War and and peace

HAPPY WEEKEND

By Gina Dizon

TADIAN, Mountain Province -- All were “trainees,” referring to 95 policemen who were ambushed jogging along the Cabunagan Road here early morning of June 28.

Trainees mean all of the 95 police officers attacked by the Leonardo Pacsi Command of the Mountain Province-New Peoples Army.  Other four police are training personnel thus composing 99 of the ambushed policemen.

All the police were carrying firearms either loaded with bullets or not.  Some trainees were carrying firearms loaded with a magazine of bullets and some trainees were carrying fire arms without loaded magazine. 

And so that confirms the  report of the ambushing  Leonardo Pacsi command of the New People’s Army-Mountain Province  that they have carted away 14 high powered  firearms from the ambushed police following the June 28 ambush.

Those who were armed and loaded were police security escorts found in front of the jogging line followed by men- trainees all jogging in lines of three followed by a women security force then a long line of 70 women trainees and another security force at the back. This, apart from those who were in the responding vehicle when the trainees were attacked.

Meaning, there are nine police trainees serving as security force that were armed and loaded with bullets.  All the other 86 police were carrying firearms without bullets so I came to know from injured PO1 PawasDaketan, one of the wounded members of the security force then in the front line, and PO1 RodancosCadwising, one of the uninjured trainees.

But the ambushed police are trainees. How could the NPA ambush the police when they are on training is a commonly heard question when the ambush happened?

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A police officer said non-combatants are civilians. So I think those carrying firearms- NPA, MNLF, and Philippine Army, PNP and all armed forces taking direct part in armed hostilities - are combatants.  This, to distinguish from unlawful combatants not authorized by government such as armed bandits. I am led to say that the trainees are combatants then. Unless there is another definition of whom a combatant is to let me think otherwise.   

Provincial police director William Viteno of PNP-Mountain Province says otherwise.  The trainees are not combatants because they are on training and have not yet graduated on the SCOUT (Special Counter Insurgency Operations Unit Training) course they are taking.  They are combatants when they are on the mountains fighting members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, he added.

And so when the police/military are on training and not on the mountains scouring after NPAs, they are not combatants. This leaves me having questions still.While this is so, the ambushed police are with the PNP’s Regional Public Safety Battalion on training to do counterinsurgency activities being SCOUT trainees.

Cordillera Peoples Democratic Front (CPDF) spokesperson Ka Filiw Simon Naogsan in his statement published in the Philippine Revolutionary Web Central said, “The PNP is now being transformed and trained as active combat force to augment the AFP in the implementation of counter-insurgency operations.”  

From what happened during the June 28 ambush, I am led to say that the SCOUT trainees are enemies of the New Peoples Army which is the armed force that the government armed forces are against.  So the ambush.

Nevertheless, “The target of the attack was the fully armed escorts who advanced themselves and took positions at conspicuous locations,” Naogsan said.

The first burst of gunfire from the NPA got the three security men in front wounded- P01 PawasDaketan, 25, native of Tadian who was shot in the stomach and MitchelleMaludon, 32, from Apayao who incurred open wounds in the hips when admitted at the Luis Hora Hospital. PO1 Denver Balabag with multiple gunshot wounds died and pronounced dead on arrival by medical personnel at the Luis Hora Memorial Hospital.

Daketan said they in the front line were suddenly shot at.  They jumped down the nearby parapet as they heard other shots.  Cadwising said he along with other policemen who were following police trainees came to know there were three others who were wounded.

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Rules of  engagement between combating forces based on Philippine and international  laws on armed conflict  minimize harm and not use any kind or degree of force “that exceeds that needed to accomplish the military objective, comparing  the advantage gained to the harm inflicted thus minimizing excessive incidental losses.”

Naogsan said, “If it were the so-called ‘trainees’ that had been targeted, the result would have been different.”He added the NPA did not have the intention to kill, contrary to what Daketan said that the NPA had the intention to kill with the gunshots and the use of the shrapnel grenade. This leaves me perplexed what degree of harm  allows to the targeted armed security forces.  Though one thing is certain, the NPA wanted the arms and so were able to cart away 14 firearms. 

How did two women officers then who were positioned in the women line get wounded? I can only imagine that shrapnel grenade fired from an M203 must have gotten them to follow Naogsan’s statement that they targeted only the armed security forces.  Unless, the police have another version to the story.    

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The seven  wounded  with open wounds – Junette  Ngalawen,31, from PoblacionBontoc  hit  on the leg; Robin Benito, 32, from PoblacionBuguias hit on the thigh;  Alexander Dulnuan, 27, on the arm,  Jefferson Sari, 27, from  Tuba, Benguet on the left knee;  Jasmine Salve, 26, from La Trinidad,on  the shoulder and Mellinium Bantas 36, from Kapangan, Benguet hit on the left forearm and  left foot-  either were hit with  gunshots or from fired shrapnel.  Two shrapnel grenades were fired from an M203.

Dr Climpson Camide of Luis Hora Memorial Hospital who attended to the police patients said it is difficult to determine if the open wounds came from a shrapnel grenade or bullets directly fired from firearms although definite gunshot wounds were those which hit Maludon, Daketan, Bantas and Balabag.   

Camide also said Eveson Waguis, 28; from Baguio City has an injury on the left eye hit by shrapnel.

As of last week,  only one remaining  patient  Mitchelle  Maludon  needs further observation  having surpassed the critical stage and all  wounded  police recovering and in stable conditions.  Families of the wounded from Benguet   were transferred to the Baguio General Hospital to be closer to their families.  Only two- Maludon and Daketan- were left at Luis Hora Hospital on recovery stage as of last week. 

Reports from PNP provincial police director William Viteno   noted 11 empty shells of M16 rifle, three cartridges for M203 rifle, and two empty shells from a M14 rifle investigation reveals. Fragments from fired M203 bullets were also discovered along the national road. Where did the fired empty shells come from?

Obviously, shots came from the NPA.  But reports from the NPA noted that shots have also been coming from the far end of the line.

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But the trainees are jogging and with no bullets on firearms they were carrying.Naogsan in an interview asked, is jogging a qualification of being armed?  The NPA spokesperson refers to Artus ‘Ka Libre’ Talastas and six of other NPA cadres who were ambushed by members of the 54rth Infantry Battallion while the rebels were on stationary jogging in Butac, Ifugao nearly 6 o’clock morning of June2 of June this year.  

Naogsan said the NPA were unarmed with their guns close by and not in their possession when ambushed.  Government’s military men got six high powered fire arms, shot dead two NPA cadres- ArtusTalastas and Ronelson “Ka Renan” Balatines- and wounded two others.  

An ambush does not choose whether one is sleeping or jogging or walking or eating, armed or not. The life of being a member of an armed force subjects him/her to be ready all the time and watch close the enemy.  Otherwise, you’re dead.  There are rules of engagement. But as incidents  say, rules can be broken.

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Naogsan in an interview said an intention of the ambush is to give the message not to use Mountain Province as a training ground.  Camp Babalaan in Tadian known as Mardonos Hill when the  AFP  camped in said area in the 1990s,has been a training ground for  quite some time since the 1980s until the 1990s when an ambush was staged by the NPA against members of the Philippine Constabulary leading the people to tell the PC-AFP to get out of  Tadian.

The call was left hanging with trainings having stopped until the past few years when trainings were conducted again till the very recent one.  Barangay captain Bonifacio Daskeo said the recent training is the fourth one since 2011.

This, apart from direct intentions of the NPA to confiscate firearms from police or members of the military whom they ambush as noted from other NPA-PNP-PA encounters and ambushed.

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Must be that the police of Tadian and Mountain Province feel there is no problem the past years since the 1990 ambush?  Am wondering why Mountain Province is used as training ground with this experience and with NPA sightings having been noted? Must be that security is lax? What more with the mountains of Mountain  Province being the home of NPAs who memorize their terrain and know how  quick they might move from one mountain to another.

Security of course is a major consideration among members of the armed forces to preserve themselves from danger and loss of life. This includes securing an area before any training is done, where it was reported that the rebels even had time to cook at the ambush area left me wondering there was no clearing before the jogging happened.... Where clearing meant going up the slopes of the mountains and going up a little bit further might have led to some discoveries of NPA presence somewhere near. Might be that there was a clearing before NPA came some minutes after?!?       

While that is so,  Viteno said appropriate cases shall be filed against the perpetrators of the ambush.And meantime, three unarmed NPA members were ‘massacred’ by elements of the 31st IB at Juban, Sorsogon, July 4 this year.  

War goes on between the NPA and the AFP-PNP while peace talks are stalled with the Philippine government terminating peace talks between the CPP-NDF and the GRP.

So its war between and among brothers, tribe mates, province mates and Filipinos with two sides clearly spelled if you're with either armed force. Business is good for arms dealers. Life is bad for Filipinos and definitely bad for the country’ image and economy.

The government is in a more responsible position to call for peace talks to resume, and end a war that has been raging for 40 years since the NPA was  founded in 1973, a war that has killed Filipinos, widowed mothers, rendered children fatherless, broken homes, and made and makes lives more difficult for the rest of the Filipino people. Give peace, give justice a chance.