Sagada peace zone (Part 2)

HAPPY WEEKEND

Gina Dizon

SAGADA, Mountain Province -- I went to Danum Lake on Nov. 29 with two friends to validate if reports were true that government military soldiers were present in the area.

True enough, we found at least a dozen of them cooking lunch in an unfinished abandoned building. Some standing, some sitting and some watching people pass by.

We introduced ourselves to a smiling young man we come to know  as 2nd Lt John Chester  Dalit from Ilocos Sur, belonging to a company of the 503rd Brigade deployed in Danum Lake for 2 weeks now. That must have been since the shooting happened in Sitio Amtinangad at Ambagiw, Besao November 16 leading to the wounding of two soldiers from the 503rd company and another civilian from Bangaan, Sagada who came from their small scale mining site whom the soldiers met on the way and told them to guide their way.

So what is the soldiers’ mission doing in Danum Lake? Dalit said they were doing their regular patrols some 500 meters from their quarters. He said two shots had been spotted from members of the New Peoples Army 2 p.m. on Nov. 28 from the eastern hill of the lake.

He said they were providing security support to soldiers engaged with the NPA in encounters within the Mountain province Ilocos Sur Abra  mountain ranges. He said two days from the shooting last Nov. 16, an encounter again happened between NPAs and the government armed forces.

The Leonardo Pacsi Command –NPA-Mountain Province , in a statement  released on their website acknowledged  accounts of the skirmish that happened Nov. 16 at Amtinangad between the NPA and the 5th Infantry Division PA, combined with troops of the PNP Special Action Force (SAF) and Regional Public Safety Battalion (RPSB) of the Cordillera.

Let me zoom in on Sagada. This peaceful tourist town is a peace zone emphasized very clearly in the 1989 resolution of people of Sagada following the bloody deaths of three children – one caught in a crossfire and 2 caught in gun shooting of drunk soldiers within the market compound, October of 1988 at the height of insurgency and bloody AFP-NPA encounters .

The 1989 peace zone arrived at by an angry and grieving community emphasized no armed groups- from both the military and NPA rebels- within the territory of Sagada. The demand was very clear but violated a couple of times. 

One during the 2006 Pegew military-NPA ambush, the 2013 discovered presence of NPA camp at Demang, Aguid of northern Sagada and the very presence of the military at different times of this year at Lake Danum.

In mid-1991, a composite AFP unit attacked Mt. Sisipitan for two weeks, clearing a hectare-wide thickly forested watershed for use as helicopter landing pad.For eight days, an undetermined number of rocket bombs and aerial strafing happened at Mt. Sisipitan and its environs. In late 1991 came the deployment of the 702nd Infantry Brigade with its three organic battalions–the 24th IB, 68th IB and 69th IB–focused at Mountain Province.

Comes now 2013. This very peace zone of Sagada is not recognized by Maj. Gen. Gregorio PioCatapang Jr. Head of the northern Luzon command saying publicly that Sagada has become a staging area for rebel attacks. Air strikes by the Philippine Air Force were conducted Aug. 30 to capture a New People’s Army (NPA) camp at Demang, Aguid.

 Lt. Dalit said their presence depends on the say of the higher command. The 503rd infantry Brigade with headquarters at Lagangilang, Abra is headed by Colonel Paul Atal. 

Asked if they shall come back after they shall leave the premises during the Boy Scouts Jamboree Dec. 12 to 15 again depends on what the higher command says, Dalit said.

              

               I scanned the premises to find  two canyons and artillery ast the shores of  Danum Lake, the turret pointed at the eastern side and the other  pointed at the  western side. It msut be that the deadly weapon was ready to fire when  the enemy comes. Another APC (armoured personnel carrier) was located near the way, seemingly a stronger war machine with an enclosed compartment and calibres at the top.

Soldiers had their sleeping quarters at an abandoned unfinished building and also at the abandoned fish hatchery close to each other with all the artillery and the quarters located some 50 meters apart from each other.

DanumLake  is a valley with hills on all sides cascading to the lake. 

At the eastern side leads towards Pilaw Ridge, at the northern and western side are the Basao- Sagada road and the southern and western side zooming towards the mountains of Besao and TadianIlocos Sur. In this direction locates more government armed forces stationed at  MtAmpakaw within the vicinity of the Smart telecom tower, .

Located at the base of the valley with the enemy to possibly come from the hills must have led the soldiers to position two kanyon and an APC near them plus the comforting presence of a supporting unit towards sitioLazig.

Whatever, the very presence of the military unnerves me. It is courting trouble. The NPA does not favourSagada as a peace zone. With their statement released in their website, the NPA says the ‘peace zone’ is a “trap, misused and abused and will never be respected by the reactionary government much less its security forces. It is proper and fitting that the NPA has to defend itself...”

With both camps- NPA and the military- not in favour of Sagada being a peace one, anything can happen with the presence of the military in Lake Danum located just a few kilometers from the main town.

And before anything bad will happen, it is best that the military shall leave. Vice mayor Benjamin Capuyan  with some members of the SB and DECS went to the site where the  soldiers were deployed an hour before two friends and I went to do an interview.

I was informed a day after that the vice mayor told the military to leave to ensure safety of residents of the town. The town’s legislative officers came up with an official position asking the AFP to leave Lake Danum to ensure safety of participants to the Provincial Jamboree December 12-15 this year.

For a town which has experienced the death of three children in 1988 due to NPA-AFP  bloody operations, any activity or signs to resemble the  bloody incident calls for prevention. What happened after is an overriding fear of going to the fields, economically dislocating women and men from pasturing their cattle and farming their fields.

That was 25 years ago. The situation now is relatively the same with people still going on their usual agricultural livelihood. What is new is the addition of the hills as trekking areas for tourists and guides.

We found two young women who went to do some sightseeing and met again three foreigners who went their way to the Lake. The hills are alive with economic activity as well and not only in the low lying areas. This is the economic situation now -- endangered with the presence of the military in town who entice the presence of the NPA. Sagada as a peace zone now rests on the people of Sagada to assert the declaration. 

Meantime, boundaries of the town especially in the Abra, Mountain Province  Abra mountain ranges present realities of both armed groups presence where heated operations may happen any time.