NEWS ANALYSIS

Davao Bombings Crucial to AFP’s War in the Countryside

If Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and his clique in the military will have their way – that is, to declare all of Mindanao under a “state of lawless violence,” particularly the Southern Mindanao region, which is acknowledged by the military as having the most robust Communist build-up in Mindanao over the years – it would create the perfect condition for the implementation of their counter-insurgency doctrine as outlined in Reyes’s brainchild, the National Internal Security Plan.

By Andres Rebana 
Bulatlat.com

Rescuers carry the body of a victim into a hospital morgue following a powerful explosion near a wharf in Davao, southern Philippines, April 2, which killed at least 16 and wounded more than 40.  (Photo courtesy of AP)

The series of bombings in the Southern Mindanao region, particularly in Davao City, has elicited the usual reactions from various sectors: that it was meant to sabotage the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), that it was heightening the “tension” between Muslims and Christians in Mindanao and that it was hatched as a justification for “direct U.S. intervention” in Mindanao mainly through the holding of the Balikatan 03-1 in the region.  

To be sure, all of these could be true -- and there are indications that they are indeed true. However, one way to look at all this violence is to study its effects: what has the government done and who stands to benefit from these actions? Just as the Bush administration has usurped the tragedy that is September 11 to justify its aggression against Iraq, the Arroyo regime is using the bombings in Davao City to justify actions that can benefit the powers-that-be, especially the military, particularly Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes.

Specifically, the regime has declared four cities and four provinces in Southern Mindanao as being under a “state of lawless violence.” President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the military to take the lead in “securing” these areas, thus subordinating the police. Government officials, chief among them Interior Secretary Joey Lina, are now talking about sending in the Marines to Davao City.

All these are aimed not so much against the MILF but against the New People’s Army, which has been very active in practically all the provinces and cities covered by the declaration. These are the cities of Davao, Tagum, Samal and Digos and the provinces of Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley. Note that of these areas, only Davao City had experienced the kind of attacks we have witnessed the past weeks. If there is one thing these areas have in common, it is the strong presence of the Communist movement.

Reyes also declared that other areas in Mindanao could be similarly declared as under a “state of lawless violence.” Barely two days after the bombing at the Sasa wharf in Davao City, explosions rocked the towns of Parang and Tacurong. Coincidence? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But any violence after the declaration would almost certainly be used to justify a similar declaration in these areas. If the bombers would work double time, the entire Mindanao island would be similarly declared in only a week’s time.

Along with the “state of lawless violence” declaration is Reyes’ announcement that the military would be forming a so-called Internal Defense Command that would be tasked to secure Davao City and to prevent more attacks. Reyes said he wants to replicate this command in the whole of Mindanao.

The National Internal Security Plan

If Reyes and his clique in the military will have their way – that is, to declare all of Mindanao under a “state of lawless violence,” particularly the Southern Mindanao region, which is acknowledged by the military as having the most robust Communist build-up in Mindanao over the years – it would create the perfect condition for the implementation of their counter-insurgency doctrine as outlined in Reyes’s brainchild, the National Internal Security Plan.

Reyes, in a Jan. 12 report in the newspaper Today, said the NISP, which has a five-year timetable, has four components: political-legal-diplomatic, information, socioeconomic-psychosocial, and peace and order-security.

The defense chief outlined his five-year plan this way: “Government intervention should come in to address the root causes of poverty and the peace and order problems simultaneously at varying levels. Through the NISP, the government adopts the strategy of holistic approach as its grand plan in addressing the growing complexity of the threats caused by insurgents. The political, legal and diplomatic components seek to tap the full cooperation of local governments and civil society to promote good governance and citizen’s participation in local peace initiatives. It also highlights legal and diplomatic responses."

Reyes’ doctrine sounds lofty, indeed, but beneath the veneer of good intentions lies this basic fact: the NISP is aimed primarily at vanquishing the Communist movement in the country. It may sound harmless but the methods to be used to attain this objective are almost certain to wreak havoc in the countryside, spawn serious human-rights violations and perpetuate strife and poverty.

According to Newsbreak, the newsmagazine with deep and reliable sources within the military establishment, the NISP germinated way back in 1999 when Reyes was still the AFP chief of staff. It was drafted by a team led by Col. Victor Corpus, the former NPA rebel and now chief of the Intelligence Service of the AFP, whose book, Silent War, had become the veritable counter-insurgency blueprint being used by the AFP.

A key component of the plan is to have the Office of the Executive Secretary lead the Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security. After Reyes became defense chief, Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo was named head of the COC-IS, which is the only Cabinet cluster. This is crucial because Reyes was apparently convinced that, for the NISP to work, it will have to involve the Office of the President. But, as Newsbreak reported, while the COC-IS is headed by Malacanang, “the brains and the heart are in the defense department.”

“Invisible Army”

Meanwhile, Corpus is convinced that the AFP has to create what he calls the “invisible army” to defeat the Communists. In an upcoming book excerpted in January by Newsbreak, Corpus wrote: “The new rule emerging in the modern battlefield is: if the enemy sees you, you are dead. To survive in the battlefield of tomorrow, we should create a component of the AFP that would be ‘invisible’ in the battlefield yet still possess the capacity and punch power to knock out (the enemy).”

Corpus suggested the creation of a Citizen Armed Force (CAF), which, as Newsbreak reported, “will be organized and trained in most of the 42,000 or so barangays all over the country, or a total reserve force of some 600,000 to 700,000. The roles of the CAF, among others, will be to defend the country against external and internal threats, organize into people’s organizations or cooperatives to serve as counter-insurgency groups at the grassroots or barangay level, and provide the barangay intelligence.”

The CAF, which is composed entirely of civilians but under the command and control of a 15-member Battle Group from the AFP, “will comprise the main force that will conduct guerrilla warfare” against aggressors. “They are submerged in and with the masses, one with the people, hence their ‘invisibility’.”

“Area Coordination Centers”

Corpus’s vision has been incorporated in the NISP. Under the plan, the military will set up Area Coordination Centers all over the country. The ACC basically performs a function outlined by the proposed CAF: it links up with local leaders and serves as a nationwide security network (read: intel). As of April last year, some 39 ACCs had been set up in the whole country, according to Newsbreak.

While Reyes’ critics say that he would use the ACC for his presidential ambitions, mainly because of the networking with local executives, these ACCs have apparently succeeded in penetrating communities where the Communists have been operating. The military has been using the divide-and-rule tactic on these communities. The best example is the Talaingod tribal communities in Davao, where Reyes successfully coopted local Lumad leaders and their followers to fight the NPA and their fellow Lumads they thought to be sympathetic to the NPA. This has resulted in massive militarization and human-rights violations in these communities.

Reyes and Corpus have couched the NISP, the CAF, and the ACC in language that suggests lofty ideals but, at its most basic, this doctrine is not entirely new. It is basically low-intensity conflict, pitting people in a community against each other in the hope of vanquishing the enemy and in perpetuating the conditions that bred the revolution in the first place, such as poverty and injustice.

This also perpetuates the policy of state aggression and terrorism that the people in the countryside have been familiar with for decades. At its core is the principle that only by dividing a community, by terrorizing them, by defeating their will and capacity to assert their right, can state policies that benefit the powers that be and those in Big Business be implemented successfully.

The bombings in Davao the past weeks have provided the perfect justification for these policies to be implemented. Some may say that that raises the question on whether unseen hands were behind the bombings precisely to justify this heightened, if more sophisticated, version of low-intensity conflict. This is not farfetched, considering that the military, as history has shown, is capable of doing exactly these abominations. But that is another story. Or perhaps not. Bulatlat.com

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