Death Squad Democracy:OPLAN BANTAY-LAYA (A Book Review by Prof. Roland G. Simbulan)

The Phillipines makes a decent representative example of the US' first official exercise in colonial imperialism and formal empire [*], also referred to as "civilizational imperialism" - a project we're presently repeating.

"Lest this seem to be the bellicose pipedream of some dyspeptic desk soldier, let us remember that the military deal of our country has never been defensive warfare. Since the Revolution, only the United Kingdom has beaten our record for square miles of territory acquired by military conquest. Our exploits against the American Indian, against the Filipinos, the Mexicans, and against Spain are on a par with the campaigns of Genghis Khan, the Japanese in Manchuria and the African attack of Mussolini. No country has ever declared war on us before we first obliged them with that gesture. 

Our whole history shows we have never fought a defensive war. And at the rate our armed forces are being implemented at present, the odds are against our fighting one in the near future." - -- Major General Smedley D. Butler, America's Armed Forces: 'In Time of Peace', 1935. 1898-1914: The Phillipines. 

Protesters wearing masks of activist Jonas Burgos protest in a busy street in Manila August 6, 2007 to commemorate the 100th day of his abduction. Jonas, an activist, has been missing since April 2007 when a group of men, widely thought to be an army "black squad", allegedly abducted him from a shopping mall in Manila.  Picture taken August 6, 2007.
REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco/Files

Protesters hold pictures of leftwing activists alleged to have been abducted in the Philippines, during a protest in front of the Supreme Court in Manila in this June 4, 2008 file photo.  Hundreds of activists have been shot dead or are suspected to have been abducted over the past seven years in what is viewed internationally as a "dirty war" by the army against groups it sees as fronts for a violent communist insurgency. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco/Files

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NOTE: THE COLORED AND UNDERLINED WORDS ARE MY ADDED LINKS (click them to open) - Bert
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THE TOOLS OF DEATH SQUAD DEMOCRACY 
by Roland G. Simbulan

(Book Review of OPLAN BANTAY LAYA: THE U.S.-ARROYO CAMPAIGN OF TERROR AND COUNTERINSURGENCY IN THE PHILIPPINES,Balay Internasyunal, U.P. Diliman, July 29, 2010)

IBON FOUNDATION has published a book that explores the deadly tools of our death squad democracy. 

The ingredients and elements of a classic Third World country are there : A selfish, pro-Western oligarchy that has almost complete control and influence over state power and institutions. Weak and compromised government institutions that cannot render real justice to the weak, and where we see institutionalized impunity to human rights, corruption and abuse of power. Lack of basic social services or even decent social security net. An economic and political system that basically preserves the power and dominance of the local elite and their foreign corporate counterparts in tapping the natural and human resources of a rich country with a predominantly poor majority.

This book examines how this situation is preserved despite people's resistance and struggles for a better life. It examines the emergence of the U.S.-inspired Oplan Bantay Laya (1 & 2) during the Arroyo administration. This counter-insurgency program was used to combat people's opposition not only to the detested Arroyo administration, but also to combat revolutionary Filipino nationalism challenging U.S. interests in the country.

The book tries to provide answers to key questions like:

1. What makes Oplan Bantay Laya distinct from past, failed counter-insurgency programs of previous administrations ?
2. What is the U.S. role in the formulation and implementation of Oplan Bantay Laya?
3. How does OBL compare with other past and present U.S. counterinsurgency campaigns, especially those ongoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This book tries to fill in these gaps.

The four major parts of the book: Oplan Bantay Laya, U.S. Counter-Insurgency Strategy, Impacts and Implications, and Unfinished Agenda, all weave together a tightly-knit reference on what is in fact a country case study of another failed counter-insurgency strategy and its impact on the Philippines.

If you have watched Christopher Nolan's latest film, "Inception", you will find that "almost every dream is like a nightmare and you wake up just when you are killed or fatally shot in your dream." Oplan Bantay Laya is not the only nightmare. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Norberto Gonzales, Jovito Palparan, et al are also part of the nightmare that devastated our nation for the past nine years, causing untold bloodletting and damage to the life, liberty and safety of our people.

The canvas on which the various authors in this book paint their chapters is splattered with the trail of blood and sickening horror of the extra-judicial killings and disappeared victims of Oplan Bantay Laya, the latest failed but nevertheless, deadly counterinsurgency campaign to inflict our people.

A major contribution of this book is that it firmly establishes the U.S. role in OBL, that is, as part of the U.S. strategy of suppressing revolutionary nationalism and insurgency. It investigates the tentacles of imperial America in directing, advising the political assassination of progressive mass leaders and their sympathizers whose only crime is to work for meaningful social reforms in our society.

Though there is a lot of government rhetoric and even a written blueprint for counterinsurgency to focus on socioeconomic measures to address poverty that is at the root of the armed insurgency and conflict, on the ground, the battlefield approach is still the dominant approach. The Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police and the paramilitaries are still the main agencies for counterinsurgency pursuing military objectives. The killings of unarmed social movement leaders, members and sympathizers can only exacerbate the conflict and further feed the flames of armed insurgency.

After Sept. 11, 2001, with the U.S. already thinly spread out in its direct military invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, Oplan Bantay Laya emerges as the alternative strategy to achieve U.S. foreign policy objectives in the Philippines. The local insurgency and the Muslim secessionist struggle - long in existence since the late 60s - are transformed into War on Terror - Philippines aka new name Overseas Contingency Operation. The Pentagon bankrolls a Philippine Defense Reform Program where it directs the entire counterinsurgency program and structure of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which now includes Bantay Laya.

Multi-dimensional but essentially political/ psychological in nature, Oplan Bantay Laya or OBL disguised U.S. intervention and covert operations in targeted areas in the country by introducing USAID- funded piece-meal community services, disaster relief and infrastructure, while selectively assassinating local activists and leaders. The tools in this counterinsurgency kit - now also used widely in Iraq and Afghanistan -- include a combination of community/social programs, but it also includes their "special ops " which is to strip out mid-level leaders and coordinators of militant mass movements whom they believe are part of the "political infrastructure" of the armed insurgency.

The public is also targeted by psychological operations to achieve support and demonize targeted sectors. However, the role of Fr. Romeo "Archie" Intengan's indoctrination of soldiers to eliminate all communists, and the Norberto Gonzales - Palparan tandem in the creation of "privatized" anti-communist death squads with the tolerance and support of the AFP/PNP, need to be further explored.

But counterinsurgency campaigns of terror that target unarmed people's advocates can only further radicalize--not terrorize -- the people as is the intention, especially those in the rural areas. The command structure of the military, police and security forces are themselves guilty of these dastardly activities, when they tolerate and encourage these crimes, and where no one is arrested or prosecuted. Police and meticulous detective work, as well as the preservation of vital evidence is necessary for the prosecution of those responsible.

I would have wanted to see included in this book an analysis of the U.S. Special Forces Counter-insurgency Manual which is one of the classified Pentagon documents leaked to WikiLeaks.com 

It has the title, FOREIGN INTERNAL DEFENSE TACTICS, TECHNIQUES AND PROCEDURES FOR SPECIAL FORCES (1994, 2004 ). What is very revealing is that the manual refers to itself as about, " what the U.S. learned about using death squads and propping up corrupt governments in Latin America and how to apply it in other places." The template and model that the manual uses is El Salvador where killings and torturing were done by the U.S.-backed army and right wing death squads affiliated with it, until the paramilitaries themselves got out of hand that they raped even American missionary nuns who were stopped at a checkpoint, causing massive outrage in the United States. 

According to a 2001 report of Amnesty International, many U.S. -backed right wing governments through their military and paramilitary death squads " committed extra-judical executions, other unlawful killings, disappearances and torture", and obviously with the advise and direction of U.S. military advisers.

A whole gamut of agreements keep the AFP (and even the PNP) under the thumb of the United States: the Mutual Defense Treaty, the Military Assistance Agreement, the Visiting Forces Agreement, the Mutual Logistics and Support Agreement, the Security Engagement Board Agreement. 

The book takes and hard look at the tentacles of Imperial America and the mechanisms of U.S. influence and control from the JUSMAG and the USAID projects concentrated in areas of unrest most contested by insurgency and the Muslim rebellion. Today, an entire contingent of 600 U.S. Special Operations Forces composed of elite SEALS and Ranger Teams provide direction, advise, training, intelligence and even surgical combat operations to many of the AFP's front-line battalions all over the country.

The selection of so-called "quality targets" who are identified for political assassination, abduction, and disappearances can only rely heavily on battlefield intelligence and order of battle lists. This has been upgraded with CIA up-country advisers and U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) technicians who assist to improve the record-keeping ability of the Philippine armed and intelligence services through the provision of special computers.This monitors, records and classifies the rivers of digitized intelligence information that flow throughout the country.

This book outlines the nature of OBL and its different forms, and identifies the local and foreign "agencies" that actually implement it in both lethal and "non-lethal" forms. It studies the emergence and evolution of U.S. counterinsurgency doctrine and argues that it is also very much operative in the Philippines. In so doing, it argues that counterinsurgency programs such as the OBL are not intentionally formulated and applied for the Philippines alone, but other places as well.

The dirty wars in Latin America launched by military dictators whose armies were trained and armed by the Pentagon and CIA to suppress progressive movements, and the Operation Phoenix in Vietnam which liquidated as many as 40,000 unarmed suspects in the political infrastructure of the South Vietnam National Liberation Front, to the US training of the Indonesian Kopassus (Army Special Forces Command) which abducted and killed many Indonesian farmers, workers and intellectuals during the Suharto military dictatorship -- all testify that other places besides the Philippines had been testing grounds for this counterinsurgency doctrine -- perhaps with other names.

Counterinsurgency doctrine simultaneously evolved in different locations as a product of similar factors as the various U.S. administrations groped for ways of combating revolutionary nationalism (both Islamic, Marxist and secular), in the Third World. During the Arroyo administration, OBL and U.S. counterinsurgency strategy gained cohesion over time with the recognition and acceptance that its seemingly unrelated components constitute a political / psychological strategy for achieving U.S. objectives. But what about the role of other U.S. allies like Australia and Israel, among others, whose intelligence operatives and special forces are also now actively involved in honing and assisting in local counterinsurgency operations?

OBL was eventually elevated to the status of a de facto national security strategy by the Arroyo administration, which in attempting to justify its illegal stay in power, gave this strategy an overt profile with ideological cohesion and rationale provided by such rabid clerico-fascists like Fr. Archie Intengan and his disciple Norberto Gonzales. In this sense, the Arroyo administration was itself an expression of OBL. For this Arroyo will be remembered as as extrajudicial killer as expressed by OBL-- distinctly stamping our own brand of death squad democracy.

The Alston recommendations found in the U.N. Special Report on Extrajudicial Killings are specific enough. But scrapping the OBL could just produce another counterinsurgency strategy clone with another name as they have done before.

I have always believed that the state can either be a very repressive apparatus that can cause so much misery and suffering to the people, or, if redirected, it can be placed in the hands of an enlightened people to serve its ends and national interests, and to achieve a higher quality of life.

There is the need to resist repression. But, how do we make our government and armed forces work for us instead of being our oppressors and enemies? Transparency and accountability in government are necessary to monitor and check abuses, as well as to make civilian and military agencies accountable for actions that they do. 

There is a need for more and effective Congressional oversight and reform measures on the following:

1. The misuse of military and intelligence funds, not only those under the DND/PNP, but also those under "contingency funds" of the Office of the President, line departments, and local governments.
2. Local intelligence should likewise also be directed at monitoring U.S. intervention in the country as well as other foreign agencies.
3. There should be transparency in sensitive issues as national security to curb abuse of power and authority and so that they cannot mislead or undermine our very own people's security.
4. The Commission on Audit should be tasked to carefully audit any intelligence program, a power COA never had.

The victims of Oplan Bantay Laya await justice, and we all expect that justice be rendered from the new administration that has promised to bring the perpetrators to the bar of justice.

Maybe it would be a kind of redemption if we could unify as a nation against the real enemies of national sovereignty who have divided us through their divide and rule tactics, in order to dominate us. Better still, it would be a kind redemption if justice was rendered to all the victims and the extra-judicial masterminds were punished.

The prospects for peace are always there as they have always been there. If the rest of the developing world is any guide, economic development that benefits the majority of the people is the best road map to lasting peace.

Overall, the book is a major contribution to the literature on the impact of the U.S.- directed counter-insurgency policy, and how and why the old recycled strategies have failed. I hope that the counter-insurgents in the new administration will not fail to read this book.

Source: http://www.cenpeg.org/index.htm

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U.S. Brig. Gen. Jacob H. Smith: "I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill and burn the better you will please me. I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States." 

Major Littleton W. T. Waller: How young? Smith: Ten years and up. --Exchange on October 1901, quote from the testimony at Smith's court martial by the New York Evening Journal (May 5, 1902). 

General Smith, a veteran of the Wounded Knee Massacre, was popularly known as "Hell Roaring Jake" or "Howling Wilderness".

CIA-admits-US-exports-terror

U.S. behind reign of terror sweeping Philippines

By Teresa Gutierrez
Cebu City, Philippines 

Published Jan 9, 2007 11:38 PM

The International Action Center (IAC) sent a fact-finding delegation to the Philippines Dec. 7 to Dec. 19. The delegation was comprised of IAC National Co-Director Teresa Gutierrez, and Dianne Mathiowetz of the Atlanta IAC. Also on the trip were two representatives of BAYAN USA and a member of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement from New York City.

International Human Rights Day demonstration, Dec. 10, Cebu City, Philippines. WW photos: Dianne Mathiowetz

Jan. 8—Our trip coincided with the scheduled meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which was to take place the first week of December in Cebu City. ASEAN’s main role is to facilitate economic and political penetration of the area for imperialism. However, the Philippine government announced that the ASEAN meeting would be cancelled due to a reported typhoon that was to hit the island at the same time. It was evident, however, that the summit of 25 Asian countries was actually cancelled due to the political typhoon sweeping the country.

Major demonstrations and massive political sentiment against the president of the country, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, were the real reasons the summit was cancelled. As of this writing, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has announced that the ASEAN summit will take place here in Cebu City from Jan. 10 to 15.

One of the most outstanding developments revealed to our delegation was the tremendous wave of repression hitting the Filipino population. Since 2001, over 700 people in the Philippines have been killed or disappeared. The wave of repression against the people is so stark that every week since 2004 approximately two activists have been killed and one has disappeared.

This alarming situation was described to us repeatedly, confirming published reports by several sources. Amnesty International issued a report in August stating its concern over “continued violation of human rights in the country.”

In fact, during the two-week period since we arrived, a total of seven people have been reported missing or killed by the official newspapers of this country.

The findings of the “Stop the Killings in the Philippines Campaign,” published by the IBON Foundation, concluded that, “The pattern of assassinations and political persecution of activists, members of people’s movements, and leftist leaders in the Philippines has become an urgent international issue.”

IBON continued, “While killings and summary executions are not rare in the Philippines, this trend of political assassinations intensified in 2004 during the national elections, and has continued in the last two years—making it possibly the worst period for human rights violations since the Marcos era.”

Behind the wave of terror: U.S. imperialism

The wave of terror currently sweeping the Philippines is part and parcel of U.S. imperialism’s historical and bloody drive to dominate and control the South East Asian region, especially the Philippines. These aims are best capsulated in the words of U.S. Sen. Alfred Beveridge when he said in 1900, “The country that rules the Pacific, rules the world.”

U.S. imperialism invaded and occupied the Philippines and other countries of the Asia Pacific region at the beginning of the 20th century.

Indeed, East Asia is key to imperialist aims to control markets and make ever greater profits. Over 2.5 billion people live in this region—one-third of the world’s population—and their economies are 25 percent of the world’s gross domestic product. Southeast Asia is 9 percent of the world’s population and 5 percent of the global GDP.

The region is home to some of the most strategic countries in the world: China, Korea and Vietnam, which have all been at the center of imperialism’s war drive. Japan, an imperialist country, is a major rival to Wall Street.

According to the Institute of Political Economy, based in the Philippines, the U.S. currently has more than 386,000 U.S. troops deployed in 150 countries, including 70,000 troops in East Asia. There were 850 U.S. military bases in 138 counties as of 2005.

Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are key nations to Washington, used in every way possible to maintain its domination in the area.

The task of these thousands of troops is to make sure that the main strategic objectives of the U.S. are protected in the region. Southeast Asia is of particular interest to the U.S. It seeks to maintain hegemony with its puppet regimes and exclude Japan and China, one reason why the Philippines is key to the U.S. It wants free access to major sea lanes and to deepen and expand trade and investment in the area.

Imperialism carries out these aims at the same time that it drives the Asian Pacific people further and further into poverty and despair. Eliza Griswold, a journalist, writes: “[T]he most pressing problem in today’s Philippines isn’t terrorism or even government corruption but poverty and a lack of social mobility. About 15 percent of its people live on less than $1 a day.”

The war on terror: a basis for re-colonization

The U.S. has operated military bases in the Philippines since 1947. After righteous struggles that shook the country, most of these bases closed in 1992. But with the advent of U.S. imperialism’s so-called war on terror, there is now a concerted effort to once again militarize the Philippines. The rebuilding of official U.S. bases in the Philippines is centered in Mindanao, a primarily Muslim area.

U.S. Navy Commander Adm. William J. Fallon—commander of the U.S. Pacific command—said last March 7, “Southeast Asia is the front line of the war on terror.”

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has not only become a key ally of imperialism, she is a puppet of Washington.

This so-called war against terrorism is in reality a war of terror against the people.

Victims of repression in the Philippines—those who have died as a result of these extrajudicial killings—are mainly people who are fighting against deadly economic policies or who are denouncing the repression: activists, students, labor leaders, journalists, members of people’s movements and leftists.

State terror reigns in the Philippines. The situation is so serious and so critical that even spokespeople of foreign chambers of commerce and transnational corporations have been forced to pay lip service against the repression.

On Jan. 6 the Macapagal-Arroyo administration announced that the government will spend about 10 billion pesos in 2007—a lot of money for an impoverished nation. About $200 million is earmarked for the purchase of attack helicopters and other military equipment, which is a sign that the repression will not only continue but intensify.

Repression breeds resistance

Since Macapagal-Arroyo assumed office in 2001, about 730 people have been killed. (IBON)

They include Bishop Alberto Ramento; Markus Bangit, an indigenous leader of the Malbong Tribe of Tomiangan, Tabuk, Kalinga and the coordinator of the Elders Desk of the Cordillera People’s Alliance; activist teacher Napolean Pornasdoro; Bayan Muna Party (People First Party) members Jayson Delen and Jimmy Mirafuente; Cris Hugo, the regional coordinator of the League of Filipino Students; and Nestle Union president and KMU leader, Diosdado Fortuna. The KMU is the revolutionary workers union in the Philippines and stands for the May 1st Movement.

More than 168 leaders and activists remain missing.

The IAC delegation met with the mother of one of missing student leader, Sherlyn Cadapan. Sherlyn was abducted with another student leader, Karen Empeño, and 55-year-old activist Manuel Merino.

The young women, both in their early 20s, are students at the University of the Philippines (UP). The three were abducted on July 26, 2006. They were volunteers of the Alliance of Peasants in Bulacan, Philippines.

Six armed men forcibly entered the house where the students were staying. Merino, who was staying at a house nearby, came to help the two young women. All three were forced into a vehicle and driven away. The young women’s parents believe that troops of the 56th infantry Battalion in Bulacan were the ones who abducted the three activists.

The commander of the 7th Infantry Division, based where the abduction took place, told the family that the young women were members of the New Peoples Army, the armed wing of the resistance in the country. The family believes that such statements indicate the military knows the whereabouts of the three.

The mother of Sherlyn Cadapan told me at a demonstration against proposed changes to the Philippine Constitution that she will not stop until she finds her daughter.

Despite the wave of repression sweeping the country, the movement is strong. The abductions and assassinations have not stopped the people’s struggle for self determination and freedom from imperialist domination.

Despite a heavy police presence in preparation for the scheduled ASEAN conference here, the movement organized conferences for Jobs and Justice and against Global Terrorism, as well as demonstrations in the streets, which IAC representatives participated in.

Many of the people who attended these events told of family members missing or dead. But the history of the will of the Filipino people to resist domination is as long as imperialism’s aims in the region. It will be the Filipino people who will ultimately prevail, as seen by the courage and commitment here.

Copies of the IBON Foundation report can be ordered at leftbooks.com.

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Articles copyright 1995-2010 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

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Source: http://www.workers.org/2007/world/philippines-0118/

See also:    CIA-admits-US-exports-terror and
Killing Season in the Philippines (15+ articles on further militarization of our homeland and its brutal consequences to the common tao, during the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime -- in an era of media disinformation, our focus has essentially been to center on the "unspoken truth".- Global Research)

                       
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"Those who profess to favor freedom
and yet deprecate agitation
are men who want crops without 
plowing up the ground;
they want rain without thunder and
lightning.
They want the ocean without the
awful roar of its waters.
This struggle may be a moral one
or it may be a physical one
or it may be both moral and physical
but it must be a struggle.
Power concedes nothing without a
demand
It never did, and never will." – Frederick Douglass, American Abolitionist, Lecturer, Author and Slave, 1817-1895)
(quoted in Fr.Salgado’s Philippine Economy: History and Analysis, 1985)

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Hi All,

The below link will show a short list of my past posts (out of 540 posts so far) which I consider as basic topics about us native (indio)/ Malay Filipinos. This link/listing, which may later expand, will always be presented at the bottom of each future post.  Just point-and-click at each listed item to open and read. 

Thank you for reading and sharing with others, especially those in our homeland.

- Bert

PLEASE POINT & CLICK THIS LINK:  

http://www.thefilipinomind.com/2013/08/primary-postsreadings-for-my-fellow.html

FILIPINO HEROES: Sen. Lorenzo M. Tanada

SUPER LOLO : A Review of The Odyssey of Lorenzo M. Tañada
by Agnes G. Bailen UP Press. 1998. 362 pages. P375 By Abraham Rey Montecillo Acosta

In a new global order where nationalism is anathema, The Odyssey of Lorenzo M. Tañada serves as a poignant reminder of one of the country’s foremost nationalists. Authored by former UP Department of Political Science senior lecturer Agnes Bailen, the book traces and analyses the life and times of the person fondly called the “Grand Old Man of Philippine Politics.”

Lorenzo Tañada, whose birth centennial is being celebrated this year, is a familiar fixture during Martial law leading rallies and demonstrations. During Corazon Aquino’s term, he was a staunch anti-US Bases activist and anti-nuclear power plant advocate.

Bailen portrays Tañada as a person who metamorphosed from a graftbuster to a nationalist and, later on, a crusader of various causes. The book starts with insights into the childhood of Tañada. Bailen explains that his actions in life were governed by the philosophy ingrained in him by his mother. The phrase “fear of God is the start of wisdom” guided him in all his dealings.

This clear-cut sense of what is right explains Tañada’s righteous indignation against the evils of his time. Thus, Tañada often takes an infallible stance against graft and corruption, inequality, and tyranny. An early example is the Tañada who, as an elementary school kid in Atimonan, joined a protest against the school’s American principal. The protest was prompted by the principal’s order for schoolchildren to stay during weekends to build a playground, preventing them from going home to their parents.

Another example is the college student Tañada - ROTC major, lead actor in plays, national football team goalkeeper, UP Law student, - who, during UP’s Armistice Day, exhorted his fellow cadets to take their training seriously as they will soon be called upon to use their skill against the Americans if the country’s independence is not granted.

This god-fearing belief extended onwards in his dealings as the chief prosecutor against Japanese collaborators, the longest-serving senator, the esteemed nationalist, and the leader of the “parliament of the streets.”

In portraying Tañada as the lead actor in the socio-political events of his time, Bailen fails to de-mythify the man whom present-day UP students, incredulous as they come, have been acquainted with through the doting admiration of their elders. Surely the man could not have been perfect. Or did his reputation precede him such that any dirt on his pedestal “is a sacrilege [to his] memory?” The man was a political animal who incurred the ire of a lot of personalities. What did his enemies have to say about him?

Bailen explains that the book is an attempt at a serious study on the Filipino leader. Yet the book is half a fulfillment of that goal since no study is complete without an investigation on the negative aspects of the subject, unpleasant or sacrilegious though they may be. Perhaps the fact that Bailen only had a year’s time to write the book is a reason why this is so. In her preface, she acknowledges that the book is not meant to be an exhaustive treatment of the subject. Rather, it is her attempt to understand Tañada through his life as a politician, his development as a nationalist, and his actions during Martial Law. But then, can politics be separated from the personal? What explanations are in order for Tañada as a father who was “detached” from his family? Or the Tañada as a husband who preferred his wife to stay home?

Even the title of the book is misleading. Bailen may have wanted to convey Tañada’s life as a journey of Homeric proportions. If there is one thing though that lends this book a touch of Homer, it is the fact that Bailen succeeds in creating an aura of mythology around Tañada. Here is a man treated to paeans of praise from all sectors of society. A person honored by both the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Reform the Armed Forces Movement. A person whom even Benigno Aquino Sr. – charged by Tañada as a collaborator – acknowledged as a man of principles.

Thus, Bailen’s portrayal of Tañada throughout the book has been that of the good man doing battle against all evil. TAÑADA: graftbuster, Nationalist, Crusader, Superhero.

To give credence to Tañada as superhero, Bailen attempts to explain his life through philosophies and theories. Thus, the reader is treated to a discourse on transformational and transactional leadership, as well as on Filipino values like pakisama and hiya. Here, Bailen focuses on how Tañada was able to escape political oblivion by being a leader capable of transforming society. She even compares Tañada to Mahatma Gandhi, explaining that both came from families of means and were schooled in their colonizer’s best schools. She cites David Mandelbraum’s analysis of Tañada “in our own narrative.” Quoting Mandelbraum, she claims that Tañada like Gandhi, was one who was “creative in the force of faceless custom and was effective against bureaucratic power.”

Bailen uses the edited life history approach in writing the book, allowing her to “focus either on the subject’s entire experience or a certain aspect of his life.” here then is a flaw that Bailen may have failed to foresee. By theorizing on parts of Tañada’s life, Bailen gives it a ‘value-meal” treatment where one is prone to take elements of a subject’s experience, find a theory that fits, and voila: Tañada, the nationalist, the transformational leader, etc. The treatment is always “Tañada this, Tañada that.” It is never, as a rallyist once introduced him, as Tañada, a Filipino.

Such philosophical discourses though maybe to the liking of students who loved Social Science II as well as Political Science majors, which is no surprise since Bailen used her master’s thesis in Political Science on Tañada as an initial source of the book. The text is littered with political theories that attempt to explain Tañada’s actions as a student, politician, and leader. In one chapter alone, Bailen focuses on the relevance of nationalism in today’s world by quoting theories like Dr. Francisco Nemenzo and Renato Constantino. This is somewhat dragging and the reader, who might not be interested at all with theories that are better discussed in Social Science II, may well be tempted to put down the book and read something light.

Bailen, however, acknowledges that the book is meant to be an academic perusal into Tañada’s life. As Bailen, in search of a graduate thesis, explains: “I decided that I wanted to work on the life and times and contributions of a major Filipino political leader who has yet to be studied in-depth.” Thus there are a lot of instances where Bailen is prone to intellectualize. In the first chapter, for example, she uses up to three pages to write about the history of Gumaca, Tañada’s birthplace, before starting to delve on Tañada’s childhood. Another example is Chapter 12 where Bailen writes down the reasons of each senator voting on the US Bases Treaty. One tends to ask what the point is in writing down the reasons of each senator when the focus is on Tañada. Perhaps she needed some space filler.

Yet Tañada’s image alone is powerful in itself. His figure has come to symbolize protests against a tyranny, inequality, and corruption. His life is a celebration of a good man fighting against the evils of the world, a Don Quixote of sorts. His political dealings have been a moral beacon and an idealized role model compared to present-day politicians. Thus, the book comes as a refreshing insight into the life of a leader who knew how to care for the country more than his life, pocket, and reputation.

At a time when the Senate has begun discussing the Visiting Forces Agreement, Filipinos of all generations should do well to read this book and find out why, at the twilight of his life and on the day of his dialysis, Tañada chose to attend the September 16, 1991 Senate discussions on the US Bases Treaty. Then they would understand why, when the Senate rejected the treaty, Tañada, old and sickly, stood up and with every breath he can muster, shouted “Mabuhay.” It was a fitting climax for a man fighting to set his country free, a fitting end to the Grand Old Man’s life-long struggle for freedom.
If only because of this, the book is worth reading.

— Philippine Collegian, “Book Reviews,” November 23, 1998

Source: http://www.upd.edu.ph/~uppress/reviewbailen.html

Unveiling the War in Sulu
By Amirah Ali Lidasan Posted June 26, 2005

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WHAT WE FILIPINOS SHOULD KNOW: We Filipinos seem to forget, if not ignore, our fellow countrymen down south - the Muslims of Mindanao. Here are some background/update of their continuing struggle for justice and peace.

"A society that treats any serious segment of its population with distaste or disrespect runs the risk of convincing that group of its own inadequacy and thus alienating it from identification with the group and allegiance of its moral codes." - Willard Gaylin, MD, President/Founder, Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life Sciences

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Religious tolerance means to refrain from discriminating against others who follow a different religious path. Tolerance is more difficult to maintain when you know that your religion is right and their religion is wrong." Anon
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Nine years ago, President Fidel V. Ramos boasted to the world that the 1996 Final Peace Agreement that the government inked with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) would solve the centuries-old problem of the Philippine government against the Moro people struggling for an independent state in Southern Philippines. However, what took place in Mindanao in the period of nine years is not the peace that the Moro people expected from that agreement -- a decade of unilateral implementation of the agreement, coercive measures to subdue the continuing Moro rebellion, and the implementation of an anti-terror policy that aimed to destroy the revolutionary Moro movements but not necessarily resolve the root cause of the Moro struggle.

Mindanao, even before the creation of the Philippine Republic, has been the scene of a constant battle between the proud Moro people against Spanish and American colonialism. For centuries, a mighty fortress built by Moro warriors and their families stood barring colonizers from subduing the Sultanates of Sulu and Maguindanao. This legacy of protecting the ancestral domains of the Moro sultanates continues to be fought by the descendants of the proud Moro race. Hence, it is not a mere piece of agreement that would finally give resolution to the Moro struggle.

SULU: The battle to control the Moro struggle In the southernmost tip of the Philippine archipelago lies an island the bulk of which is 1,600 square meters in length and sits in the middle of Basilan and Tawi-Tawi islands. Looking at the map, you would find this island more closer to Sabah, Malaysia than the rest of mainland Mindanao. It is composed of 18 municipalities, which includes little islands surrounding it. It lies in the heart of an enormous sea, and underneath this island is a known oil-rich basin.

Sulu is the land of the tribe known as the Tau sa Sug (people of the current), a proud tribe that gave birth to a sultanate that ruled Zamboanga, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and even Sabah for centuries before it was abrogated to the Philippine Republic under the American colonial administration. Under the Philippine Republic, the Tausug people lived peacefully as farmers, fishermen and traders -- unnoticed by the Philippine government until President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law. Under Martial Law, the capital municipality of Sulu was burned to the ground. Till this day, the people of Sulu never recovered economically and politically from that devastation.

Some historians would say that the reason why Marcos declared Martial Law was because of the Moro rebellion in Mindanao. The Moro struggle against the Philippine Republic was initiated by the massacre of 28 Tausug youths under the hands of the Philippine military who trained them in a secret commando unit in order to take over Sabah from the Malaysians. The secret operation was called Operation Merdeka, and the carnage known as the Jabiddah Massacre became the birth of a unified tribe of 13 ethno-linguistic Islamized tribe in the Philippines named by Professor Nur Misuari, a university Professor turned leader of the Moro struggle, as the Moro people.

For four decades, Sulu became the base of the MNLF, the first Moro armed revolutionary movement that espoused the right to self-determination as the basis of the Moro people's struggle to break free politically from the Philippine Republic. The MNLF united the 13 tribes that composed the Moro people -- Tausug, Maguindanaon, Maranao, Iranon, Yakan, Samal, Kalagan, Kalibugan, Molbog, Sangil, Palawani, Jama Mapun, and Badjao -- in their bid for independence against the Philippine government.

In their bid to immediately resolve the Moro struggle, the MNLF entered into agreements with the Marcos administration under the prodding of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), an organization of Muslim states that recognized the political significance of the Moro struggle and the representation of the MNLF in their organization. The Tripoli Agreement of 1976 sparked the disunity in the Moro leadership that caused the split of the MNLF hierarchy and membership, and exposed the fragility of the Moro struggle. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was formed, comprised mostly of the Maguindanaon, Maranao and Iranon tribes and headed by then MNLF vice-chairman Ustadz Hashim Salamat, and built their armed camps and communities in mainland Mindanao.

The MNLF on the other hand, accepted on September 1996 the government's Final Peace Agreement which finally paved the way for the political accommodation of the MNLF to the Philippine government. Prof. Nur Misuari became the governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and chairman of the Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development (SPCPD), while the whole of the MNLF was integrated into the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.Five years after, Prof. Misuari and the MNLF would come to a final test.

The government's promise of peace is crumbling. President Joseph Estrada declared an all-out war against the Moro people which affected both the communities of the MNLF and the MILF. The Estrada administration accused Prof. Misuari of corruption and mishandling funds of the ARMM, each time he brought up the issue of non-implementation of the 1996 Agreement. In addition to this, MNLF communities in Sulu were bombarded and their commanders were killed by the AFP under the pretext of harboring Abu Sayyaf terrorists. Under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, successor to the ousted Estrada administration, MNLF leaders close to Malacanang ousted Misuari from chairmanship and pledged their allegiance to the administration to make it look like Misuari was isolated from the MNLF.

These incidents prompted the MNLF to declare defensive measures and actions against the governemnt's incessant military operations in a meeting in Parang, Sulu on November 2001. After a series of attacks in the 104th Brigade in Sulu, and the Southern Command and Cabatangan Complex in Zamboanga City, President Arroyo declared Prof. Misuari a fugitive, and with the help of the Malaysian government caught Misuari and imprisoned him. Behind bars, Misuari is as potent as outside for he has with him the loyalty and allegiance of the field commanders and the Tausug community in Sulu. Years after his imprisonment, the MNLF commanders in Sulu continue to ward off the massive military operations of the AFP and keep them at bay from their strongholds.

However, in the Philippine government's bid to be in control of the conflict in Sulu, civilians bear the brunt of the military operations. This has only inflamed and revived more the struggle of the people of Sulu against the Philippine government.

Massacre sparked the recent offensives in Sulu
Civilians in MNLF communities in Sulu and unarmed MNLF relatives became the common targets when the AFP launched a massive operation. Marines, Navy, Rangers and even US-trained Light Reaction Company were deployed aimed at "pulverizing" the MNLF commanders loyal to Misuari. This is in retaliation against the MNLF attacks in AFP detachments that has claimed the lives of their fellow soldiers and commanders.

In a fact-finding mission conducted by the Moro-Christian People's Alliance (MCPA), Suara Bangsamoro Partylist and Concerned Citizens of Sulu, the testimony of three children reveal the real reason what sparked the war in Sulu.
According to the testimony of the Padiwan siblings -- 7-year-old Almujayal, 10-year-old Madzrana, and 3-year-old Aljeezmer -- on February 1 around 6:00 AM, elements from the 53rd IB went to their house in Banu Ice, Kapuk Punggul in Maimbong and began shooting their house and killing their parents Tal and Nurshida Padiwan, as well as their 14-year-old brother Aldassir and uncle Salip Faisal.

This incident and the killing of an Ustadz in Jolo, according to MNLF leader Ustadz Habier Malik, was what prompted the MNLF to launch an attack against the Philippine Marines detachment in Bgy. Siit, Panamao municipality on February 6, 2005, claiming several lives of soldiers including a certain Col. Villanueva.

This was the same reason given by Brig. Gen. Gabriel Habacon, 1st Infantry Division Chief, as quoted in a news article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer dated February 9, 2005, "17 Soldiers killed in Sulu," in which he states that:
"The honest truth here is that the [death of three civilians] have infuriated the [Misuari Breakaway Group]. The attack [of army posts in Panamao Sulu] was triggered by the death of three civilians, including 14-year-old Aldasir Padiwan on February 1."

In a house inquiry on the Padiwan massacre called for by the House Committee on Peace and Reconcilliation, AFP Chief of Staff General Efren Abu firmly denied a massacre occurred in Maimbong. However, he cannot deny the video testimony of the Padiwan children which accused the military of killing their unarmed parents, brother and uncle.

Three children's loss and plea for justice

On February 2005, weeks after the holy pilgrimage in Mecca, Temogen "Cocoy" Tulawie, Suara Bangsamoro National Vice-President and municipal councilor of Jolo, called our group and sought assistance in documenting the reported human rights violations in Sulu. As a known human rights defender in Sulu, he was approached by many families complaining about the military abuses in their area. He was approached by the Padiwan family who asked for his help.

When I first met the Padiwan siblings, I saw three frightened kids who clinged for dear life in their grandmother's hands. When our group interviewed them on February 18, I felt their pain for the loss of their parents and brother. I also felt hatred in 7-year-old Almujayal Padiwan, the wounded child who escaped from an hospital after he was threatened by the marines that he too will soon die.

Unknown to many, it was not Almujayal who was the key witness to the February 1 Padiwan massacre at Kapuk Punggul. It was her 10-year-old sister Madzrana and 3-year-old brother Aljeezmar who witnessed the incident from start to finish.

According to Madzrana, it was 6:00 in the morning of February 1 when several armed men clad in kabbang (camouflage in Tausug) went to their house in Sitio Baunu Ice and found her parents cooking rice cakes in the kitchen area, which was separated from their main house. Madzrana was with her parents when the marines asked her to take his baby brother and leave the kitchen. They then shot her parents and went up to the main house and sprayed bullets killing his brother Aldassir and uncle Sarip Paisal. She did not hear anymore the wail of his brother Almujayal who was hit on the right thumb. He was sleeping beside Aldassir.

Almujayal, on the other hand, woke up and saw an armed man shoot his brother hitting him on the stomach. He remembered being lifted to a 6x6 truck, together with his brother but has not seen him after he was admitted by the marines in an hospital. He heard from his relatives later on that his brother died along the way and was thrown in the highway.

Inside the Integrated Provincial Hospital in Jolo, he was constantly watched over by the marines. On February 6, news of the death of Col. Dennis Villanueva reached the marines. One of them went to Almujayal and told him he too would soon die. He made a sign of putting his finger across his neck, which prompted Almujayal to escape the hospital with the help of a cousin.

The Padiwan massacre in Maimbong is a classic story of the long list of injustices committed by the military and national government against the people of Sulu. I am aghast to hear military officials and local government officials covering the massacre and justifying the incident as an "encounter" between the military and the Abu Sayyaf, that the whole Padiwan family, including the pregnant mother Sidang and her children, are Abu Sayyaf members who participated in the shoot-out with the military.

At the tender age of three and seven, Aljeezmar and Almujayal are already fugitives, like Abu Sayyafs hunted by the military and local officials. It was a tough decision for the children to make, but the Padiwan siblings chose to escape Sulu and hide to survive.

The injustice suffered by the Padiwan family and the need to defend the lives of more Moro families who are usually suspected by the AFP of aiding the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu have become the root causes of today's conflict between the MNLF and the AFP.

Long list of human rights violations

This incident tells us how easy it is to lose the lives of the people in Sulu or the Tau sa Sug. At a very early age, children are exposed to such inhumane treatment by the military. They are the ones who suffer the wrath of the 104th Brigade and the Southern Command whenever the military lose their commanders in the battlefield or their ineptness to control the conflict situation in Sulu.

In the past, civilians bear the brunt of the military operations. A long list was already documented in a fact-finding mission jointly conducted by Karapatan and Moro-Christian People's Alliance in coordination with the Concerned Citizen's of Sulu on April 2002. The day after the mission, the military hit a school-turned-evacuation center in Kahuy Sinah in Parang municipality, seriously wounding a one-year-old child and a 12-year-old whose left limb had to be cut off.

Temogen "Cocoy" Tulawie, convenor of the Concerned Citizen's of Sulu, brought this incident to the attention of Sulu Congressman Hussin Amin and Bayan Muna Partylist Representative Satur Ocampo who then led a congressional inquiry on the reported human rights violations of the military in their conduct of hot pursuit operations against the Abu Sayyaf in the period of 2000 and 2002. The 104th Brigade Commander Gen. Romeo Tolentino could only offer a lame excuse, that it was an "accident," a miscalculation on the part of the military.

The list of civilian casualties and military abuses went on even after the fact-finding mission and congressional inquiry in 2002. One incident that Tulawie reported to the media was the beheading of four farmers and two minors in Indanan municipality on March 21, 2003 (see Philippine Daily Inquirer, March 25, 2003). The headless bodies were found in Sitio Lampaki, Bgy. Cabun Maas in Indanan. Ansajul Ayyadi survived the incident, the military failed to cut-off his head and he reported the incident to the local police. He said they were accosted by the military, blindfolded and their hands tied, accusing them of being Abu Sayyaf companions. They were tortured into admission, and when they denied their involvement they were told to lie down on the ground and then the military started hacking their heads off.
According to Tulawie, the recent military abuses are more abhorring than the martial law days because at that time the whole of Sulu is in a state of war. Tulawie finds it ironic that after the MNLF signed the 1996 Peace Agreement, more and more incidents and complaints of military abuses are being reported to their group, the Concerned Citizens of Sulu. Some of the glaring incidents are the killing of seven MNLF commanders in Bgy Tiis, Talipao municipality, the strafing of mosques and bombing of schools in Patikul, the destruction of civilian houses and use of school buildings as military camps in Indanan, and the bombing of the home of Prof. Nur Misuari in Parang.

These incidents prompted the CCS to finally stage a massive rally on January 15 2002, but they were fired upon by the military, hitting some of the rallyists. They found a saboteur with a grenade ready to bomb the rallyists.
These days, the CCS find it difficult to mount massive rallies because of the incident. But on February 24, the CCS conducted an indoor peace rally calling for the stop to the armed conflict in Sulu and the withdrawal of the military from their land. Thousand of youths and professionals flocked the rally. An hour after, Muksim Tagidig, one of the convenor of CCS and speaker at the rally, was shot in the neck by a death squad believed to be coddled by the marines. He survived the shot but is still undergoing medication.

The Sulu Mercy Mission

Amidst the cry for a stop to military offensives and calls for peace to reign in Sulu, President Arroyo called for a heightened military offensive. The consequences of this policy is what prompted several human rights groups and people's organizations to launch a mercy mission -- a fact-finding and relief mission -- to look into the reported human rights violations and grave disrespect of the Arroyo administration to the International Humanitarian Law.

The National fact-finding and mercy mission conducted by Kalinaw Mindanao on March 18-20, 2005 sums up the following violations perpetrated by the elements under the 53rd IB, 6th IB, Scout Rangers and Task Force Comet under Brig. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala:

* indiscriminate aerial bombing and shelling on civilian populations using artillery, mortar and cannons resulting to massive evacuation and displacement of communities in the municipalities of Panamao, Indanan, Patikul, Maimbong and Parang;

* specific serious human rights violations were documented, such as summary executions, desecration of remains, divestment and destruction of properties, looting, strafing, violation of domicile, grave/threats/intimidation and harassments;

* schools were turned into military camps and detachments resulting to the disruption of classes, and even private dwellings and mosques were used for military purposes

It is also worth noting that while the Department of Social Welfare and Development reports that the civilian evacuees have already amounted to more than 50,000, they have only managed to serve two thousand and in one area only which is in Indanan.

Stop the military offensives in Sulu

This is the deafening cry of the people of Sulu that we have witnessed and documented in our fact-finding mission. The key factor in ending the raging war in Sulu is for President Arroyo to send the AFP back to their barracks, call for a halt in the military offensives and hear out the root causes of the recent clashes between the MNLF and the AFP.

The Kalinaw Mindanao offers the following recommendations:
1. Stop to military offensives and the pull out of the military in Sulu;
2. Peace talks should be immediately held by all concerned parties;
3. In-depth and independent investigation should be conducted as to why the war in Sulu intensified given that there are existing agreements between GRP and MNLF;
4. All civilian victims of the military operations should be indemnified;
5. Serious efforts should be undertaken by the government to address the problem of peace and development of the Moro people.Challenge for Peace in Mindanao

Once again, we become witness to the failure of the Philippine government to keep its promise of peace in wartorn Mindanao. While pushing for an immediate final peace agreement to come up between the GRP and the MILF, the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is violating the 1996 Peace Agreement that the GRP inked with the MNLF.Contrary to what President Arroyo has been telling the world on her move to resume peace negotiations with the MILF, her military incessantly conducts operations in MILF territories in the guise of pursuing international terrorists, even if the presence of the International Monitoring Team tells otherwise.

It is not by mere coincidence that the war in Sulu broke out at this very crucial period prior to the slated GRP-MILF peace talks. There is a clear visible pattern that every time the GRP-MILF or the GRP-MNLF peace talks are about to begin, incidents would occur that would later be used by the military to justify massive destructive military operations in Mindanao, and would either derail or altogether undermine the peace negotiations.

Her penchant for solving crisis purely on military operations is very transparent. President Arroyo is known to coddle and give commendations to generals who have a record of human rights violations against the Moro people such as Gen. Angelo Reyes who is responsible for the all-out war in 2000 and the bombing of Pikit and Liguasan Marsh in 2003.

Her incessant drive for legislators to pass the Anti-Terrorism Law is sowing fear among the Moro communities. Even without the law, the Moro people fall victim to the anti-terror drive of the military and the police for being the usual suspects and terrorist look-alikes. Raids in the communities and abduction of suspected sympathizers and members of US government-listed terrorists abound. Terrorist bombings in the cities that killed civilians are being pinned down on Moro groups, such as the MILF and the MNLF.

The bill does define what constitutes terrorism and terrorist acts, hence there is a probability that the Moro revolutionary struggle of the MNLF and the MILF might fall in that category. The bill excludes the destructive military operations and human rights violations committed by the AFP against the Moro people, such as the incessant bombardment of Moro rural areas, arbitrary arrests, illegal detention of Moro fall guys, and saturation drives in Moro communities. In urban areas, Moro residents are forced to wear ID's, a policy that further discriminates and enjoins other people to discriminate the Moro people from the Filipino majority by labeling them as terrorists.

We challenge the Arroyo government to be sincere in its offer of peace in Mindanao. The escalation of war in Sulu between the AFP and the MNLF is a glaring example of a failed peace negotiation, an insincere effort meant to crush and subdue the Morostruggle and not addressing the roots of the conflict. The Arroyo government must be sincere in its effort to offer peace to the MILF if it really wants to resolve the conflict in Mindanao. The Anti-Terrorism Law and other militaristic policies of the government will only inflame the age-old hatred of the Moro people borne out of injustice, discrimination and political suppression of the Philippine government against the Moro people.
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The writer is the current vice-chairperson of SUARA BANGSAMORO Partylist (United Voice of the BANGSAMORO), a partylist organization committed to the cause of forwarding the rights and welfare of the BANGSAMORO people in Mindanao. She is also the secretary-general of the Moro-Christian People's Alliance (MCPA), an interfaith organization that provides venues for enriching Muslim-Christian unity in the Philippines. She comes from a proud Moro tribe, the Iranons of Parang and Matanog in Maguindanao. She is presently based in Cotabato City, the political center of Maguindanao. For comments and reactions, you can reach her through this e-mail address: mcpaphils@yahoo.com and suarabangsamoro2004@yahoo.com.

"To oppose the policies of a government does not mean you are against the country or the people that the government supposedly represents. Such opposition should be called what it really is: democracy, or democratic dissent, or having a critical perspective about what your leaders are doing. Either we have the right to democratic dissent and criticism of these policies or we all lie down and let the leader, the Fuhrer, do what is best, while we follow uncritically, and obey whatever he commands. That's just what the Germans did with Hitler, and look where it got them." - Michael Parenti