As I have often noted, the NPA's Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, or SMRC, long ago entered into a marriage of convnience with local warlord Rodrigo "Roddy" Duterte. The son of a fomer governor of what was then the unified province of Davao, the father of current Davao City Mayor Sarah "Inday" Duterte Carpio, a city he himself currently serves as its Vice Mayor. While working as a City Prosecutor there in the mid-1980s, Duterte naturally ran across a good many members of the NPA, and its political wing, the CPP, or Communist Party of the Philippines.
When Roddy decided to run for Mayor at the tail end of that same decade, he utilized one particular relationship with a high ranking member of the NPA in Davao City, Leonicio Pitao, better known by his nom de guerre, "Ka Parago.".The majority of the city's poorest areas had become battlegrounds between the NPA, its urban assaaination element, the SPARU (Special Armed Red Partisan Units), the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and its ultra-right wing extremist organizations, like Alsa Masa (Masses Arise). In exchange for relegating all NPA activities to three outlying districts of Davao City, Roddy would offer overt assistance in the form of cash, material, and intelligence. That quid pro quo remains in effect today.
Unlike her father, current Mayor Sarah "Inday" Durerte Carpio, has failed to maintain that same mutually beneficial relationship with the NPA. Things began well enough when Mayor Duterte Carpio entered office in June of 2010. Despite serving as a senior officer in the AFP Reserves, Carpio played hardball with the 69IB (Infantry Battalion), threatening to withdraw Davao City's share of financial support for the 69's COIN (Counterinsurgency) program in the city's outlying Paquibato District, one of the three aforementioned districts that her father, current Vice Mayor Rodrigo "Roddy" Duterte had surrendered-for all intensive purposes-to the NPA. Mayor Duterte Carpio was livid over the 69's kinetic operations which, in her absolutely ignorant opinion, were utilized far too freely. In the waning days of OPlan Bantay Laya II, the irate Mayor decided to take a stand...so what if she single handedly reversed six years of AFP gains made in Paquibato, and by relation-since that district is the lynchpin in the NPA occupation of the three contigious districts-all of Davao City.
For Christmas of 2010 Mayor Duterte Carpio accompanied her father, the Vice Mayor, to Ka Parago's (then) main camp, on a forest covered ridge above Paquibato District. As is always the case, Duterte came without his security detachment. That festive occasion would mark the high point in Mayor Duterte's relationship with the NPA. From
there it was a steady decline although Carpio did get some face time with Parago two months later when she once again accompanied her father in another visit to Paquibato. In this latter meeting Duterte stayed outside a villager's hut where Parago, his Political Secretary Ka Benjamin, and Mayor Carpio hashed out each other's wish lists.
February 6th, 2011 an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) set by the NPA's 1st Pulang Bagani Company detonated in an ambush of a supply convoy serving posts manned by the 69IB (Infantry Battalion). Mayor Carpio had been scheduled
to appear at an outreach program later in the day. Pitao took the extraordinary step of personally issuing a statement on the ambush. He pointed out that the detonation occurred in Purok #5, in Paquibato's Barangay Mapula. In conyrast, Mayor Carpio's planned route was many kilometers from the blast site.
The issue that has best defined Mayor Carpio's interaction with the NPA has neen the outcry ovet the 69IB garrisoning a detachment on the grounds of the Paradise Embac Annex Primary School, in Paquibato District's Barangay Paradise Embac. Three City Councilors, Kaloy Bello, Leah Librado Yap and Jimmy Dureza have championed the demand made by residents of the NPA-controlled barangay, asking that the 69IB remove the post from school grounds. At the tail end of the Summer of 2011, the issue came to a head as the NPA mass front organization, Karapatan-which bills itself as a human rights NGO-galvanized a wider ranging response to a clear breech of International Law, courtesy of the AFP. Given her history of speaking out against over-militirization in that very district, Mayor Carpio might have been expected to at least try and assuage the very real concerns of school staff, students, and the families of those students. Instead, in her ever increasingly haughty tone, Mayor Carpio not only sided with the AFP, she arrogantly dismissed the concerns expressed by the aforementioned stakeholders.
At that point the NPA did its part in burning whatever proverbial bridges remained. Taking part in a co-ordinated stance that began in September of 2011, when the NDFP member orgabization SELDA (Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Labann sa Detensyon at Aresto/Task Force on Ex- Political Prisoners) attacked Carpio in the local media over an interview she had given in which she had had the audacity-and ignorance-to claim that all Political Prisoners are detained for actual crimes. Then, in an official statement released by the NPA's Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, or SMRC, accused Mayor Carpio of letting power go to her head (and that was the nicest thing it said). The statement, released in December of 2011, was an iota away from a death warrant, branding Carpio as having "bordered on being a counterrevolutionary or reactionary." In fact, it segued into a vicious tirade against Carpio with a laundry list of critical grievances. It was interesting in other ways because it noted how her father, Vice Mayor Duterte, had "in some ways recognized and cooperated in the revolutionary struggle," an "admission" that seemed even more pronounced once Duterte was officialy named an "Observer," and later a "Consultant" for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, or NDFP, the negotiating arm of the CPP/NPA/NDFP Maoist triumverate.
So it was that the customary Christmas slash New Years Truce of the NPA failed to usher in anything new. An uneasy air hanging over Paquibato District left many stakeholders nervously awaiting an armed response by Ka Parago. On January 12th, 2012, the tension broke when Parago's 1st Pulang Bagani Company launched two simeltaneous attacks on a pair of CAA posts. The CAA, or Civilian Active Auxiliaries, are a geographically static armed reserve of the AFP. The CAA element most visible to civilians are the CAFGU, or Civilian Auxiliary Forces Geographical Units. CAFGU posts are manned by residents of the barangay housing that specific post. CAFGU posts are then limited in only being able to operate within the boundries of their specific municipality.
In Paquibato District there is a different type of CAA. Usually listed as CAFGU posts. They are actuallt tribal and clan paramilitaries grandfathered in under the now defunct ISP (Internal Security Plan), "Oplan Alsa Lumad" (Operational Plan Hilltribes Arise). Like CAFGUs they are under the nominal command of am AFP cadre, usually a Corporal. Whereas CAFGU opetate in tandem with an AFP cadre battalion, the tribal paramilitaries often operate independently and as one might imagine, this does at times lead to unhealthy excesses.
On the day in question, at 3AM, two CAA posts in adjoining puroks (a barangay can be sub-divided into five puroks), within Paquibato District's Barangay Malabog, were attacked by two NPA elements. The posts, in Puroks Cababon and Golden Shower (no jokes please, it is an actual purok though for the life of me, I have no idea why it was bequathed that name), were both able to repel the Maoists but with two CAAs being wounded in the process.
CAA Loreto Lireta of Purok Golden Shower, was wounded in his left hand and left side of his chest by shrapnel from a rifle grenade. CAA Anthony Camansi of Purok Cabonbon, was wounded in his right hand.
Showing posts with label Paquibato District. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paquibato District. Show all posts
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Sunday, October 16, 2011
NPA Armed Contacts for the Fourth Quarter of 2011, Part IV: Release of Six Door to Door Salesmen
As I have noted in umpteenth recent entries the current impasse in the GPH-NDFP Peace Process is absolutely centered upon the 1995 Joint Agreement so catchily named "JASIG." The document, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, is a bi-lateral agreement with uni-lateral scope in that its entire reason for being is so that those CPP/NPA members directly involved in the NDFP half of the Peace Process can run around with Mao's "Little Red Book" (or maybe just the Amazon DVD of "Amado Guerrero's Thoughts on Sashimi") without running into an AFP/PNP dragnet that costs him or her several years of their life. In plainspeak, the document is meant to serve as a "Get Out of Jail Free" card for any CPP/NPA member serving as a "Consultant" to the NDFP in the Peace Process.
With well over a dozen "Consultants" still in stir and the JASIG Verification Process having ground to a halt AGAIN on July 25th, 2011, when the NDFP was unable to verify a single member, the GPH Peace Panel said that the jig is up. To retaliate the NPA on Mindnao captured two prison wardens, two prison guards, a mayor, two soldiers, and of course six door to door "banig" (sleeping mat) salesmen who had the misfortune to cross paths with a paranoid NPA cadre while trying to pawn off sleeping mats on the border of Davao City and Bukidnon Province.
The six men:
1) Julieto Sarsaba
2) Ronald Boiles
3) James Mabaylan
4) Ernesto Callo Jr.
5) Segundino Dailo Jr.
6) Nelson Bagares
all residents of Initao, a municipality in Misamis Oriental Province. The men had just about crossed the border into Davao City's Barangay Lumiad, in Paquibato District when ten well armed guerillas from NCMRC's Front 88 stopped them. Suscpiciously the guerillas began interrogating them and not satisfied with the answers given, informed the six men that they were being "captured."
As I have noted ad naseum in other entries, the salesmen's sad twist of fate took place within the AOR, or Area of Responsibility (as in "Area of Operation") of the NCMRC, or Northcentral Mindanao Regional Committee of the NPA. The NCMRC entered existence upon the backs of several hundred murdered cadres, guerillas and simple, uninvolved villagers in the hellish days of Kampanyang Ahos (Garlic Campaign) in which the NPA's Front 12 pulled a Pol Pot and began murdering dozens of its own with tree limbs, hammers, and so on and so forth. Kampanyang Aho's stark paranoia was contagious and so Leyte and Samar in the NPA's Eastern Visayas launched Operation UOD, Southern Luzon (Southern Tagalog) had its own bout of murderous rage, and so on so that by the time it was all said and done more than 3,000 of the NPA,s 25,000 regulars had been offed, to say noting of irregulars and assorted civilians whose only crime was living in an NPA controlled barangay and not giving a rat's as* about the NPA.
Irony isn't always sweet. Co-incidentally, and this does tie in very neatly, the leader of Front 12 who is personally responsible for Kampanyang Ahos was none other than Maria Luisa Pucray who at time used the nom de guerre "Ka Mariam" but who these days is known as "Ka Byul." Ms.Pucray happens to be one of those aforementioned incarcerated JASIG-protected "Consultants." Front 88 contacted the SMRC, or Southern Mindanao Regional Committee's Operational Command, the Merardo Arce Command to notify it that they had just taken six civilians suspected of being AFP assets. An hour and a half later Front 88 was instructed to rendevouz with the Operational Command's armed element, the 1st Pulang Bagani Company who would then take custody of the prisoners once Front 88 had entered Davao City's Sitio Carbon, in Paquibato District's Barangay Lumiad.
The NPA's capturing of these six salesmen was part and parcel of a revised policy on captives. Whereas before captives were rarely held longer than two weeks, the six men, two soldiers, Mayor Dano of Lingig, and four prison employees were all held for at least ten weeks, the point being that IF the Government refused to keep its word vis a vis JASIG, the NPA would show and prove just how easy it was for it to snatch, grab, and hold for months, maybe even years, those serving the Government.
Assured by Vice Governor Norris Babiera of Misamis Oriental Province, the home to all six salesmen, that Manila was about to offer a gesture via the release of the most important NPA slash JASIG detainees BUT ONLY IF the NPA showed that it was willing to compromise as well by releasing its 15 captives on Mindanao. After all but the six were released the NPA then released the six civilians as well along with their collective earnings of P54,075 ($1,000). On Tuesday evening, October 11th, 2011, the 1st Puland Bagani Company brought the six captives to the Davao City-Bukidnon border where the group met with Bishop Felixberto Calang, the Chairman of the NGO, "Sowing the Seeds for Peace in Mindanao," an NGO under the auspices of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, popularly known as "Aglipayan," after the Church's founder,
Bishop Calang then immediately drove all six of the newly released men to Cagayan del Oro City in their home province of Misamis Oriental Province. Upon entering the city they proceeded to an Aglipayan church in that city's Barangay Bulua. There the men's loved ones were waiting as was that province's Vice Governor, Norris Babiera who had assumed the role of negotiator during the 50-odd day ordeal.
To reciprocate the GPH Peace Panel held an unscheduled meeting on Wednesday, October 12th, on the JASIG imbroglio.
With well over a dozen "Consultants" still in stir and the JASIG Verification Process having ground to a halt AGAIN on July 25th, 2011, when the NDFP was unable to verify a single member, the GPH Peace Panel said that the jig is up. To retaliate the NPA on Mindnao captured two prison wardens, two prison guards, a mayor, two soldiers, and of course six door to door "banig" (sleeping mat) salesmen who had the misfortune to cross paths with a paranoid NPA cadre while trying to pawn off sleeping mats on the border of Davao City and Bukidnon Province.
The six men:
1) Julieto Sarsaba
2) Ronald Boiles
3) James Mabaylan
4) Ernesto Callo Jr.
5) Segundino Dailo Jr.
6) Nelson Bagares
all residents of Initao, a municipality in Misamis Oriental Province. The men had just about crossed the border into Davao City's Barangay Lumiad, in Paquibato District when ten well armed guerillas from NCMRC's Front 88 stopped them. Suscpiciously the guerillas began interrogating them and not satisfied with the answers given, informed the six men that they were being "captured."
As I have noted ad naseum in other entries, the salesmen's sad twist of fate took place within the AOR, or Area of Responsibility (as in "Area of Operation") of the NCMRC, or Northcentral Mindanao Regional Committee of the NPA. The NCMRC entered existence upon the backs of several hundred murdered cadres, guerillas and simple, uninvolved villagers in the hellish days of Kampanyang Ahos (Garlic Campaign) in which the NPA's Front 12 pulled a Pol Pot and began murdering dozens of its own with tree limbs, hammers, and so on and so forth. Kampanyang Aho's stark paranoia was contagious and so Leyte and Samar in the NPA's Eastern Visayas launched Operation UOD, Southern Luzon (Southern Tagalog) had its own bout of murderous rage, and so on so that by the time it was all said and done more than 3,000 of the NPA,s 25,000 regulars had been offed, to say noting of irregulars and assorted civilians whose only crime was living in an NPA controlled barangay and not giving a rat's as* about the NPA.
Irony isn't always sweet. Co-incidentally, and this does tie in very neatly, the leader of Front 12 who is personally responsible for Kampanyang Ahos was none other than Maria Luisa Pucray who at time used the nom de guerre "Ka Mariam" but who these days is known as "Ka Byul." Ms.Pucray happens to be one of those aforementioned incarcerated JASIG-protected "Consultants." Front 88 contacted the SMRC, or Southern Mindanao Regional Committee's Operational Command, the Merardo Arce Command to notify it that they had just taken six civilians suspected of being AFP assets. An hour and a half later Front 88 was instructed to rendevouz with the Operational Command's armed element, the 1st Pulang Bagani Company who would then take custody of the prisoners once Front 88 had entered Davao City's Sitio Carbon, in Paquibato District's Barangay Lumiad.
The NPA's capturing of these six salesmen was part and parcel of a revised policy on captives. Whereas before captives were rarely held longer than two weeks, the six men, two soldiers, Mayor Dano of Lingig, and four prison employees were all held for at least ten weeks, the point being that IF the Government refused to keep its word vis a vis JASIG, the NPA would show and prove just how easy it was for it to snatch, grab, and hold for months, maybe even years, those serving the Government.
Assured by Vice Governor Norris Babiera of Misamis Oriental Province, the home to all six salesmen, that Manila was about to offer a gesture via the release of the most important NPA slash JASIG detainees BUT ONLY IF the NPA showed that it was willing to compromise as well by releasing its 15 captives on Mindanao. After all but the six were released the NPA then released the six civilians as well along with their collective earnings of P54,075 ($1,000). On Tuesday evening, October 11th, 2011, the 1st Puland Bagani Company brought the six captives to the Davao City-Bukidnon border where the group met with Bishop Felixberto Calang, the Chairman of the NGO, "Sowing the Seeds for Peace in Mindanao," an NGO under the auspices of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, popularly known as "Aglipayan," after the Church's founder,
Bishop Calang then immediately drove all six of the newly released men to Cagayan del Oro City in their home province of Misamis Oriental Province. Upon entering the city they proceeded to an Aglipayan church in that city's Barangay Bulua. There the men's loved ones were waiting as was that province's Vice Governor, Norris Babiera who had assumed the role of negotiator during the 50-odd day ordeal.
To reciprocate the GPH Peace Panel held an unscheduled meeting on Wednesday, October 12th, on the JASIG imbroglio.
Monday, October 10, 2011
GPH-NDFP Peace Process for the Third Quarter, Part IV: Rodrigo Duterte Takes Off his Mask
For the longest I have been discussing Davao City warlord Rodrigo "Roddy" Duterte and his "friendship" with the NPA. Duterte, currently serving as Davao City's Vice Mayor under his daughter, Bench Warmer- I mean- Mayor, Sarah "Inday" Duterte Carpio makes no secret of his respect and admiration of the Maoist NPA and its objectives. Soon after first gaining power in the city in the late 1980s Duterte entered into what was initially a relationship of convenience with local NPA leader Leonicio Parago who is much better known by his nom de guerre "Ka Parago."
At the time much of Davao City was a battlefield with the NPA and various state sponsored paramilitaries duking it out with the non-combatants serving as cannon fodder for both sides. Enter Rodrigo Duterte. The son of a former provincial governor Duterte learned to play the game early on. Graduating law school he became a city prosecutor in Davao City, or what used to be called a City Fiscal, after a short stint as an instructor at the PNP, or Philippine National Police Academy in Manila. It was in this capacity that Duterte first came close to the NPA. By the end of 1985 Duterte's mother Soledad, known popularly as "Nanay Soleng," had fortuitously become the Davao Regional Chairperson of Corazon "Cory" Aquino's "Yellow Friday Movement." At the time Duterte himself had risen in the City Fiscal Office to the position of Special Counsel, charged with dealing with detained high ranking NPA figures. These two parallel tracks converged in 1986 when newly elected President Cory Aquino had Duterte appointed OIC (Officer in Charge) Vice Mayor of the City.
By 1987 Duterte began readying himself for the 1988 Mayoral Election in which he would be bucking the system by running for Mayor against Aquino's hand picked candidate, Zafiro Respicio. Though Duterte held a chance on his own owing to an inherent advantage offered by three other strong candidates besides Respicio throwing their hats into the ring, thus splitting the vote five ways, Duterte naturally sought to solidify his candidacy and therefore came up with a very risky but nevertheless ingenious scheme. As leader of the Aquino political machine in the Davao Region Duterte's mother became, in 1986, the Government's Chairperson in the brand new GPH-NDFP Peace Process which ridiculously had been engineered at the sub-regional level, as if a nationwide peace process wouldn't be complicated enough in a country with hundreds of ethnicities and languages (of course in those days the GPH was still the "GRP" and the NDFP was still the "NDF"). This position allowed Duterte, by tagging along with his mother, to capitalise on relationships already made in his role as Special Counsel at the City Fiscal's Office.
So it was that the NPA and Duterte made their "deal." In exchange for the NPA guaranteeing Duterte the vote in all NPA controlled barangays and districts Duterte vowed to run interference on the Government's side in allowing the NPA to carve out a large enclave comprising three of the city's outlying districts, an arrangement that exists until the present. Aside from merely gaining power Duterte, much to his credit, realised that he could use that initial deal as the foundation of a far more important arrangement that would benefit the entire region above and beyond Duterte's own narrow and purient interests. When he won election as Mayor in 1988 Duterte realised that the only way to build a power base in which his role was non-negotiable was to first, end the bloodshed that turned Davao City into the nation's most violent municipality bar none. Then, after reversing the municipality's status into that of a peaceful and stable community, make it conducive to investment and that Pilippine Holy Grail, "Peace and Development." Again, to his credit, Duterte had realised something most Philippine officials have yet to understand, "Peace and Development" is a universal value that must be applicable to ALL demographic shareholders. IF Bisaya, as the Christians on Mindanao are usually collectively labeled, needed to enjoy a stable, peaceful environment, so did the Moros, as the Filipino Muslims on Mindanao are collectively labeled. If Liberal Democratic groups desired employment opportunities with long term security, so did the multi-sectoral front organisations backing the NPA. Ergo, Duterte set about meeting all his constituents' needs.
Meeting with emmisaries of Ka Parago Duterte eventually brokered an agreement that relegated the NPA to those same aforementioned three city districts:
1) Paquibato
2) Toril
3) Marilog
and to a lesser extent the districts of Baguio and Calinan. In these three districts Duterte gave the NPA carte blanche to run a parallel government and run it as they saw fit. While Duterte couldn't do much in the way of keeping the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, out of the NPA enclave it has often run heavy interference, most notably in the Summer of 2010 when, under Duterte's daughter, Mayor Carpio, the city withdrew its funding and co-operation for AFP tactical operations within the entire city (aside from the anti-terrorism Task Force Davao). Since then the city government and the AFP have managed to reconcile to an uneasy working relationship with each "respecting" the others' strong ideological stance but there is still no co-operation.
Vice Mayor Duterte betrays his position with little regard to what others will think or say. Having built Davao City into a bastion of economic stability on the back of his "no principles" political stance he has himself been given carte blanche by the region's movers and shakers. As long as the pesos keep pouring in, Duterte can step on anyone and anything he wants. Part of Duterte's shtick has been acting as the pointman on any NPA captures of Government personnel, anywhere on the island. Because of the warm relationship that the Maoists share with Duterte anyone captured by the guerillas is bery quickly handed off to the NPA "Custodial Front," Front 20, which encamps on the edge of Davao City. However, Front 20, the Conrado Heredia Front took a bad blow in late May of 2011 when the AFP's 6th Scout Rangers Company backed by the 25IB (Infantry Battalion) overan a rendevouz of four NPA Fronts in the municipality of Cateel, in Davao Oriental Province. Since then Front 53, the Herminio Alfonso Command, has assumed the role of Custodial Front though it too also encamps on a different section of Davao City's border.
Whenever the NPA captures a soldier or police officer Big Daddy Duterte "negotiates" their release with the NPA. It is absolutely win:win for Duterte in that it further endears him to the disparate political factions on the island, further entrenches his position as irreplacable peace maker and perhaps most of all, guarantees the publicity loving Duterte gads and gads of media exposure and face time. Conversely, when guerillas find themselves in difficult positions it is Big Daddy who comes to their rescue. When the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, attacked that camp in Cateel and three NPA guerillas were critically wounded (including the lover of Front 20's Secretary, or leader) it was Duterte himself that took a Government helicopter to actually go out and pick up the three wounded fighters. He then had all three flown to Davao City for lifesaving treatment while hundreds, neigh thousands of Duterte's own constituents are too poor to even purchase Tylenon to ease the rigours of child birth.
During the Cristmas Season of 2010 Duterte and Mayor Carpio actually travelled the NPA's regional camp on the outskirts of Davao City's Paquibato District. The NPA has no qualms about capturing mayors and yet Duterte neglected to even bring a single bodyguard. As he said then, he and local guerilla leader Leonicio "Ka Parago" Pitao are "old friends." How much more apparent was it when on, August 29th, 2011, Duterte had supper with NDFP Peace Panel Chairperson, Luis G.Jalandoni. Jalandoni extended an invitation- which Duterte accepted without reservation- to serve as a Resource Person on the NDFP Peace Panel. Normally anyone serving in Government would blanche at such an offer. For one thing, it contravenes the Philippine Constitution and violates at least three laws to say nothing of the serious ethical breeches that would ensue. Anyone even considering such an offer would spend days (at least) consulting both with his or her attorneys as well as well as with Manila. The normal course of affairs a mayor, or vice-mayor, would have to consult the DILG, or the Department of the Interior and Local Government for its guidance and indeed, its permission. Duterte though? The next morning he giddily sent out a Group SMS (a text to all Philippine journalists "approved" by him personally) explaining that he had happily accepted the offer at supper.
On the Sunday morning edition of Duterte's two weekly television shows, "Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa" ("From the Masses, to the Masses" in Cebuano, aka the Bisaya Language) he explained just why he always acts as the pointman when the NPA captures Government personnel but NEVER does so when private citizens are taken by the Maoists, or at least tried to...Vis a vis the six door to door salesman from Misamis Oriental Province who were taken by the NPA's Front 88 of the Northcentral Mindanao Regional Comittee on August 10th, 2011, just before they crossed into Davao City's Paquibato District from the municipality of San Fernando in Bukidnon Province. According to Front 88 the six men:
1) Nelson Bagares
2) James Maybaylan
3) Ronald Boiles
4) Ernesto Callo
5) Segundino Dailo Jr.
6) Julieto Sarsabo
are spies. As "proof" the NPA ridiculously points out that all six men sold sleeping mats (most rural Filipinos don't use beds) and were deep in the bush where settlement is very sparse. Ergo, why would six men congregate in an area where even one man would be hard pressed to sell even two mats in an entire day? Moreover the NPA says, some of the men were telling people they encountered that they were ex-NPA themselves and trying to seduce locals into discussing the NPA in hopes of gleaning intelligence. In my post focusing on the initial abduction of these six men I noted that it was the forbear of the Northcentral Mindanao Regional Committee that was single handedly responsible for the murderous NPA purges that began with Kampanyang Ahos (the Garlic Campaign) in 1985 and soon spread across the entire nation. As I noted then, it seems that the NPA hasn't learned much from its garish mistakes.
The wives of five of the men (only Julieto Sarsabo had noone representing him) travelled to Davao City in late August to personaly beg Vice Mayor Duterte to intercede with his NPA comrades (pun intended) to seek their husbands' safe release. On the show in question Duterte explained that he could not seek the mens' release because he is no longer "objective." Of course Duterte has never been objective when it comes to the NPA, least not since 1988, but his excuse fails to explain why- to my knowledge- he has never once interceded on behalf of private citizens. So, his joining the NDFP Peace Panel now allows Duterte to abdicate his sworn responsibilities to the citizens of the Philippines. I wish I could say that I was shocked or suprised but unlike Duterte, I cannot lie.
However, even I was suprised when Duterte said the following, in Bisaya, "Dili maayo tanawon sa tawa nga moduwa ko ba, mogunit ka sa politikanhong pag-istorya tapos maneuvering sa NPA ug asa positions. That isn't smart." Idiomatically, in English, "I must stop interceding on the part of NPA prisoners because it would be unethical if I continued doing that. Moreover, if I keep travelling to NPA positions in order to intercede, the OTHER SIDE (emphasis is ALL mine) to track my movements and in that way compromise NPA encampments. That isn't smart." So now the Government Duterte has sworn to defend and uphold is "the other side"? I admit, his gall left me dumbfounded. He belongs on the AFP Order of Battle as much as any NPA leader, with a value equal to Ka Parago.
As if all that isn't jaw dropping enough, on the following Sunday, on that same show, Duterte back pedaled furiously saying the following while speaking in English, "One thing I can assure you, I am a Government employee and I swear to defend the Constitution of the Government of the Philippines. I will never, never, and never give an advice that may destroy our land [sic]." Of course Manila had reacted to the preceding Sunday's comments but not nearly as much as it should of. The ignorance represented by Duterte swearing he will never act against the Constitution even as he officialy declares himself aligned with the NDFP, an entity sworn to contravene that same Constitution is beyond words.
At the time much of Davao City was a battlefield with the NPA and various state sponsored paramilitaries duking it out with the non-combatants serving as cannon fodder for both sides. Enter Rodrigo Duterte. The son of a former provincial governor Duterte learned to play the game early on. Graduating law school he became a city prosecutor in Davao City, or what used to be called a City Fiscal, after a short stint as an instructor at the PNP, or Philippine National Police Academy in Manila. It was in this capacity that Duterte first came close to the NPA. By the end of 1985 Duterte's mother Soledad, known popularly as "Nanay Soleng," had fortuitously become the Davao Regional Chairperson of Corazon "Cory" Aquino's "Yellow Friday Movement." At the time Duterte himself had risen in the City Fiscal Office to the position of Special Counsel, charged with dealing with detained high ranking NPA figures. These two parallel tracks converged in 1986 when newly elected President Cory Aquino had Duterte appointed OIC (Officer in Charge) Vice Mayor of the City.
By 1987 Duterte began readying himself for the 1988 Mayoral Election in which he would be bucking the system by running for Mayor against Aquino's hand picked candidate, Zafiro Respicio. Though Duterte held a chance on his own owing to an inherent advantage offered by three other strong candidates besides Respicio throwing their hats into the ring, thus splitting the vote five ways, Duterte naturally sought to solidify his candidacy and therefore came up with a very risky but nevertheless ingenious scheme. As leader of the Aquino political machine in the Davao Region Duterte's mother became, in 1986, the Government's Chairperson in the brand new GPH-NDFP Peace Process which ridiculously had been engineered at the sub-regional level, as if a nationwide peace process wouldn't be complicated enough in a country with hundreds of ethnicities and languages (of course in those days the GPH was still the "GRP" and the NDFP was still the "NDF"). This position allowed Duterte, by tagging along with his mother, to capitalise on relationships already made in his role as Special Counsel at the City Fiscal's Office.
So it was that the NPA and Duterte made their "deal." In exchange for the NPA guaranteeing Duterte the vote in all NPA controlled barangays and districts Duterte vowed to run interference on the Government's side in allowing the NPA to carve out a large enclave comprising three of the city's outlying districts, an arrangement that exists until the present. Aside from merely gaining power Duterte, much to his credit, realised that he could use that initial deal as the foundation of a far more important arrangement that would benefit the entire region above and beyond Duterte's own narrow and purient interests. When he won election as Mayor in 1988 Duterte realised that the only way to build a power base in which his role was non-negotiable was to first, end the bloodshed that turned Davao City into the nation's most violent municipality bar none. Then, after reversing the municipality's status into that of a peaceful and stable community, make it conducive to investment and that Pilippine Holy Grail, "Peace and Development." Again, to his credit, Duterte had realised something most Philippine officials have yet to understand, "Peace and Development" is a universal value that must be applicable to ALL demographic shareholders. IF Bisaya, as the Christians on Mindanao are usually collectively labeled, needed to enjoy a stable, peaceful environment, so did the Moros, as the Filipino Muslims on Mindanao are collectively labeled. If Liberal Democratic groups desired employment opportunities with long term security, so did the multi-sectoral front organisations backing the NPA. Ergo, Duterte set about meeting all his constituents' needs.
Meeting with emmisaries of Ka Parago Duterte eventually brokered an agreement that relegated the NPA to those same aforementioned three city districts:
1) Paquibato
2) Toril
3) Marilog
and to a lesser extent the districts of Baguio and Calinan. In these three districts Duterte gave the NPA carte blanche to run a parallel government and run it as they saw fit. While Duterte couldn't do much in the way of keeping the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, out of the NPA enclave it has often run heavy interference, most notably in the Summer of 2010 when, under Duterte's daughter, Mayor Carpio, the city withdrew its funding and co-operation for AFP tactical operations within the entire city (aside from the anti-terrorism Task Force Davao). Since then the city government and the AFP have managed to reconcile to an uneasy working relationship with each "respecting" the others' strong ideological stance but there is still no co-operation.
Vice Mayor Duterte betrays his position with little regard to what others will think or say. Having built Davao City into a bastion of economic stability on the back of his "no principles" political stance he has himself been given carte blanche by the region's movers and shakers. As long as the pesos keep pouring in, Duterte can step on anyone and anything he wants. Part of Duterte's shtick has been acting as the pointman on any NPA captures of Government personnel, anywhere on the island. Because of the warm relationship that the Maoists share with Duterte anyone captured by the guerillas is bery quickly handed off to the NPA "Custodial Front," Front 20, which encamps on the edge of Davao City. However, Front 20, the Conrado Heredia Front took a bad blow in late May of 2011 when the AFP's 6th Scout Rangers Company backed by the 25IB (Infantry Battalion) overan a rendevouz of four NPA Fronts in the municipality of Cateel, in Davao Oriental Province. Since then Front 53, the Herminio Alfonso Command, has assumed the role of Custodial Front though it too also encamps on a different section of Davao City's border.
Whenever the NPA captures a soldier or police officer Big Daddy Duterte "negotiates" their release with the NPA. It is absolutely win:win for Duterte in that it further endears him to the disparate political factions on the island, further entrenches his position as irreplacable peace maker and perhaps most of all, guarantees the publicity loving Duterte gads and gads of media exposure and face time. Conversely, when guerillas find themselves in difficult positions it is Big Daddy who comes to their rescue. When the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, attacked that camp in Cateel and three NPA guerillas were critically wounded (including the lover of Front 20's Secretary, or leader) it was Duterte himself that took a Government helicopter to actually go out and pick up the three wounded fighters. He then had all three flown to Davao City for lifesaving treatment while hundreds, neigh thousands of Duterte's own constituents are too poor to even purchase Tylenon to ease the rigours of child birth.
During the Cristmas Season of 2010 Duterte and Mayor Carpio actually travelled the NPA's regional camp on the outskirts of Davao City's Paquibato District. The NPA has no qualms about capturing mayors and yet Duterte neglected to even bring a single bodyguard. As he said then, he and local guerilla leader Leonicio "Ka Parago" Pitao are "old friends." How much more apparent was it when on, August 29th, 2011, Duterte had supper with NDFP Peace Panel Chairperson, Luis G.Jalandoni. Jalandoni extended an invitation- which Duterte accepted without reservation- to serve as a Resource Person on the NDFP Peace Panel. Normally anyone serving in Government would blanche at such an offer. For one thing, it contravenes the Philippine Constitution and violates at least three laws to say nothing of the serious ethical breeches that would ensue. Anyone even considering such an offer would spend days (at least) consulting both with his or her attorneys as well as well as with Manila. The normal course of affairs a mayor, or vice-mayor, would have to consult the DILG, or the Department of the Interior and Local Government for its guidance and indeed, its permission. Duterte though? The next morning he giddily sent out a Group SMS (a text to all Philippine journalists "approved" by him personally) explaining that he had happily accepted the offer at supper.
On the Sunday morning edition of Duterte's two weekly television shows, "Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa" ("From the Masses, to the Masses" in Cebuano, aka the Bisaya Language) he explained just why he always acts as the pointman when the NPA captures Government personnel but NEVER does so when private citizens are taken by the Maoists, or at least tried to...Vis a vis the six door to door salesman from Misamis Oriental Province who were taken by the NPA's Front 88 of the Northcentral Mindanao Regional Comittee on August 10th, 2011, just before they crossed into Davao City's Paquibato District from the municipality of San Fernando in Bukidnon Province. According to Front 88 the six men:
1) Nelson Bagares
2) James Maybaylan
3) Ronald Boiles
4) Ernesto Callo
5) Segundino Dailo Jr.
6) Julieto Sarsabo
are spies. As "proof" the NPA ridiculously points out that all six men sold sleeping mats (most rural Filipinos don't use beds) and were deep in the bush where settlement is very sparse. Ergo, why would six men congregate in an area where even one man would be hard pressed to sell even two mats in an entire day? Moreover the NPA says, some of the men were telling people they encountered that they were ex-NPA themselves and trying to seduce locals into discussing the NPA in hopes of gleaning intelligence. In my post focusing on the initial abduction of these six men I noted that it was the forbear of the Northcentral Mindanao Regional Committee that was single handedly responsible for the murderous NPA purges that began with Kampanyang Ahos (the Garlic Campaign) in 1985 and soon spread across the entire nation. As I noted then, it seems that the NPA hasn't learned much from its garish mistakes.
The wives of five of the men (only Julieto Sarsabo had noone representing him) travelled to Davao City in late August to personaly beg Vice Mayor Duterte to intercede with his NPA comrades (pun intended) to seek their husbands' safe release. On the show in question Duterte explained that he could not seek the mens' release because he is no longer "objective." Of course Duterte has never been objective when it comes to the NPA, least not since 1988, but his excuse fails to explain why- to my knowledge- he has never once interceded on behalf of private citizens. So, his joining the NDFP Peace Panel now allows Duterte to abdicate his sworn responsibilities to the citizens of the Philippines. I wish I could say that I was shocked or suprised but unlike Duterte, I cannot lie.
However, even I was suprised when Duterte said the following, in Bisaya, "Dili maayo tanawon sa tawa nga moduwa ko ba, mogunit ka sa politikanhong pag-istorya tapos maneuvering sa NPA ug asa positions. That isn't smart." Idiomatically, in English, "I must stop interceding on the part of NPA prisoners because it would be unethical if I continued doing that. Moreover, if I keep travelling to NPA positions in order to intercede, the OTHER SIDE (emphasis is ALL mine) to track my movements and in that way compromise NPA encampments. That isn't smart." So now the Government Duterte has sworn to defend and uphold is "the other side"? I admit, his gall left me dumbfounded. He belongs on the AFP Order of Battle as much as any NPA leader, with a value equal to Ka Parago.
As if all that isn't jaw dropping enough, on the following Sunday, on that same show, Duterte back pedaled furiously saying the following while speaking in English, "One thing I can assure you, I am a Government employee and I swear to defend the Constitution of the Government of the Philippines. I will never, never, and never give an advice that may destroy our land [sic]." Of course Manila had reacted to the preceding Sunday's comments but not nearly as much as it should of. The ignorance represented by Duterte swearing he will never act against the Constitution even as he officialy declares himself aligned with the NDFP, an entity sworn to contravene that same Constitution is beyond words.
Wednesday, 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.
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