Last August 9, Ragaza attended a dialogue between church leaders led by Bishop Mylo Vergara and military officers under General Palparan. Palparan himself attended the dialogue. In the dialogue, the church leaders told the military officers that they have a right to assist their parishioners and must not be prevented nor be placed under suspicion.

Continuing massacre

But Facunla asserts that recent events in Lupao and in the rest of the province are a “continuing massacre” of peasants and other civilians.

Since the transfer of Palparan in Central Luzon in September last year, some 21 civilians, mostly peasant leaders, have been killed in extra-judicial executions and eight people have been abducted and remained missing in the province, according to Karapatan-Nueva Ecija, a local rights watch group.

The most recent victim is village council member Julie Velasquez, who was shot and killed by suspected military agents on the night of Aug. 16 at a wake near a detachment of the 71st IB in Barangay Culong, Guimba town.

Mother and son Tessie and Rodel Abellera, both Bayan Muna activists who were abducted last July 13 in Barangay Parista, Lupao remain missing, as well as Philip Dela Cruz who was abducted also in Parista last July 20. Mario Florendo was killed in his home in the same village last July 3.

Facunla observed that what happened during the Aquino administration is happening today. “Without military presence, farmers are able to improve their lives through self-help and tilling their farms. When soldiers come, they are attacked and their efforts are disrupted. The soldiers’ excuse is always that the farmers are supporting the NPA,” he said

Historical parallels

There are other historical parallels in the counter-insurgency effort of both the Aquino and Arroyo governments.

Palparan, whom Arroyo commended in her State of the Nation Address for his fight against “the night of terror” in Central Luzon, had played a key role in Aquino’s counter-insurgency campaign, in the same region. Palparan earned his spurs as a counter-insurgency expert in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Pampanga where as a junior officer he commanded the 24th IB. Today, the 24th IB is under the 7th Infantry Division, the command that covers the Central Luzon region, and which Palparan heads until his retirement.

In the post-Marcos period, terms like “salvaging” and “vigilante groups” became widely used during Palparan’s time in the late 1980s. He has been blamed in Pampanga for the killing of a number of progressive personalities including lawyer Ram Cura in Angeles City. The vigilante group Angel Simbulan Brigade also appeared during his time in Pampanga.

Organizations and personalities identified with the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan, New Patriotic Alliance) bore the brunt of human rights abuses during this period. The military claims Bayan is a front organization of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

U.S.-inspired

During the 1980s, in the aftermath of the U.S. defeat in the Vietnam War, U.S. military policy shifted to the “low intensity conflict” (LIC) doctrine. Instead of direct involvement of American troops in combat, local troops of “host” countries were trained to fight “proxy wars” with rebels.

The Aquino government adopted this policy and called it “total war” against the communist-led armed rebellion but failed to crush it.

Today’s “war on terror” promoted by George W. Bush is the wellspring of Arroyo’s “all-out war” against the CPP and the NPA which she declared last June. But the policy, outlined in the government’s counterinsurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya, appears to be doing damage only to civilians and not the armed rebels.

Media reports tend to show that the NPAs continue to attack government troops, outposts and detachments.

As civilian casualties mount, Arroyo’s desire to crush the insurgency in two years, or at most, before her term ends in 2010 appears to be getting nowhere.

War against the people

For peasant leader Facunla, the people of Lupao have seen the worst of the government’s past counterinsurgency campaigns and have lived through them.

“The Arroyo government is waging war against its own people. The orphans and the widows, and the other victims of political repression are in unbearable pain right now. But the dark night will end,” he said.

He said that “a government who makes war with its own people cannot last and those who survive the nightmare will continue the struggle.” Bulatlat

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