NPA injustice in N. Samar

The New People’s Army staged a daring daylight attack on a military camp in Baragay Polangi, Catarman, Northern Samar. Killed were two soldiers belonging to the Philippine Army’s 20th Infantry Battalion. The attackers carted away firearms and ammunition. Fr. Santiago Salas, spokesperson of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines Eastern Visayas, congratulated the NPA for “carrying out offensives in Samar that expose the failure of the government’s Oplan Bantay Laya.”

The Leyte-Samar Daily Express reported that the “young members of the rebel New People’s Army . . . broke into groups and started firing their guns and lobbed two hand grenades, one of which landed at the house of the Liras which resulted [in] the instant death of the mother and injury of her young daughter who was brought to the district hospital in Catarman.” The girl later died.

Fr. Salas blames the military for the death of the civilians. “The NPA takes pains to avoid [civilian casualties]” he says and points out that the camp is located in an inhabited area.

Four-months pregnant Adona Lira and her 1 year and 9 months old daughter Shifra Ann—the civilians killed by the hand grenade lobbed by the NPA on their house—were the wife and child of PFC Aldin Lira, one of the soldiers wounded in the attack. Military camps of the Philippine Army are base and home rather than purely command posts. The soldiers and their families build their homes there. Some bigger camps have daycare centers and playgrounds to cater to the needs of the children. The families are there not to serve as human shields but because they want to stay together.

Army units usually stay longer than other AFP units in an area and immerse themselves in the community. They are often established in remote areas in order to jumpstart economic development, aside from clearing it of security threats. They bring economic activity to areas where local purchasing power is small and where job opportunities are few.

The NPA of today is obviously far from the picture painted by Salas’ ideological rhetoric. The truck used by the NPA is reportedly owned by an illegal logger. Illegal loggers also shared information with the NPA thus helping the latter stage the attack. The 20th Infantry Battalion is deputized by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to go after illegal loggers and apprehend illegally cut lumber. The battalion’s anti-illegal logging operations have hurt the illegal loggers. The NPA might have accomplished a military victory, but killing a pregnant mother and her child cannot be defended. The NPA attacked unprovoked, in a place that according to their spokesperson himself is surrounded by civilians. Charges for murder are being readied against the NPA members some of whom are believed to be students of the state-owned University of Eastern Philippines.

Yes, the NPA recruits young people, including minors. They receive a small allowance. They don’t stay long with the NPA. Life as a member of the NPA is hard, not the least in a place like Samar, an area that still ranks as among the poorest in the Philippines. For the students, attacking a military camp and killing soldiers might be their distorted idea of revolution as indoctrinated by professors who support the NPA. These professors encourage, entice or force students to join the NPA and its front organizations—and if this is indeed happening at University of Eastern Philippines in Catarman, the university isn’t the only state university where such recruitment goes on.

A helicopter pilot, who flew to Western Samar to airlift two soldiers wounded in an encounter last May, had a brief chat with the young boys in the encounter site. He told them that if they studied hard they could one day also fly a helicopter but to the pilot’s disbelief the boys replied that they want to join the NPA.

The NPA and their supporters would like us to believe that these are all proofs that the NPA is popular and that the government is bankrupt. The NPA is morally bankrupt itself, reflecting, unfortunately, a moral bankruptcy in most of our institutions. The attack in Polangi tells us indeed that we have failed: Failed to provide our children the aspirations, the knowledge or adequate opportunities in life that would have shielded them from becoming part of an organization that without hesitation commits murder and, for cold cash, destroys the environment. –Marit Stinus-Remonde, Manila Times

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