were in a station wagon and attempting to transit an AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines checkpoint in the municipality of Katipunan in Zamboanga del Norte Province.
Ms.Pucray was the leader, or Secretary of Front 12 of the now defunct NMC, the Northern Mindanao Committee in the mid-1980s. In early 1985 four of her guerillas murdered Lorenzo Coloso and his wife Corazon Pacana Coloso in front of their home in the municipality of El Salvador's Barangay Kalabaybay in Misamis Oriental Province. The four guerillas had been sent to divest the couple of a reputed cache of weapons. Finding only a damaged BB gun the guerillas became enraged and after dragging the hogtied couple outside blew the backs of their skulls off.
Mrs.Coloso was the sister of then-Misamis Oriental Provincial Govenor Fernando Pacana as well as Lieutenant Colonel Virgilio Pacana of the AFP. Both brothers called in favours from the RUC, or Regional Unified Command, a now defunct clearing house for all AFP and PNP (Philippine National Police) detachments in a given region. Copying a sucesful strategem of former President Ramon Magsaysay from his days as the Secretary of National Defense the RUC recruited low ranking NPA guerillas and cadres to serve as DPAs, or Deep Penetration Agents. At the time of Magsaysay's plan in the early 1950s, the Huk Rebellion was in danger of overtaking Manila. At the behest of his mentor, an American Sr.Officer, Magsaysay created a DPA Programme. DPAs, or Deep Penetration Agents go undercover for long periods of time so as to rise to positions of trust and power and thereafter provide intelligence of the highest value.
In just NMRC and NEMRC (the latter being the Northeast Mindanao Regional Committee) the NPA had well over 4,000 guerillas and controlled 75% of the barangays within both AORs, or Areas of Responsibility (as in "Areas of Responsibility"). In the Summerer of 1985 the RUC called in its markers and began cashing in its chips. From December of 1985 to February 12th, 1986 the RUC killed more than 400 NPA Regulars and 90 of them were killed in just a single tactical operation, the February 12th raid on the NMRC's main camp. In addition, RUC captured 156 Regulars in that same time period and that doesn't touch upon Surrenderees, guerillas who voluntarily surrendered to the Government for whatever reason. The NPA suffered a 29% reduction in manpower between those two Committees in just a 75 day period. Moreover, in June of 1985 Ms.Pucray had begun purging her unit, Front 12, torturing and executing suspected DPAs.
The end result, especially after that fabulous capture of the NMRC's main camp in which 90 guerillas were killed was an intence paranoia and it was none other than Ms.Pucray who came up with what she eventually labelled, "Kampanyang Ahos," the Garlic Campaign, building upon the purges she had instituted within Front 12 back in June. The label comes from a naïve mistake. DPAs were referred to as "Zombies." The NPA associated the old "garlic as a prophylactic against vampirism" tale with zombies. In other words, in the NPA's mind, garlic would keep the zombies from harming the NPA. The result was a series of purges, with at least five mass graves along Mindanao's northern coast from Cagayan del Oro City (Barangay Taglimao's Sitio Nabitay) in Misamis Oriental Province on over to the municipality of Las Nieves in Agusan del Norte Province. It was Pucray's Front 12 that led that disgusting spate of bloodlust. When she was charged in 2000, along with two other high ranking NPA in those two AORs:
1) Sammy Buntag
2) Laureto Cagals
and the CPP/NPA hierarchy including the movement's founder and chief ideologue Jose Maria "JOMA" Sison, Ms.Pucray dared to blame the mass graves on the AFP, until scores of eye witnesses began surfacing. Though she remained free until her 2010 arrest, Pucray did finally accept responsibility though not as an individual. Offering families of victims a P10,000 indemnification ($200) and a letter calling the victims, collectively, "Heroes of the Revolution."
4) Gliceria "Ka Choy" Pernia, released August 3rd, 2011 from Albay Provincial Jail on Luzon. His incarceration resulted in a botched rescue attempt by fellow NPA guerillas on September 16th, 2009 as the BJMP, or Bureau of Jail Management and Penology was transporting him back to the jail from a court appearance. As the van drove through the municipality of Guinobatan's Barangay Binogsacan in Albay Province guerillas assaulted the van in a daylight ambush in the middle of that town. He was being held for Murder, Multiple Murder, and Hiway Robbery.
Of course the release of these four detainees has done nothing to alleviate the current impasse. On September 6th, 2011, Norwegian Ambassador Tor Lundh, who does double duty as Facilitator of the GPH-NDFP Peace Process, invited GPH Chairman Alex Padilla and NDFP Chairman Luis G.Jalandoni for a private lunch at his official residence in Makati. Contrary to what the media has been claiming, Jalandoni did NOT agree to attend a Formal Round in late October or early November. In fact, on September 8th, NDFP Panelist Fidel Agcaoili dispelled such notions by firmly stating that the next Round can ONLY take place three weeks AFTER all detained JASIG-protected personalities are released. Don't hold your breath.
JASIG has been manipulated by the Philippine Government for nearly seven years now. In 2004 the NDFP stepped away from the table over then-President Gloria Arroyo's sucessful lobbying of the United States to have the CPP/NPA, or Communist Party of the Philippines and its military arm, the New Peoples Army, blacklisted as a terrorist organisation. When Arroyo began to lobby the European Union as well the NDFP, the entity representing the CPP/NPA in the Peace Process, said "Enough!" and backed out of the Talks. Out of spite as much as from having manipulated the situation to net this very result the Arroyo Government suspended JASIG in September of 2005.
The Arroyo Government then re-implemented JASIG in August of 2009 after both sides agreed to come back to the table, an eventuality that never materialised until the changing of Administrations in 2010. The Government's uni-lateral suspension of JASIG was illegal since it was a bi-lateral Agreement ratified by both sides, ergo one side couldn't legally suspend such an Agreement without concurrence by the other. Aggravating the Government's action was the fact that from that suspension in 2005 all the way up until re-implementation in late 2009 the Government targeted known JASIG-covered personalities so that the suspension of JASIG was not meant merely to intimidate the CPP/NPA/NDFP but instead was designed as a way in which to further complicate an already veritable Gordian Knot of a Peace Process. In fact, the majority of the 26 incarcerated JASIG-covered personalities had been taken into custody during the suspended interim, from 2005 to 2009.
Then, when the NDFP finally did come back to the negotiating table in February of 2011 the Government Peace Panel's Chairman Alexander "Alex" Padilla assured his NDFP counterpart, Luis G.Jalandoni, that he would throw his weight into the issue to help gain the freedom of incarcerated JASIG-covered individuals. In fact, in the Oslo Joint Statement given at that First Round of the new cycle, Padilla actually said, "
On July 26th, 2011 the GPH Peace Panel had emissaries present, as did the Nowegian Government, when the long awaited JASIG Verification Process took place in a Dutch courtroom. As each NDFP member was offered JASIG protection his or her actual name, nom de guerre, and pseudonym especially for the Peace Process was entered onto an encrypted computer disc. Likewise with the photograph of each of those people. After the European Union placed the CPP/NPA onto its list of terrorist organisations the Dutch authorities raided the bank safe deposit box containing these encrypted discs. According to the NDFP, the investigators damaged a good many things. Apparently one such thing was the cipha disc which was to be used to de-code the encrypted photos and particulars of each JASIG-covered individual.
Chairman Padilla did not help things when he rubbed that failed Verification into the faces of the CPP/NPA/NDFP leadership. Said Padilla, "In the first place, they should not have used encrypted diskettes to store the pictures since JASIG called for individual photographs. Then their diskettes could not be opened. The failure of the verification process was entirely the fault of the NDF(P).". As if THAT hadn't been acidic enough Padilla re-hammered that dull nail, "The failure was theirs and theirs alone." Gee Alex, you have just proven exactly why attorneys should never be allowed to handle diplomatic issues. In fact, JASIG DOES call for "photos of each individual" but a diskette is merely a "storage format" and JASIG has absolutely nothing to say about THAT subject.
Still, trying to seem as if the Government is actually applying some elbow grease Padilla played another card ashortly before that July 26th Verification Process knowing full well that he would seek redress no matter HOW well the NDFP managed to link incarcerated individuals to the Peace Process. In June Padilla had arranged to have four more JASIG-covered individuals released, though he carefully choreographed the action. On July 22nd, 2011 Padilla had three of the individuals ordered released and arranged for a fourth to be let go on August 3rd as a way in which to make any complaint by Jalandoni et al on this issue look ridiculous. "How can people accuse the Government of not putting effort into solving the JASIG impasse IF three JASIG-protected individuals were released mere days before the scheduled Verification? Without even waiting for that the Government had three released. Even when the NDFP failed in the Verification Process the Government STILL had ANOTHER JASIG-protected person released!"
The four individuals:
1) Jaime "Jimmy" Soledad, 61 years old and the Secretary of the Southern Leyte Front of the NPA at the time of his arrest as well as the Secretary of the Leyte Committee of the CPP and therefore sat upon the Eastern Visayas Regional Committee of the CPP as did his wife Clarita Luego Soledad, now aged 54. On March 20th, 2008 the couple travelled to Luzon to rendevouz with a cousin of Clarita's, Vilma Madrazo of Cavite Province. Obstensibly Ms.Madrazo had asked them to travel there because she was interested in purchasing a small commercial property owned by the couple (in Clarita's name, never mind the fact that they are closet Capitalists). However, cousin Vilma had sold her services to the AFP and was trying to collect a decent bounty.
As the Soledads walked up to Vilma in front of the 7-11 convenience store in the municipality of Bacoor's Barangay Molino #3, on Daang Hari in front of the Camella Springfield Sub-division, they didn't notice several plainclothes Military Intelligence assets moving slowly towards them. As the Soledads turned to walk towards a waiting "sikad" (Triksiad, motorised taxi composed of an offroad motorcycle fitted into an aluminum shell with vinyl benches for passengers) the three were grabbed and cuffed behind their backs. Three unmarked vehicles raced to the scene of the arrest. Pushed inside an Isuzu Adventure, the middle vehicle, the three had hoods placed over their heads and ordered to remain quiet.
Two hours later the three were ushered into the Headquarters of the 2ID (Infantry Division) and the interrogations began. Vilma's 'arrest" had been for show so as to protect her and so she was released as soon as the Soldades were ushered into a separate interrogation room. Unfortunately for the Soledad's the situation was much more serious in their case. Both husband and wife had been arrested on the basis of warrants issued in 2000 for a mass grave in the municipality of Baybay, on Leyte. Much to their suprise the next day the AFP discovered that the 2000 Warrant had been voided in 2004 as the Government tried to jump start the Peace Process. While that development allowed Clarita to re-gain her freedom Jimmy was still in a lot of trouble with two other warrants. One of those two related to yet another mass grave on Leyte, in the town of Inopacan. Transferred to Leyte Provincial Jail, Jimmy spent the next 40 months not knowing how it would all turn out.
Ordered released on July 22nd, 2011, thanks to Chairman Padilla, it took until July 25th for the Leyte Provincial Government to verify that indeed all charges had been summarily dropped for "Lack of Evidence." Soledad had only been arrested by virtue of Command Responsibility regarding the aforementioned mass grave in Inopacan. A relic from the purges of the mid-1980s, which in the Visayas Region of the Central Philippines was given the rather innocuous label, "OPlan UOD" (Operational Plan UOD). The campaign sprang out of the same rank paranoia that first infested Mindanao (which I will discuss briefly in the case of the third detainee released). "Command Responsibility" is a military doctrine that holds all senior officers responsible for any illegal conduct on the part of their subordinates. Since Soledad was the highest ranking NPA personality in Leyte when those terrible killings took place he was the unlucky camper put upon the hotseat for it. Of course AS the highest ranking NPA commander at the time it was certainly his handiwork.
2) Jovencio "Ka Dawa/Ka Rudy" Balweg Sr., Secretary of Abra Operational Command of the NPA, as well as serving as the Command's Political Secretary, in addition to his holding a seat on the Executive Committee of the Illocos-Cordillera Regional Committee of the CPP, definitely a high value target. A Tingguian Tribesman (akin to the Lumad of Mindanao, Animist Hilltribes) from the municipality of Malibcong in Abra Province, he joined the NPA in 1979 along with his brother, Father Conrado "Ka Ambo" Balweg, a Roman Catholic priest of the SVD Order (Societas Verbi Divini aka Society of the Divine Word, a Dutch/German order sometimes referred to as Steyler). Father Conrado was forced into joining the NPA along with three fellow SVD priests after their protests against the Cellophil Resources Corporation earned them places on the AFP's Order of Battle (a list of military targets). Father Conrado quickly rose to the top after joining by taking part in 29 tactical operations that first year. Killing fourty-six soldiers and six military assets he earned himself a P200,000 bounty in 1980 terms, a fabulous amount.
Ex-communicated not long after earning that steep bounty Father Conrado married a fellow guerilla, Corazon "Ka Azon" Cortel and together the couple broke from the CPP/NPA/CPA (CPA being "Cordillera Peoples Army" the name given to the Tingguian and Igorot NPA elements operating in the Cordilleras) founding the CPLA, or the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army, in March of 1986. an organisation that two months ago, on July 6th, 2011, finally inked a Final Peace Agreement (albeit with only one of several CPLA factions). Unfortunately neither Father Conrado nor his wife lived to see it. Father Conrado was murdered by his brother Jovencio in their parent's home on New Years Eve 1999. Conrado knew that he stood a good chance of catching his brother without bodyguards at the family home in Malibcong's Barangay Buanao. He and one other guerilla made their way to the house and ended another chapter in the Philippine Insurgency.
Corazon died a natural death. En routue to the 5ID Headquarters at Camp Upi in the municipality of Gamu in Isabela Province in 2008 she suffered a massive heart attack and died before arriving at the camp hospital, at age 48. At the time of her death Corazon was the CPLA's Chief of Staff (Balweg Faction) and had been travelling to the 5ID to harrangue its comanding officer over the Government's failure to abide by Livlihood Guarantees that were part and parcel of the Mount Data Agreement, a GPH-CPLA Interim Agreement signed in the town of Mount Data on September 13th, 1987.
Jovencio was arrested on May 18th, 2009 at a PNP checkpoint near his home in Baguio City's Barangay Satellite Market Camp #7 in Mountain Province in the CAR, or Cordillera Autonomous Region. The checkpoint, jointly operated by Baguio City CPO (City Police Office) and PRO-CAR, or Police Regional Office of the Cordillera Autonomous Region, matched his face to a flyer hanging mere meters away. Balweg then produced identification in the name of his cousin, Ignacio Madella, a professor at Mountain State Agricultural College. Balweg had relocated to Baguio to lay low as he sought treatment for hypertension that had led to two strokes and a serious case of spinal stenosis.
Brought to PRO-CAR Headquarters Balweg quickly asmitted who he was and without much pressure agreed to arrange the peaceful surrender of his wife Carmen, known by the nom de guerre "Ka Dumay," and herself also a high ranking member of both the CPP and NPA. They both then had one of their sons, Jovencio Balweg Jr., also an NPA member, surrender as well.
3) Maria Luisa "Ka Mariam/Ka Byul" Pucray, Secretary of the NCMRC, or Northcentral Mindanao Regional Committee at the time of her arrest in February of 2010. She and NPA member Alan Solis, a Medical Secretary with the WMRC, or the Western Mindanao Regional Committee, the weakest of the five Regional Committees on Mindanao and all but inactive at this point. Ms.Pucray was found possesing the requisite hand grenade that almost all senior NPA figures carry when they run a chance of detection and/or arrest. The two were in a station wagon and attempting to transit an AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines checkpoint in the municipality of Katipunan in Zamboanga del Norte Province.
Ms.Pucray was the leader, or Secretary of Front 12 of the now defunct NMC, the Northern Mindanao Committee in the mid-1980s. In early 1985 four of her guerillas murdered Lorenzo Coloso and his wife Corazon Pacana Coloso in front of their home in the municipality of El Salvador's Barangay Kalabaybay in Misamis Oriental Province. The four guerillas had been sent to divest the couple of a reputed cache of weapons. Finding only a damaged BB gun the guerillas became enraged and after dragging the hogtied couple outside blew the backs of their skulls off.
Mrs.Coloso was the sister of then-Misamis Oriental Provincial Govenor Fernando Pacana as well as Lieutenant Colonel Virgilio Pacana of the AFP. Both brothers called in favours from the RUC, or Regional Unified Command, a now defunct clearing house for all AFP and PNP (Philippine National Police) detachments in a given region. Copying a sucesful strategem of former President Ramon Magsaysay from his days as the Secretary of National Defense the RUC recruited low ranking NPA guerillas and cadres to serve as DPAs, or Deep Penetration Agents. At the time of Magsaysay's plan in the early 1950s, the Huk Rebellion was in danger of overtaking Manila. At the behest of his mentor, an American Sr.Officer, Magsaysay created a DPA Programme. DPAs, or Deep Penetration Agents go undercover for long periods of time so as to rise to positions of trust and power and thereafter provide intelligence of the highest value.
In just NMRC and NEMRC (the latter being the Northeast Mindanao Regional Committee) the NPA had well over 4,000 guerillas and controlled 75% of the barangays within both AORs, or Areas of Responsibility (as in "Areas of Responsibility"). In the Summerer of 1985 the RUC called in its markers and began cashing in its chips. From December of 1985 to February 12th, 1986 the RUC killed more than 400 NPA Regulars and 90 of them were killed in just a single tactical operation, the February 12th raid on the NMRC's main camp. In addition, RUC captured 156 Regulars in that same time period and that doesn't touch upon Surrenderees, guerillas who voluntarily surrendered to the Government for whatever reason. The NPA suffered a 29% reduction in manpower between those two Committees in just a 75 day period. Moreover, in June of 1985 Ms.Pucray had begun purging her unit, Front 12, torturing and executing suspected DPAs.
The end result, especially after that fabulous capture of the NMRC's main camp in which 90 guerillas were killed was an intence paranoia and it was none other than Ms.Pucray who came up with what she eventually labelled, "Kampanyang Ahos," the Garlic Campaign, building upon the purges she had instituted within Front 12 back in June. The label comes from a naïve mistake. DPAs were referred to as "Zombies." The NPA associated the old "garlic as a prophylactic against vampirism" tale with zombies. In other words, in the NPA's mind, garlic would keep the zombies from harming the NPA. The result was a series of purges, with at least five mass graves along Mindanao's northern coast from Cagayan del Oro City (Barangay Taglimao's Sitio Nabitay) in Misamis Oriental Province on over to the municipality of Las Nieves in Agusan del Norte Province. It was Pucray's Front 12 that led that disgusting spate of bloodlust. When she was charged in 2000, along with two other high ranking NPA in those two AORs:
1) Sammy Buntag
2) Laureto Cagals
and the CPP/NPA hierarchy including the movement's founder and chief ideologue Jose Maria "JOMA" Sison, Ms.Pucray dared to blame the mass graves on the AFP, until scores of eye witnesses began surfacing. Though she remained free until her 2010 arrest, Pucray did finally accept responsibility though not as an individual. Offering families of victims a P10,000 indemnification ($200) and a letter calling the victims, collectively, "Heroes of the Revolution."
4) Gliceria "Ka Choy" Pernia, released August 3rd, 2011 from Albay Provincial Jail on Luzon. His incarceration resulted in a botched rescue attempt by fellow NPA guerillas on September 16th, 2009 as the BJMP, or Bureau of Jail Management and Penology was transporting him back to the jail from a court appearance. As the van drove through the municipality of Guinobatan's Barangay Binogsacan in Albay Province guerillas assaulted the van in a daylight ambush in the middle of that town. He was being held for Murder, Multiple Murder, and Hiway Robbery.
Of course the release of these four detainees has done nothing to alleviate the current impasse. On September 6th, 2011, Norwegian Ambassador Tor Lundh, who does double duty as Facilitator of the GPH-NDFP Peace Process, invited GPH Chairman Alex Padilla and NDFP Chairman Luis G.Jalandoni for a private lunch at his official residence in Makati. Contrary to what the media has been claiming, Jalandoni did NOT agree to attend a Formal Round in late October or early November. In fact, on September 8th, NDFP Panelist Fidel Agcaoili dispelled such notions by firmly stating that the next Round can ONLY take place three weeks AFTER all detained JASIG-protected personalities are released. Don't hold your breath.
Friday, July 1, 2011
GPH-NDFP Peace Process, First Quarter of 2011, Part III: The Release of Angie Ipong
Since the re-initiation of the GPH-NDFP Peace Process (Government of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines) the most pressing issue, at least for the NDFP, has been JASIG. JASIG, or the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees is designed to offer all NDFP members connected with the Peace Process legal protection from arrest and prosecution as well as freedom of movement. While initially, just after the Peace Process re-re-opened [sic], JASIG seemed to be of little concern, it has since turned into the proverbial white elephant.
President Aquino ensured that NDFP Peace Panel Chairman Luis G.Jalandoni and his wife, NDFP Peace Panelist Connie Ledesma each had their names removed from the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) Persona Non-Grata List so that both could re-enter the Philippines (and then leave again when desired). Like virtually all of the chief ideologues of the CPP/NPA, of which the NDFP is merely a front, the couple remains ensconced in voluntary exile in the city of New Utrecht,in the Netherlands. Unlike the rest though, Jalandoni and Ledesma took Dutch citizenship years ago. In this way the couple has a much greater advantage than the rest of the CPP/NPA leadership because unlike their comrades (pun intended) they are somewhat free to travel, as long as it isn't to the Philippines. I say "somewhat" because in 2004, after lobbying by then-President Arroyo, the United States placed the CPP/NPA onto its list of terrorist organisations. Meanwhile, Jalandoni's elderly mother was near death and so the Government offered the ability to travel to and from the Philippines as a Good Will Gesture, though it was far short of the NDFP's "suggestion" that Aquino receive Jalandoni at the Presidential Palace.
President Aquino then enabled the BID modification for the couple and as he did so he took great pains to portray himself as taking the neccessary steps to re-implement JASIG. After the US declaration of the CPP/NPA as a terrorist entity the NPA had withdrawn from the Peace Process. The following year the Government unilaterally suspended JASIG, something it wasn't legally able to do since it is a bi-lateral agreement (though this being the Philippine Government that facts borders on irelevant). While the BID gesture was great in the immediate sense, the fact of the matter is that it seriously jeapordised all JASIG-protected persons.Though the re-implementation of JASIG merely amounted to the Government unilaterally deciding to recognise it.
Then, just hours before Round I of the Formal Talks began in Oslo on February 15th, 2011, the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) arrested yet another JASIG-protected person, CPP General Secretary Alan Jazmines. The AFP, when informed of Jazmines' status as a Consultant to the NDFP's Peace Panel offered this little gem, "To hell with JASIG." That about nails the GPH policy on the agreement to a tee. To smoothe things over, so to speak, GPH Peace Panel Chairperson Alexander "Alex" Padilla had Panelist Pablo "Pablito" Sanidad intercede in the case of one of the then eighteen JASIG-protected persons sitting in detention, Angelina "Angie" Bisuna Ipong.
Angie Ipong,a native of Bicol, obtained a BA in History from Ateneo de Naga University and then joined her husband Boy in performing lay missionary work for various Catholic organisations. Feeling unfufilled at her job reading History at Assumption College in Quezon Province's Lucena City, she and her husband Boy decided to devote themselves fulltime to their Catholic Faith. By the late-1970s the couple decided to move south, to Cebu City. While in Cebu the couple drifted into Liberation Theology, a variant of Catholicism that advocates direct Church involvement in the political process (Whatever happened to "Render unto Caesar"?), and while not condoning violence outright, offering plausability and rationalisation for it so as to allow a great many adherants to cross the fine line from multi-sectoral front partisanship right into violent activity and outright rebellion. Among the people the couple met while in Cebu were a group of radicalised priests from a Maryknoll Residence in Tagum (now Tagum City) in Mindanao's Davao del Norte Province. At the priests' invitation the Ipongs relocated to Tagum and took positions at the Maryknoll "Christian Formation Center".
It was in Tagum that the couple drifted closer to crossing that aforementioned fine line. Not long after, they left Tagum to work with "Rural Missionaries of the Philippines," or (RMP). Then, as now, RMP is a thinly verneered NPA multi-sectoral front organisation.Unlike most other front organisations that exist to serve a multitude of purposes benefiting the CPP/NPA, RPM exists chiefly as a format for political indoctrination directly into the CPP,and as a conduit into the NPA itself.
On November 20th, 1983 Boy Ipong joined scores of Church functionaries and lay people for a ferry ride to Cebu City to attend a Church gathering. The ferry, the Dona Cassandra, left Nasipit in Agusan del Norte Province overloaded and just as Typhoon Orchid began touching down in the Visayas Region. Early on the 21st, as the ship traversed the Surigao Strait in the Leyte Sea, the ferry capsised with at least 167 deaths out of a passenger and crew manifest of 387 people. Among the 167 was Boy Ipong.
Though Ms.Ipong eventually took the plunge and became a full-fledged member of the NPA, she tended to concentrate on the ideological end of the equation. Known to fellow NPA members as "Ka Nilda," Ms.Ipong focused her efforts on bringing more and more people into the fold. In fact, on March 8th, 2005 she had been conducting a forum on the CARHRIHL,or Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law facet of the GPH-NDFP Peace Process to a group of newly indoctrinared people gathered at a private home in Anastacia Missionary Village, in Barangay Lumbayao in the municipality of Aloran in Misamis Occidental Province. At 145PM she took a break and just as she began a light lunch a group of ten men, in military fatigues and skimasks (known locally as "bonnets") and carrying M16s entered the house and immediately surrounded the shocked women. Tying her hands behind her back and blindfolding her the men,a combination of AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) soldiers and officers from the PNP's (Philippines National Police) CIDG-10 (Criminal Investigations and Detection Group-Region-10) then led her out of the house and into incognito.
Immediately driven by van to 1ID (1st Infantry Division) Headquarters in the municipality of Labangan's Barangay Pulacan in Zamboanga del Sur Province.Arrested by virtue of warrants issued in Pagadian City and the town of Molave, both in that same province, as well as additional warrants in Misami Occidental Province's Oroquieta City, she was slapped with the usual generic charges applied to any and all mid to upper echelon NPA arrestees: Rebellion, Multiple Frustrated Murder, Arson, and so on. Barely subjected to interrogation while at Division Headquarters she was deemed high value enough to warrant a prompt transfer on March 12th to SOUTHCOM, the then unitary command responsible for all of Mindanao and its island possessions, at Camp Navarro in Zamboanga City, Zamboanga del Norte Province. It was there that Ms.Ipong's interrogation began.
As far as interrogations go it was a by the book (if THE book was at least 50 years old) almost anti-climatic affair. The first inquisitor was a junior officer who left her blindfoled (to re-inforce her vulnerability) and changed his rythym several times to keep her tense and off balance, berating her and often screaming threats. Ms.Ipong also claims to have been punched in the side during this and subsequent rounds of questioning.
Round II offered the first inquisitor's foil, the "good cop" of the well known "good cop:bad cop" routine. Removing Ms.Ipong's blindfold the senior officer acted enraged to find that she had been sleeping on a concrete floor and brusquely ordered inquisitor number one to immediately provide the detainee with a bed and took great pains to "admonish" the junior officer in the detainee's presence, warning him that he would be brought up on serious disciplinary charges if he ever came close to mis-treating any prisoner again. Of course this was entirely for her benefit since both inquisitors were running a standard interrogation technique. It is a very simple endeavour. Working with very basic human psychology, they soften up a subject by isolating them, removing any emotional footholds he or she may have retained. This is accomplished by interrupting the sleep pattern, serving a sub-standard diet, screaming at and insulting the subject and so on. Then, a new personality is introduced into the dynamic,a more senior officer so as to convey stability and reliability and instill trust. This senior officer "rights" most of the "wrongs" dished out by the first inquisitor. This naturally a initiates desire within the subject to please inquisitor number two, to show gratitude but mostly to avoid a repeat of the first round of interrogation.The inquisitors are alternated over a series of days,as was the case with Angie Ipong.
Round III saw the return of the first inquisitor, "Mr.Bad Cop." The junior office angrily ordered subordinates to remove the bed given to her by the second inquisitor, "Mr.Good Cop." Again her interrogator punched her in the side. Then the officer stepped it up a notch by ordering subordinate personnel to "strip" the then 60 year old woman naked. With her hands tied behind her back, and a blindfold over her eyes, Ms.Ipong maintains that the junior officer and his subordinates began touching her, squeezing her breasts and touching her genitals. Terrified Ms.Ipong pled with her tormentors, asking them to remember that she was 60 years old and that she was no different from their mothers or sisters. This caused the soldiers to laugh derisively, turning up the air conditioning to its maximum setting to offer even further discomfort. It was at this point that Ms.Ipong lost consciousness.
Coming to her senses the next morning, it took a few moments to realise she was naked, having been left exactly where she fell though sometime afterwards her blindfold had been removed. Hands still tied behind her back, but only loosely, as if to allow the prisoner to release herself when alone. Having gotten her hands free Ms.Ipong quickly dressed herself only to find just as she finished, that the callous junior officer had returned. That morning, March 13th, Round V of her interrogation began. Though she had been lying on the concrete floor all night a bed had been re-installed. Making a point to have it removed the officer had the blindfold re-applied and the hands re-bound, after having a subordinate forcefully pinion the detainee's hands behind her back. After punching her in her side once again the officer began his questioning.
By mid-morning her inquisitor exited and almost immediately the emphatic, courteous senior officer entered the room in tag team fashion. Round V began with the sentence again markedly demanding that her bed be re-installed he called the junior officer into the cell and threatened to have him court martialed for his "abuse" of Ms.Ipong. Dismissing him brusquely he downshifted and spoke tenderly to the frightened woman. He promised to have the junior officer docketed for his unseemly behavior but noted that he couldn't be on site 24 hours a day to protect her. He then played his hand; asking Ms.Ipong to "help" him, he offered to personally write down her answers, thus ensuring that they would be accurately recorded without omission OR embellishment and offered that this was the only way to neutralise the immediate threat posed by that abusive junior officer. If Ms.Ipong agreed to help him together they could ensure that no other prisoners would suffer from that same heartless treatment and abuse. Were the prisoner to question the correlation between her providing information and the disciplining of the unruly junior officer, the calm and reasonable senior officer would simply reply that were he to docket the abusive subordinate for his mistreatment of Ms.Ipong, his own superiors would assume that Ms.Ipong was lying or exaggerating about her mistreatment, something the senior officer wasn't able to personally witness. The powers that be would assume that the detainee was being manipulative but moreover, dishonest. However, IF he could show that the detainee had voluntarily provided even a scant modicum of information it would leave senior staff unable to make that point. Never having been arested or imprisoned Ms.Ipong had no way of knowing that this "kindly" senior officer was just as callous and manipulative as his junior counterpart.
With the completion of Round V Angelina "Angie" Bisuna Ipong was served with formal charges, delivered to SOUTHCOM Headquarters by a State Attorney on the afternoon of March 13th. Much to her suprise the 60 year old woman was notified that she was being saddled with Rebellion, Arson, Double Frustrated Murder, and Triple Frustrated Murder charges in three different venues. The three jurisdictions were:
1) Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur Province
2) Molave, Zamboanga del Sur Province
3) Oroquieta City, Misamis Occidental Province
The next day, March 14th, 2005, Ms.Ipong, sitting in a wheelchair, was subjected to the obligatory show and tell. The social hall at SOUTHCOM Headquarters was packed with leering media and grinning AFP officers who congratulated themselves on a job well done. With that anti-climatic apex the issue quickly devolved into one in which SOUTHCOM was being besieged by Leftis groups, both domestically and from abroad. Although the AFP can arrest people it cannot detain them passed tactical interrogation (though in reality it happens most of the time, my favorite case being a 10 year old boy who was brought to a battalion headquarters for questioning and then forcibly made into a houseboy for the post chaplain for four years). Interrogation having ended the AFP being under pressure, transferred custody of Ms.Ipong to the BJMP, or Bureau of Jail Management and Prisons, at its facility in the town of Ramon Magsaysay in Zamboanga del Sur Province. The problem with that ridiculous idea is that BJMP facilities are only allowed to detain sentenced prisoners. Pre-trial and trial detainees are relegated to LGU (Local Government Unit, as in municipalities and provinces) managed facilities.
So it was that on March 20th that the AFP was compelled to transport Ms.Ipong once again, this time to the Pagadian Reformatory Jail, the Pagadian City managed facility. It was here that Angelina "Angie" Bisuna Impong would spend the bulk of her imprisonment. Initially placed in a cell with nine other women, all incarcerated for criminal acts (as opposed to the Mass Murders Ms.Ipong was accused of commiting, which in her deluded mind, and the equally delusional minds of her NPA "comrades" constituted "political acts"), Ms.Ipong protested to the jail's administrative staff that such conditions were beneath her. For a moderate bribe she was allowed to sleep in the chapel for the rest of her time there. Bored beyond reason she then turned her attention towards gardening. Getting a parcel of land belonging to the jail Ms.Ipong began raising produce and flowers which she then began selling (so much for capitalism being evil). Finally joined by her fellow female inmates she then started a new venture, producing clothes via sewing machines and soon Ms.Ipong was controlling her own prison sweatshop, one of two businesses she began while still a prisoner. A third venture eventually followed, involving the manufacture of greeting cards that included pressed flowers from her prison garden.
After nearly four and a half years in the Pagadian Reformatory she was cleared of Rebellion in Court, with the prosecutor citing a lack of evidence.With that charge withdrawn it was time to travel to the next venue,Oroquieta City where she was lodged in the Misamis Occidental Provincial Jail. Not long after her arrival Ms.Ipong was able to have a foreign NGO donate three new sewing machines, enabling the then 64 year old woman to launch yet another prison-based garment business.The busy woman was also able to find the time needed to wite a book as well, though in reality it was written by Leftists in Manila and merely included a few recipes attributed to her and a couple of dozen "inspirational" letters written from prison. "The Letters and Diary of Angie B.Ipong," (Manila:InPeace) (2010) published via the Women and Children Concerns Committee of the NGO InPeace was an 85 page diatribe cum salad recipe compendium (I am 100% serious). The volume has been yet another moneymaking scheme with Ms.Ipong's supporters boosting sales with tales of suffering and oppression under the claim that all proceeds would be deposited in her legal support fund to pay for lawyers. In reality Ms.Ipong received absolutely free legal representation from local attorney Emiliano "Emil" Deleverio,Vice Chairperson of the multi-sectoral legal organisation UPLM (Union of People's Lawyers in Mindanao).
Fast forward to the February Talks in Oslo in 2011. As I have repeated ad naseum, the NDFP Peace Panel has been extremely focused upon contraventions of JASIG, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees. With the CPP's General Secretary Alan Jazmines being arrested mere hours before Round I began on February 15th the GPH Panel tried to appear magnanimous by having at least one of the eighteen JASIG-protected "Consultants" released. GPH Panel Chairperson Padilla chose the easiest choice, Ms.Ipong, who at 66 had become the nation's oldest "Political Prisoner."Panelist Pablo "Pablito" Sanidad was assigned to the task and immediately faxed a letter to Judge Bernadette S.Paredes Echinareal of Regional Trial Court (RTC) #36 in Oroquieta City where Ms.Ipong was dealing with the last of her criminal charges. Fully aware that that the defendant would be freed in a matter of weeks, Chairman Padilla viewed the Ipong Case as a win:win gambit. Needing a JASIG quick fix, he found a detainee whose release was imminent and simply had the release expedited.
On February 18th, 2011, Day 3 of the GPH-NDFP Peace Process, Angelina "Angie" Bisuna Ipong was released and re-gained her freedom, her dignity,and her life.
President Aquino ensured that NDFP Peace Panel Chairman Luis G.Jalandoni and his wife, NDFP Peace Panelist Connie Ledesma each had their names removed from the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) Persona Non-Grata List so that both could re-enter the Philippines (and then leave again when desired). Like virtually all of the chief ideologues of the CPP/NPA, of which the NDFP is merely a front, the couple remains ensconced in voluntary exile in the city of New Utrecht,in the Netherlands. Unlike the rest though, Jalandoni and Ledesma took Dutch citizenship years ago. In this way the couple has a much greater advantage than the rest of the CPP/NPA leadership because unlike their comrades (pun intended) they are somewhat free to travel, as long as it isn't to the Philippines. I say "somewhat" because in 2004, after lobbying by then-President Arroyo, the United States placed the CPP/NPA onto its list of terrorist organisations. Meanwhile, Jalandoni's elderly mother was near death and so the Government offered the ability to travel to and from the Philippines as a Good Will Gesture, though it was far short of the NDFP's "suggestion" that Aquino receive Jalandoni at the Presidential Palace.
President Aquino then enabled the BID modification for the couple and as he did so he took great pains to portray himself as taking the neccessary steps to re-implement JASIG. After the US declaration of the CPP/NPA as a terrorist entity the NPA had withdrawn from the Peace Process. The following year the Government unilaterally suspended JASIG, something it wasn't legally able to do since it is a bi-lateral agreement (though this being the Philippine Government that facts borders on irelevant). While the BID gesture was great in the immediate sense, the fact of the matter is that it seriously jeapordised all JASIG-protected persons.Though the re-implementation of JASIG merely amounted to the Government unilaterally deciding to recognise it.
Then, just hours before Round I of the Formal Talks began in Oslo on February 15th, 2011, the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) arrested yet another JASIG-protected person, CPP General Secretary Alan Jazmines. The AFP, when informed of Jazmines' status as a Consultant to the NDFP's Peace Panel offered this little gem, "To hell with JASIG." That about nails the GPH policy on the agreement to a tee. To smoothe things over, so to speak, GPH Peace Panel Chairperson Alexander "Alex" Padilla had Panelist Pablo "Pablito" Sanidad intercede in the case of one of the then eighteen JASIG-protected persons sitting in detention, Angelina "Angie" Bisuna Ipong.
Angie Ipong,a native of Bicol, obtained a BA in History from Ateneo de Naga University and then joined her husband Boy in performing lay missionary work for various Catholic organisations. Feeling unfufilled at her job reading History at Assumption College in Quezon Province's Lucena City, she and her husband Boy decided to devote themselves fulltime to their Catholic Faith. By the late-1970s the couple decided to move south, to Cebu City. While in Cebu the couple drifted into Liberation Theology, a variant of Catholicism that advocates direct Church involvement in the political process (Whatever happened to "Render unto Caesar"?), and while not condoning violence outright, offering plausability and rationalisation for it so as to allow a great many adherants to cross the fine line from multi-sectoral front partisanship right into violent activity and outright rebellion. Among the people the couple met while in Cebu were a group of radicalised priests from a Maryknoll Residence in Tagum (now Tagum City) in Mindanao's Davao del Norte Province. At the priests' invitation the Ipongs relocated to Tagum and took positions at the Maryknoll "Christian Formation Center".
It was in Tagum that the couple drifted closer to crossing that aforementioned fine line. Not long after, they left Tagum to work with "Rural Missionaries of the Philippines," or (RMP). Then, as now, RMP is a thinly verneered NPA multi-sectoral front organisation.Unlike most other front organisations that exist to serve a multitude of purposes benefiting the CPP/NPA, RPM exists chiefly as a format for political indoctrination directly into the CPP,and as a conduit into the NPA itself.
On November 20th, 1983 Boy Ipong joined scores of Church functionaries and lay people for a ferry ride to Cebu City to attend a Church gathering. The ferry, the Dona Cassandra, left Nasipit in Agusan del Norte Province overloaded and just as Typhoon Orchid began touching down in the Visayas Region. Early on the 21st, as the ship traversed the Surigao Strait in the Leyte Sea, the ferry capsised with at least 167 deaths out of a passenger and crew manifest of 387 people. Among the 167 was Boy Ipong.
Though Ms.Ipong eventually took the plunge and became a full-fledged member of the NPA, she tended to concentrate on the ideological end of the equation. Known to fellow NPA members as "Ka Nilda," Ms.Ipong focused her efforts on bringing more and more people into the fold. In fact, on March 8th, 2005 she had been conducting a forum on the CARHRIHL,or Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law facet of the GPH-NDFP Peace Process to a group of newly indoctrinared people gathered at a private home in Anastacia Missionary Village, in Barangay Lumbayao in the municipality of Aloran in Misamis Occidental Province. At 145PM she took a break and just as she began a light lunch a group of ten men, in military fatigues and skimasks (known locally as "bonnets") and carrying M16s entered the house and immediately surrounded the shocked women. Tying her hands behind her back and blindfolding her the men,a combination of AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) soldiers and officers from the PNP's (Philippines National Police) CIDG-10 (Criminal Investigations and Detection Group-Region-10) then led her out of the house and into incognito.
Immediately driven by van to 1ID (1st Infantry Division) Headquarters in the municipality of Labangan's Barangay Pulacan in Zamboanga del Sur Province.Arrested by virtue of warrants issued in Pagadian City and the town of Molave, both in that same province, as well as additional warrants in Misami Occidental Province's Oroquieta City, she was slapped with the usual generic charges applied to any and all mid to upper echelon NPA arrestees: Rebellion, Multiple Frustrated Murder, Arson, and so on. Barely subjected to interrogation while at Division Headquarters she was deemed high value enough to warrant a prompt transfer on March 12th to SOUTHCOM, the then unitary command responsible for all of Mindanao and its island possessions, at Camp Navarro in Zamboanga City, Zamboanga del Norte Province. It was there that Ms.Ipong's interrogation began.
As far as interrogations go it was a by the book (if THE book was at least 50 years old) almost anti-climatic affair. The first inquisitor was a junior officer who left her blindfoled (to re-inforce her vulnerability) and changed his rythym several times to keep her tense and off balance, berating her and often screaming threats. Ms.Ipong also claims to have been punched in the side during this and subsequent rounds of questioning.
Round II offered the first inquisitor's foil, the "good cop" of the well known "good cop:bad cop" routine. Removing Ms.Ipong's blindfold the senior officer acted enraged to find that she had been sleeping on a concrete floor and brusquely ordered inquisitor number one to immediately provide the detainee with a bed and took great pains to "admonish" the junior officer in the detainee's presence, warning him that he would be brought up on serious disciplinary charges if he ever came close to mis-treating any prisoner again. Of course this was entirely for her benefit since both inquisitors were running a standard interrogation technique. It is a very simple endeavour. Working with very basic human psychology, they soften up a subject by isolating them, removing any emotional footholds he or she may have retained. This is accomplished by interrupting the sleep pattern, serving a sub-standard diet, screaming at and insulting the subject and so on. Then, a new personality is introduced into the dynamic,a more senior officer so as to convey stability and reliability and instill trust. This senior officer "rights" most of the "wrongs" dished out by the first inquisitor. This naturally a initiates desire within the subject to please inquisitor number two, to show gratitude but mostly to avoid a repeat of the first round of interrogation.The inquisitors are alternated over a series of days,as was the case with Angie Ipong.
Round III saw the return of the first inquisitor, "Mr.Bad Cop." The junior office angrily ordered subordinates to remove the bed given to her by the second inquisitor, "Mr.Good Cop." Again her interrogator punched her in the side. Then the officer stepped it up a notch by ordering subordinate personnel to "strip" the then 60 year old woman naked. With her hands tied behind her back, and a blindfold over her eyes, Ms.Ipong maintains that the junior officer and his subordinates began touching her, squeezing her breasts and touching her genitals. Terrified Ms.Ipong pled with her tormentors, asking them to remember that she was 60 years old and that she was no different from their mothers or sisters. This caused the soldiers to laugh derisively, turning up the air conditioning to its maximum setting to offer even further discomfort. It was at this point that Ms.Ipong lost consciousness.
Coming to her senses the next morning, it took a few moments to realise she was naked, having been left exactly where she fell though sometime afterwards her blindfold had been removed. Hands still tied behind her back, but only loosely, as if to allow the prisoner to release herself when alone. Having gotten her hands free Ms.Ipong quickly dressed herself only to find just as she finished, that the callous junior officer had returned. That morning, March 13th, Round V of her interrogation began. Though she had been lying on the concrete floor all night a bed had been re-installed. Making a point to have it removed the officer had the blindfold re-applied and the hands re-bound, after having a subordinate forcefully pinion the detainee's hands behind her back. After punching her in her side once again the officer began his questioning.
By mid-morning her inquisitor exited and almost immediately the emphatic, courteous senior officer entered the room in tag team fashion. Round V began with the sentence again markedly demanding that her bed be re-installed he called the junior officer into the cell and threatened to have him court martialed for his "abuse" of Ms.Ipong. Dismissing him brusquely he downshifted and spoke tenderly to the frightened woman. He promised to have the junior officer docketed for his unseemly behavior but noted that he couldn't be on site 24 hours a day to protect her. He then played his hand; asking Ms.Ipong to "help" him, he offered to personally write down her answers, thus ensuring that they would be accurately recorded without omission OR embellishment and offered that this was the only way to neutralise the immediate threat posed by that abusive junior officer. If Ms.Ipong agreed to help him together they could ensure that no other prisoners would suffer from that same heartless treatment and abuse. Were the prisoner to question the correlation between her providing information and the disciplining of the unruly junior officer, the calm and reasonable senior officer would simply reply that were he to docket the abusive subordinate for his mistreatment of Ms.Ipong, his own superiors would assume that Ms.Ipong was lying or exaggerating about her mistreatment, something the senior officer wasn't able to personally witness. The powers that be would assume that the detainee was being manipulative but moreover, dishonest. However, IF he could show that the detainee had voluntarily provided even a scant modicum of information it would leave senior staff unable to make that point. Never having been arested or imprisoned Ms.Ipong had no way of knowing that this "kindly" senior officer was just as callous and manipulative as his junior counterpart.
With the completion of Round V Angelina "Angie" Bisuna Ipong was served with formal charges, delivered to SOUTHCOM Headquarters by a State Attorney on the afternoon of March 13th. Much to her suprise the 60 year old woman was notified that she was being saddled with Rebellion, Arson, Double Frustrated Murder, and Triple Frustrated Murder charges in three different venues. The three jurisdictions were:
1) Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur Province
2) Molave, Zamboanga del Sur Province
3) Oroquieta City, Misamis Occidental Province
The next day, March 14th, 2005, Ms.Ipong, sitting in a wheelchair, was subjected to the obligatory show and tell. The social hall at SOUTHCOM Headquarters was packed with leering media and grinning AFP officers who congratulated themselves on a job well done. With that anti-climatic apex the issue quickly devolved into one in which SOUTHCOM was being besieged by Leftis groups, both domestically and from abroad. Although the AFP can arrest people it cannot detain them passed tactical interrogation (though in reality it happens most of the time, my favorite case being a 10 year old boy who was brought to a battalion headquarters for questioning and then forcibly made into a houseboy for the post chaplain for four years). Interrogation having ended the AFP being under pressure, transferred custody of Ms.Ipong to the BJMP, or Bureau of Jail Management and Prisons, at its facility in the town of Ramon Magsaysay in Zamboanga del Sur Province. The problem with that ridiculous idea is that BJMP facilities are only allowed to detain sentenced prisoners. Pre-trial and trial detainees are relegated to LGU (Local Government Unit, as in municipalities and provinces) managed facilities.
So it was that on March 20th that the AFP was compelled to transport Ms.Ipong once again, this time to the Pagadian Reformatory Jail, the Pagadian City managed facility. It was here that Angelina "Angie" Bisuna Impong would spend the bulk of her imprisonment. Initially placed in a cell with nine other women, all incarcerated for criminal acts (as opposed to the Mass Murders Ms.Ipong was accused of commiting, which in her deluded mind, and the equally delusional minds of her NPA "comrades" constituted "political acts"), Ms.Ipong protested to the jail's administrative staff that such conditions were beneath her. For a moderate bribe she was allowed to sleep in the chapel for the rest of her time there. Bored beyond reason she then turned her attention towards gardening. Getting a parcel of land belonging to the jail Ms.Ipong began raising produce and flowers which she then began selling (so much for capitalism being evil). Finally joined by her fellow female inmates she then started a new venture, producing clothes via sewing machines and soon Ms.Ipong was controlling her own prison sweatshop, one of two businesses she began while still a prisoner. A third venture eventually followed, involving the manufacture of greeting cards that included pressed flowers from her prison garden.
After nearly four and a half years in the Pagadian Reformatory she was cleared of Rebellion in Court, with the prosecutor citing a lack of evidence.With that charge withdrawn it was time to travel to the next venue,Oroquieta City where she was lodged in the Misamis Occidental Provincial Jail. Not long after her arrival Ms.Ipong was able to have a foreign NGO donate three new sewing machines, enabling the then 64 year old woman to launch yet another prison-based garment business.The busy woman was also able to find the time needed to wite a book as well, though in reality it was written by Leftists in Manila and merely included a few recipes attributed to her and a couple of dozen "inspirational" letters written from prison. "The Letters and Diary of Angie B.Ipong," (Manila:InPeace) (2010) published via the Women and Children Concerns Committee of the NGO InPeace was an 85 page diatribe cum salad recipe compendium (I am 100% serious). The volume has been yet another moneymaking scheme with Ms.Ipong's supporters boosting sales with tales of suffering and oppression under the claim that all proceeds would be deposited in her legal support fund to pay for lawyers. In reality Ms.Ipong received absolutely free legal representation from local attorney Emiliano "Emil" Deleverio,Vice Chairperson of the multi-sectoral legal organisation UPLM (Union of People's Lawyers in Mindanao).
Fast forward to the February Talks in Oslo in 2011. As I have repeated ad naseum, the NDFP Peace Panel has been extremely focused upon contraventions of JASIG, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees. With the CPP's General Secretary Alan Jazmines being arrested mere hours before Round I began on February 15th the GPH Panel tried to appear magnanimous by having at least one of the eighteen JASIG-protected "Consultants" released. GPH Panel Chairperson Padilla chose the easiest choice, Ms.Ipong, who at 66 had become the nation's oldest "Political Prisoner."Panelist Pablo "Pablito" Sanidad was assigned to the task and immediately faxed a letter to Judge Bernadette S.Paredes Echinareal of Regional Trial Court (RTC) #36 in Oroquieta City where Ms.Ipong was dealing with the last of her criminal charges. Fully aware that that the defendant would be freed in a matter of weeks, Chairman Padilla viewed the Ipong Case as a win:win gambit. Needing a JASIG quick fix, he found a detainee whose release was imminent and simply had the release expedited.
On February 18th, 2011, Day 3 of the GPH-NDFP Peace Process, Angelina "Angie" Bisuna Ipong was released and re-gained her freedom, her dignity,and her life.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
GPH-NDFP Peace Process,Second Quarter of 2011,Part IV:The Talks are Breaking Down
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