Large portions of Mindanao exist entirely off of the grid. By "grid" I mean modernity, life's luxuries like running water, and running electricity. Filipinos have been labeled the highest cellphone users in the world on a per capita basis, with SMS, or, "Text Messaging" being the primary form of communication. Imagine then, how frustrating it must be for the soldiers coming south from Luzon, who are already having to adjust to language and cultural differences on top of being dropped into a remote corner of Mindanao, one without cellular signals. One such maddening post is the 57IB (Infantry Battalion) garrison in the municipality of Makilala's Barangay Batasan. The detachment's post, in that barangay's Purok #6, is without running water, electricity, and yes, also without a cellular signal.
So it was on Friday, November 11th, 2011, when Corporal (Cpl.) Hassan Sarif was tasked with picking up the next three days worth of supplies, not one but two Privates First Class (Pfc.), volunteered to accompany Cpl.Sarif on the supply run. Like their Corporal, Pfc.Dandie Garbo and Pfc.Alex Calon changed into civilian attire. Although on duty, they would be trekking 6 kilometers to the main sector garrison for their supplies, as well as charging their cellphone batteries for those rare times when the unit moved through the hills near their post, locales that offered intermittent cellphone signals. The civilian attire is meant to remove the giant bullseye taped to their foreheads since they operate in one of the most dangerous sectors on Mainland Mindanao. Aside from the BIAF, or, Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, as the military wing of the MILF is known, there are two competitive factions of the MNLF/BMA (BMA being the Bangsamoro Army, the military half of the MNLF equation), the MNLF-Misuari, and the MNLF-EC15 (Executive Council of 15, led by the Vice Mayor of Cotabato City, Muslimin Sema). Additionally, there are the three Communist Insurgencies, the CPP/NPA, the RPM-M/RPA, and the Black Fighters. The second, Rebolusyonaryong Partido Manggagawa (Revolutionary Worker's Party), and its armed wing, the Revolutionary Proletariat Army, are at the tail end of a Peace Process and for all effective purposes, have been neutralised. The last group, the Black Fighters, are a B'laan Lumad group with roughly three dozen guerillas whose chief aim seems to be cattle rustling and cannabis trafficking, luckily for the Government.
The CPP/NPA however, remains a force to be reckoned with. Although the original NPA Regional Command covering that sector- the Second Congressional District of North Cotabato Province, the Central Mindanao Committee, or CMC, disintegrated under the internal pressures wrought by what the CPP now calls, its "Second Great Rectification," when the CMC rejected CPP founder and chief ideologue Jose Maria "Joma" Sison's strict "My way or the hiway" ethos vis a vis Orthadox Maoism, the sector has bounced back under NPA control quite strongly. Today the sector is controlled by the SMRC, or, Southern Mindanao Regional Committee. The SMRC, whose AOR, or Area of Responsibility (as in "Area of Operation") is concentrated on Region 11, the Davao Region, but also covers what remains of the NPA's once extremely formidable presence in that province, North Cotabato. The specific Front, or guerilla unit operating in Makilala is Front 51, the Matanggol Roque Command. Covering Antipas, Arakan, and M'lang, as well as Makilala, Front 51 has proved itself equipped to dance toe to toe with the AFP for the long haul.
As Cpl.Sarif and Pfcs.Garbo and Calon left their post, they made a mistake all too common of lax soldiers, and stuck to a regular routine. Instead of following the ridge line, slowly, they traipsed down the footpath meandering next to a creek on the valley floor. Approaching them from the opposite direction was a 16 year old B'laan Tribesmen leading his goats to a higher pasture. The young shepard would later recall that Pfc.Calon, the only one of the three carrying a weapon, was walking to the rear as Cpl.Sarif and Pfc.Garbo were deep in conversation. The report of a rifle echoed all through the mountain valley.
Pfc.Alex Calon was killed instantly by a aniper's bullet that tore through the side of his head. As the shepard scrambled with his goats, Cpl.Sarif and Pfc.Garbo helplessly fell to their bellies, with no idea where the shot came from. In quick sucession both men were critically wounded as well. Playing dead, the two surviving men were able to recover Pfc.Calon's M16 and service issued 45 caliber pistol, before escaping under the cover of darkness. Almost always, NPA sniping incidents are the result of Irregulars, members of the NPA Irregular Force, "Milisya ng Bayan," or, "Village Militia."
Showing posts with label Matanggol Roque Command. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Matanggol Roque Command. Show all posts
Friday, December 16, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
NPA Armed Contacts for the Fourth Quarter of 2011, Part VII: He Say, She Say, NPA Guerilla or Simply a Martyr for the Masses?
The municipality of Arakan, in North Cotabato Province's Arakan Valley sits at the junction of three provinces:
1) Bukidnon
2) Davao del Sur
3) North Cotabato
Anf therefore it is a textbook NPA territory in that the New People's Army concentrates on such convergent borders as Operational Centres of Gravity. More simply put, such borderlands are the preferred operational area for the NPA. A rather isolated area despite it also being on the border of Davao City, a good amount of the population are Lumad, or Animist Hilltribesmen, Manobo and B'laan.
As I noted recently, the parish priest in Arakan, up until October 17th, 2011, anyway, was Father Fausto "Tatay Pops" Tentorio. An Italian priest of the PIME Order, he concentrated on working with Lumad and of course, culturally raped them as he tried to seduce them into converting to the "one true faith." Dangling minor infrastructural trinkets like bamboo framed and palm leaf thatched one room schoolrooms and potable water projects, tantalising enticements when the Government has been all but non-existent in most of the town's barangays. Like most PIME missionary priests capturing souls on Mindanao he co-operated with the multi-sectoral front groups of the Filipino Left. This in turn earned Tentorio a prominent placement on the Military's Order of Battle, or, "OB." OBs are used to collate targets in a given sector and priming them for neutralisation, ranks them according to importance. Father Tentorio ranked very high.
Be that as it may, as I noted in that aforementioned entry dedicated to Father Tentorio's murder, he most definitely was NOT killed by the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, the nation's military. As Tentorio himself admitted, local Right Wing Lumad paramilitaries had tried to murder him at least one time already and had never stopped harrasing him owing to his partisan involvement in the illegal logging issue. Like the Catholic Church as a whole in the Philippines- much to their credit- are very pro-environment. If anyone wanted him dead it was someone who profits had taken a hit due to Father Tentorio's anti-logging polemics.
Filipino priests are killed fairly often and virtually nobody knows their names. There are no international news crews, no representative from the Vatican delivering a hand written note of condolence from the Pope. White skin is worth its weight in gold here on Mindanao, with Filipinos tripping over themselves when a foreigner catches a bad break. This unfortunate reality became oh so apparent on October 20th, 2011, less than 35 hours after Father Tentorio's murder.
That morning 35 year old Noli Badol, the unofficial chief of Sitio Upper Lumbo, in Arakan's Barangay Kabalantian, stepped out of his home badly in need of a cup of coffee. Walking a short distance to the home of his friend Ramon Batoy, also aged 35. The two men, like just about every man in that sitio laboured hard as sharecroppers. Living and working on land owned by Mayor Van Doloroso Cadungon of the adjacent municipality of Antipas, half of everything they harvested went to their landlord.
As Ramon's wife Gemma, six months pregnant, brewed some coffee, she also began tending to the needs of her four young children. As she walked to and fro she chanced a glance out the open doorway and was shocked to see a very large detachment of AFP entering the village on foot and in full combat array. Nervously she tried to convince Noli, as the sitio "chief," to go outside and talk to the soldiers and find out what exactly was going on. Not having much of an argument not to, Noli left the house and approached the detachment's commanding officer, Second Lieutenant (2Lt.) Edemer Malucon, and introduced himself. Although Ramon and Gemma couldn't hear what was being said they clearly understood the jist of it as voices rose and body language turned aggressive. Without warning Lieutenant Malucon raised his M16 in the air and brought its stock crashing down upon Noli Badol's head.
Noli collapsed upon the ground as three soldiers moved in and began kicking him in the face and body. Within a minute 2LT.Malucon ordered them to hogtie the nearly unconscious Noli who was then left face down, tied and in the mud. Visibly angry Malucon and the three soldiers who had attacked Noli then approached the nearest house, that of Ramon and Gemma Batoy. Malucon informed the couple that he and his men would be searching the small home. Ramon asked the officer if he had a search warrant with him to which 2Lt.Malucon replied that in the case of suspected NPA guerillas a warrant wasn't necessary, and then took the palm of his hand and pressed Ramon's forehead roughly as if to move him out of the way. Propelled backwards, almost losing his balance and falling onto the floor, Ramon then ordered the four men out of his home. Told to go fuc* himself Ramon instead picked up his "bolo" (machete) and left a 2cm deep gash along the whole side of Malucon's neck. Had Ramon been able to fully connect he would have decapitated 2Lt.Malucon.
As the blood poured out of the officer's neck one of the three soldiers with him shot Ramon to death. Soldiers outside, hearing gunfire, did what most AFP soldiers do in such situations, they immediately opened fire on everything around them, badly strafing seven homes, all full of people. As a medic tended to Malucon's neck the three soldiers inside the Batoy home dragged Ramon's lifeless body out of the house and threw it in the mud, face down, next to Noli.
Noli's eight months pregnant wife quickly learned that her husband was being detained and knowing all that that entails she got hysterical and tried to rush past the AFP cordon around Noli and Ramon's body, causing the nervous soldiers to once again let loose. Ramon's wife Gemma had managed to get three of her kids out of the house before that last strafing but turned hysterical herself when she realised that her eldest, an 8 year old son, was still inside their plywood shack. She was soon joined by Ramon's mother, 76 year old Elena Filomeno Batoy and Ramon's brothers Celso, 47 years old, and 44 year old Roger, who had been wounded in his left foot during that last strafing. The three began yelling at the soldiers which promptly earned both brothers a beat down that ended up with them being hogtied and joining Noli and Ramon's lifeleSs body.
At 11AM, as Ramon's body was already well into decomposition under the tropical sun, the soldiers commandeered a villagers "caraboa" (water buffalo) and cart and loaded their three hogtied prisoners and Ramon's now putrid body into the back to transport into the more populated section of Barangay Kabalantian where their military transports awaited them. First however, they propped up Ramon's body to a sitting position, despite his intestines hanging out, and strapped an M1F to his body before taking photos. They then began the long trip back towards "civilisation."
The soldiers taking part in that sordid affair were a composite deatchment from the 57IB (Infantry Battalion), 38IB, and the 5th Company of the 3SFBn (3rd Special Forces Battalion, aka "Airborne"), the last being 2Lt.Malucon's battalion. Ramon's body was deposited at the municipal compound where it was laid upon a tarp on the town basketball court. The three prisoners:
1) Noli Badol
2) Celso Batoy
3) Roger Batoy
were all taken to 57IB Headquarters for interrogation where all three claim to have been tortured. Roger, with a bullet in his foot, was released late that first night. The next morning Noli was driven to a local radio station where he was made to confess live on the air and implicate Ramon who he stated was an NPA irregular, a member of the NPA's Milisya ng Bayan (Protective Militia) under the NPA's Front 51. As the AFP now sold it, it had received a tip from "concerned villagers" (despite the sitio not have either cellular NOR landline phone service). The tipsters had warned that Front 51, the Matanggol Roque Command of the SMRC, or, Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, had set "at least two landmines" in the sitio as it prepared to hold an "Educational Session" there. Of course Front 51 operates nowhere near Arakan, based on the Davao City side of Mount Apo. The municipality of Arakan is under the jurisdiction of the NPA's Front 53, the Herminio Alfonso Command of the SMRC. The part about "landmines" is typical AFP propaganda (both sides use semi-retarded propaganda). Command controlled IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices, as in "Bombs") are neither landmines nor are they prohibited under any extant international treaty.
The AFP says that when that composite detachment responded to villagers' concerns it encountered a large number of NPA guerillas and in the subsequent 30 minute firefight Ramon Batoy was killed and 2LT.Malucon was critically wounded. The AFP also claims to have captured one M16, one M14, and one Garand M1 from the two prisoners and Ramon, though they didn't explain how the only wound received by the AFP had been a sliced neck.
In truth Ramon certainly must have been an NPA irregular given his position as the organiser of a multi-sectoral front group, "Bantay Katubigan" (the phrase applies to a water nymph but idiomatically it means "Protection of the Waterways") and a high ranking member in one of Father Tentorio's pet projects (not suprising at all), "Bantay Kalikasan Mount Sinaka" (Protection the Environment of Mount Sinaka). Meanwhile, that first evening, October 20th, fourty-three families became "bakwits" (IDPs, as in Internally Displaced Persons, as in Refugees), taking shelter at Binoongan Elementary School in Arakan's Barangay Binoongan. The next morning, October 21st, another ninety-three families joined them for a total of 136 families. Of course the number taking shelter with family, friends, or going deeper into the bush is easily two times that number. With the majority of residents demanding that the AFP pull out of Arakan having reached critical mass after Father Tentorio's murder it should come as no suprise that the sentiment reached fever pitch after Ramon Batoy's death.
1) Bukidnon
2) Davao del Sur
3) North Cotabato
Anf therefore it is a textbook NPA territory in that the New People's Army concentrates on such convergent borders as Operational Centres of Gravity. More simply put, such borderlands are the preferred operational area for the NPA. A rather isolated area despite it also being on the border of Davao City, a good amount of the population are Lumad, or Animist Hilltribesmen, Manobo and B'laan.
As I noted recently, the parish priest in Arakan, up until October 17th, 2011, anyway, was Father Fausto "Tatay Pops" Tentorio. An Italian priest of the PIME Order, he concentrated on working with Lumad and of course, culturally raped them as he tried to seduce them into converting to the "one true faith." Dangling minor infrastructural trinkets like bamboo framed and palm leaf thatched one room schoolrooms and potable water projects, tantalising enticements when the Government has been all but non-existent in most of the town's barangays. Like most PIME missionary priests capturing souls on Mindanao he co-operated with the multi-sectoral front groups of the Filipino Left. This in turn earned Tentorio a prominent placement on the Military's Order of Battle, or, "OB." OBs are used to collate targets in a given sector and priming them for neutralisation, ranks them according to importance. Father Tentorio ranked very high.
Be that as it may, as I noted in that aforementioned entry dedicated to Father Tentorio's murder, he most definitely was NOT killed by the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, the nation's military. As Tentorio himself admitted, local Right Wing Lumad paramilitaries had tried to murder him at least one time already and had never stopped harrasing him owing to his partisan involvement in the illegal logging issue. Like the Catholic Church as a whole in the Philippines- much to their credit- are very pro-environment. If anyone wanted him dead it was someone who profits had taken a hit due to Father Tentorio's anti-logging polemics.
Filipino priests are killed fairly often and virtually nobody knows their names. There are no international news crews, no representative from the Vatican delivering a hand written note of condolence from the Pope. White skin is worth its weight in gold here on Mindanao, with Filipinos tripping over themselves when a foreigner catches a bad break. This unfortunate reality became oh so apparent on October 20th, 2011, less than 35 hours after Father Tentorio's murder.
That morning 35 year old Noli Badol, the unofficial chief of Sitio Upper Lumbo, in Arakan's Barangay Kabalantian, stepped out of his home badly in need of a cup of coffee. Walking a short distance to the home of his friend Ramon Batoy, also aged 35. The two men, like just about every man in that sitio laboured hard as sharecroppers. Living and working on land owned by Mayor Van Doloroso Cadungon of the adjacent municipality of Antipas, half of everything they harvested went to their landlord.
As Ramon's wife Gemma, six months pregnant, brewed some coffee, she also began tending to the needs of her four young children. As she walked to and fro she chanced a glance out the open doorway and was shocked to see a very large detachment of AFP entering the village on foot and in full combat array. Nervously she tried to convince Noli, as the sitio "chief," to go outside and talk to the soldiers and find out what exactly was going on. Not having much of an argument not to, Noli left the house and approached the detachment's commanding officer, Second Lieutenant (2Lt.) Edemer Malucon, and introduced himself. Although Ramon and Gemma couldn't hear what was being said they clearly understood the jist of it as voices rose and body language turned aggressive. Without warning Lieutenant Malucon raised his M16 in the air and brought its stock crashing down upon Noli Badol's head.
Noli collapsed upon the ground as three soldiers moved in and began kicking him in the face and body. Within a minute 2LT.Malucon ordered them to hogtie the nearly unconscious Noli who was then left face down, tied and in the mud. Visibly angry Malucon and the three soldiers who had attacked Noli then approached the nearest house, that of Ramon and Gemma Batoy. Malucon informed the couple that he and his men would be searching the small home. Ramon asked the officer if he had a search warrant with him to which 2Lt.Malucon replied that in the case of suspected NPA guerillas a warrant wasn't necessary, and then took the palm of his hand and pressed Ramon's forehead roughly as if to move him out of the way. Propelled backwards, almost losing his balance and falling onto the floor, Ramon then ordered the four men out of his home. Told to go fuc* himself Ramon instead picked up his "bolo" (machete) and left a 2cm deep gash along the whole side of Malucon's neck. Had Ramon been able to fully connect he would have decapitated 2Lt.Malucon.
As the blood poured out of the officer's neck one of the three soldiers with him shot Ramon to death. Soldiers outside, hearing gunfire, did what most AFP soldiers do in such situations, they immediately opened fire on everything around them, badly strafing seven homes, all full of people. As a medic tended to Malucon's neck the three soldiers inside the Batoy home dragged Ramon's lifeless body out of the house and threw it in the mud, face down, next to Noli.
Noli's eight months pregnant wife quickly learned that her husband was being detained and knowing all that that entails she got hysterical and tried to rush past the AFP cordon around Noli and Ramon's body, causing the nervous soldiers to once again let loose. Ramon's wife Gemma had managed to get three of her kids out of the house before that last strafing but turned hysterical herself when she realised that her eldest, an 8 year old son, was still inside their plywood shack. She was soon joined by Ramon's mother, 76 year old Elena Filomeno Batoy and Ramon's brothers Celso, 47 years old, and 44 year old Roger, who had been wounded in his left foot during that last strafing. The three began yelling at the soldiers which promptly earned both brothers a beat down that ended up with them being hogtied and joining Noli and Ramon's lifeleSs body.
At 11AM, as Ramon's body was already well into decomposition under the tropical sun, the soldiers commandeered a villagers "caraboa" (water buffalo) and cart and loaded their three hogtied prisoners and Ramon's now putrid body into the back to transport into the more populated section of Barangay Kabalantian where their military transports awaited them. First however, they propped up Ramon's body to a sitting position, despite his intestines hanging out, and strapped an M1F to his body before taking photos. They then began the long trip back towards "civilisation."
The soldiers taking part in that sordid affair were a composite deatchment from the 57IB (Infantry Battalion), 38IB, and the 5th Company of the 3SFBn (3rd Special Forces Battalion, aka "Airborne"), the last being 2Lt.Malucon's battalion. Ramon's body was deposited at the municipal compound where it was laid upon a tarp on the town basketball court. The three prisoners:
1) Noli Badol
2) Celso Batoy
3) Roger Batoy
were all taken to 57IB Headquarters for interrogation where all three claim to have been tortured. Roger, with a bullet in his foot, was released late that first night. The next morning Noli was driven to a local radio station where he was made to confess live on the air and implicate Ramon who he stated was an NPA irregular, a member of the NPA's Milisya ng Bayan (Protective Militia) under the NPA's Front 51. As the AFP now sold it, it had received a tip from "concerned villagers" (despite the sitio not have either cellular NOR landline phone service). The tipsters had warned that Front 51, the Matanggol Roque Command of the SMRC, or, Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, had set "at least two landmines" in the sitio as it prepared to hold an "Educational Session" there. Of course Front 51 operates nowhere near Arakan, based on the Davao City side of Mount Apo. The municipality of Arakan is under the jurisdiction of the NPA's Front 53, the Herminio Alfonso Command of the SMRC. The part about "landmines" is typical AFP propaganda (both sides use semi-retarded propaganda). Command controlled IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices, as in "Bombs") are neither landmines nor are they prohibited under any extant international treaty.
The AFP says that when that composite detachment responded to villagers' concerns it encountered a large number of NPA guerillas and in the subsequent 30 minute firefight Ramon Batoy was killed and 2LT.Malucon was critically wounded. The AFP also claims to have captured one M16, one M14, and one Garand M1 from the two prisoners and Ramon, though they didn't explain how the only wound received by the AFP had been a sliced neck.
In truth Ramon certainly must have been an NPA irregular given his position as the organiser of a multi-sectoral front group, "Bantay Katubigan" (the phrase applies to a water nymph but idiomatically it means "Protection of the Waterways") and a high ranking member in one of Father Tentorio's pet projects (not suprising at all), "Bantay Kalikasan Mount Sinaka" (Protection the Environment of Mount Sinaka). Meanwhile, that first evening, October 20th, fourty-three families became "bakwits" (IDPs, as in Internally Displaced Persons, as in Refugees), taking shelter at Binoongan Elementary School in Arakan's Barangay Binoongan. The next morning, October 21st, another ninety-three families joined them for a total of 136 families. Of course the number taking shelter with family, friends, or going deeper into the bush is easily two times that number. With the majority of residents demanding that the AFP pull out of Arakan having reached critical mass after Father Tentorio's murder it should come as no suprise that the sentiment reached fever pitch after Ramon Batoy's death.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)