by John Muir
CHAPTER 20
DIVERSIONS
APUAO GRANDE
After the pool competition ended with a victory to a Frenchman who had arrived a couple of days before, the restaurant emptied quickly. Although there had been a gradual drift away all evening. T.A. was amazed at the amount of beer that Gunther could consume without collapsing.
At 11:30P.M. Malou began her private little signals to him that she was ready to go. T.A. felt of a similar mood, so they made their goodnights before walking to the front of the restaurant for their nightly visit to the hobie-cats. Gunther and Di followed them out the front but stopped at the still-occupied beer hut for one of Gunther's nightcaps.
Nothing had to be said between Malou and T.A. They had missed very few evening visits to the trampoline in their holiday visits to the island. They automatically headed for the hobie-cat furthest away from the beer hut. Within minutes they were lying silently side by side on the trampoline, faces up, looking at the stars. T.A. was feeling the nice cool freshness of the sea-breeze and made no effort to fight the sleepy feeling of his brain.
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Mt. KANLAON, Island of Negros.
Warvic sat beside Suraido Arompak trying to disguise her nervousness as the 2:00A.M. deadline approached. It seemed strange to be sharing this event with Suraido. The moon’s light was enough to clearly distinguish faces. She looked at Suraido sitting on the cogon grass and leaning against a tree. His eyes were open but his stare showed his mind was somewhere else deep in thought.
Suraido was pondering how he had come to be here. He realised the chance of Warvic's fulfilling her promise for a separate Muslim state were part of her selling technique for the total plan. It was not likely to be achieved this time. An independent state for the Muslims was not just some dream, it would come. So far it was a lack of real opportunity. At least this action of Warvic's NPA was a step in the right direction. He agreed with her tactics that discrediting the Government and Armed Forces in the eyes of the world would, in the long run, mean a chance of achieving everyone's independence goals sooner than under any previous tactics tried. Though he had been seduced and tricked into supporting her plan, he also felt a truly and totally nation-wide uprising was an event he could never have achieved by himself, even with the help of the other Muslim groups.
He admired Warvic achieving what he could not achieve, the unification of all the Muslim factions, even if only temporarily. If it could happen once, then, given the right incentive, it could happen again.
After discussions Warvic had with each of the Muslim faction leaders, Suraido never thought it possible to achieve the co-operation and unification that subsequently ensued. He remembered the early days after the discussions. There seemed little chance of any follow-up, let alone agreement on assistance and cooperation of the faction leaders.
He was therefore surprised at being requested to attend a meeting with the leaders of the extremist and MNLF group a week after Warvic had managed to meet alone with them. If he had attended with her it could have been thought of as collusion. But as he had not been seen as linked to Warvic's plan in any way, he was being treated as independent. He smiled as he remembered when the MNLF discussed the plan with him. It was as if they were trying to convince him of the advantages of it for the whole Muslim movement. He pretended to be a less than totally willing participant, only yielding entirely when they said that they could convince all the other factions to join the plan. Immediately the MNLF accepted, the other fringe groups followed suit.
The unprecedented agreement amazed him. He was requested to be the go-between the NPA and a selected few others to keep them informed on the progress of the plan. He virtually had a free hand. He was to liaise through this small group for assistance or approval in general areas which might affect the Muslim groups. They agreed that the less people who knew of the plans, the more likely it was to succeed. There was less chance of a leak.
When they received his request for manpower to train in Libya, it was a surprise. It was also seen as an immediate benefit to the overall cause and their individual groups, even if they had to contribute to the financing of it. It was also seen as evidence of Suraido's good faith that he was spreading the benefits of training fairly around all the groups, not just his own. This was an area Warvic had been insistent about. Military training for all groups would counter the normal fragility that she recognised in the Muslim cause. It had held so far.
Stranger still, and certainly more fragile, was the alliance between Catholics and Muslims. The anomaly that some Muslim funds were financing military training and supplying some weapons to Catholics, did not pass Suraido's thoughts without deep concern. That alliance too was holding, so far.
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Mt. KANLAON, Island of Negros.
Warvic was wondering why she was waiting up. There was nothing that she could do now. Dozens in the camp were also awake. Many had portable radios, tuned to dozens of different radio stations, waiting for any news that might suddenly break into the overnight music. She doubted any messages would be transmitted from resorts in the first few hours. None were scheduled. But it was probable that radio stations would immediately report the attacks on the military establishments.
She wanted the groups at the resorts to have time to establish themselves before any external military intervention could eventuate. Local resort security should not prove any obstacle or opposition, even though at some resorts, as on Boracay, security was quite substantial. That security was aimed more at preventing the local population from taking advantage of the vulnerability of the tourists, and preventing the petty thefts.
Many of the guards, although carrying pistols, did not have any bullets in them. Often such guards were required to pay for ammunition themselves. An ammunition allowance was frequently paid, but it was generally spent on more essential things such as food for the family. Warvic planned to give the groups several hours to consolidate their positions, and organise their defences.
Just before 2:00A.M. throughout the country, outside seventy military bases of various sizes, her people were getting ready for action. Private covered trucks, private and hired jeepneys, which had temporarily closed in their sides and back doors, were now rolling back the coverings. All were carrying mortars and were ready to fire off between six and fifteen mortar rounds into the bases in as short a time as possible. Then they would leave the area immediately, hide the mortars and disperse all personnel involved. The signal for the shelling to start at each base was to be pillion passengers on motor cyclists hurling grenades over the fences before racing off to safety at maximum possible speed.
By having such a widespread attack, Warvic wanted the Armed Forces to think it was an all out assault on all the bases throughout the country. This should cause the Armed Forces to take a defensive posture until they established the extent of the opposition they were facing.
The AFP reactions would be to ready themselves for further attacks. Warvic knew there would be none.
It would also get world attention very quickly. The AFP would learn soon enough about the tourist resort takeovers, but any attempts to investigate would be delayed by their defensive posture for several hours. Then they would be hamstrung by the uncertainty whether there would be further attacks on their bases.
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1:55A.M., Outside CAMP CRAME, Quezon City, Metro Manila.
Manuel Cruz nervously fidgeted with the tarpaulin string at the back of his jeepney. With the sides of the jeepney closed in like this it was like taking a sauna. He had read about saunas in an old Readers Digest magazine he had been given. As well, it was making him feel claustrophobic. Sitting and waiting this close to the huge Army base with the incriminating presence of a 66 mm mortar and eight shells he felt was inviting trouble, probably summary execution, if the patrolling Military Police decided to stop and check his jeepney.
The orders were clear. Arrange for two other covered jeepneys to operate in conjunction with his. Organise ten motor-cyc
lists each with pillion passengers to ride past fences and gates at 2:00A.M., each pair tossing two grenades at any guard posts or gun emplacements inside and near the fences, then to get away as quickly as possible. Thirty seconds after these explosions he was to launch his eight mortar shells the pre-measured 230 metres to the barracks. Though he was 150 metres away from the perimeter fence, it still seemed too close. The side street that he had chosen to wait in, with the rear of the jeep pointed to the Army camp, gave him his best escape route.
The explosion of grenades and the high pitched engine roar of several Japanese motor-cycles brought him back to his senses. He looked at his watch. "Dammit," he thought as he realised his watch had stopped at 1:56A.M. The grenade explosions continued as he jumped into action. He tried to roll up the rear tarpaulin at the back of the jeepney. It proved to be more awkward than normal. Perhaps it was because he had to work around the mortar base he had painstakingly bolted to the floor of the jeepney. By the time he had finished with the tarpaulin, the smaller grenade explosions had stopped. Just as suddenly, heavier explosions from his colleagues’ mortar rounds were exploding inside the base.
He could hear distant yelling from the Army base. Sliding the two boxes containing the mortar shells along the seat to the back of the jeepney, he quickly re-checked the calibrations that he had checked several times before. Inserting the tail of the first shell gently into the barrel he paused for a three count then let it slide down on the firing pin. He kept his head low and was surprised that the sound of it firing was less than he imagined it would be.
Before the first shell exploded at its target he was inserting the second into the barrel. The first shell exploded just as the second was beginning its flight to the camp. He now worked with controlled panic, pushing his need to get away as soon as possible. From the number of explosions he could hear, the other jeepneys were also doing their job.
Manuel was surprised with the speed he fired the shells, that he lost count. He was flooded with relief when there were no more. He dropped the tarpaulin, ran to the front of the jeep, leapt into the driver's seat and pulled away as soon as the engine jerked into life. As he readied to turn left at the T-junction a few metres from his firing point, he cast a quick glance into the wing mirror. He could only see the red glare of the fires that had begun.
Two blocks later, he felt relaxed enough to reach for a cigarette, and thought about how he was going to dispose of the bulky mortar. The boxes he would simply paint over and use as a cage for his prized fighting cock. Having sorted those things away in his mind, it suddenly dawned on him what he had done.
"Holy Mother of God, I've just attacked the Philippine Army!"
As he continued his drive to safety he laughed and talked aloud to himself.
"That was more fun than shooting the soldier on the jeepney," he thought. Grenades and mortars did make a bigger mess.
Manuel Cruz did not know he was only one grain of sand in the bucket. By the time he heard tomorrow's radio news he would know what his few grenades and mortars could do when repeated by hundreds of other jeepneys and motor-cycles nation-wide.
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Some bases were being subject to greater bombardment than others. The only differences being the number of mortars and grenades used in the attacks, not in the amount of time involved. All the attacks lasted less than four minutes from the time the first grenades were thrown over the fences to the last of the mortar rounds.
The major bases were being targeted by around thirty mortars. At those, over three hundred mortar shells would rain down on some targets in less than four minutes. That was in addition to the opening salvo of dozens of grenades in the first few seconds.
Warvic had selected, as the main targets, the Department of National Defence and General H.Q. of the Philippines Army E.D.S.A. at Camp Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, and the nearby Camp Crame, General H.Q. of the Philippines Constabulary. Both were in Quezon City. Some few others would be receiving only slightly less bombardment. The composite H.Q. of the Armed Forces of the Philippines at Fort Bonifacio in Makati would be receiving the same amount of attention as the H.Q. in Roxas Boulevard in Manila.
Targets at Nichols Air Base, General H.Q. of the Philippines Air Force, and Villamor Air Base, both in Pasay City, were to be hit with incendiaries as well in the hope that some aircraft, preferably helicopters, would be destroyed. It was the Air Force that Warvic felt most endangered her resort strategy. If equipment could be destroyed by fire, it may slow their response time.
Not only Metro Manila was being hit. Major Air, Naval, Army and Constabulary bases were being bombarded everywhere. Wherever possible, damage to helicopters was designated as the main target ahead of buildings. Any opportunities for inflicting damage on the smaller naval vessels were to be taken advantage of.
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Mt. KANLAON, Island of Negros.
By 2:15A.M., nothing had been heard on any of the personal radios. Warvic's uneasiness had grown as night progressed. She noticed she had been tearing off the tops of her fingernails - a habit she had stopped about twenty years before. If only she had given up smoking at the same time she had stopped chewing her nails she would be fitter now. Her legs would not be aching either as they were.
She hated this feeling after the long trek into the high and remote hills of Negros. This location was probably the safest place to be. The NPA was probably stronger here than any other place in the Philippines at the moment. The local commander boasted of being able to field 7,000 supporters, all of which he could arm at a moment's notice. Many were already armed and living in the hills. They were fed from the unofficial taxes they levied on locals, mostly in the form of rice or other basic foods.
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The island of Negros had undergone a boom, then bust economy. As the main sugar producer of the Philippines, it, or rather the sugar barons had benefitted enormously from the USA boycott of the Cuban sugar industry after Castro had taken over. The USA had virtually totally replaced its previous supplier with Filipino sugar by the mid 1960's. But the plunge in sugar prices from 1976 to the mid 80's, through the combined effects of overproduction and a cutback in USA imports, caused tens of thousands to lose their jobs after factories closed.
Starvation and death ravaged most of the community. Some blamed food shortage; others blamed lack of sanitation or education about nutrition. Whatever reason, Negros proved fertile ground for rapid expansion of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and their armed wing, the New Peoples Army (NPA). The CPP basically followed the Maoist line with a Filipino flavour. By the mid 1980's the NPA of Negros had been credited by the Government as having 130,000 active supporters, a high figure out of a total population of just in excess of three million for the island of Negros.
Instead of the CPP consolidating their position, internal power struggles between hard-liners, moderates, and the effects of infiltration by Government agents, had diminished its rapid growth. Expansion was further restricted by the capture of the NPA island commander, Nemesio Demafiles, on March 8, 1989. Aquino's promises of early land reform also dented the CPP aims of creating a revolutionary situation.
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2:30A.M. came and went. Warvic began to wonder if what she had planned had fizzled out to nothing. Maybe it was all just a dream. Warvic was fluent in Ilongo, the main language of Negros, and felt quite at home among the former followers of Nemisio. She had held Nemisio in awe during her previous visits to Negros. On her earliest visits she had felt unashamedly embarrassed and unworthy when he had deliberately sought her out for private discussions about her ideas. His encouragement of her free and independent thinking had been instrumental in her continuation of being her own person.
For this operation she was using a variation of a tactic which had been used by Nemisio. He tried a "human shield" plan which put the civilian population at great risk from counter-attacks from Government forces. Nemisio was sure that if innocent civilians were in the middle ground between
his soldiers and the Government forces, the Government forces would not risk the lives of civilians.
Over the following months, to his horror and dismay, the Government Forces ignored the presence of civilians, shooting them, as if they were all Nemisio’s followers. The Marcos Government manipulated the press so the world at large never learned about the Government troops slaughtering tens of thousands of civilians. It was barely reported in local papers. The actions of the troops were never able to be exploited by any Marcos opponents because the incidents were sanitised and changed before reaching outside Negros let alone outside the country. The outside world never heard about it, so, no foreign Government ever expressed its revulsion at the action by Marcos’s forces.
Warvic had studied Nemisio’s tactics. They had not worked for him because of a lack of public awareness of the consequences. That was because Negros was isolated from the major news centres. But this same “human shield” tactic had protected General Ramos and Senator Enrile in Manila when they overthrew the Marcos regime. The difference between the two circumstances seemed to be the presence of a world press as to the existence of a “human shield”. Warvic’s tactics were different. Her “human shield” was mostly foreigners. Slaughter of them could not be hidden from the outside world.
A member of the large group gathered outside jumped up, excitedly waving his radio.
“Cebu radio is reporting an armed attack on Camp Lapulapu. The announcer said there will be more details to follow.”
A cheer went up. It was as if a steam valve had suddenly been released.
Another listener suddenly yelled out, “Quiet, this report says that the Naval Base in Cavite City is being shelled from the sea.”
More cheers rang out.
Warvic allowed herself a big smile; then laughed. “Hell,” she said, “they don’t even know where the mortars are coming from.”
“Maybe someone fired some mortars from a banca,” proffered Suraido.
“Camp Lapulapu on Mactan Island was heavily hit, and several planes have been destroyed,” called out the first good news deliverer. “And the announcer said heavy damage has also been reported from Basa Air Base in Lipa City.”
More cheers and applause followed. Warvic joined in, but was mystified at the lack of reports about action in Metro Manila. What could have gone wrong? As if in answer to her question a voice called out. “The radio reports attacks on military facilities throughout Metro Manila. The President is calling for calm, and asks all Filipino people to support the Government and the Armed Forces as they fight the armed invaders.”
“Great,” shouted Suraido, “they’re so confused they think it’s an invasion. They don’t even know which country’s invading them.”
“I hope that’s cleared up quickly. That’s the one thing that would unite the Filipino people if they thought they were fighting against an invading army,” responded Warvic.
“Perhaps the initial action has been too successful. Perhaps we should announce that they were our actions.” She thought for a few seconds then went on, “No. We stick with our original plans.”
Although Warvic knew she said this confidently, she did not feel as confident as she sounded.
Group members were calling out radio reports of attacks on dozens of different Armed Forces facilities. Each announcement was followed by cheers and applause. Some reports of attacks were coming from places where Warvic had not arranged attacks.
‘Great,’ thought Warvic, ‘the power of suggestion has caused panic and uncertainty in some outlying AFP barracks.’ Even if shooting at shadows had resulted, it did not matter. It reinforced her plan to sow as much confusion as possible throughout the country.
Reports flowed in almost non-stop now. As she came down from the initial elation of the early reports, she remembered these actions were only side shows to the main events. Those were being carried out behind the distractions of these attacks. She began to worry again, but was hoping the main events had gone as well as these side shows seemed to have gone.