NPA Armed Contacts for the Fourth Quarter of 2011, Part VI: Andap Complex Still Popping Off

Mindanao's Andap Valley sits at the southern end of the Caraga Region, also known as Region 13. Bounded by the peaks of the Diwata Mountains on the Surigao del Sur and Agusan del Sur provincial borders, this remotest corner of Mindanao has long served as the NPA's Center of Gravity on the island, its "heartland" if you will. Under the experienced leadership of Jorge Madlos, now the NDFP Spokesperson for Mindanao, it has remained unaffected by countless operations by the AFP, the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Since the mid-1980s when the so called "Barefoot Priest" Father Frank Navarro walked into the Andap wilderness and raised an M16, the region has been firmly enmeshed in the Governments COIN, or counterinsurgency programme.

Madlos, better known by his nom de guerre Ka Oris (Comrade Oris), is now a senior citizen who literally wears a diaper due to the catheter threaded through his genitals because of a serious kidney disorder. Still, he shows bo sign of weakening and in fact serves as a symbol of NPA perserverence in the face of daunting opposition. The now 43 year old insurgency, often incorrectly labeled "Asia's longest running insurgency," is still seducing scores of the region's young people into going to heel in the area's thick jungles to risk life and limb in defence of an ideology practically none of them even understand. When you have starving, uneducated youth being promised P15,000 ($330) per month, an upper class salary, it is a given that there will be many takers. Virtually all NPA recruits in the NPA's NEMRC, or, Northeast Mindanao Regional Committee- the Regional Command covering virtually all of Andap- are members of Lumad Tribes, Hilltribesmen who sit on the lowest rung of Mindanao's socio-economic ladder.

A basic axiom in COIN doctrine holds that, "Insurgencies begin where good roads end." That line of thinking, mostly true, holds that a lack of economic development- dependent upon infrastructural outlay- is what pushes people into taking up weapons against their government. Indeed, most Lumad have never seen a single Governmental representative OR representation apart from the AFP and/or the PNP, or, Philippine National Police, and then only when they are being maltrated as suspected subversives- or else simply because they are Lumad and therefore viewed as "primitive" or "backwards."

The leadership, the cadres tasked with going into an un-touched settlement and drawing it into the NPA's influence overwhelmingly tend to be young middle to upper middle class intellectuals indoctrinated by multi-sectoral front organisations while at university. This holds true for the entire nation, not only for the NEMRC here on Mindanao. They, unlike the rank and file cannon fodder, operate out of a naïve and misplaced idealism. As another adage tells us, "A man who hasn't become a Socialist by age 20 has no heart. A man who is still a Socialist by age 40 has no brain." Often mis-attributed to England's Winston Churchill, it actually arose with Francois Guizot of France before Socialism even developed. He had used "Republican" where "Socialist" is now used. Yet, that maxim seems to apply to so many people who become enamoured with Leftist ideologies.

Surely anyone with an iota of compassion would be deeply moved seeing the stomach churning poverty pervading so much of Mindanao. Mindanao is the poorest region in an incredibly poor nation, so much so that people here often eat roadkill, IF they eat at all on a given day. With an inattentive and highly corrupt Government many see the NPA as the only ticket out of such hellishness. Unfortunately, the NPA is just as corrupt and just as perverse.

With that happy intro let us see what those idealistic 15,000 Pesos a month cadres and guerillas are up to...

On Tuesday, October 18th, 2011, Ka Mitchie of Front 19A led fifteen of her guerillas in an attack on a post belonging to the 29IB (Infantry Battalion). The post, in the municipality of Marihatag's Barangay Mahaba, in Surigao del Sur Province, defended itself well and managed to repel the onslaught without incurring a single casualty. Typically, the NPA attacks such soft targets in hopes of divesting them of their weaponry. It isn't about territory nor casualty counts for the Maoists, simply about acquiring the tools to create violence. This is why the insurgency has lasted so long but also why it has never progressed. Typically, if an attack hasn't proved successful within the first fifteen minutes the NPA withdraws in small groups going in different directions, separately making their way to a pre-co-ordinated rendevouz point. Ammunition is precious but moreover, anything over fifteen minutes exposes them to Government re-inforcements and exponentially increases their chances of being overrun themselves by counter-attacking soldiers from their original target.

That same day, October 18th, in the SMRC, or Southern Mindanao Regional Committee area of control, at the far southern end of the Andap Valley, Front 20, the Conrado Heredia Command, once again attacked an AFP column on patrol in the municipality of Trento's Barangay New Visayas. The soldiers, from the 75IB, the perennial target of Front 20, managed to turn the tables and almost over-run the entire NPA force of thirty guerillas. Two guerillas were wounded, and although they were able to escape with the help of their mates, they left their weaponry so that the AFP captured one M16 and one Garand M1. In the process however one soldier was also wounded critically.

The capturing of weaponry from the NPA is very important. The NPA has always had more guerillas than rifles. An un-armed NPA guerilla isn't reaking havoc up and down the countryside. Apart from three boatloads of AK47s from China in the early 1970s- two of which were interdicted- the NPA has never had a foreign weapons conduit. Relying on piecemeal captures from soft targets it slowly accumulates long arms but as we see here, they also lose them. Therefore this ebb and flow keeps the NPA from expanding in any substantiative way and moreover, relegates all of Eastern Mindanao into a killing field.

As for the AFP capturing NPA weaponry...In the past the AFP put such a premium on weaponry that each captured assault rifle earned a promotion in rank. That quickly ended though when overly-ambitious soldiers and Junior Officers began murdering non-combatants believed to own such weapons.

NPA Armed Contacts for the Fourth Quarter of 2011, Part II: Release of Lingig Mayor Henry Dano and Two Soldiers from the 75IB

In a prior "NPA Armed Contacts for the Third Quarter" entry I discussed the NPA attack on Mayor Henry Dano's home in the municipality of Lingig in Surigao del Sur Province. In that August 6th, 2011 attack by the NPA's Front 20, the Conrado Heredia Command of the SMRC, or Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, guerillas in plain clothes presented themselves as NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) Agents working a case in that town. As per Standard Operating Procedure the agents merely wished to make a courtesy call on Mayor Dano to apprise him of their presence and reason for it. Dano's residential compound was being guarded with an NCO, or Non-Commissioned Officer, Corporal Alrey de Samparado and a soldier, Private First Class Alan Saban, from the 75IB (Infantry Battalion). The soldier on duty, Saban, allowed three "NBI Agents" to enter the gated compound and was promptly disarmed of both his M16 and his 45 caliber sidearm. The guerillas then re-opened the compound's gate allowing a throng of fellow guerillas into the compound.

Using Saban as a decoy the NPA then infiltrated Dano's home and held him, his family, and his second security escort, Corporal Alrey de Samparado, at gunpoint as they searched the premises for weapons and intelligence. As I noted in my entry "NPA Armed Contacts for the Fourth Quarter, Part I," the usual NPA prisoner is released at the two week mark. As I also noted however, the impasse in the GPH-NDFP Peace Process (Government of the Philippines and National Democratic Front of the Philippines as the umbrela entity encompassing the NPA and its political wing, CPP, or Communist Party of the Philippines is known) has led to significantly longer captivities. The "impasse" revolves around a 1995 Joint Agreement known as JASIG, or the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees. As one might surmise JASIG was designed to protect NPA/CPP members involved in the Peace Process. Unfortunately for Mayor Dano et al the Government has failed to abide by the document with more than a dozen JASIG-protected personalities currently imprisoned in Philippine prisons.

Finally, in the last days of September on NDFP Peace Panel Chairperson Luis G.Jalandoni's fresh from his last sojourn to the Philippines (he is in exile in the Netherlands) both sides managed to make a tad bit of progress on the issue so that on September 28th the NPA ordered the release of Mayor Dano and his two security escorts, Saban and de Samparado. However, their release was put on hold as the AFP continued pushing tactical operations. Finally, on Sunday, October 9th, 2011, the NPA was able to release all three in the municipality of Trento's Barangay Pulang Lupa, in Agusan del Sur Province. At 3PM, in Sitio Upper New Visayas' Purok #5 the NPA's Front 20 held the typical NPA propaganda party with Surigao del Sur Governor Johnny Pimentel doing his part for Manila. At the Governor's side were the three wives of the prisoners who collapsed in tears upon first seeing their husbands enter the jungle clearing.

After the usual rigamorole Mayor Dano was escorted by Governor Pimentel to Davao City for a de-briefing and medical exam while Corporal de Samaparado and Private First Class Saban were driven to Brigade Headquarters in Bislig City, in Surigao del Sur Province. I am sure the last POL, or Proof of Life released by the NPA will be the first thing discussed. In that POL, released at the end of September, both men swore that they were quitting the AFP, and offered heartfelt apologies for their "counter-revolutionary activities" and "crimes against the people." Of particular note AFTERWARDS was an admonishment by the NPA in which it stated on October 6th that although both men were being released on humanitarian grounds, both men owed a "blood debt to the people" and that they were only being given a "conditional release" which left them still liable to execution in the future.

The bee in the NPA's bonnet was that both men, allegedly Military Inelligence assets, had played significant roles in an operation while both were formerly attached to the 36IB in which they were, according to the NPA spin meisters, for the death of a cadre in Front 6 of the NCMRC, or Northcentral Mindanao Regional Committee. Likewise, during their current role as Security Escorts for Mayor Dano and attached to the 75IB they allegedly provided intelligence that led to the 6th Scout Rangers Company and 25IB over running a rendevouz of five NPA Fronts on May 29th, 2011. The meeting, at an NPA encampment in the municipality of Cateel in Davao Oriental Province, led to the lover of Front 20's Secretary, or leader, becoming a quadripalegic. That lover, Vanessa "Ka Enchang" de los Reyes was one of three guerillas personally airlifted by Davao City Vice Mayor slash local warlord Rodrigo "Roddy" Duterte in a Government helicopter so as to get Ms.de los Reyes life saving medical care in Davao City.

IF either man had any real role in that sordid affair I have no doubt that Front 20 members would have already killed them. Front 20, co-incidentally, aside from being the Front operating in the municipality of Lingig, was also the island's Custodial Front. Any prisoner taken on Mindanao was held by Front 20 but with that May 29th operation that responsibility passed to Front 53, the Herminio Alfonso Command of the SMRC. Yet, Mayor Dano and these two Security Escorts were retained by Front 20 more out of logistical needs than anything else. Although Front 53 now holds that role it was already saddled with four BJMP, or Bureau of Jail Management and Prisons' employees who were captured by Front 88 of NCMRC while freeing high ranking cadre Dennis Rodinas on July 21st, 2011. Eventually six civilian prisoners would be added when, on August 10th, Front 88 "captured" six door to door salesmen who, as of this writing on Monday, October 10th, remain in captivity. Therefore Front 20 was delegated the care of Mayor Dano and these two AFP members. Had there been a real connection to Ms.de los Reyes' injuries this wouldn't have been allowed to transpire.