Bulatlat.com

Commentary:
The AFP's War of Attrition

Since February last year, 17 mass leaders and officials of Bayan Muna nationwide – including two organizers from Talaingod, Davao del Norte -- have been killed, mostly by members of the military and paramilitary groups.

By CARLOS H. CONDE
Bulatlat.com/MindaNews

The 73^rd Infantry Brigade in Southern Mindanao needs to do better in explaining the allegations of massacres and murders that are hounding it other than saying that its victims were all members of the New People’s Army. I’m saying this because in the case of the deaths of six people – many of them civilians, as the AFP itself conceded -- in Pangyan, Tamugan, Marilog District barely a week after the Arakan Massacre, the 73^rd IB has to contend with specific allegations against its elements.

According to witnesses and survivors, the Marilog incident was not a “legitimate encounter,” as the military claimed, but an outright massacre. The soldiers, according to the survivors, knew there were civilians, including children, in the wedding but they fired nonetheless.

Another damning allegation was that the soldiers and Cafgus planted “evidence” on the body of one of the dead, Edgar Blas. Hermogenes Canubas, one of the witnesses who survived the attack, said pictures taken by the Cafgus showed Blas wearing a vest. He insisted that Blas wore no vest before the attack.

Hermogenes and his wife, Severina, were arrested by the military and detained for two days at the 73^rd IB headquarters. There, one of the leaders of the Cafgus who participated in the attack, Toto Palma, repeatedly threatened to kill them.

The most damning allegation, one that puts context to the Marilog Massacre as well as in other cases of abuses by the military, was when Palma killed the already wounded Apolonio “Poloy” Enoc, a council member of the Farmers Association of Davao City who was supposed to have been the godfather at the wedding. Palma allegedly approached Enoc and asked him, “Are you Poloy Enoc?” When Enoc, who had been hit in the leg, said “Yes, but please help me,” Palma shot him to death instead.

This last incident is important because, as I said, it puts context to the carnage in the countryside nowadays. It seems that the State, ably represented by the military, is on a rampage, killing mass leaders such as Enoc, who was specifically sought out by his killers. Enoc, as an officer of FADC and a local farmers’ group, is involved in advocacy work protecting farmers and peasants.

Since February last year, 17 mass leaders and officials of Bayan Muna nationwide – including two organizers from Talaingod, Davao del Norte -- have been murdered, mostly by members of the military and paramilitary groups. There seems to be a war of attrition going on aimed specifically at mass leaders of peasant and progressive organizations. It must also be pointed out that these victims are operating legally. They are not members of any outlawed group – they are members and officers of Bayan Muna, the party-list group that topped the last elections promising a politics of change. Enoc, on the other hand, is an official of FADC, which has been at the forefront of the struggle by farmers and peasants for genuine land reform.

As Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo pointed out in his privilege speech this week condemning the brutal attacks on Bayan Muna’s members and officers, does the State no longer make any distinction between a legal organization and those it outlawed?

In the case of the 73^rd IB, it is apparently the case. Its commanding officer, Col. Eduardo del Rosario, probably thinks that it is easier to justify the murder of civilians and suspected guerrillas by labeling them -- instinctively and without any proof -- as NPA rebels. He even calls the civilians – including children – whom his men have wounded as NPA sympathizers, ergo they are fair game as far as the soldiers are concerned. He also calls those who challenge his statements as liars and, well, NPA sympathizers.

The witnesses and survivors in the Pangyan Massacre have no reason to lie. I searched long and hard for a reason for them to lie and destroy the already sordid image of the AFP and I couldn’t find any. They are, in fact, putting their lives at risk by testifying against the military.

Del Rosario, of course, thinks that they are just lying, period. To him, every bloodshed is a “legitimate encounter.” To him, anybody who talks or is seen with a suspected NPA member is himself an NPA member. To him, the world is black and white – you are either for us or against us.

One would think that with our horrible experience with the brutality of the military under the Marcos regime, things should have improved by now. The likes of del Rosario, however, remind us once in a while that that is not so. Bulatlat.com

We want to know what you think of this article.