Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts

Vol. IV,    No. 38      October 24 - 30, 2004      Quezon City, Philippines

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Tabara Armed Group: From 'Rebels' to 'Rogues'

Arturo Tabara, who was killed by assassin’s bullets in early September, was hailed by government authorities as a “man of peace.” As far as the underground Left and human rights and peace groups in Negros are concerned, however, Tabara and his group could hardly fit the description.

By Karl G. Ombion
Bulatlat

BACOLOD CITY – Denouncing the killing of Arturo Tabara by a unit of the New People’s Army (NPA) last Sept. 26, government authorities hailed him as a “man of peace.” But Tabara, erstwhile chief of the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Masang Pilipino-Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPMP-RPA-ABB), could have hardly qualified as a “man of peace,” as far as the mainstream underground Left is concerned.

Human rights groups and a number of media reports also link the RPMP-RPA-ABB – widely known here as a special paramilitary unit and not a rebel group that it claims to be - to big landlords and local politicians engaging in what would qualify as “criminal activities.”

In a statement released to the media on Sept. 30, Frank Fernandez, alleged secretary of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in Negros Island, traced Tabara’s transformation from a rebel to a “rogue.” In 1992-1993, Fernandez said, Tabara and his faction launched a demolition campaign against the revolutionary movement by agitating members of the CPP-NPA to bolt out and rise against the CPP’s central committee and the general command of the NPA.

Tabara, the Negros revolutionary leader said, had misrepresented the authority of the CPP’s central leadership in committing kidnap-for-ransom and other gangster operations in Negros. Most notorious of these is the kidnapping of Rolando Florete, owner of Bombo Radio Philippines in 1989, and a Japanese national named Mr. Mizuno in 1990. Both operations, Fernandez clarified, were against the policy of the CPP.

Mysterious release

In 1993, the Negros CPP regional committee, then under the Party’s Visayas Commission headed by Tabara, declared its autonomy from the CPP’s central leadership. The following year, Tabara along with other members of his faction were arrested by the Military Intelligence Group under Maj. Pedro Cabuay, in an apartment in Bacolod. Tabara and the others were subsequently released shortly under mysterious circumstances.

Sometime between 1997-1998, Tabara and Nilo De La Cruz formed the RPMP with the latter’s RPA-ABB as its armed unit. (Dela Cruz has reportedly taken over the leadership following Tabara’s assassination.) Others who had joined them, like Noel Etabag and a certain Geanga, left the new formation over alleged racket money, and formed their own party known as Partido ng Manggagawang Pilipino (PMP).

Since then, media reports in Negros wrote about joint military operations by the RPMP-RPA-ABB and military and police against the CPP-NPA particularly in the hinterland villages of Sipalay-Hinobaan, Cauayan-Ilog-Candoni-Kabankalan, Isabela-Binalbagan in southern Negros, Canlaon-Guihulnga-Don Salvador Bendicto in central Negros, Silay-Talisay-EB Magalona, Cadiz-Sagay-Escalante-Toboso in north Negros, and Sta.Catalina-Bayawan in Negros Oriental.

Tabara, Frank Fernandez said, was also tagged as a security adviser of magnate Eduardo Danding Cojuangco Jr., He, Fernandez went on, was responsible for the sell-out of RPA-ABB by serving as a private army of Cojuangco in the latter’s land ownership expansion in the cities of Canlaon, Kabankalan, Sipalay, Bago and La Carlota, and in the towns of Don Salvador Benedicto and La Castellana, all in Negros. 

In May 2002, Fernandez said, Tabara and Carapali Lualhati directed RPA-ABB members in the raid of the municipal treasurer’s office in Sta. Catalina town in Negros Oriental where they reportedly stashed away P220,000. The RPA-ABB commandos reportedly killed Lito Dagat, Virgie Edreal, Dondon Dinsay and another, all employees.

The RPMP-RPA-ABB was also linked to a dynasty who was reportedly engaged in illegal logging in Don Salvador Benedicto, Negros Occidental and, in the May 2004 elections, was also reported in the press for extortion activities amassing millions of pesos using the name and logo of the CPP-NPA-NDFP, Fernandez also said.

Paramilitary unit

In January 2002, then Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to recognize the RPMP-RPA-ABB as a paramilitary unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The proposal, Jerome Seballos, secretary general of the human rights alliance Karapatan in Negros said, was backed by Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman.

What gave the top Macapagal-Arroyo officials certitude in turning Tabara’s armed group into a counter-insurgency unit can be explained by what some analysts and media columnists in Negros describe as RPMP-RPA-ABB’s outright capitulation and record of criminal activities.

Only a year after President Joseph Estrada started negotiations with the Tabara group in 1999, a peace agreement was struck. On Dec. 6, 2000, Estrada’s executive secretary, Edgardo Angara (now back as a senator) along with Cojuangco Jr. as “peace intervenor” signed a peace pact with Tabara and Dela Cruz in Quezon City.

The peace pact, political analysts, Karapatan and the moderate group Peace Advocates of Negros (PAN), here agree, only “revitalized, strengthened and protected” the otherwise “spent force” RPMP-RPA-ABB.

Among others, the agreement gave the armed group a special license to carry firearms (Article II, Sec.2). All charges filed against leaders of the RPMP-RPA-ABB were subsequently dropped Article III). Government also pledged to give the armed group a total of P510 million for so-called development projects (Article IV, Section 4 and Article V, Section 1).

Delia “Duds” Locsin of PAN dismissed the agreement as not conducive to peace at all as it grants the “spent rebel force” special permits to carry firearms and recognizes the force’s control over undefined territories.

Karapatan’s Seballos gave a harsher comment: The agreement is a proof of the RPMP-RPA-ABB’s surrender to the government. “It is ironic that they keep on insisting that they are revolutionaries when in reality and in practice they have become paramilitary group, a CAFGU, of the government and being used against the real revolutionaries and the people,” he said.

This also explains why, Seballos said, members of the armed group could move around freely with their leaders holding offices in the provincial capitol and in AFP and police headquarters. “They can harass anybody, anytime, anywhere, without fear of being arrested, disarmed, and prosecuted. All these make them real dangerous,” he added.

Assassination plot

It was during talks with Estrada officials in 2000 that an assassination plot was hatched against a prime target: Jose Maria Sison, now the chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) based in The Netherlands. Based partly on information provided by Col. Reynaldo Berroya, news reports said Romulo Kintanar, a former NPA commander who had also parted ways with the revolutionary movement, was the chief project officer of the assassination plot together with Tabada and Dela Cruz.

A hit team, which included an army soldier, went to The Netherlands to conduct surveillance on Sison in 2000 and the plot was to have been executed in October that year. But the plan was fouled up by the arrest and detention of the backup triggerman by the Dutch police. Another team was dispatched by Kintanar but was pulled out later on.

Under these circumstances, independent analysts in Negros say, the accusations by Fernandez along with other groups in Negros that Tabara and his group are not only a paramilitary unit but also special intelligence agents of the government hold water.

String of cases

On top of these, Karapatan-Negros has documented and submitted to the Commission on Human Rights and Negros officials a string of human rights violations and criminal activities by the RPMP-RPA-ABB. Some of the cases under investigation are:

1) Peasants in the hinterland barangays of Pinggot, Ilog town,and Barangays Kanlamay, Balikutok, Magballo, Bantayan, Tapi and Agboy of Kabankalan City in southern Negros, who protested the planned construction of a dam, cassava and Ilang-Ilang plantations of Cojuangco were harassed in October and November 2001 by elements of RPA-ABB led by certain Malvar and Saldo;

2) On Nov. 1, 2001, Johnny, 36, and Allan Lapore, 31, and 15-year old Richard Menquillo, who were looking for a pilit (the glutinous rice used for native cakes) were fired upon as they passed along the airstrip of Maricalum Mining Corporation (MMC), Sipalay City, 162 kms south of Bacolod, by security guards and alleged RPA-ABB elements contracted for protection work by the MMC;

3) Farmers in the villages of Malaiba, Akasya and Lumapao, Aquino and Bayog, Canlaon City, 150 kms east of Bacolod, who opposed the illegal logging operations by elements of RPA-ABB and rebel returnees financed by local politicians and lumber companies, were repeatedly harassed in October and November 2001, and threatened of ejection;

3) Alfredo Sabillo, a farmer leader of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement in the Philippines) in Barangay Pinggot, Ilog, who led a protest against the planned DAM project in the area, and exposed the money allegedly received by some RPA-ABB from barangay officials, was forced by elements of RPA-ABB to abandon his residence on Nov. 3, 2001. He was also warned that he would be shot if he is seen roaming the entire 6th district (CHICKS area);

4) Also in 2001, Tay Pedring Trabajador, a leader of the National Federation of Sugar Workers was killed in Barangay San Isidro, Toboso twon, 126 kms north of Bacolod, by alleged RPA-ABB elements led by a certain Timot and Ricky together with police and army members;

5) Rape of a 15-year girl of Silay City allegedly by RPA-ABB elements led by Arnold and Maitan in May 11 2003, in a fishpond in Talisay City. The case was widely reported in the Negros press;

6) RPA-ABB members led by Maitan and Kenneth in near north Negros harassed organizers and campaigners of party-list Gabriela Women’s Party and Bayan Muna in April 2004, in the interior villages of Silay and Talisay cities, 15kms north of Bacolod. The same members who were reported campaigning with the administration mayoralty bets were also complained by local residents of tearing and removing the posters of progressive party-lists and the candidates they were endorsing.

7) Ronald Ian Evidente, Bayan leader of Negros Oriental and third nominee of Anak ng Bayan Party, was arrested in Dumaguete City on April 21, 2004 by the police on trumped-up charges of murder filed by the wife of RPA-ABB leader in Oriental. Evidente was released on bail two weeks later;

8) The house of farmer Mamerto Acsimar in remote village of Cauayan, 135kms south of Bacolod, was burned by alleged RPA-ABB elements led by Elmer and Amor on Oct. 2, 2002. Acsimar was then shot by alleged RPA-ABB members Marvin and Leonardo Trocio. With additional reports / Bulatlat

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