A continuation...
The beleagured Secretary of the Department of Justice, or DOJ, Leila de Lima glibly announced that one of Father Fausto."Pops" Tentorio's killers was now in NBI custody in Manila. The Philippines being what it is, the word "susoect" iscrarely, if ever, bandied about. Not only had there been an "arrest," but the man in custody, Jimmy Ato, was mnone other than the actual shooter himself.
In reality however, things were a great deal different. Contrary to Secretary de Lima's exacting claims, noone had been arrested in the killing, let alone Jimny Ato. Ato was in custody of course, but he had been taken on a 1995 arrest warrant for Arson with Homicide for a crime allegedly committed in the municipality of North Upi, in Maguindabao Province, when Ato had been all of age 16. Having gotten its hands in censuses taken by the AFP, or the Armed Forces of the Philippines PDTs (Peace and Development Teams), the NBI had quickly run each resident of thevtargetted municipality, Arakan, the town in which the killing had taken place, NBI had discovered the aforementioned Arson warrant against Jimmy Ato lying dormant...voila, a fallguy.
Subjected to extreme interrogation techniques-a given in the Philippine scheme of things-Ato quickly played ball. While denying he was the gunman, Ato fingered four other people. In early October of 2011, he said, he had been at a local store when two brothers, casual acquaintances of his- Jose Sultan Sampulna and Dima Maligudans Sampulna- had offered the itinerant mining labourer a chance to earm some decent money for once. Curious, Ato was toldvto join the brothers at a meeting with a local businessman and would be politician, William Buenaflor.
Accompanying the Sampulna Brothers to the Buenaflor home, he was suprised to see that recently named MPO, or Municipal Police Office Director, Senior Inspector Benjamin Rioflorado, also in attendance. According to this initial affadavit by Jimmy Ato, it was the Sampulna Brothers on that Honda Wave motorcycle that ferried the actual killer. The motive behind the killing, according to this affadavit, was Father Tentorio's rabid opposition to a proposed hydroelectric favility on the Pulangui River (Rio Grande de Mindanao). Willian Buenaflor represented a handful of businessnen whob stood to make millions of Pesos each should the hydroelectric project ever reach fruition. Senior Unspector Riofkirado was the broker of the murder contract, fingering the Sampulna Brothers...who in turn recruited Jimmy Ato as a lookout.
Curiously as well, both the NBI and the DOJ began leaking information that Roberto Ato, Jimmy's brother, also played a role in tge murder scheme. In fact, in the narrative that holds Jimmy Ato to be the gunman, Roberto is fingered as the driver of that motorcycle. Alatmed at being supposedly implicated in the killing, Roberto Ato fled Kulaman Valleyband Arakam as a whole and made his way to Kidapawan City where he took refuge with Congresswoman Nancy Catamco (North Cotabato 2nd District). Both Jimmy and Roberto serve as Catamco's local political base. Catamco noted that Roberto had never neen charged but that erroneous allegations could ruin his life.
Just after New Year, 2012, NBI went to court in Cotabato City to press forward with the aforementioned Arson with Homicide warrant from 1995. The motion asked the court to mandate Jimmy Ato to remain within NBI custody until the bureau is ready to move forward in the Father Tentorio. On February 24th, 2012, the NBI did just that, in conjunction with a parallel investigatory agency, Task Force Fausto (led by PRO-12, aka Police Regional Office for Region 12) charging Jimmy Ato, his younger brother Roberto (who remains protected by Congresswoman Nancy Catamco, the Ato political patron), along with both Sampurna Brothers, who up until the present (June of 2012), remain the subject of a manhunt.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Political Developments for the First Quarter of 2012, Part I: Arrest in Father Fausto "Pops" Tentorio's Murder, Kind of...Part 1
As far as the Philippines go, the life of a foreigner holds considerably more cachet than that of any Filipino. In fact, one foreigner's death is significantly more news worthy than a score of Filipino deaths. One might consider that the October 17th, 2011 killing of Father Fausto "Pops" Tentorio makes for an excellent case in point.
As I noted in a Fourth Quarter of 2011 entry, Father Pops was a Roman Catholic priest of the PIME, or Pontificium Institutum Missionum Exterarum Order. PIME priests traditionally missionise in distant and forlorn corners of the world. In Southeast Asia, "distant" and "forlorn" can be rather neatly summed up with just one word, "Mindanao." So it was that Father Pops, a native of Italy, came to find himself living in the municipality of Arakan, in North Cotabato Province. Ministering to Lumad (Hilltribesmen), he often found himself thick in the middle of the NPA Insurgency. Although it will naturally seem counter-intuitive to a great many people, the Philippine Church is more often than not squarely rooted on the Left of the political spectrum. With PIME's fondness for Liberation Theology it is really a no brainer.
Indeed, of three PIME priests murdered on Mindanao, two were killed for their support of the Maoist NPA. In the nearby municipality of Tulunan, Father Tullio Favali, another PIME priest from Italy, was shot to death on April 11th, 1985 in what is probably the nation's most famous murder. A CHDF (Civilian Home Defense Force) unit led by Norberto Manero Jr. had been paid by the municipal government of Tulunan to wrest control of outlying villages from the NPA by any means necessary. Chief among their targets was another PIME priest, Father Peter Geremiah, a man still spending his days working the Lumad in that general area.
When Geremiah did not materialise they focused their wrath on Father Favali. Although it was an extremely violent death by any measure, the circumastances have become mythologised, so warped with macabre fantasy that today, the media continues retelling the tale without an iota of fact checking. Why, everyone knows that the subhuman killer, Norberto Manero Jr., ate Father Favali's brains as a jeepney full of passengers rolled slowly through the intersection in stunned silence...except...that never took place. What certainly happened was that the young Italian priest lost his life in a brutal, extant counterinsurgency campaign. Like Father Pops, Father Favalli's death reverberated not only throughout the Philippines, but throughout the world.
Both slain priests were lionised as martyrs, not only by the Pope, but by secular pundits as well.Their deaths are still discussed by disparate segments of society. It isnt difficult at all to find recognition of either man, or of their personal missions in life. But what of Father Jesus Reynaldo "Rey" Roda? Father Rey, a Roman Catholic priest of the OMI (Oblates of Mary the Immaculate), brutally murdered on Tawi Tawi by Abu Sayyaf in 2008, received a couple of lines in most Philippine news outlet releases, and as for the Pope, Father Rey merely warranted two short paragraphs from a Papal Secretary, Cardinal Tercisio Bertune. Forget about foreign media outlets...Of course, it is narutal that Westerners will care more about events involving other Westerners, just as Manila-based newspapers report in DWI (drunk driving) arrests involving overseas Filipinos in another hemisphere. The curious aspect though, is that Filipinos (usually) could not care less about the brutal bludgeoning and then point blank shooting of a young Filipino priest on a Church altar, a man who disdained all secular politics and did not try to save non-Catholic souls, but will spend countless time and energy over a foreigner who blatantly supported the Maoist Insurgency...and thereby stood neck deep in innocent blood.
To recall, on October 17th, 2011, Father Pops, had walked out of his rectory in Arakan's Our Lady of Perpetual Help, andbwas just getting himself fastened into his Suzuki SUV when a blue Honda Wave motorcycle stopped at the end of the rectory's dirt driveway. A man got off the back of the motorcycle, without removing his helmet, and quickly walked 50 meters down the driveway to the rectory carport. Once he was two meters away from Father Tentorio, now sitting in his SUV, the man removed his helmet, placed it in his left hand, took a 9MM pistole from his waistband and raising his arm, shot the priest once in the abdomen with a standard ballpeen round. Quickly firing six more ballpeen rounds in quick succession, all between the waist and collar bone, he then slowly fired two hollow point rounds into the priest's chest from right next to the body, finally training his pistol on the now dead priest's mouth where he fired a coup de grace with a hollow point.
Placing his helmet back on his head, the gunman then ran back up the driveway to the still idling motorcycle, whose dtiver had been nervously scanning the area from behind his shaded helmet visor. The motorcycle quickly took off as soon as the gunman jumped back aboard.
As I have covered the aftermath of Father Tentorio's killing in that aforementioned Fourth Quarter of 2011 entry, I will simply move along to the meat and potatoes of THIS post, the naming of six suspects and the arrest of one of those men; Without a clue as to who might have committed the killing, but with everybody pointing fingers at each other, the Department of Justice, or DOJ, leaned on the Philippines' top law enforcement body, the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation), to find the killers (as it always has been assumed that there was a cabal behind the murder).
Within days, NBI-12 (NBI Region 12) decided on its "master plan." Deploying undercover agents as street vendors and mining middlemen, ore handlers, they flooded the municipality of Arakan in hopes of gleaning shreds of intelligence. It was a pair of undercover agents posing as ore handlers seeking a possible mining investment in Barangay Kulaman Valley that led to "paydirt," at least in the NBI's version of events. As in any Lumad community, nothing worth happening takes place without the express approval of tribal chiefs, and moreover, tribal elders. In Kuluman Valley, tge dominant tribe is the Teduray, and so the two NBI agents cum mining investors presented themselves to Teduray tribal elders.
Like any good conmen, the "mining investors" dangled promises of riches, infrastructure, and jobs in front of the Yeduray elders and soon found themselves the esteemed guests of the Ato Clan. Shuffled from house to house, the two NBI agents familiarised themselves with the Teduray Community in Kulaman. On December 27th, 2011, the two agents began staying in the household of Jimmy Ato, 31, his 20 year old wife Ritchie, and their pair of toddlers in that barangay's Sitio Ikaw Ikaw. What happened next is highly debatable depending upon who offers up the narrative.
According to the NBI, as the agents settled into the home of Jimmy Ato, another undercover agent, who had been posing as a vendor of Balut (the quinessential Philippine street food, fertilised duck eggs), communicated to the "mining iinvestors" that Jimmy Ato had been running his mouth about having killed Father Tentorio. According to this intelligence, Ato had even remarked that he had found himself so suprised to discover how easy it was to kill a priest. Curiously, this "factoid" did not serve as the basis of an actual criminal investigation. Logically, it would have beena simple endeavour to gain a witness statement (affadavit) and use it as the raison d'etre in an arrest watrant for the ptiest's murder. Instead, before daybreak, on December 29th, both undercover agents pulled 45 caliber pistols on Jimmy Ato as the hapless men slept on the floor beside his young wife and children, having given the best acvomidations in the home to the two "guests," as he had been directed to by duped tribal elders.
As Ritchie and two toddlers watched in horror, the two guests frog matched Jimmy out the front door and began the slow descent to the barangay's only road. Alerted by Ritchie's desperate pleas neighbours rushed to the downslope,trail to try and plead with the two armed men. Identifying themselves as NBI agebts the two men warned onlookers not to intervene lest they too end up marching down the mountainside. Among the fearful onlookers were Ato Clansmen whobrushed to inform Jimmy's brother, Roberto Ato.
Just as the two NBI agents forced Jimmy Ato onto the roadway for the long march into the barangay propet, and their pre-arranged transportation, sniper fire forced the agents, and their prisoner, to take cover behind some roadside boulders. Roberto Ato led several clansmen in an attempt to save Jimmy Ato from what to those present, was still an unknown fate. Often times attackers on Mindabao present themselves as PNP (Philippine National Police), AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines), and yes, NBI agents. Without identification, paperwork, or corroborative evide.ce, the two men escorting Jimmy Ato could be anybody...anybody with semi-automatic pistols trained on their loved one.
After nearly two hours of sporadic exchanges of gunfire, the two NBI agents and their prisoner Jimmy Ato were extricated safely by an NBI convoy that had been alerted by cellphone by one of the beleagured arresting agents. Owing to the sensitive nature of the crime, protocol was bypassed and Ato was driven not to NBI-12 Headquarters, but instead was directly taken to NBI-10 Headquarters, in Cagayan del Oro City. Processed, he was denied proper counsel as qell ad a chance to contact anybody, and was quickly bundled aboard an AFP AC130 transport on a direct flight to Manila. It was at NBI National Headquarters that Jimmy Ato first learned exactly what he faced.
To be continued in "Part 2"
As I noted in a Fourth Quarter of 2011 entry, Father Pops was a Roman Catholic priest of the PIME, or Pontificium Institutum Missionum Exterarum Order. PIME priests traditionally missionise in distant and forlorn corners of the world. In Southeast Asia, "distant" and "forlorn" can be rather neatly summed up with just one word, "Mindanao." So it was that Father Pops, a native of Italy, came to find himself living in the municipality of Arakan, in North Cotabato Province. Ministering to Lumad (Hilltribesmen), he often found himself thick in the middle of the NPA Insurgency. Although it will naturally seem counter-intuitive to a great many people, the Philippine Church is more often than not squarely rooted on the Left of the political spectrum. With PIME's fondness for Liberation Theology it is really a no brainer.
Indeed, of three PIME priests murdered on Mindanao, two were killed for their support of the Maoist NPA. In the nearby municipality of Tulunan, Father Tullio Favali, another PIME priest from Italy, was shot to death on April 11th, 1985 in what is probably the nation's most famous murder. A CHDF (Civilian Home Defense Force) unit led by Norberto Manero Jr. had been paid by the municipal government of Tulunan to wrest control of outlying villages from the NPA by any means necessary. Chief among their targets was another PIME priest, Father Peter Geremiah, a man still spending his days working the Lumad in that general area.
When Geremiah did not materialise they focused their wrath on Father Favali. Although it was an extremely violent death by any measure, the circumastances have become mythologised, so warped with macabre fantasy that today, the media continues retelling the tale without an iota of fact checking. Why, everyone knows that the subhuman killer, Norberto Manero Jr., ate Father Favali's brains as a jeepney full of passengers rolled slowly through the intersection in stunned silence...except...that never took place. What certainly happened was that the young Italian priest lost his life in a brutal, extant counterinsurgency campaign. Like Father Pops, Father Favalli's death reverberated not only throughout the Philippines, but throughout the world.
Both slain priests were lionised as martyrs, not only by the Pope, but by secular pundits as well.Their deaths are still discussed by disparate segments of society. It isnt difficult at all to find recognition of either man, or of their personal missions in life. But what of Father Jesus Reynaldo "Rey" Roda? Father Rey, a Roman Catholic priest of the OMI (Oblates of Mary the Immaculate), brutally murdered on Tawi Tawi by Abu Sayyaf in 2008, received a couple of lines in most Philippine news outlet releases, and as for the Pope, Father Rey merely warranted two short paragraphs from a Papal Secretary, Cardinal Tercisio Bertune. Forget about foreign media outlets...Of course, it is narutal that Westerners will care more about events involving other Westerners, just as Manila-based newspapers report in DWI (drunk driving) arrests involving overseas Filipinos in another hemisphere. The curious aspect though, is that Filipinos (usually) could not care less about the brutal bludgeoning and then point blank shooting of a young Filipino priest on a Church altar, a man who disdained all secular politics and did not try to save non-Catholic souls, but will spend countless time and energy over a foreigner who blatantly supported the Maoist Insurgency...and thereby stood neck deep in innocent blood.
To recall, on October 17th, 2011, Father Pops, had walked out of his rectory in Arakan's Our Lady of Perpetual Help, andbwas just getting himself fastened into his Suzuki SUV when a blue Honda Wave motorcycle stopped at the end of the rectory's dirt driveway. A man got off the back of the motorcycle, without removing his helmet, and quickly walked 50 meters down the driveway to the rectory carport. Once he was two meters away from Father Tentorio, now sitting in his SUV, the man removed his helmet, placed it in his left hand, took a 9MM pistole from his waistband and raising his arm, shot the priest once in the abdomen with a standard ballpeen round. Quickly firing six more ballpeen rounds in quick succession, all between the waist and collar bone, he then slowly fired two hollow point rounds into the priest's chest from right next to the body, finally training his pistol on the now dead priest's mouth where he fired a coup de grace with a hollow point.
Placing his helmet back on his head, the gunman then ran back up the driveway to the still idling motorcycle, whose dtiver had been nervously scanning the area from behind his shaded helmet visor. The motorcycle quickly took off as soon as the gunman jumped back aboard.
As I have covered the aftermath of Father Tentorio's killing in that aforementioned Fourth Quarter of 2011 entry, I will simply move along to the meat and potatoes of THIS post, the naming of six suspects and the arrest of one of those men; Without a clue as to who might have committed the killing, but with everybody pointing fingers at each other, the Department of Justice, or DOJ, leaned on the Philippines' top law enforcement body, the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation), to find the killers (as it always has been assumed that there was a cabal behind the murder).
Within days, NBI-12 (NBI Region 12) decided on its "master plan." Deploying undercover agents as street vendors and mining middlemen, ore handlers, they flooded the municipality of Arakan in hopes of gleaning shreds of intelligence. It was a pair of undercover agents posing as ore handlers seeking a possible mining investment in Barangay Kulaman Valley that led to "paydirt," at least in the NBI's version of events. As in any Lumad community, nothing worth happening takes place without the express approval of tribal chiefs, and moreover, tribal elders. In Kuluman Valley, tge dominant tribe is the Teduray, and so the two NBI agents cum mining investors presented themselves to Teduray tribal elders.
Like any good conmen, the "mining investors" dangled promises of riches, infrastructure, and jobs in front of the Yeduray elders and soon found themselves the esteemed guests of the Ato Clan. Shuffled from house to house, the two NBI agents familiarised themselves with the Teduray Community in Kulaman. On December 27th, 2011, the two agents began staying in the household of Jimmy Ato, 31, his 20 year old wife Ritchie, and their pair of toddlers in that barangay's Sitio Ikaw Ikaw. What happened next is highly debatable depending upon who offers up the narrative.
According to the NBI, as the agents settled into the home of Jimmy Ato, another undercover agent, who had been posing as a vendor of Balut (the quinessential Philippine street food, fertilised duck eggs), communicated to the "mining iinvestors" that Jimmy Ato had been running his mouth about having killed Father Tentorio. According to this intelligence, Ato had even remarked that he had found himself so suprised to discover how easy it was to kill a priest. Curiously, this "factoid" did not serve as the basis of an actual criminal investigation. Logically, it would have beena simple endeavour to gain a witness statement (affadavit) and use it as the raison d'etre in an arrest watrant for the ptiest's murder. Instead, before daybreak, on December 29th, both undercover agents pulled 45 caliber pistols on Jimmy Ato as the hapless men slept on the floor beside his young wife and children, having given the best acvomidations in the home to the two "guests," as he had been directed to by duped tribal elders.
As Ritchie and two toddlers watched in horror, the two guests frog matched Jimmy out the front door and began the slow descent to the barangay's only road. Alerted by Ritchie's desperate pleas neighbours rushed to the downslope,trail to try and plead with the two armed men. Identifying themselves as NBI agebts the two men warned onlookers not to intervene lest they too end up marching down the mountainside. Among the fearful onlookers were Ato Clansmen whobrushed to inform Jimmy's brother, Roberto Ato.
Just as the two NBI agents forced Jimmy Ato onto the roadway for the long march into the barangay propet, and their pre-arranged transportation, sniper fire forced the agents, and their prisoner, to take cover behind some roadside boulders. Roberto Ato led several clansmen in an attempt to save Jimmy Ato from what to those present, was still an unknown fate. Often times attackers on Mindabao present themselves as PNP (Philippine National Police), AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines), and yes, NBI agents. Without identification, paperwork, or corroborative evide.ce, the two men escorting Jimmy Ato could be anybody...anybody with semi-automatic pistols trained on their loved one.
After nearly two hours of sporadic exchanges of gunfire, the two NBI agents and their prisoner Jimmy Ato were extricated safely by an NBI convoy that had been alerted by cellphone by one of the beleagured arresting agents. Owing to the sensitive nature of the crime, protocol was bypassed and Ato was driven not to NBI-12 Headquarters, but instead was directly taken to NBI-10 Headquarters, in Cagayan del Oro City. Processed, he was denied proper counsel as qell ad a chance to contact anybody, and was quickly bundled aboard an AFP AC130 transport on a direct flight to Manila. It was at NBI National Headquarters that Jimmy Ato first learned exactly what he faced.
To be continued in "Part 2"
Monday, June 4, 2012
NPA Armed Contacts for the First Quarter of 2012, Part I: NCMRC Flexes its Muscles Occupying National Hiway During Daylight Hours
NPA Checkpoints on Mindanao's National Hiways is not new, nor is it shocking in the least. Howevet, since 1993 the NPA has never attempted to implement a checkpoint during daylight hours. On Wednesday, January 18th, 2012, at 130AM, the NPA's Front 53 of the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, or, SMRC in shorthand, deployed 30 guerillas into the Bukidnon Provincial municipality of Kitaotao's Sitio Malo -os, in Barangay Sinuda, just up the road from the Sumifru-owned banana facility, and lay in wait for trucks belonging to Sumifru sub-contractors.
Bantuanon had refused a demand from SMRC for "Revolutionary Taxes, " quarterly payoffs that allow one to operate unmolested in NPA-controlled areas. The NPA's general operating procedure is to wait six months, and then, if mo money or goods are forthcoming, exact retribution with a very public act of violence. Usually this is exacted by burning Millions in Pesos worth of goods and property.
At 3AM that morning, two trucks left Sumifru fully loaded with bananas en route to Davao City and its busy port on Mindanao's Southern Coast. The first truck, a straight truck owned by JY Compay of GenSan (General Santos City), and operated by its owner, Jun Yee, drove a kilometer away from Sumifru and was then compelled to slow down at what appeared to be an Armed Forces of the Philippines,or AFP, Checkpoint. Like almost all AFP Checkpoints this one, manned by a full platoon (30 soldiers) in AFP fatigues, even had the requisite metal sign upon which was stated that vehicles were undergoing serving in the 23IB (Infantry Battalion). As Yee scanned the checkpoint, a tractor trailer owned by Bantuanon Trucking of the Davao del Sur Provincial municipality of Santa Cruz, rolled to a stop behind him.
As both trucks idled they were stunned when the kindly "soldiers" manning the checkpoint suddenly began screaming at both drivers, with the barrels of their assault rifles drawn down on them. Brusquely yanked from their cabs, both Yee and the other driver, Romeo Sajulga, watched in shocked silence as Molotov Cocktails were used to set both trucks ablaze. Yee's straight truck was totally burned but only Bantuanon Trucking's trailer was burned since the anPA had made a concerted effort to unhitch the trailer.
Responding to reports of the NPA's tactical operation, the AFP's 8IB deployed a platoon under Second Lieutenant Gaspar from a forward base in the municipality of Maramag in a three truck convoy carrying a platoon of soldiers. As the convoy entered the municipality of Quezon's Batangay Palacapao it entered a dead zone with no communication ability. Driving along Overlook Ridge the convoy sped into Sitio Zigzag and found themselves driving straight into an NPA ambush. After the initial IED, or Improvised Explosive Device detonated, critically wounding four AFP soldiers (AFP brass have merely reported four minor wounds, and true to form, the NPA is claiming that the four wounded were actually killed, and twelve more soldiers were wounded):
1) Corporal Ongcoy
2) Private First Class (PFC) Senes
3) PFC.Pactol
4) Private Palahan
a fierce firefight broke out...As the platoon scrambled for cover the NPA Blocking Force that had engaged them was already moving down hill into the valley below. In a series of running engagements both sides eventually found themselves in Barangay Puntian where more pitched engagements took place. Calling in air cover from Davao City, a pair of MG520 helicipters responded, albeit with no effect whatsoever.
Bantuanon had refused a demand from SMRC for "Revolutionary Taxes, " quarterly payoffs that allow one to operate unmolested in NPA-controlled areas. The NPA's general operating procedure is to wait six months, and then, if mo money or goods are forthcoming, exact retribution with a very public act of violence. Usually this is exacted by burning Millions in Pesos worth of goods and property.
At 3AM that morning, two trucks left Sumifru fully loaded with bananas en route to Davao City and its busy port on Mindanao's Southern Coast. The first truck, a straight truck owned by JY Compay of GenSan (General Santos City), and operated by its owner, Jun Yee, drove a kilometer away from Sumifru and was then compelled to slow down at what appeared to be an Armed Forces of the Philippines,or AFP, Checkpoint. Like almost all AFP Checkpoints this one, manned by a full platoon (30 soldiers) in AFP fatigues, even had the requisite metal sign upon which was stated that vehicles were undergoing serving in the 23IB (Infantry Battalion). As Yee scanned the checkpoint, a tractor trailer owned by Bantuanon Trucking of the Davao del Sur Provincial municipality of Santa Cruz, rolled to a stop behind him.
As both trucks idled they were stunned when the kindly "soldiers" manning the checkpoint suddenly began screaming at both drivers, with the barrels of their assault rifles drawn down on them. Brusquely yanked from their cabs, both Yee and the other driver, Romeo Sajulga, watched in shocked silence as Molotov Cocktails were used to set both trucks ablaze. Yee's straight truck was totally burned but only Bantuanon Trucking's trailer was burned since the anPA had made a concerted effort to unhitch the trailer.
Responding to reports of the NPA's tactical operation, the AFP's 8IB deployed a platoon under Second Lieutenant Gaspar from a forward base in the municipality of Maramag in a three truck convoy carrying a platoon of soldiers. As the convoy entered the municipality of Quezon's Batangay Palacapao it entered a dead zone with no communication ability. Driving along Overlook Ridge the convoy sped into Sitio Zigzag and found themselves driving straight into an NPA ambush. After the initial IED, or Improvised Explosive Device detonated, critically wounding four AFP soldiers (AFP brass have merely reported four minor wounds, and true to form, the NPA is claiming that the four wounded were actually killed, and twelve more soldiers were wounded):
1) Corporal Ongcoy
2) Private First Class (PFC) Senes
3) PFC.Pactol
4) Private Palahan
a fierce firefight broke out...As the platoon scrambled for cover the NPA Blocking Force that had engaged them was already moving down hill into the valley below. In a series of running engagements both sides eventually found themselves in Barangay Puntian where more pitched engagements took place. Calling in air cover from Davao City, a pair of MG520 helicipters responded, albeit with no effect whatsoever.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
NPA Armed Contacts for the Second Quarter of 2012, Part I: The Resurrection of Front 4A
The NPA's Front 4A, Cesar Cayon Command, was for the last couple of years on a steady downward trajectory. Sublimated to one of Mindanao's weakest Regional Committees, the NCMRC, or Northcentral Mindanao Regional Committee, that clear decline represented a solid military victory...at least that is what the Philippine Government would have people believe. With the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP in shorthand) handing over command and control of COIN (Counterinsurgency) Operations to Provincial Governments in two Region 10 provinces- Camiguin amd Misamis Oriental- smack dab in the middle of the NCMRC AOR (as in "Area of Responsibility"), the Government propaganda was almost believable.
Then, beginning in July of 2011, the AFP's 4ID (Infantry Division) began making precision slices on Front 4A as it began to actual dissect that vulnerable Front, limb by limb. On July 6th the 58IB (Infantry Battalion) began scouring the municipality of Buenavista's Barangay Sangay, sector by sector, as it was hard on the scent of a rumored complex that was then serving as Front 4A's main camp in Agusan del Norte. Upon reaching Sitio Lower Malanay the AGP hit th motherlode; Two inter-connected camps capable of comfortably housing 250 guerillas was discovered sitting well concealed in a stretch of malarial swampland. A short but uneventful firefight led to the capture of the complex. As is so often the case however, there wasnt a guerilla within kilometers of the umuch lauded "base camp."
Then came October 6th, and with it a spectacular NPA assault on yet another province that had been handed to a provincial government by a highly self-aggrandised 4ID. The province of Surigao del Norte's municipality of Claver, home to significant foreign mining interests. Anywhere one finds foreign owned business interests carting off Mindanao's hardscrabble patrimony, "Revolutionary Taxes" and the self-serving hypoctotical pansies in the NPA who collect them are never far behind. Companies are almost always given a six month window between the tendering of unsucessful demands and the implementation of a violent "example." In this case the victim of this corporate strong arming was a Japanese multinational mining outfit, the Sumitomo Corporation.
The Claver operation was monumental from both a publicity AND a financial point of view. Given the well over a Billion Peso price tag and the media's having seized upon the NPA having temporarily abducted a large group of prospective Japanese investors, it did not take any real skill to predict that the AFP would relentlessly pursue the NPA elements involved. Never mind that it was undertaken by three other NPA Fronts- 20, 21 and 30), but it was not even witht n the NCMRC. The attack was a product of the NEMRC, or Northeast Mindana Regional Committee). Yet it was Front 4A that bore the brunt of the withering assault by both the Philippine National Police, or PNP, and an extraordinarily massive air and land assault by the AFP slash PAF, the last acronym of course being the Philippine Air Force. Pushed out of the NCMRC's AOR, Front 4A, operating in true NPA textbook fashion, hugged provincial border nexuses, to allow great ease in moving to and from, and in between provincial border convergances. While the PNP does have enteties- such as its PROs, aka Police Regional Offices, and DIPOs- or Directorates of Integrated Police Operations, the AFP is hemmed in by gradations in AOR, at best it operates within a system of concentric circles that are all adversely effected by he man/macho man infighting and turf wars that effect most any male.dominated entity. The net result og course, since the PNP,merely operates at the pleasure of the AFP vis a vis avOIN Operations, is that the NPA exploites these territorial flaws on governance.
As the post-Claver sweeps and scourings continued,
Front 4A's Secretary, or leader, a veteran of the Mindanao bush wars, Ricardo Malanili, usually known by his nom de guerre "Ka Joker," pulled his force into the AOR of the much stronger NEMRC, the Regional Commitee that covers all of Caraga and a pinch of the Davao Region. NEMRC assisted the Front on re-positioning itself in the municipality pf Esperaunza, in Agusan del Sur Province
It was in Esperanza's Barangay Calabuan, an NPA baliwick in the hills above Agusan Marsh, that Ka Joker began to feel safe. Perhaps it was this false sense of security that allowed the AFP to come calling on October 6th, 2011 without much resostance. In just a few moments, Ka Joker and four of his guerillas were dead and the rest of Front 4A, hustling through rough hewn jungle trails to pre-arranged rendevoux points, and later still met up with Fronts operating in less volatile sectors. An easy way to conceptualise the NPA modus operandi is to envision both a tactical AND a tactical shell game im which the path of least resistance is always the right path.
Though the NPA tried engaging in a bit of amateurish PSYOPs (Psychological Propaganda Operations), denying that Ka Joker had in fact never been killed and that the AFP had merely.stumbled upon an old abandoned camp previously used by Ka Joker and his Front 4A, the truth was soon undeniable as the man's grieving family members rook tgeir pain to the media, acknowledging far and wide that at least on this one occaison, the AFP and the Government it serves were telling the truth, Ricardo "Ka Joker" Malanili was gone.
As for where that fact left Front 4A, dormant best describes it. That is, until Monday, April 23rd, 2012. At 845PM two passenger vans turned into Butuan City's Arjuville Subdivision in Barangay Libretad, near the border of Barangay Bancasi.Pulling into a small row of office suites eight men jumped out of each idling van and walked purposefully towards one of five adjoining doors that serves as the main entrance of Earth Savers Security Agency. Earth Savers, a liscenced security company actually serves as a paramilitary for hire, specialising in the "security" of mining outfits throught the Caraga Region (Region 13). Owned and operated by Nelson Ponsones Nario, a recently retired PNP (Philippine National Police) Chief Superintendent.
Chief Superindendent Nario parlezed a working relationahip with embattled former President Gloria M.Arroyo into a jump into the big leagues. From serving as the Director of the Isabela PPO, or Police Provincial Office, he won a promotion in 2009 to serve as the Chief Superintendent of PRO10 (Police Regional Office 10, Cagayan del Oro City), where he served as Director of Administration. In 2010 he was laterally transferred to PRO13 in Butuan City and it was there, at the mandatory age of retirement, he cashiered out and used his many contacts to arm and build his private paramilitary.
As the sixteen men from the vans approached the entrance to Earth Savers, four other men who had stayed behind with the vans discreetly implemented a security perimeter in the parkinglot. The idling vans the slowly moved forwatd towards that same main entrance as the sixteen men, toting assault rifles but dressed in street clothes entered the agency premises. Upon infiltrating the men found four employees on duty, doing little more than goofing off. Training rifles on the four agency employees one among the sixteen men announced that they were NBI, as in National Bureau of Investigation agents, intent upon serving a search warrant for illegal weapons trafficking. Within ten minutes, without a single shot being fired, the NBI imposters had carted off sixty-six weapons, a stunning haul by any measure.
Upon getting a signal, one of the two vans carefully backed up to the door. Flinging open the vehicle's two rear doors, the guerillas cum agents began carting away all weapons found on the premises and loaded them into the van. The total take was: 46 AK47s, 10 semi-automatic shotguns, 3 308. SWSs (bolt action sniper rifles with day and night scopes)- I need to add that these three pieces were erroneously reported as M14 in sniper configuration. Ironically, yhe Pilippines is one of several nations where sniping, if one can even call it thus, takes place with semi-automatic assault rifles, in this case, M16s. To be specific, such rifles are more Designated Marksman, or at best, Squad Sniper configurations. The three pieces captured however were in fact 308. bolt action, actual sniper rifles.
Usually, AKs are less than desirable pieces for the NPA. Ironically the rifle figures prominently in NPA propaganda, even being pictured on its flag. However, the NPA gains virtually all its ammunition from war booty taken during attacks on the PNP, AFP, and allied forces. Since the Philippines is firmly in the pocket of the US, it only utilises American style weaponry, with the M16 being the central to PNP and AFP operations. The M16 is chambered in 5.56MM. The AK47 on the other hand, is in 7.65MM. It is difficult at best, to secure a steady source of AK ammunition. For the time being though, the NPA is sitting pretty. Among other things captured during that assault, the guerillas brought home 147 fully loaded AK magazines (clips). Also taken were 67 ammunition vests, for 7.65MM, shotgun shells, and other assorted ammunition. Cellphones, ICOM radios amd.cash totalling almost P15,000 ($310).
Loading the last of their take into the one van, four guerillas clambered into it as well, as the twelve others, and four on perimeter all climbed into the second van before both exited the parkinglot and casually drove away into Barangay Bonbon. It was there in Bonbon, at just after 10PM that evening, that responding PNP vehicles discovered both vans, abandoned and empty.
If Earth Savers Security Agency sounds familiar it is because I have discussed them before. On November 1st, 2011, the NPA's Front 20, the Conrado Heredia Command of the SMRC, or Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, launchrd one of its,periodic assaults against the Datu Bulawanon Mining Exploration Corporation in the municipality of Rosario, in Agusan del Sur Province. As the guerillas moved in on foot, crossing into Barangay Bayugan #3's Purok #2, they first neutralised an Earth Savers outpost a kilometer up the rode from the aforementioned mining operation. Three "guards" were critically wounded as they engaged the advancing guerillas.
Finally, when considering this latest Butuan City armed contact, remember that Barangay Bancasi housea both PRO13 AMD tge AFP's 4ID sattelite headquarters, Camp Rafael Rodriguez. The attack was anything if not audacious
Then, beginning in July of 2011, the AFP's 4ID (Infantry Division) began making precision slices on Front 4A as it began to actual dissect that vulnerable Front, limb by limb. On July 6th the 58IB (Infantry Battalion) began scouring the municipality of Buenavista's Barangay Sangay, sector by sector, as it was hard on the scent of a rumored complex that was then serving as Front 4A's main camp in Agusan del Norte. Upon reaching Sitio Lower Malanay the AGP hit th motherlode; Two inter-connected camps capable of comfortably housing 250 guerillas was discovered sitting well concealed in a stretch of malarial swampland. A short but uneventful firefight led to the capture of the complex. As is so often the case however, there wasnt a guerilla within kilometers of the umuch lauded "base camp."
Then came October 6th, and with it a spectacular NPA assault on yet another province that had been handed to a provincial government by a highly self-aggrandised 4ID. The province of Surigao del Norte's municipality of Claver, home to significant foreign mining interests. Anywhere one finds foreign owned business interests carting off Mindanao's hardscrabble patrimony, "Revolutionary Taxes" and the self-serving hypoctotical pansies in the NPA who collect them are never far behind. Companies are almost always given a six month window between the tendering of unsucessful demands and the implementation of a violent "example." In this case the victim of this corporate strong arming was a Japanese multinational mining outfit, the Sumitomo Corporation.
The Claver operation was monumental from both a publicity AND a financial point of view. Given the well over a Billion Peso price tag and the media's having seized upon the NPA having temporarily abducted a large group of prospective Japanese investors, it did not take any real skill to predict that the AFP would relentlessly pursue the NPA elements involved. Never mind that it was undertaken by three other NPA Fronts- 20, 21 and 30), but it was not even witht n the NCMRC. The attack was a product of the NEMRC, or Northeast Mindana Regional Committee). Yet it was Front 4A that bore the brunt of the withering assault by both the Philippine National Police, or PNP, and an extraordinarily massive air and land assault by the AFP slash PAF, the last acronym of course being the Philippine Air Force. Pushed out of the NCMRC's AOR, Front 4A, operating in true NPA textbook fashion, hugged provincial border nexuses, to allow great ease in moving to and from, and in between provincial border convergances. While the PNP does have enteties- such as its PROs, aka Police Regional Offices, and DIPOs- or Directorates of Integrated Police Operations, the AFP is hemmed in by gradations in AOR, at best it operates within a system of concentric circles that are all adversely effected by he man/macho man infighting and turf wars that effect most any male.dominated entity. The net result og course, since the PNP,merely operates at the pleasure of the AFP vis a vis avOIN Operations, is that the NPA exploites these territorial flaws on governance.
As the post-Claver sweeps and scourings continued,
Front 4A's Secretary, or leader, a veteran of the Mindanao bush wars, Ricardo Malanili, usually known by his nom de guerre "Ka Joker," pulled his force into the AOR of the much stronger NEMRC, the Regional Commitee that covers all of Caraga and a pinch of the Davao Region. NEMRC assisted the Front on re-positioning itself in the municipality pf Esperaunza, in Agusan del Sur Province
It was in Esperanza's Barangay Calabuan, an NPA baliwick in the hills above Agusan Marsh, that Ka Joker began to feel safe. Perhaps it was this false sense of security that allowed the AFP to come calling on October 6th, 2011 without much resostance. In just a few moments, Ka Joker and four of his guerillas were dead and the rest of Front 4A, hustling through rough hewn jungle trails to pre-arranged rendevoux points, and later still met up with Fronts operating in less volatile sectors. An easy way to conceptualise the NPA modus operandi is to envision both a tactical AND a tactical shell game im which the path of least resistance is always the right path.
Though the NPA tried engaging in a bit of amateurish PSYOPs (Psychological Propaganda Operations), denying that Ka Joker had in fact never been killed and that the AFP had merely.stumbled upon an old abandoned camp previously used by Ka Joker and his Front 4A, the truth was soon undeniable as the man's grieving family members rook tgeir pain to the media, acknowledging far and wide that at least on this one occaison, the AFP and the Government it serves were telling the truth, Ricardo "Ka Joker" Malanili was gone.
As for where that fact left Front 4A, dormant best describes it. That is, until Monday, April 23rd, 2012. At 845PM two passenger vans turned into Butuan City's Arjuville Subdivision in Barangay Libretad, near the border of Barangay Bancasi.Pulling into a small row of office suites eight men jumped out of each idling van and walked purposefully towards one of five adjoining doors that serves as the main entrance of Earth Savers Security Agency. Earth Savers, a liscenced security company actually serves as a paramilitary for hire, specialising in the "security" of mining outfits throught the Caraga Region (Region 13). Owned and operated by Nelson Ponsones Nario, a recently retired PNP (Philippine National Police) Chief Superintendent.
Chief Superindendent Nario parlezed a working relationahip with embattled former President Gloria M.Arroyo into a jump into the big leagues. From serving as the Director of the Isabela PPO, or Police Provincial Office, he won a promotion in 2009 to serve as the Chief Superintendent of PRO10 (Police Regional Office 10, Cagayan del Oro City), where he served as Director of Administration. In 2010 he was laterally transferred to PRO13 in Butuan City and it was there, at the mandatory age of retirement, he cashiered out and used his many contacts to arm and build his private paramilitary.
As the sixteen men from the vans approached the entrance to Earth Savers, four other men who had stayed behind with the vans discreetly implemented a security perimeter in the parkinglot. The idling vans the slowly moved forwatd towards that same main entrance as the sixteen men, toting assault rifles but dressed in street clothes entered the agency premises. Upon infiltrating the men found four employees on duty, doing little more than goofing off. Training rifles on the four agency employees one among the sixteen men announced that they were NBI, as in National Bureau of Investigation agents, intent upon serving a search warrant for illegal weapons trafficking. Within ten minutes, without a single shot being fired, the NBI imposters had carted off sixty-six weapons, a stunning haul by any measure.
Upon getting a signal, one of the two vans carefully backed up to the door. Flinging open the vehicle's two rear doors, the guerillas cum agents began carting away all weapons found on the premises and loaded them into the van. The total take was: 46 AK47s, 10 semi-automatic shotguns, 3 308. SWSs (bolt action sniper rifles with day and night scopes)- I need to add that these three pieces were erroneously reported as M14 in sniper configuration. Ironically, yhe Pilippines is one of several nations where sniping, if one can even call it thus, takes place with semi-automatic assault rifles, in this case, M16s. To be specific, such rifles are more Designated Marksman, or at best, Squad Sniper configurations. The three pieces captured however were in fact 308. bolt action, actual sniper rifles.
Usually, AKs are less than desirable pieces for the NPA. Ironically the rifle figures prominently in NPA propaganda, even being pictured on its flag. However, the NPA gains virtually all its ammunition from war booty taken during attacks on the PNP, AFP, and allied forces. Since the Philippines is firmly in the pocket of the US, it only utilises American style weaponry, with the M16 being the central to PNP and AFP operations. The M16 is chambered in 5.56MM. The AK47 on the other hand, is in 7.65MM. It is difficult at best, to secure a steady source of AK ammunition. For the time being though, the NPA is sitting pretty. Among other things captured during that assault, the guerillas brought home 147 fully loaded AK magazines (clips). Also taken were 67 ammunition vests, for 7.65MM, shotgun shells, and other assorted ammunition. Cellphones, ICOM radios amd.cash totalling almost P15,000 ($310).
Loading the last of their take into the one van, four guerillas clambered into it as well, as the twelve others, and four on perimeter all climbed into the second van before both exited the parkinglot and casually drove away into Barangay Bonbon. It was there in Bonbon, at just after 10PM that evening, that responding PNP vehicles discovered both vans, abandoned and empty.
If Earth Savers Security Agency sounds familiar it is because I have discussed them before. On November 1st, 2011, the NPA's Front 20, the Conrado Heredia Command of the SMRC, or Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, launchrd one of its,periodic assaults against the Datu Bulawanon Mining Exploration Corporation in the municipality of Rosario, in Agusan del Sur Province. As the guerillas moved in on foot, crossing into Barangay Bayugan #3's Purok #2, they first neutralised an Earth Savers outpost a kilometer up the rode from the aforementioned mining operation. Three "guards" were critically wounded as they engaged the advancing guerillas.
Finally, when considering this latest Butuan City armed contact, remember that Barangay Bancasi housea both PRO13 AMD tge AFP's 4ID sattelite headquarters, Camp Rafael Rodriguez. The attack was anything if not audacious
Thursday, May 31, 2012
GPH-MILF Peace Process for the First Quarter of 2012, Part II: Round 25
Having agreed at January's Formal Exploratory Round #24 to initiate a push for momentum within the Peace Process by holding one Round per month, both the MILF and GPH (aka "Government of the Philippines") Peace Panels once again ensconced themselves within Kuala Lumpur's Royale Chulan Hotel. Opening the three day Round on Monday, February 13th, 2012, both sides acknowledged that the fact that they were meeting at all was the best development anyone might expect seeing as how the Peace Process was in one of its periodic lulls.
Just before the two sides checked into the Royale Chulan the Philippine Media had discovered that the Chairman of tge MILF Peace Panel, Mohagher Iqbal, had claimed that President Aquino had already vowed to support the MILF's "Assymetrical State: Substate" territorial entity. The comment had been quietly published by the Oman Tribune ("No less than His Excellency President Benigno Aquino 3rd [sic] agreed to the MILF proposal" although some media hacks , amazingly, claimed to have read that blurb in Mohagher Iqbal's Opening Statement in Kuala Lumpur) Suprisingly, when word of Iqbal's comments made their way into the Philippine media, noone cared. The Philippine public are not exactly a sophisticated lot when it comes to their news intake; Al Jacinto, a Manila-based columnist with the "Manila Times," was the first to break what should have been an absolute bombshell. Instead, nobody took notice (excepting boring souls such as yours truly) and the same tired players shuffled into the Royale Chulan's Executive Boardroom on February 13th, as Round 25 began.
When the fog had cleared three days later (in this case "fog" is ALOT better than "smoke"), nothing important had transpired. Of the few things attempted:
1) AHJAG, or, Ad Hoc Joint Action Group, received another 12 month mandate, to expire in February of 2013. Some might recall that AHJAG is the bilateral entity that arose from the ashes of the 2003 Buliok Complex War. That to-do began with a policing action against the Pentagon Group. Pentagon, under its (then) leader, Kumander Tahir "Tigre" Alonto, was among the biggest players in the Central Mindanao KFR (Kidnap for Ransom) Industry. Having become a real thorn in the side of the Government-where many "civil servants" entered into various business arrangements with him-he was marked for neutralisation just after New Year 2002.
Unfortunately, alrhough a Maranaw (Maranao) Tribesman, he was related to MILF founder and (then) Chairman Hashim Salamat (a Maguindanowan Tribesman). The two had both been born and raised in the municipality of Pangalungan's Barangay Cudal, in Maguindanao Province, and so it was no suprise then that when badly in need of a safehaven, je availed himself to a generous offer of hospitality from Chairman Salamat.
The 2000 War had destroyed the MILF Headquarters, along with fifty-two other MILF-BIAF camps. Needing a safe haven of their own, the MILF decentralised BIAF operations (as in the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the armed component of the MILF), and split up its headquarters apparatus between three seperate camp complexes. Buliok Complex consisted of two seperate, inter-connected camps directly on the border of Pikit, a town in North Cotabato Province, and the aforementioned municipality in Maguindanao Province, the town of Pangalungan. Chairman Salamat moved into a palatial home that served as both his personal home AND the MILF Administrative Headquarters.
In and around Buliok Complex, the BIAF had three Field Divisions, the 1st, 2nd, and the National Guard, with a standing force of 1,500 well trained guerillas. Given this armed defense, and the fact that Bukiok sat well within the almost impenetrable terrain of the Liguasan Marsh, the site provided any interested parties with about as safe a haven as one could find anywhere in the Philippines. In late 2002 the Pentagon Group was sorely in need of such a plave.
Founded by the leaders of four inter-related KFR organisations in 2001, the last of those four leaders, MNLF-Misuari officer, Kumander Faisal "Mubarak II" Marohombsar, was killed by rogue elements within the PNP, or Philippine National Police, on Luzon in August of 2002. After Marohombsar was removed from the top of the pyramid, another.MNLF-Misuari officer, Kumander Tahir "Tigre" Alonto rose in power, albeit within a rapidly disintegrating organisation. With assistance from MILF Chairman Salamat Alonto ensconced himself within that main MILF Headquarters camp.
Ostensibly an operation against the Pentagon Group, President Gloria M.Arroyo gave the greenlight on February 9th, 2003. Just after midnite on February 11th, the AFP (Armed Forcesof the Philippines) pointed air and artillery at Buliok Complex and began "softening up" the terrain. The official narrative is that what was to be a precision strike against a single compound within the camp-that of Tahir Alonto- went wrong after an errant shell came too close to tge Salamat compound, prompting the MILF-BIAF to respond in kind. Of course this is not true but it doesnt negate tge premise behind the creation of AHJAG, a bilateral entity created as an interface between the Government (via the AFP) and the MILF (via the BIAF) to co-ordinate Government policing operations against criminal elements. Supposedly, such an entity would have gone a long way towards preventing a widening of that 2003 policing operation against Tahir Alonto and the Pentagon Group.
AHJAG had receded in importance until, in late 2010, it had stopped convening its bilateral meetings. Then came October of 2011 and the Al Barka incident on Basilan. An AFP Special Forces policing operation against the second highest ranking officer in the BIAF 114 Base Command resulted in two of the 114 Base Command's battalions ambushing the AFP. This in turn led to a cacophany of voices within the Government demanding that AHJAG re-convene.
2) The two Peace Panels examined the final reports of IMT-6. The sixth deployment of the IMT, or International Monitoring Team, ended a week after Round 25 ended. The IMT is an international force led by the Malaysian Military, is part of the three tiered Ceasefire Mechanism that also includes the LMT (Local Monitoring Team, made up of stKeholders who are to act as an early warning system about possible weak points in the ceasefire. The LMT has not convened in more than three years (despite weak murmurs in late 2010). The third tier is the CCCH, or Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (actually the word "Joint" is included officially, as in "Joint Coordinating," but it is always omitted). The CCCH is a bilateral entity composed of AFP and BIAF officers who are to liason on AFP troop movements, to avoid an inadvertant engagement.
3) The Peace Panels agreed to hold Round 26 in March.
Just before the two sides checked into the Royale Chulan the Philippine Media had discovered that the Chairman of tge MILF Peace Panel, Mohagher Iqbal, had claimed that President Aquino had already vowed to support the MILF's "Assymetrical State: Substate" territorial entity. The comment had been quietly published by the Oman Tribune ("No less than His Excellency President Benigno Aquino 3rd [sic] agreed to the MILF proposal" although some media hacks , amazingly, claimed to have read that blurb in Mohagher Iqbal's Opening Statement in Kuala Lumpur) Suprisingly, when word of Iqbal's comments made their way into the Philippine media, noone cared. The Philippine public are not exactly a sophisticated lot when it comes to their news intake; Al Jacinto, a Manila-based columnist with the "Manila Times," was the first to break what should have been an absolute bombshell. Instead, nobody took notice (excepting boring souls such as yours truly) and the same tired players shuffled into the Royale Chulan's Executive Boardroom on February 13th, as Round 25 began.
When the fog had cleared three days later (in this case "fog" is ALOT better than "smoke"), nothing important had transpired. Of the few things attempted:
1) AHJAG, or, Ad Hoc Joint Action Group, received another 12 month mandate, to expire in February of 2013. Some might recall that AHJAG is the bilateral entity that arose from the ashes of the 2003 Buliok Complex War. That to-do began with a policing action against the Pentagon Group. Pentagon, under its (then) leader, Kumander Tahir "Tigre" Alonto, was among the biggest players in the Central Mindanao KFR (Kidnap for Ransom) Industry. Having become a real thorn in the side of the Government-where many "civil servants" entered into various business arrangements with him-he was marked for neutralisation just after New Year 2002.
Unfortunately, alrhough a Maranaw (Maranao) Tribesman, he was related to MILF founder and (then) Chairman Hashim Salamat (a Maguindanowan Tribesman). The two had both been born and raised in the municipality of Pangalungan's Barangay Cudal, in Maguindanao Province, and so it was no suprise then that when badly in need of a safehaven, je availed himself to a generous offer of hospitality from Chairman Salamat.
The 2000 War had destroyed the MILF Headquarters, along with fifty-two other MILF-BIAF camps. Needing a safe haven of their own, the MILF decentralised BIAF operations (as in the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the armed component of the MILF), and split up its headquarters apparatus between three seperate camp complexes. Buliok Complex consisted of two seperate, inter-connected camps directly on the border of Pikit, a town in North Cotabato Province, and the aforementioned municipality in Maguindanao Province, the town of Pangalungan. Chairman Salamat moved into a palatial home that served as both his personal home AND the MILF Administrative Headquarters.
In and around Buliok Complex, the BIAF had three Field Divisions, the 1st, 2nd, and the National Guard, with a standing force of 1,500 well trained guerillas. Given this armed defense, and the fact that Bukiok sat well within the almost impenetrable terrain of the Liguasan Marsh, the site provided any interested parties with about as safe a haven as one could find anywhere in the Philippines. In late 2002 the Pentagon Group was sorely in need of such a plave.
Founded by the leaders of four inter-related KFR organisations in 2001, the last of those four leaders, MNLF-Misuari officer, Kumander Faisal "Mubarak II" Marohombsar, was killed by rogue elements within the PNP, or Philippine National Police, on Luzon in August of 2002. After Marohombsar was removed from the top of the pyramid, another.MNLF-Misuari officer, Kumander Tahir "Tigre" Alonto rose in power, albeit within a rapidly disintegrating organisation. With assistance from MILF Chairman Salamat Alonto ensconced himself within that main MILF Headquarters camp.
Ostensibly an operation against the Pentagon Group, President Gloria M.Arroyo gave the greenlight on February 9th, 2003. Just after midnite on February 11th, the AFP (Armed Forcesof the Philippines) pointed air and artillery at Buliok Complex and began "softening up" the terrain. The official narrative is that what was to be a precision strike against a single compound within the camp-that of Tahir Alonto- went wrong after an errant shell came too close to tge Salamat compound, prompting the MILF-BIAF to respond in kind. Of course this is not true but it doesnt negate tge premise behind the creation of AHJAG, a bilateral entity created as an interface between the Government (via the AFP) and the MILF (via the BIAF) to co-ordinate Government policing operations against criminal elements. Supposedly, such an entity would have gone a long way towards preventing a widening of that 2003 policing operation against Tahir Alonto and the Pentagon Group.
AHJAG had receded in importance until, in late 2010, it had stopped convening its bilateral meetings. Then came October of 2011 and the Al Barka incident on Basilan. An AFP Special Forces policing operation against the second highest ranking officer in the BIAF 114 Base Command resulted in two of the 114 Base Command's battalions ambushing the AFP. This in turn led to a cacophany of voices within the Government demanding that AHJAG re-convene.
2) The two Peace Panels examined the final reports of IMT-6. The sixth deployment of the IMT, or International Monitoring Team, ended a week after Round 25 ended. The IMT is an international force led by the Malaysian Military, is part of the three tiered Ceasefire Mechanism that also includes the LMT (Local Monitoring Team, made up of stKeholders who are to act as an early warning system about possible weak points in the ceasefire. The LMT has not convened in more than three years (despite weak murmurs in late 2010). The third tier is the CCCH, or Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (actually the word "Joint" is included officially, as in "Joint Coordinating," but it is always omitted). The CCCH is a bilateral entity composed of AFP and BIAF officers who are to liason on AFP troop movements, to avoid an inadvertant engagement.
3) The Peace Panels agreed to hold Round 26 in March.
GPH MILF Peace Process for the First Quarter of 2012, Part I: Round 24
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Unexplained Hiatus for January 1st through May 30th, 2012
Although I am now, and have been for years, based on Mindanao, my travels do from time to time take me to disparate corners of the world. While away from my adopted home I would, at the very least, feel disingenuous were I to continue pistng about Mindanao. Doing what I do requires not only an intimate knowledge of the land and its people, but with up to date sources on both sides of the divide playing an intrinsic part as well. Having been back now for a couple of weeks, I feel that I am finally ready to go at it again...
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