LETTER

‘Army sowing terror in Abra’

In its desperate attempt to quell the growing people's armed revolution, the armed forces of the P:hilippines is still going on with its two-month "offensive" operations in the tri-boundaries of Tubo, (Abra), Besao (Mountain Province) and Quirino (Ilocos Sur), also known as the AMPIS (Abra-Mountain Province-Ilocos Sur).

Since the first week of March, the entire troops of the 50th IB and the 53rd Recon Coy have been deployed for RSOT (Reengineered Special Operations Team) and combat operations in the said area.

The AFP has been drumbeating its so-called "victorious" military offensive in the Ampis area. Through its weekly radio program, "Timek ti Soldado", the 50th IB's psywar agent Sgt. Marcelo Garcia vaguely estimated that many NPA combatants were killed in encounters and bombings during the past two weeks when in fact, the only casualties were the flora and fauna in the forests.

Daily from March 23 to March 27, two OV-10 bomber planes dropped 250-pound bombs and strafed the forested area and mountains along the boundary of Tubo and Besao and the peripheries of the communities of Pananuman and Tubtuba. Ninety eight (98) bombs have been arbitrarily dropped throughout the area. The military also continuously shelled the area with mortar fire day and night from March 25 to 29.

Contrary to its proclaimed objective of bringing peace and order, the military disrupted the peaceful communities of the Maeng and Kankanaey tribes in the area. The 50th IB and 53rd Recon Coy have a notorious record for committing acts of terrorism during their large-scale operations in Ampis these previous years.

Without search warrants, troops of the 50th IB and 53rd Recon Coy forcibly entered, searched and ransacked all the houses in Pananuman on March 14. They harassed, threatened and accused the people as NPA supporters. They seized some rifles owned by peasant hunters, confiscated handheld radios and cell phones that they claimed to belong to the NPA, and even stole the clothing of hapless peasants. The operating troops also butchered a cow they chanced upon in the mountains. They attempted to recruit CAFGU members among the people to no avail.

The purpose of the successive full-scale military operations in Ampis is to drive away the NPA and pacify the people toward the smooth entry of destructive large-scale mining projects in the area. This is also the reason for the ongoing military operations of the 41st IB in the town of Licuan-Baay in the northeastern part of Abra.

The mineral-rich mountains of Ampis have been the target of mining companies since the 1970s despite the people's continuing opposition. The people of Tubo and Quirino successfully thwarted several attempts by Benguet Consolidated Inc. (now Benguet Corporation) and Philex Mining Corporation to set up mining operations in their communities in the 1970s.

Since 1998, all attempts of foreign and local mining firms like Newcrest, Phelps Dodge and Almagan-Mayantoc mining companies have failed due to the people's militant protests. Last year, the people of Dilong valley in Tubo drove away representatives of the Chinese Geological Bureau who attempted to set up an exploration program in the area.

The latest of these mining attempts is that of the Philippine Metals Corporation (PMC) actually owned by an Australian mining firm. With Mailed Molina as their local negotiator, representatives of PMC visited Mayabo, Tubo last February of this year to convince municipal officials into approving their plan to set up a mining operation in Tubo. Again, the people vehemently opposed this plan.

For terrorizing the Ampis area and for serving the interest of mining firms that aim to grab the Maeng people's ancestral lands, the fascist military forces deserve no less than the people's wrath. Thus, as punitive measures, Red fighters of the Agustin Begnalen Command successfully launched military actions against the operating troops of the 50th IB and 53rd Recon Coy.

Five enemy troops, including a lieutenant, were killed in an ambush on March 21 while two more troops were killed and another was wounded on March 25. On the same date, the Red fighters fired on one of the helicopters, causing damage to the aircraft and wounding its pilot, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Pananuman.

Along with the Operation Bantay Laya II counter-insurgency campaign of the US-Arroyo regime, the ongoing combat operations of the 50th IB and 53rd Recon Coy in Ampis is doomed to fail.

Ka Diego Wadagan
Spokesperson
Agustin Begnalen Command (NPA-Abra)