Peace of the Dead
If it is peace the 9th
Infantry Division aims to achieve in Oplan Bayanihan, then it has certainly
succeeded in doing so, if the peace it wants is the deadening of villages and
the quelling of people’s aspirations.
For indeed, in over two years of the
AFP’s campaign, it has not only attacked the people through brute force. It has
also pursued to deflect the minds of villagers away from the roots of poverty
and conflict, and has strived to distort the people’s thinking towards Oplan
Bayanihan’s incredible logic.
Oplan Bayanihan absurdly believes that people are poor only because they believe that they are poor. Their hardship is only caused by “perceptions of relative deprivation”, and is therefore no reason to protest or take up arms. Oplan Bayanihan clearly insults the people’s judgement in dispelling concrete socio-economic and socio-political concerns such as landlessness, unemployment, and injustice as motivations for dissent and armed resistance. Nonetheless, counter-insurgency fanatics aim to simply change such “perceptions of relative deprivation” through “winning the hearts and minds” of a target community.
Psywar:
Altering “Perceptions”
It is in this twisted reasoning that
Peace and Development Teams (PDTs) carry out their other tasks. Apart from
being initiators of brutality, another focal mission of PDTs is the bombardment
of diversionary schemes and even outright lies in an attempt to clear the
people’s minds of the root causes of their hardships and just means of
attaining progress.
In PDT-infested villages, it is commonplace for soldiers to initiate merry-making activities such as basketball tournaments, village dances and drinking sessions as though these revelries could mask the despondency of hunger that befall peasant homes. Soldiers go around with their paintbrushes beautifying waiting sheds and barangay halls, participating in token tree-planting activities, as if colors could enhance the centuries-old crudeness of production relations in the farms. Soldiers would invite residents in a “boodle-fight” meal, and transfer meager amounts of cellphone loads to students, as though these one-time gestures could provide education for the youth. Truly, the deception of Oplan Bayanihan is as plain as a rabid dog putting on a clown’s face.
Starker forms of psywar are likewise employed. During interrogations, victims are coerced into betraying their neighbors, with PDT operators sowing intrigues in order to ruin the harmonious relationships among villagers. Those who are subjected to questioning are also photographed while being forced to hold rifles, and are made to sign blank sheets of papers. These papers would later turn out to be either waivers of human rights violations, or signed surrender documents. It is noteworthy to add that military officials make a living out of misrepresenting civilians as New People’s Army (NPA) rebel returnees. Government funds supposedly allocated for such are easily pocketed by officers, with scores of peasants from each PDT-infested village being paraded as “former NPA rebels”.
Lastly, Oplan Bayanihan implements murder as the darkest of methods in instilling in the minds of the people to cast off any thought of dissent. As in the deaths of Eli Oguis, Romero Octavo, and Dalmacio dela Punta, their killers intend to ram the grim message head-on. Also, a familiar threat that has apparently become a standard operational procedure for PDT operations resonates in village round ups across the region: “Kapag inabutan namin ang mga NPA sa bahay ninyo, idadamay namin kayo!” (If we chance upon the NPA in your homes, you will not be spared!)
And alas, such wickedness has resulted
in the massacre of the Mancera family in Labo town in February of 2012, when
indeed, a platoon of the 49th IB under First Lieutenant Alfie Lee killed
two schoolboys and their father, and left their sister severely wounded. Such
was also the fate of the Lotino family in Daraga town in Albay. Accused of
being NPA supporters, village councilman Wenifredo Lotino was killed together
with his wife and a nephew, and the Lotinos’ daughter suffering serious gunshot
wounds. In Libmanan town in Camarines Sur, likewise suspected of supporting the
NPA, three members of the Bico family, along with their employee, were killed
by masked soldiers. Two other witnesses were also killed.
Completing the policy of murder would be the posse of AFP propagandists scurrying towards media organizations to peddle their lies. Oplan Bayanihan being a barrage of brutality and grand psywar, military spokespersons would instinctively disown the crimes and point to the NPA. Common too are assertions that the civilian victims are NPA rebels, or that they were caught in crossfires. Still frequently driveled is to pass off the murders as common crimes, obscuring the methodization of these state murders.
But deceit is an embarrassment shoved in the AFP’s face. Testimonies and evidences belie the falsehoods that accompany each killing, attesting even more to the inclusion of murders in Oplan Bayanihan’s menu. In the extra-judicial killing of Bayan Muna member Rodel Estrellado on February 25, 2011, military reports of his death were already brandished in the media three hours earlier than his abduction which was witnessed by the public. In Cabaloaon councilman Ely Oguis’ case, an entanglement of lies caught military spokespersons confused as to which claim to sustain. One military unit claimed that Oguis was killed in an encounter. Another said that he was killed by the NPA for not paying taxes. Still another declared that he was an NPA tax collector killed by his comrades for not remitting his collections. Ely Oguis was in fact last seen in the company of soldiers before his death, and neighbors disprove the military’s claim of a supposed encounter between government forces and NPA rebels. In Bulan town in Sorsogon province, no less than Cesar Habla’s family asserts that the poor farmer was killed in their presence while tending to their copra production, contrary to the 8th Scout Ranger Company’s media announcement that Habla died in an encounter with rebels.
What peace indeed. What tranquility these spell for a state that tolerates no tinge of dissent. Surely, landlords in government need no longer worry about militant peasant organizations legitimately demanding lands and agricultural advancement. Capitalist lawmakers need no longer worry about militant organizations protesting unemployment and loss of livelihoods. The state has at its disposal the ferocity and duplicity of Oplan Bayanihan, thanks to the 9th Infantry Division, to subdue a discontented people.
A peace based on justice
But decades of struggle against
repressive regimes in succession have sharpened the critical minds of the
people and have toughened their resolve. Experience has equipped the masses to
determine the anti-people natures of one counter-insurgency campaign after
another. And this is Oplan Bayanihan’s fundamental weakness – it fails to win
the support of the people because it does not solve age-old problems of
landlessness, grinding poverty, and injustice.
More importantly, Oplan Bayanihan is
faced with a resolute fight. Early on into the PDTs’ onslaught, the people of
Albay staged a series of wide protests condemning Oplan Bayanihan and demanding
the pull-out of the PDTs. A significant aspect of these protests, aside from
being sustained, is the gathering of collective support from various parts of
the region. The people’s will to carry on with their anti-militarization
campaign warms up even more as they are joined by fellow peasants across the
region. These supporters may be communities also suffering from the ills of Oplan
Bayanihan, or those in solidarity with the struggles of their class.
The force of a people drawn together paid
off when the series of protests resulted in the Albay Provincial Board issuing
a resolution requiring the PDTs to vacate public establishments. Also, the
Regional Office of the Commission on Human Rights was urged to conduct an
investigation which led to calling for an end to the grave human rights
violations being committed by the 2nd IB. Camarines Norte’s 12 villages also enjoyed the support from different sectors across Bicol when a regional Fact Finding Mission was conducted in May 2012 to further expose the atrocities committed by the 31st IB. Also in October of 2012, a regional mobilization marched along the streets of the province’ capital to demand from the government the punishment and pull-out of the 31st IB from the villages.
Much is still to be done, as even if the 2nd IB has been compelled to build their own barracks, the soldiers continue to return to the public facilities in blatant disregard of lawful decisions. Meanwhile, the 31st IB continues to occupy 13 barrios in Labo. Much is still to be done, as the rest of Bicol’s countrysides continue to swell with PDTs.
Oplan Bayanihan is due to end in 2016. But this early, it’s demise has already been declared by the people. But such optimism is assured not only by Oplan Bayanihan’s inherent flaws, but most of all, by the people’s resolve to further strengthen their ranks and sustain the fight against this deadly counter-insurgency campaign alongside continuing struggles for land, livelihood, and justice. ###
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