In my recent "Kidnap for Ransom for the Third Quarter of 2011, Part XII" entry I discussed the September 19th, 2011 KFR, or Kidnap for Ransom of Cagayan del Oro City businessman Manuel G.Boniao. For those who don't recall, men dressed in PNP, or Philippine National Police, uniforms entered Peoples Agri Supply in Barangay Gusa and managed to disarm the lone security guard and divest him of his pump shotgun. Grabbing Mr.Boniao as well as his 17 year old son Edwin the faux (or authentic) policemen made their way out of the warehouse-like building. Arguing amongst themselves the kidnappers ended up not taking the boy and exited with only Mr.Boniao before speeding away into Barangay Puerto and an escape by sea.
On Wednesday, September 21st, the Isuzu Adventure used in the kidnapping was discovered unoccupied in the neighbouring province of Bukidnon. Parked on the side of a hiway in Sitio Langga in the municipality of Sumilao's Barangay San Vicente, facing towards Cagayan del Oro City, it had been amateurishly spraypainted black in a foolish attempt to change the vehicle's appearance. Twenty-two empty cans of black Pylox spray paint along with three jars of mostly used laquer thinner were discovered inside the SUV, along with the six police patrol tee shirts used in the kidnapping and four PNP baseball caps. The tee shirts are easily faked but all six of these shirts were PNP-issued to PRO-4A, or Police Regional Office for Region 4A. Region 4A is more popularly known as CALABARZON Region, on Luzon. While those shirts definitely lend creedence to the intelligence coming out of Manila that the various PNP cliques moonlighting as KFR, or Kidnap for Ransom groups have finally branched into the south, it is also just as possible that the uniforms had been captured or stolen.
As for a police connection, such a development, if accurate, is very interesting because of the propencity of turf wars between newcomers, albeit highly organised, and the well established local Mindanowan organisations directly tied into the local power structure. Also found in the re-painted SUV was a roll of tape, Boniao's emptied brown leather wallet and most noteworthy of all, the discovery of Mr.Boniao's sleeveless blue tee shirt with blood stains all over it. The SUV was traced and found to have been originally owned by Abdul Hakim Grande. On September 15th, 2011, four days before Mr.Boniao was dragged into hell, Mr.Grande sold the vehicle to Enrique Goltiao. Mr.Goltiao tells a funny story. According to him, as soon as he bought the red Isuzu Adventure (NOT a Mitsibushi Adventure as many have erroneously reported), he turned right around and flipped it to an auto broker whom he knows only by the eponym, or should I instead say "nom de guerre," Gayong. Ridiculously police claim to be focusing on "Gayong" as opposed to hanging Enrique Goltiao up by his thumbs and laying the rattan on him.
Almost immediately after the September 19th abduction the family contacted an old friend, Felix Borromeo, the ex-Mayor of Balingasag, a municipality within Bukidnon Province, who was tied into the local KFR industry. With Borremeo's assistance the negotiations went smoothly but as in all cases resolved within days the Boniao Family ended up paying much more than would normally be the case. Reportedly Mrs.Boniao pushed Mr.Borremeo to pay whatever they demanded so as to not prolong the ordeal. One certainly cannot criticise the woman even if no compelling evidence like her husband's badly bloodied shirt were discovered. As if that wasn't horrendous enough I am sure that Mrs.Boniao was well aware of the infamous KFR of their former business associate, Bennie Longbien Lee. The Tsinoy (Filipino of Chinese descent) businessman's shop was directly next door to Boniao's Peoples Agri Supply. Way back in 1980 Mr.Lee was kidnapped from his place of business, just as Mr.Boniao was. When the family took too long consolidating their money for a steep ransom demand Mr.Lee was executed. Understandably Mrs.Boniao, who personally witnessed her husband's abduction, was in no shape to endure a long and drawn out negotiating process.
Mr.Borremeo did as Mrs.Boniao requested and managed to net a 33% reduction from the kidnapper's first authentic offer of 5.5 Million Pesos. That same day, Saturday, September 24th, he then delivered a "Room and Lodging Fee" of 1.5 Million Pesos ($33,000) to a representative of the KFR group at a local mall. That evening, Mr.Boniao was dropped off in front of his Cagayan del Oro city home in Barangay Carmen's Golden Village Sub-division having taken a habal-habal (motorcycle taxi), after his abductors dropped him off on a hiway in Lanao del Sur Province.
Aside from having been handcuffed during his five day ordeal and almost always under a blindfold, Mr.Boniao was apparently none the worse for the wear although quite often the psychological wounds run a lot deeper and often never heal at all. In Zamboanga City, inside of Camp Navarro, the huge military base that serves as the home of WESMINCOM, or Western Mindanao Command, sits a non-descript turquiose and white concrete bungalow. Not much to look at, it is proof positive that great things often come in small packages. Officially christened "Healing House" it was created through the hard work and tireless effort of a female American expatriate, psychologist Eleanor Lisa Beyea Pomoroy PhD, who spent the better part of a year and a half working at Dr.Torres Memorial Hospital in Lamitan City on the island of Basilan. Her place of employment was the scene of a pivotal ASG, or Abu Sayyaf Group, kidnapping that took place way back in 2001.
Then-leader of the Basilan ASG, Khadaffy Janjalani, younger brother of ASG founder Abdurajak Janjalani, had led his band of sorry misfits in an audacious attack against a high priced resort off of Palawan Island's capital of Puerto Princessa. The kidnapping including three Americans (the Burnhams, Martin and Gracia, a missionary couple, and Guillermo Sobrero, a would be lothario) and high tailed it back south to Basilan.
Landing in Basilan with the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, right behind him Janjalani led his men and their captives to what he thought would be his last stand, inside Dr.Torres Memorial Hospital. Of course Janjalani managed to escape out of there with even more captives thanks to the connivance of local politicians and the local military commander. However, the Palawan abduction, known commonly as the "Dos Palmas Kidnapping," after the pricey resort where it transpired, has become the quinessential expat nightmare. It made such an impression on the female American I mentioned that she launched an initiative that culminated in the creation of the afore mentioned "Healing House." The name refers to a lot more than the modest concrete structure situated catacorner to a food stall, but to the scores of therapeutic programmes that seek to alleviate much of the mental baggage carried by kidnapping victims. Unfortunately the programme ended not long after she returned to the United States but it ought to have set a standard of care for these battered and bruised victims, of which Mr.Boniao surely is one.
Speaking of the Dos Palmas Kidnapping, two brothers from Basilan learned this week that one must always pay for their mistakes. As teens brothers Abu Abdul Aziz Kunting and Abu Akmed Kunting joined Abu Sayyaf. The decision wouldn't have been too difficult given the island of Basilan's extreme poverty and the Abu Sayyaf's recent kidnapping on Sipidan Island in Malaysia having netted the group more than 20 Million US Dollars coutesy of Libya. So much money was floating around in those days that the US Dollar lost half its value on Jolo Island. In the days after the Dos Palmas Kidnapping they must have seriously questioned their decision. Living in the deep bush in Basilan is incredibly difficult since practically all the island's population lives along its coast. Then, being chased to Zamboanga where the infamous Abu Sobaya ended up going down in a fussilade of bullets...well, you get the picture.
The Brothers Kunting chuckked it away for a new life as Robert and Jason Tan, respectively. Now living as Christians they gravitated towards Davao Region and it was there that the AFP's MIGs (Military Intelligence Group) 9 and 11, backed by the 28IB (Infantry Battalion) and the 104th Military Intelligence Company found them on September 23rd, 2011. Living in a non-descript thatched hut (nipa) in the municipality of Mati's Barangay Matiao in Davao Oriental Province, the two were taken on warrants out of Regional Trial Court #9 in Zamboanga City for Illegal Detention and Kidnapping in the Dos Palmas Kidnapping. The past ALWAYS catches up with you.
Showing posts with label Mati. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mati. Show all posts
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
NPA Armed Contacts for the Third Quarter of 2011, Part VI: Davao Region Turns Hot Again
After a sweet quiet spell, albeit far too brief, the NPA's SMRC, or Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, has once again greased up its rifles and begun making itself heard. On September 17th in Davao City's Barangay Paradise Embac in Paquibato District the NPA's PBC1, or 1st Pulang Bagani Company (1st Red Warrior Company) harried a combat patrol from the AFP's (Armed Forces of the Philippines) 69IB (Infantry Battalion). As the AFP detachment entered Sitio Guinobatan in Purok #7 the NPA targetted it with sniper fire. The AFP denied that any casualties had been incurred but after the NPA released claims that it had managed to kill one soldier the AFP sheepishly admitted that, yes, it had in fact suffered a single casualty but that it was a very minor wound when a single round grazed an extremity...Suuuuuure, don't worry, I won't tell anyone.
Speaking of Barangay Paradise Embac, the outlying settlement recently became the focus of an interesting debate in the Davao City Municipal Council when Councilors Leah Librado Yap and Jimmy Dureza co-authored a Resolution seeking to oust a garrison of the 69IB from a post located nearly 300 meters away from the Paradise Embac Annex Primary Elementary School. The NPA and its puppets, including Councilor Yap who is herself a member of Bayan, a legal above board political party doing the bidding of the NPA and its political arm, the CPP or Communist Party of the Philippines, is of course opposed to any AFP control within the long established, albeit technically unofficial, NPA Territory in that district, Paquibato, along with two adjoining districts. The garrison has been on site since 2002 and yet this past Spring, 2011, the NPA and its coterie of multi-sectoral front organisations got a gigantic bee in their bonnet about its existence, as if they had gone to bed the night before only to discover an AFP post smack dab in the middle of "their" territory.
According to the Resolution, which passed its first of three Readings on August 16th, it hopes to take aim at the emplacement and its checkpoint on the road in front of the school because it is placing both students and their teachers in grave danger. Vice Mayor Rodrigo "Roddy" Duterte has interestingly defended the emplacement saying that his friends, the NPA, do not attack schools NOR children and so the garrison endangers nobody. I suppose Big Daddy Duterte failed in Logic 101 on his way into Law School because those rationalisations mean absolutely nothing. By placing armed men in proximity to small children you are automatically placing the children in danger. How much more so when there are two competing armed groups in that area? Even more interestingly, his daughter, the MAYOR, Sarah "Inday" Duterte Carpio has ALSO come out in support of the military post. Though Vice Mayor Duterte has long enabled the NPA to play house in three of his city's districts Mayor Carpio had gone much further and actually tried to have the military, aside from the anti-terrorism Task Force Davao, pulled out of the city. This nearly 360 degree turn is quite marked and all the more so when one realises that she had had to sign off on the military operation that captured the NPA's main camp in the Davao Region, but alas THAT sordid tale must be relegated to a subsequent entry.
At about the same time as the NPA began sniping in Davao City another NPA element in the municipality of Malita in that same province as Davao City, Davao del Sur, another of the AFP's "security patrols" stumbled upon 20 NPA guerillas in that town's Barangay Datu Danwata's Sitio Tambolang. The 30 minute firefight that ensued led to the AFP capturing one M1 rifle and 4 IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (as in "bombs"). Interestingly the military is claiming that two of the devices aren't IEDs at all but rather Claymore Mines. Claymores, or M18s in American speak, are still controlled detonation devices as opposed to pressure plate mines that detonate when something steps on, or rolls over the device. This distinction is extremely important because the AFP engages in ignorant propaganda attacks against the NPA in which it claims that the Maoist guerillas are breaking International Law by utilising landmines.
First, even if the NPA engaged in non-controlled detonation devices, it still would not be contravening any part of LOAC, or the Laws of Armed Conflict, the genre within International Law that applies to warfare. There are widely adhered to treaties, Ottawa for example, in which nations that have ratified the treaty are then bound by International Law not to use such devices. I definitely view such treaties as positive to the nth degree but with controlled detonation there is no discernible chance of "accidentally" killing a group of children as they walk to school or even a peasant family's caraboa (Philippine water buffalo) because in a controlled detonation a person detonates the device from a close distance almost always within the detonation's line of sight. Ergo, even if the NPA had some acquired Claymores, and I highly doubt it since they haven't externally sourced weaponry since the mid-1970s (and never, ever in Mindanao), they wouldn't be illegal. The use of the word "landmine" in and of itself lends definite connotations to laymen. They naturally envision pressure detonated devices. This is why the AFP spin meisters cling to that ignorant phrasing. It is a shame because just in its day to day actions the NPA is guilty enough of many things. Yet, when you disseminate FALSE PROPAGANDA and people see through it you then lose all credibility.
The AFP has entered the age of Political Correctness where combat patrols have become "security patrols in support of PDTs." PDTs, or Peace and Development Teams, are the cornerstone of the AFP's new gameplan, OPlan Bayanihan, or Operational Plan Bayanihan (Operational Plan Helping Hand), which turned the traditional AFP ethos on its head. Whereas in the past, under the preceding OPlan Bantay Laya II (Operational Plan Guarding the Nation II) and all preceding OPlans, the COIN, or Counterinsurgency strategy has always been an 80:20 combination of Tactical Engagement:Hearts and Minds Engagement, Bayanihan has the 80:20 skewed into a converse dynamic as Hearts and Minds:Tactical Engagement. For the uninitiated, "Hearts and Minds" refers to actions and programmes designed to win over the "hearts and minds" of civilians in CAAs, or Conflict Affected Areas (not to be confused with the AFP COIN Tactical cornerstone, Civilian Active Auxiliaries like CAFGU, et cetera).
The idea is to defeat the NPA on its strongest facet, its Mass Base of Support. Mass Base of Support refers to peasants and others on the bottom part of the Philippine socio-economic totem pole who offer the NPA support both emotionally as well as materialy. For example, the farming family who happily hands over a half kilo of rice because he or she sympathises with the NPA's goals and outlook. Usually the NPA finds it easy to win such people over because the Maoists are the first outsiders who have ever taken even a scant interest in their needs or concerns. The state cannot be said to have "failed" such people because in almost all cases the state has never even stopped to consider such people exist EXCEPT when divvying up their lands for mineral and timber extraction. There is an old adage in COIN, "Insurgency begins where good roads end."
So, in Hearts and Minds Operations the Government wishes to win over these heretofore ignored citizens by providing marked improvements in their lives. This is done via MEDCAPs, DENCAPs, and VETCAPs, where the military, either by itself or by teaming up with charitable institutions, organisations, and individuals provides no-cost medical, dental and vetinary care for the peasants and their livestock. Schools are built or otherwise rehabilitated and/or expanded if extant. Farm to Market Roads and in the case with offshore islands, Circumfrential Roads which link communities by land where heretofore they have been 100% reliant upon seatravel are constructed and so communities do see their lives vastly improved.
Sounds fine but one needs to understand that the Government is not operating out of altruism but rather with a medium range plan that offers no real supportive infrastructure to make these improvements sustainable over the long haul. You are told that the military's engineering battalions have built a new Farm to Market Road but a few locals may see it very differently. A tribal leader may see that his tribe is now threatened by the consumerist materiel-centred culture that has defined much of the modern Philippines. Villagers may see it as the Access Road it so often is, helping to spped up the Development Aggression that has destroyed so much of Mindanao's once pristine environment.
In the autumnn of 2010 the AFP launched its first PDT. With three weeks of training nine man teams are deployed into targetted communities. They usually garrison themselves in schools, houses of worship or even private homes. They blanket a barangay and engage in a very intrusive surveying process in what amounts to a naked grab for intelligence though the military, lying through its teeth swears it is to zero in on a given community's needs. Often the questioning even focuses on the average amount of food consumed by a given family in any random month so that just as in Hamleting sustenance is measured so as to control diversion to the NPA.
This Summer, 2011, the AFP expanded its PDP programme to include the villagers themselves working side by side. On August 21st 118 civilians graduated from a three day seminar on their role(s) within the PDT programme. The ceremony in the municipality of Mati's municipal gymnasium in Davao Oriental Province featured that province's Governor del Rosario giving the keynote speech. The PDT programme, which began in Davao Region in the Autumn of 2010 has now gone nationwide after becoming the key protocol within OPlan Bayanihan.
Speaking of Barangay Paradise Embac, the outlying settlement recently became the focus of an interesting debate in the Davao City Municipal Council when Councilors Leah Librado Yap and Jimmy Dureza co-authored a Resolution seeking to oust a garrison of the 69IB from a post located nearly 300 meters away from the Paradise Embac Annex Primary Elementary School. The NPA and its puppets, including Councilor Yap who is herself a member of Bayan, a legal above board political party doing the bidding of the NPA and its political arm, the CPP or Communist Party of the Philippines, is of course opposed to any AFP control within the long established, albeit technically unofficial, NPA Territory in that district, Paquibato, along with two adjoining districts. The garrison has been on site since 2002 and yet this past Spring, 2011, the NPA and its coterie of multi-sectoral front organisations got a gigantic bee in their bonnet about its existence, as if they had gone to bed the night before only to discover an AFP post smack dab in the middle of "their" territory.
According to the Resolution, which passed its first of three Readings on August 16th, it hopes to take aim at the emplacement and its checkpoint on the road in front of the school because it is placing both students and their teachers in grave danger. Vice Mayor Rodrigo "Roddy" Duterte has interestingly defended the emplacement saying that his friends, the NPA, do not attack schools NOR children and so the garrison endangers nobody. I suppose Big Daddy Duterte failed in Logic 101 on his way into Law School because those rationalisations mean absolutely nothing. By placing armed men in proximity to small children you are automatically placing the children in danger. How much more so when there are two competing armed groups in that area? Even more interestingly, his daughter, the MAYOR, Sarah "Inday" Duterte Carpio has ALSO come out in support of the military post. Though Vice Mayor Duterte has long enabled the NPA to play house in three of his city's districts Mayor Carpio had gone much further and actually tried to have the military, aside from the anti-terrorism Task Force Davao, pulled out of the city. This nearly 360 degree turn is quite marked and all the more so when one realises that she had had to sign off on the military operation that captured the NPA's main camp in the Davao Region, but alas THAT sordid tale must be relegated to a subsequent entry.
At about the same time as the NPA began sniping in Davao City another NPA element in the municipality of Malita in that same province as Davao City, Davao del Sur, another of the AFP's "security patrols" stumbled upon 20 NPA guerillas in that town's Barangay Datu Danwata's Sitio Tambolang. The 30 minute firefight that ensued led to the AFP capturing one M1 rifle and 4 IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (as in "bombs"). Interestingly the military is claiming that two of the devices aren't IEDs at all but rather Claymore Mines. Claymores, or M18s in American speak, are still controlled detonation devices as opposed to pressure plate mines that detonate when something steps on, or rolls over the device. This distinction is extremely important because the AFP engages in ignorant propaganda attacks against the NPA in which it claims that the Maoist guerillas are breaking International Law by utilising landmines.
First, even if the NPA engaged in non-controlled detonation devices, it still would not be contravening any part of LOAC, or the Laws of Armed Conflict, the genre within International Law that applies to warfare. There are widely adhered to treaties, Ottawa for example, in which nations that have ratified the treaty are then bound by International Law not to use such devices. I definitely view such treaties as positive to the nth degree but with controlled detonation there is no discernible chance of "accidentally" killing a group of children as they walk to school or even a peasant family's caraboa (Philippine water buffalo) because in a controlled detonation a person detonates the device from a close distance almost always within the detonation's line of sight. Ergo, even if the NPA had some acquired Claymores, and I highly doubt it since they haven't externally sourced weaponry since the mid-1970s (and never, ever in Mindanao), they wouldn't be illegal. The use of the word "landmine" in and of itself lends definite connotations to laymen. They naturally envision pressure detonated devices. This is why the AFP spin meisters cling to that ignorant phrasing. It is a shame because just in its day to day actions the NPA is guilty enough of many things. Yet, when you disseminate FALSE PROPAGANDA and people see through it you then lose all credibility.
The AFP has entered the age of Political Correctness where combat patrols have become "security patrols in support of PDTs." PDTs, or Peace and Development Teams, are the cornerstone of the AFP's new gameplan, OPlan Bayanihan, or Operational Plan Bayanihan (Operational Plan Helping Hand), which turned the traditional AFP ethos on its head. Whereas in the past, under the preceding OPlan Bantay Laya II (Operational Plan Guarding the Nation II) and all preceding OPlans, the COIN, or Counterinsurgency strategy has always been an 80:20 combination of Tactical Engagement:Hearts and Minds Engagement, Bayanihan has the 80:20 skewed into a converse dynamic as Hearts and Minds:Tactical Engagement. For the uninitiated, "Hearts and Minds" refers to actions and programmes designed to win over the "hearts and minds" of civilians in CAAs, or Conflict Affected Areas (not to be confused with the AFP COIN Tactical cornerstone, Civilian Active Auxiliaries like CAFGU, et cetera).
The idea is to defeat the NPA on its strongest facet, its Mass Base of Support. Mass Base of Support refers to peasants and others on the bottom part of the Philippine socio-economic totem pole who offer the NPA support both emotionally as well as materialy. For example, the farming family who happily hands over a half kilo of rice because he or she sympathises with the NPA's goals and outlook. Usually the NPA finds it easy to win such people over because the Maoists are the first outsiders who have ever taken even a scant interest in their needs or concerns. The state cannot be said to have "failed" such people because in almost all cases the state has never even stopped to consider such people exist EXCEPT when divvying up their lands for mineral and timber extraction. There is an old adage in COIN, "Insurgency begins where good roads end."
So, in Hearts and Minds Operations the Government wishes to win over these heretofore ignored citizens by providing marked improvements in their lives. This is done via MEDCAPs, DENCAPs, and VETCAPs, where the military, either by itself or by teaming up with charitable institutions, organisations, and individuals provides no-cost medical, dental and vetinary care for the peasants and their livestock. Schools are built or otherwise rehabilitated and/or expanded if extant. Farm to Market Roads and in the case with offshore islands, Circumfrential Roads which link communities by land where heretofore they have been 100% reliant upon seatravel are constructed and so communities do see their lives vastly improved.
Sounds fine but one needs to understand that the Government is not operating out of altruism but rather with a medium range plan that offers no real supportive infrastructure to make these improvements sustainable over the long haul. You are told that the military's engineering battalions have built a new Farm to Market Road but a few locals may see it very differently. A tribal leader may see that his tribe is now threatened by the consumerist materiel-centred culture that has defined much of the modern Philippines. Villagers may see it as the Access Road it so often is, helping to spped up the Development Aggression that has destroyed so much of Mindanao's once pristine environment.
In the autumnn of 2010 the AFP launched its first PDT. With three weeks of training nine man teams are deployed into targetted communities. They usually garrison themselves in schools, houses of worship or even private homes. They blanket a barangay and engage in a very intrusive surveying process in what amounts to a naked grab for intelligence though the military, lying through its teeth swears it is to zero in on a given community's needs. Often the questioning even focuses on the average amount of food consumed by a given family in any random month so that just as in Hamleting sustenance is measured so as to control diversion to the NPA.
This Summer, 2011, the AFP expanded its PDP programme to include the villagers themselves working side by side. On August 21st 118 civilians graduated from a three day seminar on their role(s) within the PDT programme. The ceremony in the municipality of Mati's municipal gymnasium in Davao Oriental Province featured that province's Governor del Rosario giving the keynote speech. The PDT programme, which began in Davao Region in the Autumn of 2010 has now gone nationwide after becoming the key protocol within OPlan Bayanihan.
Monday, June 27, 2011
NPA Armed Contacts,Second Quarter of 2011,Part V:Front 51 Reeks Havoc in North Cotabato Province and Front 18 Spills Blood in Davao Oriental Province
On June 5th,2011 18 year old Renel Jeff Haganas,an NPA Irregular under Front 51,the Magtanggol Roque Command of the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee (SMRC) and a resident of Makilala in North Cotabato paid the ultimate price for having guided the AFP,or Armed Forces of the Philippines,in its search for Front 51's camp last March.As the teenager was walking in Barangay Biangan his fellow NPA guerillas approached him and shot him in the face.Often times,NPA member or not,the AFP will"interrogate"individuals in an extreme manner after which,no matter your convictions,you aren't left with very much choice but to comply with the military's demands.Having co-operated though,young Mr.Haganas made the fatal mistake of assuming his betrayal would remain undiscovered.The camp in question,in Makilala's Barangay New Israel,wasn't that important.In fact,iit wasn't even in use when the AFP"captured"it,but the act of co-operation isn't taken lightly by the NPA and so the young man was made an example of.
On June 11th Front 51 launched an assault under the command of"Ka Enoy"on a temporary post of the 6DRC,or 6th Division Reconaissance Company,under 1Lt (First Lieutenant) Rito Petinglay in Makilala's Purok #6 in Barangay Batasan.The 30 minute firefight ended up killing PFC.(Private First Class) Arnie Agata but the NPA was unable to overrun the post and so withdrew into the jungle on the lower slopes of Mount Apo.
Two days later,on June 13th,in the municipality of Arakan,also in North Cotabato Province,Front 51 launched an assault on a CAFGU post in Barangay Anapolon but withdrew without success as the CAAs repulsed the assault without incurring,nor inflicting,any casualties.CAFGU,or Civilian Auxiliary Force Geographical Unit,is one of four entities that collectively form the CAA (Civilian Active Auxiliary) programme,which is itself the cornerstone of the AFP's counterinsurgency programme.Members,known as"CAAs,"are enlisted from within the community of deployment.Receiving a minimum of military training they are then issued uniforms and AFP weaponry,usually ancient M1s (Garands).They serve under an AFP NCO (Non-Commisioned Officer) who serves as a cadre but are often deployed rudderless into the field.
That same day,June 13th in the municipality of Magpet's Sito Kata Kulo in Barangay Basak,also in North Cotabato Province, the NPA's Front 51 launched an ambush against two 6 X 6 trucks full of soldiers from the 57IB (Infantry Battalion) as it patrolled that sector.Ten guerillas detonated an IED (Improvised Explosive Device,as in"bomb") that disabled the first of the two trucks and then launched a cross-fire barrage that precipitated a 10 minute firefight.Neither side suffered any casualties before the NPA withdrew into the bush.
The next day,June 14th,the 57IB launched an assault on a nine bunker NPA camp in the municipality of Makilala.After a 3 hour engagement that ended just after 9AM the soldiers were able to lay claim to some very minor IED components and not much else.Five of the bunkers were underground showing that it had been a substantial position but as usual the AFP allowed the NPA a clear route of withdrawal as opposed to actually trying to neutralise their enemy.
On June 15th the AFP launched a major push into Makilala.Deploying most of 3 IBs,the 39th,40th and the 57th,they softened the ground with airstrikes by OV-10 Broncos and MG520 helicopters before unleashing the ground assault on June 16th.On June 13th engagements had created 240 IDPs,or Internally Displaced Persons (i.em"Refugees") but by the 16th there were nearly 3000 who as of today,June 27th,remain in limbo.The AFP finished its operation on June 18th and claimed to have killed 4 NPA guerillas,two of whom they fully identified:
1) Alexander Selano
2) Miguel Oscio
The NPA though says that none of its guerillas were killed and that those two names belong to villagers who are neither dead nor NPA members.Moreover,the NPA claims to have killed 7 soldiers.
On June 25th the Mayor of Makilala,Rudy Goagdan,announced that the municipality was implementing a new programme designed to triage AFP casualties in the field.One would imagine that a huge military like the AFP would have trained combat medics but it does not.Those rare soldiers cross trained as medics are not even equipped to deal with snakebite and so those unlucky enough to be wounded critically in the field more often than not don't make it to the landing point for the long helicopter ride to AFP Hospitals which are only found in Division Headquarters and even then do a piss poor job of caring for their wounded.The programme,"OPlan Sagip Buhay,"or,"Operational Plan Lifesaver,"is also being offered to NPA casualties.It seems that Mayor Goagdan is taking a cue from Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of Davao City.
Some might remember how in another recent"NPA Armed Contacts,Second Quarter of 2011"entry I discussed the AFP's Scout Rangers overrunning a huge NPA camp in the municipality of Cateel in Davao Oriental Province in late May.Among the NPA casualties were 3 guerillas extremely critically wounded.Evacuated by the NPA to a friendly hospital in Surigao del Sur Province their commander was still deeply concerned,especially so because the lone female casualty,Vanessa"Ka Eching"Tropico de los Reyes of Davao City's Calinan District is his lover.Having a working relationship with Vice Mayor Duterte he called in a big favour.Duterte then used the city's helicopter and personally rode on the flight to retrieve the three casualties whom he then delivered to Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City.Duterte's relationship with the NPA has unfortunately served as a model for other city mayors on Mindanao.
Back when Duterte was a City Prosecutor in the mid-1980s he began playing both sides of the fence.At the time Davao City was in open warfare with the NPA,the organisation then having a parallel government that controlled large portion's of the island'sargest city.In 1984 there was an upsurge in vigilantism inspired by NPA Surrenderees (NPA Defectors) who formed Right Wing paramilitaries.By 1986 the most powerful of the Right Wing groups,Alsa Masa,or Masses Arise,was enjoying an annual budget of US 9,000,a fortune even now in local standards,courtesy of the Davao City budget.Taking strategems learned from his father,a long serving governor of Davao Province (originally there was 1 province,long since sub-divided into four) and reached out to the NPA's powers that be.Consigning 4 of the city's outlying rural districts to the NPA,he received in exchange a commitment by the Maoist guerillas not to operate in any other part of the city.Having taken a terrible beating in other city districts the NPA cut its losses and agreed.
Duterte capitalised on the deal by riding it into cityhall in the mayoral elections.Not long after other local warlords cum mayors copied Duterte's gameplan and brokered deals of their own and so cities like Cagayan del Oro,Iligan,Butuan and Zamboanga avoided the bloodshed that has continued to soak the countryside.Another mayor who copied Duterte's deal with the devil was Francisco Rabat,a long serving mayor in the municipality of Mati,in Davao Oriental Province.Just as in Davao City Rabat kept the NPA out of the town proper by offering them carte blanche in rural,outlying portions of his municipality.In 2007 his daughter Michelle Rabat won the mayoral election and simply assumed that her father's agreement was transferrae to her administration.
On June 7th,2011 Ms.Rabat discovered,much to her suprise,that it wasn't.At 7PM that evening the town's newly installed CCTV system (Closed Circuit Television) zeroed in on the city's bus terminal.Located between that terminal and the adjoining public market was a small MPO (Municipal Police Office) post.Standing outside the post was PO3 Alfredo Salva,cradling his M16.The cameras watched as six men walked towards the post,four of them spreading out as sentinels.Two of the men continued walking towards the unsuspecting police officer and as one of them suddenly pointed a pistol at him,the other lunged for his M16.The quick thinking police officer instantly raised the barrel and shot both of them but as he did this one of the four sentinels ran over and shot the officer in the face with a 45 caliber pistol,instantly killing him.He then reached down and pried the M16 from his hands and disappeared into the evening with his three companions,leaving behind the other two guerillas,one of whom had already died.
Of the two NPA guerillas shot by Officer Salva,the fatality was identified as Ramil"Ka Bunso"Sallanes and the critically wounded guerilla was positively identified as Ariel"Ka Gary"Manuray,both of Front 18,the Wilfredo Zapanta Command,Southern Mindanao Regional Committee (SMRC).Manuray was transported to Davao City where he is being held at the same hospital as the aforementioned three wounded guerillas rescused by Vice Mayor Duterte,the Southern Philippines Medical Center.Guarded by AFP soldiers he also lies in critical condition.Mayor Michelle Rabat broke the virtual code of silence on June 25th and discussed the deal her father made.It is no secret to those dealing in the island's counterinsurgency mileu but the fact that the Mayor actually discussed it openly is a huge shock.That she did so hours before Makilala's Mayor Goagdan offered succor to wounded NPA guerillas does make the latter's offer much more understandable.As humane an offer as it is it is troubling that Government officials blur the lines in an already heavily intertwined dynamic.Battling the NPA is difficult enough without having officials cross the line from adversary to ally,all the while skippin disaffected bystander (as if any official on Mindanao could ever be one).
The Church-based sectoral front organisation"Exodus for Peace"is appealing to Major General Segovia of the 10ID (Infantry Division) to release those three NPA guerillas rescued by Vice Mayor Duterte of Davao City.The group reminded Segovia that the NPA always safely releases its AFP and PNP (Philippine National Police) POWs (Prisoners of War).The group says releasing the three would be a wonderful Goodwill Gesture to which Segovia responded that in fact the Government has accorded the NPA many Goodwill Gestures only to have the group repay the Government with bloody attacks.Besides Major General Segovia said,they were charged by the courts on June 5th with Frustrated Murder so it is now a judicial issue.
On June 11th Front 51 launched an assault under the command of"Ka Enoy"on a temporary post of the 6DRC,or 6th Division Reconaissance Company,under 1Lt (First Lieutenant) Rito Petinglay in Makilala's Purok #6 in Barangay Batasan.The 30 minute firefight ended up killing PFC.(Private First Class) Arnie Agata but the NPA was unable to overrun the post and so withdrew into the jungle on the lower slopes of Mount Apo.
Two days later,on June 13th,in the municipality of Arakan,also in North Cotabato Province,Front 51 launched an assault on a CAFGU post in Barangay Anapolon but withdrew without success as the CAAs repulsed the assault without incurring,nor inflicting,any casualties.CAFGU,or Civilian Auxiliary Force Geographical Unit,is one of four entities that collectively form the CAA (Civilian Active Auxiliary) programme,which is itself the cornerstone of the AFP's counterinsurgency programme.Members,known as"CAAs,"are enlisted from within the community of deployment.Receiving a minimum of military training they are then issued uniforms and AFP weaponry,usually ancient M1s (Garands).They serve under an AFP NCO (Non-Commisioned Officer) who serves as a cadre but are often deployed rudderless into the field.
That same day,June 13th in the municipality of Magpet's Sito Kata Kulo in Barangay Basak,also in North Cotabato Province, the NPA's Front 51 launched an ambush against two 6 X 6 trucks full of soldiers from the 57IB (Infantry Battalion) as it patrolled that sector.Ten guerillas detonated an IED (Improvised Explosive Device,as in"bomb") that disabled the first of the two trucks and then launched a cross-fire barrage that precipitated a 10 minute firefight.Neither side suffered any casualties before the NPA withdrew into the bush.
The next day,June 14th,the 57IB launched an assault on a nine bunker NPA camp in the municipality of Makilala.After a 3 hour engagement that ended just after 9AM the soldiers were able to lay claim to some very minor IED components and not much else.Five of the bunkers were underground showing that it had been a substantial position but as usual the AFP allowed the NPA a clear route of withdrawal as opposed to actually trying to neutralise their enemy.
On June 15th the AFP launched a major push into Makilala.Deploying most of 3 IBs,the 39th,40th and the 57th,they softened the ground with airstrikes by OV-10 Broncos and MG520 helicopters before unleashing the ground assault on June 16th.On June 13th engagements had created 240 IDPs,or Internally Displaced Persons (i.em"Refugees") but by the 16th there were nearly 3000 who as of today,June 27th,remain in limbo.The AFP finished its operation on June 18th and claimed to have killed 4 NPA guerillas,two of whom they fully identified:
1) Alexander Selano
2) Miguel Oscio
The NPA though says that none of its guerillas were killed and that those two names belong to villagers who are neither dead nor NPA members.Moreover,the NPA claims to have killed 7 soldiers.
On June 25th the Mayor of Makilala,Rudy Goagdan,announced that the municipality was implementing a new programme designed to triage AFP casualties in the field.One would imagine that a huge military like the AFP would have trained combat medics but it does not.Those rare soldiers cross trained as medics are not even equipped to deal with snakebite and so those unlucky enough to be wounded critically in the field more often than not don't make it to the landing point for the long helicopter ride to AFP Hospitals which are only found in Division Headquarters and even then do a piss poor job of caring for their wounded.The programme,"OPlan Sagip Buhay,"or,"Operational Plan Lifesaver,"is also being offered to NPA casualties.It seems that Mayor Goagdan is taking a cue from Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of Davao City.
Some might remember how in another recent"NPA Armed Contacts,Second Quarter of 2011"entry I discussed the AFP's Scout Rangers overrunning a huge NPA camp in the municipality of Cateel in Davao Oriental Province in late May.Among the NPA casualties were 3 guerillas extremely critically wounded.Evacuated by the NPA to a friendly hospital in Surigao del Sur Province their commander was still deeply concerned,especially so because the lone female casualty,Vanessa"Ka Eching"Tropico de los Reyes of Davao City's Calinan District is his lover.Having a working relationship with Vice Mayor Duterte he called in a big favour.Duterte then used the city's helicopter and personally rode on the flight to retrieve the three casualties whom he then delivered to Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City.Duterte's relationship with the NPA has unfortunately served as a model for other city mayors on Mindanao.
Back when Duterte was a City Prosecutor in the mid-1980s he began playing both sides of the fence.At the time Davao City was in open warfare with the NPA,the organisation then having a parallel government that controlled large portion's of the island'sargest city.In 1984 there was an upsurge in vigilantism inspired by NPA Surrenderees (NPA Defectors) who formed Right Wing paramilitaries.By 1986 the most powerful of the Right Wing groups,Alsa Masa,or Masses Arise,was enjoying an annual budget of US 9,000,a fortune even now in local standards,courtesy of the Davao City budget.Taking strategems learned from his father,a long serving governor of Davao Province (originally there was 1 province,long since sub-divided into four) and reached out to the NPA's powers that be.Consigning 4 of the city's outlying rural districts to the NPA,he received in exchange a commitment by the Maoist guerillas not to operate in any other part of the city.Having taken a terrible beating in other city districts the NPA cut its losses and agreed.
Duterte capitalised on the deal by riding it into cityhall in the mayoral elections.Not long after other local warlords cum mayors copied Duterte's gameplan and brokered deals of their own and so cities like Cagayan del Oro,Iligan,Butuan and Zamboanga avoided the bloodshed that has continued to soak the countryside.Another mayor who copied Duterte's deal with the devil was Francisco Rabat,a long serving mayor in the municipality of Mati,in Davao Oriental Province.Just as in Davao City Rabat kept the NPA out of the town proper by offering them carte blanche in rural,outlying portions of his municipality.In 2007 his daughter Michelle Rabat won the mayoral election and simply assumed that her father's agreement was transferrae to her administration.
On June 7th,2011 Ms.Rabat discovered,much to her suprise,that it wasn't.At 7PM that evening the town's newly installed CCTV system (Closed Circuit Television) zeroed in on the city's bus terminal.Located between that terminal and the adjoining public market was a small MPO (Municipal Police Office) post.Standing outside the post was PO3 Alfredo Salva,cradling his M16.The cameras watched as six men walked towards the post,four of them spreading out as sentinels.Two of the men continued walking towards the unsuspecting police officer and as one of them suddenly pointed a pistol at him,the other lunged for his M16.The quick thinking police officer instantly raised the barrel and shot both of them but as he did this one of the four sentinels ran over and shot the officer in the face with a 45 caliber pistol,instantly killing him.He then reached down and pried the M16 from his hands and disappeared into the evening with his three companions,leaving behind the other two guerillas,one of whom had already died.
Of the two NPA guerillas shot by Officer Salva,the fatality was identified as Ramil"Ka Bunso"Sallanes and the critically wounded guerilla was positively identified as Ariel"Ka Gary"Manuray,both of Front 18,the Wilfredo Zapanta Command,Southern Mindanao Regional Committee (SMRC).Manuray was transported to Davao City where he is being held at the same hospital as the aforementioned three wounded guerillas rescused by Vice Mayor Duterte,the Southern Philippines Medical Center.Guarded by AFP soldiers he also lies in critical condition.Mayor Michelle Rabat broke the virtual code of silence on June 25th and discussed the deal her father made.It is no secret to those dealing in the island's counterinsurgency mileu but the fact that the Mayor actually discussed it openly is a huge shock.That she did so hours before Makilala's Mayor Goagdan offered succor to wounded NPA guerillas does make the latter's offer much more understandable.As humane an offer as it is it is troubling that Government officials blur the lines in an already heavily intertwined dynamic.Battling the NPA is difficult enough without having officials cross the line from adversary to ally,all the while skippin disaffected bystander (as if any official on Mindanao could ever be one).
The Church-based sectoral front organisation"Exodus for Peace"is appealing to Major General Segovia of the 10ID (Infantry Division) to release those three NPA guerillas rescued by Vice Mayor Duterte of Davao City.The group reminded Segovia that the NPA always safely releases its AFP and PNP (Philippine National Police) POWs (Prisoners of War).The group says releasing the three would be a wonderful Goodwill Gesture to which Segovia responded that in fact the Government has accorded the NPA many Goodwill Gestures only to have the group repay the Government with bloody attacks.Besides Major General Segovia said,they were charged by the courts on June 5th with Frustrated Murder so it is now a judicial issue.
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