Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume III, Number 48 January 11 - 17, 2004 Quezon City, Philippines |
Two
Days in an NPA Camp What
the journalists who covered the joint CPP-CPDF press conference saw were real
human beings, real people who could have been their younger brothers, their
elder sisters, their classmates—normal people who could have been living
“normal” lives were it not for abnormal circumstances rooted in an abnormal
society. By
Alexander Martin Remollino
No
doubt some of those in the media team that covered the press conference of CPP
spokesperson Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal and the Cordillera People’s
Democratic Front (CPDF) last Jan. 7 somewhere in the Cordilleras harbored such
an image of NPA fighters before embarking on the long trip to those hinterlands.
The two-day stay in the NPA camp we visited for the press conference apparently
changed all that for them. Steep
routes
To
reach the site of the press conference, the media team, had to walk along very
steep mountain routes that were at many points very slippery. The advice to
travel light which we received beforehand was very wise, and by the looks of the
TV cameramen who were with the media team, it was obvious that they were having
the hardest time. We
were divided into two groups before climbing up the NPA camp. The camp had about
five small tents deep inside a forest of pine trees. One of the tents served as
the kitchen, having a long table improvised from pinewood and a fireplace. There
were also two “comfort rooms” nearby, complete with signs saying which was
vacant and which was occupied. At one point the group I was with was met by two persons, a man and a woman, who would have looked like the ordinary college students we see on the streets of Manila were it not for their M-16s and battle gear. They shook our hands tightly, with warm smiles on their faces, and volunteered to help us with our bulky bags and heavy equipment. They
were very helpful. They quickly extended helping hands whenever someone was
short of breath from the long trek; and when one of the photographers who was
with us accidentally had a fall while aiming for a good shot. Some
of us were understandably short of breath when we reached the camp. We didn’t
have to ask for water, as the NPA fighters who welcomed us into the camp gladly
offered it to us. “That’s
the real mineral water,” said a lady NPA fighter whose name I unfortunately
cannot recall right now, as I was having a drink. “Fresh from nature.” They
were no less helpful when some of us had decided to take a rest. I and two
others were lying on a grass “floor” under a makeshift tent. A lady NPA
named Ka Sandy and another lady NPA, passing by our tent, offered us plastic
sheets to sleep on. “So you won’t be sleeping on grass,” Ka Sandy said. Music
in the mountain
There
was only one guitar in the whole camp—yes, many of the young guerrillas play
the guitar—but there was a lot of music there. We
were greeted with a cultural presentation featuring an assortment of songs about
everyday NPA life in the local dialect. After that they introduced themselves
one by one to the tune of a tribal song, and successfully coaxed us into doing
the same. All
throughout the night and well into the next day, the music didn’t stop in the
camp. The
NPAs were still at it well after the greetings and introductions and even hours
after supper—which was a combination of rice, sinagkit (sardines with
chili peppers), and their own vegetable salad. They had a vast arsenal of
beautiful songs, and I must say this: most of them were better singers than many
of us in the media team, as would be shown later on. Their singing played no
small part in lulling the “uninitiated” (to the hills, that is) among us to
sleep. The
following morning, the joint press conference of Ka Roger and the CPDF was
opened with a cultural presentation. Ka
Roger himself, after the press conference, would give us his own “cultural
presentation.” The journalists who were able to attend his press conference
somewhere in Southern Luzon last year, remembering his duet with radio
commentator Benjie Liwanag, asked him to do another “The Impossible Dream.”
He turned it down, saying it was “used up already,” and instead played the
“Awit ng Kainginero” on his harmonica. “My musical talent is also for the
revolution,” he would say later. Why
they are there
We
were able to have casual moments with many of the NPAs—moments that, although
light, were certainly not devoid of meaning. It was during these casual moments
that we would learn why they are there. Nineteen-year-old
Ka Victor said he joined the NPA because he wanted to learn how to read and
write. Literacy programs are part of the grassroots work of the NPA. The
bespectacled Ka Maureen was one of those who offered help with carrying our load
on the long climb. A wire reporter commented that “in another life,” she
would probably be a teacher because she looks very much like one. “But
I’m a teacher,” Ka Maureen would reply with a smile. “I teach in a school
for the people, I discuss the state of society with them.” One
of them does dentistry work for the tribesfolk though she never went to
dentistry school. As
Ka Sandy, who could have been a doctor, said: “NPAs are not just fighters;
they are also teachers, doctors, and what have you. We work hard to provide the
masses with services which the government should be giving them.” Ka
Sandy also said that it is the government which drives people like her to take
to the hills, by neglecting the people. Humans,
too
The
typical movie image of the NPA guerrilla was nowhere to be found in that camp
somewhere in the Cordillera. Instead what the media team that covered the joint
CPP-CPDF press conference saw were real human beings, real people who could have
been their younger brothers, their elder sisters, their classmates—normal
people who could have been living “normal” lives were it not for abnormal
circumstances rooted in an abnormal society. A
TV cameraman I was able to talk with after our stay in the camp agreed that
visits like these make one see that the NPAs are not the “terrorists” the
government paints them to be. Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
|
|||