Private First Class Jullado (with mobile phone in right photo), admitted to having taken part in bombing the village of Basey due, he said, to rebel presence; among the affected people are the family in the left photo.

Photos by Dabet Castañeda

SAMAR Island –An old man and his son pound palay (rice grains) on a lusong (huge wooden container); two half-naked men build a house made of wood; while an elderly woman, holding a large wooden basket at her back, gather fire wood for cooking.

Townsfolk in this hilly barangay (village) in the town of Basey are picking up the pieces and trying to live a normal life once more after braving three waves of mass evacuations last month.

But the tranquility that welcomed a group of more than a hundred foreign and local delegates of the International Solidarity Mission (ISM)-Philippines 2005 was rather eerie.

Before the second of group of delegates (to which this reporter belonged) could reach its destination, it had received information that the first group had experienced harassments from soldiers of Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on their way to the place.

It was a 30-minute trek along farmlands, houses made of cogon, with bamboo and nipa lining the cemented pavement. From their doors and windows, people old and young alike watched the ISM team pass by.

Military men in uniform were seated in front of the houses.

From the top of a hill, one could see a group of people assembled outside the Barangay Cancaiyas Elementary School. The townsfolk came from eight different villages.  The people gathered to tell their stories, to the ISM team, of homes burned, livelihood lost and kin hurt during the mass evacuations.

Evacuees Fifty-one-year-old Editha Morales, a native Samarnon, said that she has lived in this barangay since birth and has never been forcefully evacuated from their home. “Not even during martial law,” she said in Tagalog. The Philippines was under martial rule from 1972-1986 under the dictatorship of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos. “Malakas yung mga bomba, nakakabingi. Akala namin tatamaan kami” (The sounds of bombs exploding were deafening. We thought we would be hit), she said.

Basey evacuees

Aling Editha, her husband and her three children abandoned their home in the morning of July 20, Wednesday, after bombs were dropped in a nearby hinterland village. Taking all their pieces of property, they headed for the gymnasium in the town proper of Basey and stayed there for almost a week. Cancaiyas is roughly 10 kilometers from the town proper.

Her husband, a farmer who planted palay (rice), coconut (for kopra) and root crops, took their carabao to the foot of the hills where her husband could go back to everyday to feed it. It was made to stay there until they went home on Monday, July 26.

Most of the residents have since come home save for some 40 families in Sitio (sub-village) Ogbok where all households but two have fled to other villages.

Some families have fled to as far as Montalban town in Rizal province, Luzon Island.

The human rights group Karapatan-Eastern Visayas (Alliance for the Advancement of Peoples’ Rights-Eastern Visayas Region) documented 40 cases of evacuations in this island affecting 2,433 individuals or 1,786 families.

Security for whom?

The aerial bombings were confirmed by Private First Class (Pfc.) Jullado, who was present during the community meeting between the villagers and the ISM. Jullado, who was in full battle gear, refused to give his first name.

He said he was there together with eight others from the 46^th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IB PA). They were sent specifically to “provide security” for the ISM delegates.

While insisting he was not on official duty, 2^nd Lt. Proxian Malasig said he only went to the area to visit his troops. The dark and lanky officer also said it was his prerogative to wear civilian clothes as a security measure.

ISM delegates learned later that one of the soldiers forcibly took a resident’s shirt and wore it to the community meeting. Malasig had earlier named this soldier as Pfc. Sherwin Dacanay.

During random interviews, residents said Malasig and his men frequented their village wearing civilian clothes. The villagers said the soldiers’ presence has sent a chilling effect on them.

Hell and terror

The island of Samar has been subject to intense counter-insurgency operations under the command of notorious military officer Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan. It has been six months since he announced on local radio that he would “end all anti-government rallies” in this island. This resulted in a long list of killings, abductions, torture, harassments, and other human rights and international humanitarian law violations.

In a forum Aug. 14 in the town of Catbalogan, some of the victims and survivors testified about the inhumane treatment they have suffered from the hands of soldiers.

Cristina Abalos, daughter of 67-year old Patricio Abalos, spoke of the forcible abduction and disappearance of her father. The older Abalos was abducted on March 28 by soldiers allegedly led by 2Lt. Wilbert Basquiñas. Cristina’s testimony echoed the stories of the families of the 31 persons who have disappeared in the region during the last six months.

All the way from the town of Villareal, Rosalina and Julius Calubid, wife and son of Constancio Calubid, related how Constancio was tortured and abducted by soldiers in plain clothes on the night of July 16. The victim disappeared and after 12 days was later found dead along the riverbanks of a remote village three kilometers from the town proper.

Karapatan-EV records reveal that 25 persons were summarily executed since Feb. 10 when Palparan officially took his post as commanding officer of the 8^th Infantry Division (ID PA).

Political assassinations in this region have targeted respected political activists, including human rights and labor lawyer Fedelito Dacut and activist priest Rev. Edison Lapuz, Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI or Independent Church of the Philippines).

Pablo Dacutanan Jr., shared how he was tortured by AFP soldiers in an apartment located in a densely populated area before he was able to escape. Dacutanan was laughing throughout his testimony, proof that his sufferings have affected his mental health as well. There have been 31 cases of torture reported in this region.

Government officials have also been threatened and harassed by the military. Samar Reps. Catalino Figueroa (second district) and Reynaldo Uy (first district) have attested in Congress to being harassed. Even barangay officials are regularly terrorized.

For the period Feb. 10 to Aug. 4 (25 weeks or 175 days), Karapatan-EV has documented 513 cases of violations of international humanitarian law.

Karapatan-EV secretary general Alex Lagunzad said that these violations resulted from three military operation plans (oplan): a) Oplan Kalinaw Visayas (literally, “Operational Plan Peace-in-the-Visayas), the over-all counter-insurgency operations plan of the 8^th ID PA in the region, b) Oplan Gold Rush 8, a plan to “neutralize” progressive people’s organizations, which the AFP considers as legal fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), and c) Oplan Ligpit (literally, “Operational Plan Liquidate”), which aims to execute about 36 leaders and members of progressive organizations who are included in the Order of Battle (OB) list. This list was confirmed by Palparan himself in a media briefing sometime in June.

In a newspaper report on Aug. 19, Palparan said his six-month anti-insurgency campaign has been successful and he is just about to neutralize “communist-terrorists” (CTs) in the island.

Amid this so-called success however are widows and orphans who have been denied justice. For the villagers affected by military operations, it has been six months of torment. Bulatlat