ML19309B785

Discusses Deaths of Two Energy Activists & Physical Security of Proposed Reactor.Continued Repression Creates Highly Unstable Environ.Mother Jones Dec 1979 Article Re State of Civil War in Philippines Encl

ML19309B785
Person / Time
Site:	05000574
Issue date:	01/27/1980
From:	Perlas N PHILIPPINE MOVEMENT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
To:	James Shea NRC OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS (OIP)
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ML19309B761	List: ML19309B785
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SECY-80-142, NUDOCS 8004070180
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Text

.

Philippine Movement for -

W Environmental Protection WASNINETON OC OFFICE 2721 Connecticut Ave. NW RECEIVED Washington D.C. 20008 . USNRC i

January 27,1980

• 80 JAN 31_ R1 :16 James Shea Director GFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL Office of International Programs PROGRAMS Nuclear Regulatory Commission 1717 H St. NW e Washington D.C. 20555 -

l

Dear Mr. Shea,

As head of the NRC office which is currently processsing the license application of Westinghouse to export a nuc= lear reactor to the Philippines, we want to bring to your athtention an unfortunate and alarming development:

1. In 1978, we brought to your attention the presummed death I of an energy activist, Ernesto Nazareno, who. wass picked up by the Philippine military last June 1978 andl was never seen again.

2. Recently, Diosdado Dimaano, another energy actiwist i residing in the Bataan site of the Philippine reeactor, was killed by the Philippine military. This senmaless killing has forced at least five other energy acetivists in the area to join the New Peoples' Army (NPA) ,, the military arm of the Conmunist Party of the Phili[ppines. 1 We think that this development affects the nuclear ; project i in many ways like human rights, among others. Of partic;ular  :

interest to the NRC are the ramifications of this incidient to the physical security of'the nuclear plant.

The southern portion of the Philippines is presenthy in a state of civil war. Furthermore, the NPA have also grownn stronger through the years. They are now found in more than half of the provinces of the Philippines. (For more specific informention, 1 kindly see the attached article from Mother Jones, Decennber 1979. ) l Reports from Manila claim that the NPA is particularly :: strong in the province of Zambales, which is near the reactor sitze. I can l confirm this from my'own experience when I was still weerking for l the Philippine government. People did not want to leasse upland  :

areas in Zambales because they knew that these areas arae one of )

the strongholds of the NPA.

The point -is that continued repression in the Philippines, including those of energy activists, makes for a highlyr unstable environment for such a vulnerable and complicated techntslogy like nuclear power lants, among others. One day, people wild. get fed ,

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' up with all' these repressions and take things into their hands.

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Now, one can say that the NRC should consider the adequacy of. protection of the plant from masses of people who may eventually make the reactor a political target. In this context, the NRC may get an assurance from the Philippine government that they

-have adequate military forces to safeguard the reactor.

However, what about long-term considerations? Within this longer time frame, short-term criteria which find it convenient to seperate human rights problems and direct physical security considerations can become meaningless. What if there is an escalation of civil war.in the Philippines and the NPA obtain

. access to the use of sophisticated artilery? Can the plant "

still be considered secure?

This is not an academic problem. The r.ecent developments in Iran and Afganistan clearly show the strong interest of the U.S. in the security of its military bases near the site of the reactor. What would happen to these interests if continued repression produces, as a backlash, strong anti-American feelings?

What would be NRC's role in trying to prevent this development

.as well a,s any direct threats to the plant itself?

From the above discussions, it is clear that the NRC has to consider this recent development not only in terms of its ramifications for the physical security of the plant but should also be actively involved in getting its input about long-term problems derived from repression considered.

Hoping for your urgent attention to this matter.

Sincerely Yours y

Nicky Perlas Executive Director M. lbilcNy *1Bkl-8 9tl&blC h lfs uffk reeerd . hukyou.

4

1 MOTHER JONES

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• Time Bomb In ~ ~

l The U.S. Emnire

...................------------- E---------  :

Our Reporter Travels With  :

Guerrillas In T:1e P:1ilippines I.

Text and photos by Lawrence T. Johnson ,

i y Newditor's Note: In 1957. Herbert Matthews of The economy so closely tied to a major po York 77mes traveled into the rugged forest side of the globe. U.S. corporations control more than J of Cuba's Sierra Maestra and brought back an 50 percent of all Philippine manufacturing firms' l view with an obscure guerrilla leader named Fidel assets. The Philippines is a source of raw materials for ro. The story and pictures on the following pages the U.S., a, trove of rich tropical farmland where titute an equally difficult achievement. For, until American agribusiness companies, such as Del  ! Monte,

, no American reporter we know of has spent time can grow pineapples and bananas at.a 30 percent ie field with both of the guerrilla armies now bat- annual profit, and a haven for U.S. investors who want

, the U.S.-sponsored dictatorship in the Philip- low taxes and docile labor-strikes are banned.

His dependence, combined with the corrupt, dicta-

s. One who tried (see pages 42-44) did not make it torial rule of President Ferdinand Marcos, has forged a t alive.

extbooks tell us that the United States' relation- society where 30 percent of all children are mal-

. with the Philippines began when we took over the nourished, real wages of unskilled laborers have de-ids after the 1898 war with Spain. In fact, it was clined a shocking 31 percent since 1972 and textile workers earn $1.76 a day. The whole structure is ady something of an American economic colony 3re then-and has become even more of one today, shared up by American aid:"Only 22 percent of total site being declared independent in 1946. " Col- U.S economic and financial aid is reaching the need

s," Disraeli said, "do not cease to be colonies reported the San Francisco Chronicle recently. "His amounts to less than a penny per person per day. The ause they are independent."

rest goes for tobacco loans, for insurance for a Con-lo other large country in the Bird World has arr 1 Political prisoners in the provincial jail in Cotabato

,y . There are more than 40 per cell: 85 of the 121 male polit-l l i,1 prisoners at this jail say they have been tortured. i

.p.; Red lines show route of reporter Johnson's travels . Dark l 3as are where Muslim rebels are fighting: .the New People's my (NPA) is active in most of the rest of the country. -

DECEMBER 1979

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MOTHER JON ES tinental Illinois bank office in Manila, for a nuclear throughout the islands. The U.S. is scheduled to give l

' power plant that may never be built (see " Radiation the Philippines $300 million worth of military aid over  !

Roulette," M1, August '79), for rural electrification the next five years. The vast bulk of it is targeted priced out of reach of the rural poor and for balance- toward fighting the guerrillas; even the Pentagon of payments loans conditioned on a reduction of wages acknowledges that the Philippines faces no external for the poor." military threat from anyone.

The U.S. has an additional stake in the Philippines What next? Many observers of the Philippines ex-as well. The islands house a vast complex of American pect a U.S.-supported coup within the next year or military bases, occupying a half-million acres and two, replacing the shaky Marcos regime with one that i staffed by 15,000 U.S. servicemen and -women. Ex- appears more democratic and might do a more cept for Guam and the tiny Indian Ocean island of efficient job of fighting ~ the rebels. His coup could be .

Diego Garcia, the Philippine bases are the only major either a bloody one (Marcos recently arrested one U.S. ontposts between Hawaii and the Mediterra- group of military officers he suspected of plotting) or nean. " Clark Air Base," reports TheNew York Tunes, could be along the lines of the shah's departure from "would be of special importance in any future Middle Iran, in which Marcos would be allowed to leave the East war. If the United States were denied the use of country and take with him the millions of dollars he has European airports to move supplies to the Middle accumulated while in office. Philippine progressives East, officials say, the Air Force could ferry equipment believe the CIA is backing the semiunderground So-through the 'back door' from the Philippines." cial Democratic Party and that the preferred U.S.

candidate for the presidency is the imprisoned Senator Benigno Aquino. Both the party and Aquino make M AINrAIMNG AN EMPIRE is rarely ever cheap.

"We have bought ten million Malays at two left-of-center noises but are safely pro-American.

dollars a head unpicked, and nobody knows In short, welcome to the next Vietnam. ne plot and what it will cost to pick them," observed Thomas B. characters are all too familiar: the corrupt dictator, the Reed, the crusty Maine isolationist who, as Speaker of talk of replacing him (remember the ouster of Diem?),

the House, opposed annexation of the Philippines in the increasing U.S. involvement, the spreading popu-1898. The first cost to the U.S. came the next year: lar revolt-even the light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel when islanders realized that their Spanish masters had statements: "The NPA [New People's Army] is deci-merely been replaced by American ones, they rose in mated," President Marcos told an American reporter I revolt. The bloody U.S. response-a three-year war recently. "If I fielded one or two battalions in that area I f involving 126,000 U.S. troops that left some 4,000 at any given time, I could clean [them) out." It was Americans and 200,000 Filipinos dead--was America's with those " decimated" soldiers that Mother Jones first experience of fighting guerrillas in Asia, correspondent Lawrence Johnson spent many weeks l

Today's rebels are well organized and spread recently. Hereis his report. --Adam Hochschild Manila, December 16,1981--A general strike paralyzes the capital.

From the Philippine countryside, the guerrilla army of the National Democratic Front advances on the city. In the southern islands of Mindanao, Basilan, Sulu, Palawan and Tawi-Tawi, the newly formed Muslim autonomous state declares its support of the guerrillas.

C-evernment forces' put up limited resistance. Many soldiers and officers side openly with the rebels.

President Ferdinand Marcos flees the country with his wife and family. Some American military personnel are captured at isolated radar sites on Mindanao ,

and Cebu islands.

In the United States, the government, the public and the news media are taken completely by surprise. The President blames the CIA for not providing adequate intelligence reports. The public blames the news media for not providing adequate coverage of the Philippines. The news media blame. . .

DECEMBER 1979 40

i . .

MOTHER JONES

' The Philippines is a country that, as Iran was,is 8 ,

consideredoneof the UnitedStates'closestallies;acountry l that, as Iran was,~is closely bound up with American eco- 1 i~ ' -

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nomic and military interests and a country whose inner I [.1 3 -

I A conflicts, like those of prerevolution Iran, are largely l I'

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ignored by the Americen press. A j 3 ' b From December 1978 through March 1979, and again in

' August and September 1979, armed with tape recorder and I .;. ,,gbi _

camera.

armed with an I went interestlooking for in Asia that those began wheninner I was aconflicts. I was also l g$

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combat soldier in the Vietnam War. Ilater came to view that t *

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w:r as wrong. Seeing friends die on the wrong side of a I '

guerrilla war left me with many feelings; one of them was a l/

determination to see if the same pattem was happening g clsewhere in Asia. A Filipino friend told me of the struggles i I. ~E .

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taking that such place in his a revolution wascountry. At firstI wanted not being reported. I found to it hardk to j believe l c L '

know whether it was really happening, and the only way to .g i o

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find out was to go into the guerrilla zone and see for myself. I y Foreign joumalists are,to understate the matter,discour- ! M [.

E-aged by the Marcos regime, and I had been warned by a k

w. g - o, T"7g[C Filipino friends in the U.S. that I should travel as a tourist 1 ,. . - * * <;,

rather than as a joumalist. Just before leaving, Ilearned l _ _ ...t.i-about another American journalist, a freelancer named g Frank Gould, who had attempted in 1974 to cover the war in 3 - ..: D A '?.' " Q,p'I L(j[ ^

the Philippines. A Methodist missionary talked with him on I i _ . -

September involved in the fierce 27fighting of that year of the Muslimon Mindanao, rebellion. No g one of the islands l i,i, 'f. %, A Jf V. J' . __

I w

. 'a, - ,* Ng " x v one has heard from him since.

I had come up with one lead for making contact with the l

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guerrillas: the name and address of a woman in Manila, i Reporter Lawrence T. Johnson tteGuerrera.IIhadbeentoldonlythatshemightbeable l with guerri11as from the Moro In my mind the lingering chauvinist baggage was packed i Nationa1 Liberation Front.

for the meeting with Lette Guerrera. She would be stender : The tiger on one soldier's .

dark-skinned, intense, beautiful and slightly mysterious. ! shirt is the amblem of the When we met that is typical Manila inweather, her garden, m the tobright, I was surprised find thatopen-air sauna l MNLF battalion fighting in she was ail l had imagined. She was aiso, at 73, the motherof I the Cotabato area. Pagal the ! (the so1dier standingrowsecond.

ten children and the grandmother of 37. ,

Lette dida t waste words. She said that fnends m. },

United States had asked her to help me. Like others I was to ! fr om 1 eft in front meet in the Philippines, she wanted me to get the opposi- I & three year veteran, is '

tion's story for one simple reason: to help conymce Amer I icans to stop supplying Marcos with arms.

15 years old (see p.- 44 ) .

The Philippines is embroiled in two wars: a war for auton- lRifIes at 1 eft with curyed i omy in 13 provinces in the southem islands, under the j = banana clip

• magazines .

theMoroNationalLiberationFront(MNLF),Soviet l are AK - 47s : rif1es leadershipof a predominantly Muslim coalition; and a war to ourthrow thegovernmentfoughtthroughouttherestof thecountryby I at right are Be1gian FALs the New People's Army (NPA) under the direction of the ! and U. S. M - 16s captured National Democratic Front (NDF), a coah, tion of Commu nist, labor and Christian groups. But when I asked Lette i from the Philippine army ,

about establishing contacts with the guerrillas of either the i MNLF or the NPA she just laughed and shook her head.

"Do you think I would have lived so long as I have if I lg were involved with people like that?" she asked.- Later, I however, after she had asked me questions that took me all I l D D WD F D_ h

• 1henamesandsomeidmafpugfeaturesofcertainpersonsinthisaraclehave l jj &b k.h n a

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DECEMBER 1979 41 ,,

-9 7

MOTHER JONES the way back & the tenant farm in Arkansas where I was . Cathalogan, Samar-- In the central Philip-bom, she became quiet for a long while. pines, this island is the nation's most economically de.

"He people I introduce you to will like a journalist from pressed. Big business, including the huge Japanese fishing the working class," she said to me, finally. "Perhaps one of industry, is taking over the livelihood of the small fishing them may be able to put you in touch with either the MNLF villages that dot its coastline. Logging and mining companies or the NPA." and corporate agribusiness are forcing out the small farmer.

• -x.

• He island has become a major stronghold of the NPA.

My contact in Catbalogan was Father Timmy, a 30. year-Cotabato City. Mindanao--Heprovincial old Roman Catholic priest. He was about six feet tall, jail is near the top of what the local peopic call P.C. Hill.ne around 240 pounds. If he'd had horns he could have passed Philippine Constabulary (P.C.) for the area is headquar- for a carabao, the Philippines' water buffalo. Lette had said tered around the summit. He guard at the sandbagged that he would be expecting me, but her message had not checkpoint outside the jail eyed my ragged clothes and very gotten through. For two very uncomfortable hours, he and bushy beard with suspicion. Two months of low. budget, two other young priests grilled me about my reasons for almost nonstop travel had Icft me looking like I'd taken a coming to the Philippines.

vow of poverty. Which, I decided, might work greatly to my i ne priests finally loosened up enough to tell me that 90 advantage. percent of the clergy of Samar suppor*, in one way or "I'm a Franciscan monk," I said to the guard. "I work ' another, the National Democratic Front. Some have gone with prisoners in the United States and I'd like to visit the so far as to join the NPA as organizers or fighters.

prisoners here." , ne official position of the church has been tacit approval -

I was wearing a small gold cross pinned on'my shirt over of Marcos' " legally" instituted government, but there are my heart. He existence of a well.known school in central recent indications that Catholic approval has been forcefully ~

Mindanao run by another order of monks gave some cre- withdrawn. In the six years following September 21,1972, dence to my story. He Catholic majority in the Philippines the date martial law was declared,125 members of the clergy has great respect for priests because they are well educated were arrested. Some are still in prison. This past July,50-and play such an important role in a Catholic society. I was year-old Cardinal Jaime Sin, the architect of church policy in depending on that respect. He guard, a Catholic, barely the' Philippines, began openly urging Marcos to step down glanced at my passport. from the presidency.

"They are divided into two groups here, Brother,". he he letter from Lette, introducing me to Father Timmy, said. " Criminal and political. Which of the grcups would you finally arrived with a young priest the next day. The priest like to see?" , had left Manila the same day I had, but had stopped by his "It really doesn't matter," I told him, trying to sound as parish before coming to Father Enmy. Now they were i casual as possible, "but perhaps the political prisoners would willing to make arrangements for me to go into the NPA I l be a rewarding visit." guerrilla zone. But it would take six (veeks to set up.

4 Without another word or a look at the contents of my bag, 5 .n .y.

i he led me to what was virtually a dungeon (see photo, page 3 38). De cells were approximately 15 by 20 feet. Dere was The island of Mindanao--While waiting very little lighting or ventilation. He guards said that the - for the NPA contacts to work out, I headed south. A tourist prisoners were never a!! owed outside for exercise. He pris- ' can travel the Philippines' northern islands unaware of the l

{ oners' skin was generally yellowish and clammy; tuberculo- fighting in the mountains and jungles, but such innocence is I sis was rampant. Most of the political prisoners here had impossible in the south. He southern Philippine islands are

~

been arrested as MNLF members or supporters; a few were clearly at war.

NPA suspects. He allknces between the MNLF and the ne fighting to the we:.t of Davao City--between the army NPA units in the field,in many cases, were first established and the MNLF, for the most part--grows more intense.

in prisons like this one. Dere are government checkpoints at five- or ten. kilometer After learning who the leaders were in each cell, I let them intervals along the main road crossing the island. He war know that I was a journalist and enlisted their aid in distract- against the Moro National Liberation Front has become a ing the guards while I went into the cells and conducted war against the Muslim population in general. It is a war of interviews and took photographs. I repeated these proce- genocide. Many villages have been attacked merely on sus-dures at the Awang Stockade for political prisoners at a picion of supporting Moro guerrillas. Some survivors have nearby military camp and at the city jail with similar success. later proven that no one in their village had been involved in Some of the people in these detention centers for political any antigovernment activities.

prisoners had been held for as long as three years. None had Whenever I was asked who I was or what I was doing. I i ever been tried for a crime. De 45 political prisoners at replied that I was a priest or a Franciscan monk, observing

Awang Stockade, all male. said that they had been tortured; the work of my coreligionists in the Philippines. My contacts many exhibited the scars. De tortures reported included in Davao City had recommended this as the safest course.

beatings with fists and rifle butts, having a cloth bag tied over As a warning, they repeated the story of Frank Gould's the head and a mixture of rum and water poured over the disappearance in 1974.

face-the water treatment-and having electric wires held to Frank Gould had left his mark on Mindanao. Everywhere the tongue, fingers, nipples and genitals-the shock treat- I traveled I seemed to be following his trail from years ment. One man said that they forced his head into a hole in a earlier. In Kidapawan, .i young priest had introduced Gould block of ice and held him there until he passed out. to the tribal Filipinos in the nearby mountains.

• DECEM BER I979 42

• - MOTHER JONES

. "You ~couldn't h:1p but admire him," the priest said. "I don't think he was particularly religious, but he had great li courage. He wouldn't accept government accounts of the I situation, nor would he rely on opposition propaganda. He I had to document everything personally. I can tell you, that l kind of journalism isn't very popular with the Philippine government." I In Talunan, a Filipino priest also expressed his admiration j for the young journalist:" Frank was very nervous when he t ,

visited here. I believe it was in September of 1974. The t

~ military had already confiscated his travel papers and notes I I

and had advised him to return to Manila. But Frank wouldn't go. He knew more about the MNLF and the Moro l war than anyone else, but he had never been in the Cotabato I guerrilla zone. No one had. And he thought it wasimportant I to go in there "The priest had heardvarying rumors of what l  ?

happened to Gould after he left Talunan, but had no certain i /

information. I Q ,

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Cotabato City, Mindanao-- one of my l contacts led me to a large secluded house on the outskirts of g 1

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the city. I had been told that we were to meet someone very I j '

knowledgeable about the Cotabato area. When the door I t

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a-d Integrated National Police moving quickly into one of the l *

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outer rooms. The old woman who opened the door led us I T

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without a word to seats around a small table near a window. 3 l I was calculating the time necessary to run from the table and l $b l

leap out the window when the uniformed man returned. On 3

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- ,-  :% l his thigh, he wore a Smith and Wesson .44 magnum revolver I '

in a holster. He was carrying a tray of sliced mangoes and l , "7 ,

g Coca-Colas.

"Weg be yn watching you for days," the officersaid. A Moro Na.tiona1 I high-ranking i Liberation j But don t worry. I am anti-Marcos.

As if by signal, my contact left the room and the officer sat fie1d. commander ,

down across from me. After some mango with ,talk of the g , l Front ,

savage fighting arounri the city and after glasses of Coke with I discussion of'the repressive nature of the Marcos govem- l The Philippine army is ment, there was an uncomfortable pause.Through the win i fighting the MNLF with many i

half-tonarmytrucks]filledwithyoungCatholicboyisoldiers I the dow I watched a column of deuce-and-a-halfs [two-and-a-of tact =cs the U.S. used from Luzon moving stowly out of the Muslim city. j in Vietnam.: free - fire zones.

"I work in the intelligence branch," the officer said finally. I strategic ha:m1etS , herbicides.

"I work in the U-5 section. We're an m, formation-gathenng i we foot the bi11:

unit. The other section is the U-2. Their only function is the i More over ,

secret kidnapping, torture and murder of subversives or j the U.S. is : scheduled to give troublemakers-what we call

• salvaging.'" I dictator Marcos $300 million The man was sweating despite the cool breeze from the f i

window. His big hands, resting on the table, clenched and I in military aid over the came apart and clenched again like fat brown spiders I next five 3 Tars .

matmg. I "It was a U-2 squad from the Integrated National Police I i

l of Cotabato City that did the salvagingof Frank Gould,"he l said. Gould and his two Muslim guides were killed and g buried in a common grave in the jungle, a few miles north of I

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the city, according to the officer. He said he didn't know who I [] ,

had directiv ordered Gould's assassination, but, he said, 8 J l"; ' "pI " 'g

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2 orders to kill an American would have to have come from a !

high place. His information about the murders came from I membersof the U-2 squad that had carried them out.

l_ater, I contacted a priest who was conducting an investi- l DECEMBER 1979 43

MOTH ER JON ES

[  :

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t gation of Gould's disappearance au the request of the jour-I na ist's parents. Rough he was uanaware of the officer in l

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p l Cotabato City, their stories matchend--that a U 2 squad had L g killed Gould and his guides. Brougdh othersources Ilearned

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i E I that their common grave may also contain the bodies of 5,, h I hundreds of Cotabato-area victims of salvaging, buried

.Q. . I th ere since martial law was declaresiiin 1972.

I M<  ! "We waited and worried aboort Frank for over four y '

ll !

I years." said Gould's mother. Jean Gould, of Oak Park.

j Michigan. " hoping against hope thacsomehow he would be s

alive. Now all we want to do is simow our country who's I N s responsible for his death and what Mind of government it is m I that we're sending millions of doGuirs of military aid to.

D _ m. 6 l Den, maybe, our son's death won't:scem such a waste."

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lI oldA MNLF

• free -fire spoke,

" zone--WIhen his lips.;rrembledPagal, a 15 N .-W j

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k' b yh%5 g-_ . h , guerrilla, and his gold l e f a teeth shone dully in the early morning; light,like the flecks of p g! i M, I color in the eyes of the dead. Othergmerrillas had given me

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}j l very political reasons for joining the rebels: Pag:l's reason

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) was very personal.

! "When I was 12, the army raided any village, arrested all

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I the men and raped many of the wmmen," he said. After

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q ll some hesitation, and after some puodding from me, he g i

% ,- y' g added that among the men arresteo.f was his uncle, whose Q g I battered, lifeless body was found laterr at the side of the road.

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,2 f l internal hemorrhaging.

g'. He had joined the MNLFimmediauely. Now, after three

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3 I years with the guerrillas, he had bee.en through two major l campaigns and had been woundedd once in the leg by E

s, g shrapnel.

t I An artillery spotter plane passed ovwr us, heading for the l '

(3 N -- l jungle three kilometers to the north.u.xhere otherunits of the 3 ,

% # 4 9 ki J IM '~ - J '[. l MNLF had been chewing up army tunits for the past two

, i weeks. The squad of 15 guerrillas whoo were holding me or

• After me* the deluIe* Phil-I Protecting me-1 was never quite sucre which-<rowded in-I President Ferdinand

(' 1ppine l side the tobamboo opportunity hut tomovsed ensf our interview. avoidtobeingsceen.

the other side of Pa Marcos presides over an i the hut. He wouldn't talk to me the re:st of the time I was in increasingly shaky di ctator - l thegue lla zone ship. Marcos c1osed down the l Bhen, one of the guerrillas who were:: acting as myinterpre Phi 1ippine Congress seven i ers,"because it is against Muslim custan to speak of perse-

. I al sufferings and humiliations we have endured at the hands years ago and routinely .

im- I prisons or kills political  ! ofourenemies."

Later that day, my third day in the guerrilla camp, I was opponents. His Eowerful wife, I t Id that a meeting had been set upuwith the leaders of the I MNLF for central Mindanao. Just afte:r dark we crossed the Ime1da. gives speeehes. on . l stream that separated our camp frontche thick jungle. After nutrition, but recently had I walking only a few hundred yardse through the tangled i ge, we e me t to be talked out of a P an 1 j heir t bodies only faintly visible in the gf(ow to build a $100 million  ! scattered here and there on the grountil-14-chapel cathedral. Both have i After lengthy introductions, the Kurtawato Revolutionary made millions on business l committee opened the meeting to any questions. De ma-g Jonty of my mterviews were conducre:d in English or mter-l dea 1ings while in office. g preted for me. Even though there are tmore than a hundred I Philippine dialects, many people herxe speak English, pri-II marily because the country was an /cmerican colony from D*A g *p~p'{ 1898 to 1946.

ow Ju o .h N .7 DECEMBER 1979 44 I

MOTHER JONES After initial suspicion, the guerrillas accepted me, ironic- [

wp, - --

ally because of my combat service in Vietnam. Hey thought t Y ,,,a of me as a soldier.but more impot tant to them was that after i I - t 'ge ,

beine arou'nd anda U.S. soldier was willing

~

fighting to co'me thetheir and cover Vietnamese, story. I hadNtumed [IYl h MEI .T

• Political Affairs Vice Chairman GhazaliGa-afarsupplied I most of the answers. Ga-afar,an affable and eloquent politi I

.,,, g g 1

.2 l

1 q.. ,

ci:n. apologized for the absence of the political affairs chair- l a t'@JiiT' ' L' ! .{i!

man and explained that he was leading the MNLF units that $ g6 .: - X s

/

were battling the Philippine army less than three kilometers I "] , 3 gIf ig t{ 1]g],,,,;(<7 y

l away. During the meeting howitzer shells shook the jungle. l l , '

and the rumble and chatter of .50-caliber machine guns, g d M 16s and AK-47s were constantly in the background. I T' .

,l l

He MNLF leaders told me that the front is made up of I ! l} h' i(

"all sectors of the population, including traditional kinship l j r.nd both Christian and Muslim religious groups and the ,

~

L

-1.

9',

r .f M

I, I Bangsa Moro Army." Rey said there are "imisible" gov- l 1  ; q', ,

1 ,

en:ments, which closely parallel the existing official govem I -

7 .

J.

WM M.' l' jhi-ments, operating in each of 13 southem provinces. The l '3 MNLF's goal is to establish in these provinces an auton 3 i -

3 ! 'l omous region for the Moro people. 1 4

I j  ;

He name "Moro" was given to the people of the southem I  :

w su gph. ;f /

i s

II .

g.

Philippines by the Spanish when they began colonizing the l ",_ -

~

f -(

area in the mid-sixteenth century. Their only previous con : ~- * ~

tact with dark-skinned Islamic people had been with the I Moors of North Africa. Information Chairman Mohaghan I

." E: %,%f; Iqbal. a thin, serious young man, said, "We use 'Moro' g

.] 7  %. h-r .- h. $, '-'. 'M/a-rather than ' Muslim' or ' Islamic' to show that this is not a I ' .

relicious war, but is, instead, a war for a homeland for I " "

': * . t Muilim and non-Muslim alike."

I '

. '1-Sources outside the MNLF estimate the number of its n ..' - "' -

guerrillas at 30.000. Al Haj Murad, the tense, dark skinned I military chairman, claims twice that many troops. Murad I won't name the countries that are aiding the MNLFmilitari- l This woman. Ron i (see p. 47 )

ly, but other sources have named Malaysia Iraq. Pakistan, 3 is a member of the New Syria. Saudi Arabia and, above all, Libya. I It had taken 18 hours2.083333e-4 days <br />0.005 hours <br />2.97619e-5 weeks <br />6.849e-6 months <br /> of walking and boating through People's Army, the lef t-wiug swamps and quicksand, with mud and water and in leeches 41 of up theli gIoup actiye our crotches, to reach the guerrilla camp. Going in we had l Ph i l 1 p p 12 i ne provinces .

to no encounters with government troops. Going out we are i s

not so lucky.

We start for Cotabato City about three Unlike the Muslim rebeIs in in the afternoon of lis th e I south, the NPA the day following the meeting. We leave m three bancar, I long dugout canoes-one banca of guertillas in front, one I committeti to equa1ity of behind.heleaderof thissquad.CommanderDino;thetwo ! the sexes. Many of its guerrillas, Sonny and Bhen..who have been my interpreters; i 4 000 soldiers are forme e three other guerrillas; and I are m the middle banca. I On the way, we take several detours to photograph I bombed houses, mosques and schools. majority I see are large peasants. tracts of l student act land that are covered with brown, twisted, dried-up vegeta-tion. The commander says that nothing has grown there : Catholics and labor also I

I since the bombing. He people have come down with skin l form part of the coa 1iti on diseases; their hair has fallen out; they've suffered fits of Ibehind the NPA.

nausea and some have been temporarily paralyzed. At i another time,in another country perhaps, the use of chemi I -

l cal warfare--in this case possibly Agent Orange from U.S. l l stdekpiles left over from Vietnam-would have been a :

shocking revelation. Added to the almost endless accounts I l I

of rape, torture and genocide-acts that amount to an I accepted method of operation for the Philippine military- l D 1 D 7D 'T 3 &

the t::le becomes merely another dry entry in my journal, 3 I W l

• g M 3 *( 3 another fact catalogued.

DECEM BER 1979 45

RJ .

3 MOTHER JONES After dark, walking through a deserted plantation, we the war zonea and the stewardess is telling me of her plans to hear voices. On the path coming toyard us we see flashlight transfer to ineernational flights and to see the United States.

beams. As we move off the path and take cover behind the * *

• palms, Sonny, Bhen and Pagal crowd around me, shielding me until the patrol passes. Catba1ogan. Samar--Having seen the MNLF Later, while we are crossing a rice paddy, we hear the in action, I now wanted even more to make contact with the clatter of metal. Since we are out in the open, there is NPA-whose soldiers are fighting over a much larger ex-nothing to do but erouch down in the mud and water. This panse of Philippine territory. I arrived several days early for time Sonny, Bhen, Pagal and two other guerrillas crawl over my meeting with Father Timmy. He arrived several days and huddle around me. When the patrol has gone I become late. After I waited for ten long, nervous days, he came with aware of pain in my chest and throat and a tremendous word that the NPA would not be able to take me into their pressure in my head. I realize I have been holding my guerrilla zone. The fightilig was too intense; the govem-breath. ment, too suspicious of all foreigners in the area. And, In the bancas again, we come to a place where the river despite my argument that when the fighting was intense was branches in several directions. From the branch closest to the time for ajoumalist to be in the area, the New People's our left comes the sound of paddles splashing in the water-a Army was adamant. I had to wait until the situation cooled.

boat coming toward us. He guerrillas in my banca stop At least a month, they said, perhaps longer.

rowing and click their weapons off safety. The metallic clicks , , ,

, sound like shots on the quiet river. From the approaching

banca we can now faintly see comes an answering sound of Manila,'Luzon--Several days after leaving released safeties. Commander Dino stands up in our banca, Samar I durmped my anger and disappointment on 1.ette braces himself and aims his AK-47 a: the oncoming banca. Guerrera. Mw return flight to the U.S. was scheduled to He shouts a challenge. le:ive in two weeks. My financial condition and what I felt De reply is in English and is addressed to me: " Law- must be the gewernment's growing suspicion of my activities rence, what is your coconut?" It's the guerrilla called Tar- decreed that 11 be on it. But I still had not yet made the zan. (He is the soldier sitting cross-legged in the bow of the contact that Iwanted with the NPA.

! boat, in the photo on the opposite page.) His command of Lette finalty got me into their guerrilla zone 70 kilometers English consists of the words "your" and " coconut" and the north of Manina, one week before my scheduled flight. He phrase "What is," used as he points to an object. zone is close to Clark Air Force Base and Subic Bay Naval

} Within hours, I'm on a Philippine Airlines' flight out of Base. The peciple in the area are farmers, as are the great

[, ,_____________________________________

j Homemad.e Guns -- Nails :?or Bullets i ' I have brought tfhem to resist the government troops. Their I j t l M[hile the Philippine government has won international only weapons. lhes V V praise for its efforts on behalf of the Vietnamese boat l g people, it has created over 50.000 refugees of its own, on le-round shotgums. The stocks are hand-carved; the barrels. g

, g Samar Island r.!one. in the last few months. Refugee sites have made from simple steel pipes. The powder charge is made i

,- I been estahtished by the military, but, despite rampant starva- from the heads of matches. The bullets, too, are makeshift: I I I tion and disease, local military commanders have turned nails are cut tipuor molten lead is hardened in cold water. I I down offers of aid from the Catholic Church. These weapons" effective range is less than 20 meters. One g The refugees are the result of operations conducted mainly eman joked thert it might be more effective to hit the soldiers :

g in the northern part of Samar, where the majority of the over the head wdth the shotgun instead of shooting at them. g I government's 7,000 troops on the island are centered. Several Many sources say that the current government military i I areas in the north have been designated " free-fire" zones. operations here!have more than just a military objective. It is I

,8 l Hundreds of unarmed civilians have been killed. no coincidence 'they say that the lands being evacuated in l Residents are told to evacuate the targeted area, but many northern Samar:nre rich in uranium, bauxite and timber. They g g

l are too afraid of the government troops to follow them, as say it is also no coincidence that the Australian government i I ordered. down to the coastal towns. Instead, they flee farther and the U.S.-deminated World Bank are loaning over S75 I I into the forests and mountains. When the government patrols million to varinms projects in the east and north of Samar I l stumble on them during subsequent sweeps, these people are Island. These arreas have been the fo 3 identified as NPA. Helicoptets are called in for strafing; then operations sinceJune. g 1 soldiers rampage through, killing everything that moves. Some 78 yearwago, an American general, Brig. Gen. Jacob l i '

I Women are commonly raped before they are put to death. As H. " Hell Roarimg Jake" Smith, was made commander of the l l was the fashion for American troopsin Vietnam, government Sixth Separate IRrigade, whose task it was to suppress 1

tm pscutoff thecarsof thedeadandkeepthemassouvenirs. on Samar against! U.S. colonialization. The orders he gave to g g From August 22 to September 6,1979,I traveled through- his men were explicit:"I want no pnsoners. I wish you to kill g I out Samar. To avoid detection and surveillance in the coastal and burn. The rmore you kill and burn, the better you will l I areas. I traveled only at night. In the interior, which is consid- please me. . . . The interior of Samar must be made a howling I l ered a liberated zone (approximately three. fifths of the is- wilderness." l g land). I walked from barrio to barrio. After seeing the weap . Today the U.S.-trained and -financed troops of the Marcos g 3 ons of the peasaats. I realized that only desperation could' governmentwouild make" Hell RoaringJake"verypleased.o g i i l

DECE M BE R 1979 g(y p gm j k - __ -_ - -____ _ _ _ - - - - . _ _ -

OO d L

i 4 MOTHER JONES majority of Filipinos. De focus of the NPA organizmg is l land reform. .: -

' First, some history. De NPA began in December 1968, I when young militant actmsts within the Communist Party, I which had existed in the Philippines since 1930, repudiated l -

the old leadership for its cor;ciliatory attitude toward the a government and established a new party. On March 29. I ,

1969, this new party founded its military arm, the New . i.

People's Army, with 60 members and 35 weapons. ne year l; 'a [

following the declaration of martiallaw saw the emergence :g -

"g . ,

[-i[. g,, 4 r 4.;

of the National Democratic Front, a coalition similar to that I

• W ~

= t of Nicaragua's Sandinistas. Its primary goal, it says, is to l .

establish a genuine coalition govemment to replace Marcos : .x_ _ .k  :

and to hold " popular, free and honest elections" within a I -F yearof such a takeover. I W^ -

i Sirice its formation in the central Luzon province of Tar-lac, the NPA has expanded to 41 of the Philippines' 72 l -

provmces. It claims a full-time armed strength of 4,000 I .

guerrillas. I 1-w With the Moro rebels on Mindanao I had observed and l 2 m g ].g come to appreciate the importance of popular support to a e g rga. .

guerrilla movement. On my last day in the NPA zone, two I v _. - -

daysbeforeIleftthePhilippines,Irealizedthatsuchpopular support is the difference between life and death.

C _m l__~ y ' ~' V-.=cC5- d 3 A ,,,;gp :-y I was talking quietly with a group of guerrillas in a house in I  ?,,. .~' '

. ;- - --g a barrio. A young NPA woman, Roni, suddenly had to I interrupt her statement on the equality of the sexes enjoyed of Moro National within the NPA; she was called for a hurried conference with : A platoon the commander of her unit. Another guerrilla, Omar, told i  : Liberation Front Iuerrillas me to get my things ready to move out. Itravels through a rice paddy

" Don't let yourself be afraid," he said, "but while we've been talking upstairs, the brother of a known banca, lior dugout canoe.

in a informer visited downstairs; he knows there are comrades here." l *. *

• The commander told me to wait upstairs, and the unit of eight guern!!as gathered their packs and weapons and so1diers took l The areSamonN e up firing positions by the windows and doors downstairs. gg an estimated 30,000 who are l One left by the back door. A motorbike with a sidecar I fighting for autonomy for l arrive.d. and Omar, anned only with a .45 caliber pistol, l 13 Provinces in hustled me mto it. Together with the civilian driver, we went.

the PhiliP -

deeper into the guerrilla zone, where supposedly,it would I pines ' predominant 1y Mus1im be much safer. The people who live in and farm the area call : Southwestern islands.

it a " liberated" zone, but the NPA says it isn't so yet.

The As we entered the nearby barrio, the people waved as if I war is fierce: the govern -

theywantedustostop,and,asweapproachedthecenterof I ment has ob1 iterated entire the barrio, a young boy Omar knew ran in front of the j vilIages in this area motorbike, foremg the driver to stop. Omar spoke briefly g .

with the boy, then directed the driver back the way we had a with napalm or by satura-come. We stopped at a nearby house, and they told me to I tion bombing .

run insidet Omar and the boy soon followed. The driver l gunned his motorbike away. i ne boy had told Omar that there were three jeeps. I

' loaded with soldiers of the Philippine Constabulary, waiting i in ambush only 100 meters from where he had stopped the l motorbike.,Omar sent a warning to the rest of the squad. He sent a message to the banio captain, asking him to supply 1

' th2 soldiers with beer to divert their attention. He also sent a word to the barrio organizing committee, so they could plan l our exit from the barrio and my return to Manila. .' 'D r f e qrn ,

i t

Later in the afternoon, other members of the guerrill: !

squad joined us. I spent the rest of the day conducting I

jgi"[ M Ud. 2 interviews, holding photo sessions and moving from house to house to keep ahead of the government troops. Danks to l l

, DECEMBER 1379 I i

47 -

)

(

l O

e l .

MOTH ER JONES the support of the barrio, another government ambush attempt had failed.

) a g a g But, if the NPA is so popular, the question that arises immediately is: Why is the Philippines entering its eighth year of martial law with Marcos still firmly entrenched? The

$ leaders of the anti-Marcos groups are unanimous in their answer: U.S. support.

h . k According to the State Department, from 1972 to 1979 the

, r F Philippines received $846.8 million in military and economic aid from the United States. The Carter administration, de-i g g spite its talk of human rights, is currently seeking $95.7

! million in military aid and $59 million in economic aid to the l Philippines for fiscal year 1980. If approved, this will be the first time since 1970 that military aid from the U.S. to the Philippines has exceeded economic aid.

Where the Iran-Philippines analogy breaks down is in the type of postrevolutionary government likely to be estab-lished. Although it is impossible to say with much certainty what this regime would be like, current statements by revo-lutionary leaders describe a society less rigid than Iran or, in a different way, Vietnam.

The National Democratic Front says it wants an egalitar-ian society, to be achieved through a coalition government similar to that of Nicaragua. Throughout their underground organization, including their army, women and men have equal responsibilities. The NDF recognizes the rights of the

' Moro National Liberation Front in the areas where it is

.. fighting for autonomy; the two guenilla groups have friendly relations now, although, of course, '. hat is no guarantee the same would continue after they take power.

As for the Moro National Liberation Front: although the MNI.F has religion as its base, the kind of governme'nt the group says it would establish is " Islamic socialism"-every-i thing would be decided on a democratic basis, not by l,

^ religious leaders. Women have been given a share of the N,Q ~ ,

y responsibility in the MNLF, althou;h the organization is not

"~

j  : , , egalitarian; they are not pressed to conform to strict Muslim 7 ,F W codes as in Iran.

,4' [iM ,

f -

~ ~ .{.

'$; ND " Manila, Luzon--At least half of the contents of b.y'- ;g q my luggage would have been considered " subversive mate-N/- .- f. 'R"f. rial" by customs agents at the international airport; under-s', 1..r b g'@a

.II: .,( -

ground literature, bomb fragments, photographs of guerril-g.;', ~ j ' r, las, cassette tapes o.f interviews, my notebooks, my journal.

J., . , ,

9.w , But because of my white skin and American passport, my i

j.1, . -

bags weren't even opened.

@.' [ f' t As I was checking through customs, a door suddenly f6;. j .)D d i opened off to my left, and a disheveled young Filipino man

.rf:' ' '

y' darted out and ran toward the main exit. Just as suddenly, En L' b two guards came through the door and overtook the young

#^ man. With a guard on either arm, he was dragged back

]

3PH"y' J ~s ,-

inside the rocm, and the door was kicked shut. He had ij l(y F j fought them every step back to the room, his face contorted,

.. . walleyed from anger and fear.

t '

g- - A few people in the crowded customs area laughed. Most

. of the people acted as ifit had never happened. So did I. It o was my last memory of the Philippines.

p'il .l w Lawrence T. Johnson is a freelance reporter who has wrinen y;; ? )$;J * . ~"

_ - '* ' t for the Associated Press andfor the San Francisco Examiner and othernewspapers.

DECEM BER 1979 48 D**D p

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