This story was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VI, No. 9, April 2-8, 2006

Anti-DPA Hysteria victim speaks out after 18 years
Hysteria, Healing and the Correctness of Armed Struggle

Eighteen years ago, Lila and her brother Arman were among the thousands of Communist Party members wrongly accused of being government “deep penetration agents” in a hysteria in the underground movement.  Now 42, Lila speaks about the pain of being a victim of the anti-infiltration hysteria, and about her misadventures as a captive in the mountains, about forgiveness and healing, and the need for armed struggle.

BY DEE AYROSO
Bulatlat

Editor’s note: The name of the interviewee and other persons have been changed to protect their identities.

“Kadua, pag natapos itong kaso mo umuwi ka na lang sa tatay mo.  Kasi ang narinig ko, ‘kapatid ka ng pinatay nila sa isang lugar.” (Comrade, when you get cleared, you should go home to your father.  I heard that you are the sister of somebody they executed in another place.)

In tears, a young peasant minority woman told Lila how her elder brother Arman had possibly been killed by the New People’s Army.  Lila herself had already spent months in the mountains as a “prisoner” of the NPA rebels.

It was the worst nightmare for Lila, for, after all, she and her brother were both full-time activists of good stature.   She was with a Party propaganda team in Central Luzon, and  Arman was with the Party communications group in Northern Luzon and had served the movement for almost a decade.  Yet, their comrades had suspected them both of  being “deep penetration agents” or DPA of the government. 

Siblings Lila and Arman were victims of “Operation Tidebar”, the Central Luzon version of the movement-wide anti-infiltration campaign of the Communist Party of the Philippines in the 80s. 

In 1984 to 1985, the underground movement suffered increasing setbacks in the battlefield even as the Party leadership pushed for a decisive victory.  Such setbacks were wrongly attributed to the infiltration of government agents in the movement.  The Party leadership turned to its own ranks in search of infiltrators. 

According to a CPP anniversary statement, the search turned into widespread panic, a hysteria, which violated “the individual rights of suspects, the standards of due process and the rules of scientific examination and weighing of evidence.”

Lila was cleared by the Party after more than a year as prisoner.  In 1992, the Regional Party Committee in Central Luzon had admitted having wrongly executed Arman in 1988.  In 1997, he had been declared a martyr of the revolution by the CPP in Central Luzon.  His remains had not been found to this day.

For Lila, the hysteria provided her both the worst and best lessons to learn: that the Party was not a perfect organization, and in spite of such imperfection, how the masses cared for the revolutionary cause and the revolutionaries that they meet.

Children of an Army officer

Arman and Lila came from a middle class family in Central Luzon.  Arman was the eldest and only boy in a brood of four.  He was an honor student, had a charismatic personality and got along well with everybody. Petite and frail-looking Lila was the third child, and described herself as a “Daddy’s girl.”

Their father was then an Army colonel.  Their conservative family orientation however, was no hindrance to their involvement in student activism.  Ironically, her father once said: “You better forget your damned belief, because in the end, your comrades will be the ones to kill you.” She dismissed it as an anti-communist line.

Arman joined a student organization as an electronics communication engineering student in an exclusive school in Manila.  Lila was recruited by Arman not long after she entered college at the university belt in 1980.  As a freshman, Lila helped set up a student support network for the armed movement in the countryside. 

In 1984, after graduating from college, 24-year-old Arman joined the NPA in Central Luzon.  Young peasant girls were easily attracted to the good-looking, young organizer from Manila.  Arman developed a relationship with a barrio lass, but without permission from his group.  When his collective found out that the two had pre-marital sex, they wanted to get them married. But Arman’s parents disapproved. 

Instead, Arman’s family decided to let the girl live with them while she finishes high school.  The relationship, however, didn’t last.  Arman left the NPA to find a paying job, and the girl went back to her family.

In 1985, Lila had graduated from college.  She was recruited to the Party and had joined a regional Party staff collective involved in propaganda work in Central Luzon . Arman decided to return to the struggle, this time, joining the NPA in Northern Luzon, as a staff for communication in 1986.

 Lila recalled seeing her brother in rare occasions when they both come home for the holidays.

“Dumadalaw siya, me dalang (hand-held radio) transceiver, pero wala akong alam sa kanya.  Alam ko lang nasa komunikasyon, (He would visit, carrying a radio transceiver, but I didn’t know about his work.  All I know was that he was in communications work.)” Lila said.  

Arrest

In 1987, Lila, then age 24, asked to be transferred to her home province, to work for an urban-based provincial Party staff collective.  Before long, on May 24, Lila vividly recalled how she was led to be “arrested”. 

A female staff asked to be accompanied to check out the venue for an educational discussion.  They were to meet another person in a certain village. 

“Hapon na, wala pa, kaya uuwi na sana kami.  Pero pinigilan kami ng masa.  Ibinyahe kami, malayo.  Noong gabi, dumating ang mga kasama.” (It was late in the afternoon yet no one came.  We were about to leave, but the peasant stopped us.  They took us on a long ride to another place.  In the evening, the comrades came.)

It was the NPA unit in the area that came.  Lila was separated from her co-staff as she was to sleep in another house, accompanied by three male comrades. 

“Nakita ko nung gabi na umiiyak yung kasama kong girl.  Naisama ko na kasi siya sa bahay, pamilya na.” (That night I saw my female companion crying.  She had known my family, and to me, she was also like family.)  It was only later that Lila would realize that the girl knew about her arrest and was crying for her.

Lila slept in a hut with the three men, with one positioned by a window, and another by the door.  The third, who was to sleep beside her in bed, put a gun between them. 

“Ayan. Damputin mo pag ginawan kita ng masama (There. Use that if I make any wrong moves),” Lila recalled he said. 

It was only the next day that she found out that they were her arresting team.

“Alam mo ba ba’t andito ka?  Sa araw at oras na ito ay inaaresto ka at lahat ng karapatan mo bilang kasapi ng Partido ay inaalis sa iyo (On this day and this moment, you are under arrest and you no longer have any right as a Party member),” Lila quoted the arresting officer.

Lila recalled feeling pressure in her ears.  She felt anger at the regional staff collective that she recently left, thinking that they must have made a case against her for forcibly and hastily leaving them. She was required to jot down the names of all those she knew and recruited to the movement and all relatives connected with the military and government agencies.

The arresting officer told Lila not to tell anyone that she was a “prisoner” and that she was being investigated.  It was for her own security, she was told.

In the next two weeks, Lila went with the NPA unit from house, traveling on foot, still clueless on the charges against her. 

“Nasabak talaga ako sa paglakad…hindi ako handa, nakasandals ako nang maganda (I wasn’t prepared to walk long distances)” Lila recalled the lengthy walks from one village to another, wearing her city clothes and dressy sandals. 

Investigation

After two weeks and upon Lilay’s request, the custodial unit arranged for her transfer to another guerilla unit in the mountains. 

“Nag-arrange sila sa taas.  Nag-ayos sila lahat ng gamit ko: me panty, me malaking bote ng shampoo, sabon, me conditioner pa nga (They arranged for me to go to another unit in the mountain area.  They prepared everything I would need: panties, a big bottle of shampoo, bath soap, they even gave me hair conditioner),” Lila amusingly recalled.

In the first stopover on the way to the guerilla camp, Lila was “tested” by a Red commander.

“Sabi nila anak ka ng military… Anong pagkakaiba ng sundalo at NPA?” (They said that you’re a daughter of a military man… so what’s the difference between a soldier and an NPA?) he asked.

“Parehas lang (They’re just the same),” Lila answered.  She was used to being in the company of military men.  To her, soldiers had been her father’s bodyguards, and they were kind to her and her family.  As children, she and her siblings had spent summers at Camp Aguinaldo.  Although she could differentiate the soldiers as the defenders of the exploiting class from the Red fighters who truly defend the people and having gone on an integration back in 1981.Lila felt that she disappointed the interviewer with her answer.

In the next days, Lila moved with the unit from house to house, in the Igorot villages in the mountains.  Then the investigation began.

“Dun ko nalaman yung kay utol.  Parang lahat ng sinasabi nilang sinabi niya, kasinungalingan.  Mukhang pinahirapan siya talaga, kung sinabi niya nga ‘yun (It was there that I learned about my brother.  Everything they claimed that he confessed to were all lies.  He must have been severely tortured for him to say those things),” Lila said.

The investigating team told her that her brother Arman had admitted being an enemy agent, of arranging the abduction of three comrades who were missing at that time.  He was also accused of having an affair with the wife of another comrade.  They told her that the woman admitted that she recruited Lila as a DPA, too.  They even claimed that there was a taped conversation to prove it.

The investigation even used her personal weaknesses to feed the suspicions against her.

“Uwi raw ako nang uwi, marami raw akong crush (They said that I was always going home to my family, that I was attracted to many men.),” Lila said.

“Paulit-ulit na tanong, paulit-ulit na sagot… Tatlong araw na  hindi ako kumain – hunger strike!  Umiiyak talaga ako (They asked questions repeatedly, and I answered the same…I refused to eat in protest – hunger strike!  I just kept crying),” she recalled.

After three days, Lilay was very weak and restless.  There was buzzing in her ear and she kept seeing flashes of white when she shuts her eyes.  “Dun na siguro ‘yung ‘sasayad’ ka na, kasi gutom ako tapos me depression (I must have been at the verge of losing my mind, because I was both hungry and depressed),” Lila said.

Lila asked for food.  They only gave her biscuits and milk at first to reintroduce food to her system.  It was a good thing that she began eating again for she would need all her strength back.

“Kinabukasan, alerto, me kaaway (The next day, we were alerted by enemy presence nearby),” Lila recounted.  They had to climb higher up the mountains to elude the government troops.  That’s why you always have to eat on time when you’re in the mountains, a Red commander told Lila.

Treatment

Aside from the occasional, repeated interrogation, Lila said she was treated well. 

“Hinahayaan lang nila ako.  Hindi ako nakagapos hindi kagaya ng mga lalaking bihag”  (They just let me be.  I had no handcuffs unlike those male captives),” she said. 

Inspite of her status and the baseless accusations, Lila kept in mind that she was still a revolutionary, still one of the comrades.  She got along well with most of the Red guerillas.  She would do propaganda work with the mass base along with the NPA unit.  Occasionally, the unit leaves her behind when they conduct tactical offensives.

“Pag sinasama ako sa mga bahay, nagma-mass work din ako, nagpo-prop. Wala akong babanggitin, kasi internal ang problema (When we went to peasant homes, I had political discussions with the masses.  But I kept silent on my being a prisoner, because the problem is internal),” she said.

“Pero sasaktan ka rin nila (But they hurt you in different ways),” Lila said.

For one, the investigation on the charges against her was already taking too long.  She was told that the provincial committee could not touch her case because it was up to the regional committee to decide.

The investigators would even fuel the suspicion against her on subjective and flimsy basis. 

Such was the case when, after three months with the guerillas, she wrote down all her observations and criticisms on their mass work, on their attitude and on the investigation of her case.  She submitted this to her investigating officer.

The officer was impressed with what she was written, but in the end, her observations were used to strengthen suspicions against her.

“Intel daw ako, kasi isang bagsak pa lang ng salita nila, alam ko na lahat  ng sasabihin nila (They accused me of being an intelligence agent, because I could guess what they were about to say),” Lila said.

Lila even recalled an S4 (logistics officer) who would give her less food than what was allotted for her. “Hindi dapat pinapakain ng marami ang bihag (Prisoners should not be fed much),” he said.

Encounter

On the positive side, Lila said she was able to push her endurance level to new heights. 

“Dati pag ayoko ng place, ang tendency ko, aalis ako.  Pero sa bundok, kelangan ko i-endure lahat.  Di ako pwedeng umalis.  Mga taong kahit ayaw mong kausapin, ayaw mong unawain, kelangan mong kausapin, unawain (Before, if I didn’t like a place, I’d just leave.  But in the mountains, I had to endure it all.  I can’t just leave.  I have to face even people I didn’t like and didn’t want to talk to),” she said.  She was determined to endure all to clear their names and hoped to bring back his brother alive.

Lila said she unintentionally acquired her NPA training as a prisoner in the mountains. 

On two occasions, Lila survived defensive battles against government troops.  On both occasions, she was alert enough to be able to carry her backpack and get out of the firing line.  Yet on both occasions, some guerillas would accuse her of having prior knowledge of the enemy’s movements.

In her first defensive encounter, Lila got separated from the unit.  She survived for two days on a few tablets of multivitamins and ascorbic acid, and the small packs of sugar and salt, which she always carried in her pack.

Lila eventually found her way to a mountain village she had frequented with the guerilla unit.  After a few days, Lila was back with the guerilla unit.

It was after her first experience of defensive encounter that she learned from a peasant woman about her brother.  Lila had spent the night at the peasant woman’s house and had casually told her she dreamt of Arman.

“Alam mo, napanaginipan ko ang kapatid ko, kausap daw ang tatay ko, nahihirapan siya, umiiyak  (You know, I dreamt about my brother, he was talking to my father, and he was crying),” Lila recalled telling the peasant woman.  

The woman broke into tears and told her what she overheard from the comrades.  Lila was surprised that the woman knew about her being a prisoner and about her brother.  But Lila didn’t believe her.  She was set to get herself and her brother cleared. 

Demoralization

It was already early1989 when Diego, a close friend of Lila came to the NPA unit.  Lila recruited Diego to the movement when they were still students.  Lila decided to break the policy about her prisoner status and told Diego about it.

“Hindi ko dapat sasabihin ito sa iyo, pero napagkamalan ako e, bihag ako (I’m not supposed to tell you this but I’m being wrongly accused, and I’m a prisoner),” Lila recalled telling Diego. She also told him that Arman was being suspected, too.

Soon after their talk, Diego left without saying goodbye.  Lila later learned that he was sent to the unit as Lila’s interrogator.  He confessed to their comrades that he couldn’t do the task, and that he was confused why Lila and her brother were suspects.  Diego decided to leave the movement. 

Lila recalled how some guerillas were demoralized when they learned about the charges against her.  They became confused. Many decided to just go home.

At one point, Lila had to give two guerillas all the ideological education she learned just to keep them from leaving.  Lila was left behind with the two as her guards as the unit conducted an offensive.  After two weeks, the two Red fighters got so bored and were thinking of going home.  Lila held them back because if they leave, she might as well be accused of causing their demoralization.

By August 1989, a cadre of the Party regional committee came. He apologized to Lila for the delay in the investigation of her case, and cleared her of all the charges.  She had spent more than a year as prisoner.  The regional cadre also promised to find out what happened to her brother.

Lila worked for sometime in the countryside, eventually she decided to go home and go back to life in the mainstream of society.

Consolation and Optimism

In her quest to heal and move on, Lila said that her family, relatives and friends helped her recover and start anew.  She, however misses the political discussion and analysis with her comrade friends.  Her experience had given her “a strong, determined and flexible personality to face hardship outside of the revolution.”

 Lila said she looks at her experience as a contribution to the movement and the Party.  She believes that in a way she had touched the lives of the comrades and the peasants that she had met as a captive.  Her story is among the many stories of courage still recounted by village folks in the mountain village she frequented with her NPA unit.

Rectification

In 1992, the CPP implemented the Second Great Rectification Movement and identified the ideological, political and organizational errors of the Party including the hysteria.  Part of the rectification of the errors in the anti-infiltration campaign hysteria was its self-criticism and the imposition of disciplinary action on cadres responsible for it. 

Lila was approached by several comrades, who apologized for the pain inflicted by the hysteria, and tried to explain the rectification movement.  Arman, they said, was declared a martyr of the revolution.  They, however, said it would be difficult to retrieve his bones because the general area where he was buried had been marred by landslides. 

Lila said she has forgiven those responsible for persecuting her and Arman, but she could not forget the wrong done.  There was a comrade whom she felt could have easily vouched for her brother, but did not because Arman allegedly “admitted everything.”

She and his father had already accepted Arman’s death.  Other family members, relatives and friends still refuse to believe that the life of a fine, young man like Arman would be so horribly ended.

Lila said that a representative of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) had promised to issue a statement on Arman’s martyrdom.  They are still waiting for the NDFP statement, Lila said.

Lila said there should be a day to openly commemorate the martyrs who were killed in the hysteria.  

“Tamang magwasto, pero dapat din laging maalala ng mga tao na nagkamali, para matututo ang mga sumusunod na henerasyon (Rectify your mistakes, but also always remind the people of the mistakes committed, to serve as lessons for the next generation),” teary-eyed Lila said.

“Bilang pagkilala mo sa mga pagkakamali, bigyan mo ng tribute ang mga nagsakripisyo sa pagkakamali (In recognition of your mistakes, you should pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives because of those mistakes),” she added.

Lila said the people still need their army and that the revolution must still be pursued.

“Tama pa naman sila e.  Ina-admire ko pa rin ang mga nasa movement na inaalay ang buhay.  At sa abot ng makakaya ko, ibibigay ko pa rin, (They are still correct.  I still admire those who are still in the movement and are sacrificing their lives.  And I will still contribute whatever I can)” Lila said. Bulatlat

© 2006 Bulatlat ■  Alipato Publications

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