Today is Wednesday Janurary 14th, 2009 and it is now 3:04 AM here in the Philippines.
So, I have given a moderate description of all the anti-Govt forces at work, now for the Govt side...
There is the AFP, "Armed Forces of the Philippines", which I began talking about in the beginning of my description of the wars here. It consists of the Army, the Marines, Navy, and the PNP, which is the Philippines National Police.
Unlike many countries, especially those in the West, the police here are nationalised, not on the municipal level. There are also a quasi- municipal force known as "Barangay Police," or "Village Police" but they are really nothing but an impotent Neighbourhood Watch.
then you have the CAFGU, which is a paramilitary raised by the Govt. They get 45 days training by he AFP and are then issued Garland rifles, whic are cheap WWII castoffs and are expected to go toe to toe with the guerilla armies which is really nothing more than a sick joke.
CAFGU grew out of the "Philippines Constalbury" which in its day was actually part of the armed forces, the 4th branch (at that time there was Army, Navy, and Air Force but no Marines).As with the Constalbury, CAFGU is usually made up of gangster types, although having a criminal record is SUPPOSED TO preclude membership.
There is also a little known related paramilitary that most Filipinos themselves are completely uunaware of, and as far as I know operate only here on Mindanao, the "SCAA," or "Special CAFGU Auxiliary."
CAFGU is entirely funded by the Govt. although it also takes pay under the table from the people who wish for "extra" protection, meaning any protection in reality. SCAA though takes both Govt. funds and private funds , primarily the later so that it is a more true to form Right Wing paramilitary.
Then there is the "Ilaga," which is Bisya for "Rats," which I have talked about in the past. They began in the early 70s, by Bisaya and Ilongo ethnics here on Mindanao, in response to Islamic pramilitaries like the "Black Shirts" and "Barracudas" who fought hand in hand with the muslim guerilla MNLF and MILF armies.
Their aim was to protect Bisaya and Illongo villages from Muslims guerillas and bandits.
Then there so called "Ilongo Land Grabbers, " a paramilitary under the "Illongo Land Association."
The Illongo are closely related to the Bisya, and both are primarily Catholic., Like the Bisaya the Ilongo come from more northerly islands and have been migrating here for about 100 years but mostly, like Bisaya, since the late 1950s.
The ilongo though tended to settle Western Mindanao while Bisaya (my wife's People) have setttled Eastern Mindanao. Eastern Mindanao had no Muslims whatsoever, save for some of the Bajoa Tribe, so called "Sea Gypsies" who lived only on their boats most of the year, a practice that is fading.
Badjoa were and are very marginalised, their islam being a form of mostly Animist practices which makes them anathema to most other Muslim tribes here. The point being though that there was no Muslims living on the land when Bisya came.
There were however Lumad, the collective name for Animist Tribals, what are called "Hill People" on Mainland Asia, like tribes in Laos, Nam, Cambodia, Thailand and so on. Virtually all Lumad at that time were completely nomadic, though the lands now in Bisaya hands were valuable hunting grounds, that became worthless to most Lumad once the Bisaya cleared them for farming.
By the 1920s most Lumad had run for the hills or deep in swamps and so there was little conflict after that. In Western Mindanao though, Muslims had settled there about 100 years before the Spanish claimed the islands so that when Ilongo and Bisaya made it there in the late 19th Century the Muslims were very well established. They even had their own nations, Sultantes, like Maguindanao, and the Sulu,(based on the more southerly Sulu archipelago but with territory on Mindanao).
The Ilongo and Bisaya though had the Spoanish, then the Yanks, and finally the Philippine Govt backing them and they were able to disposses many long term Muslim clans. From the late 19th Cntury there has been especially bloody fighting over land in that half of Mindanao, which begins about 140 kilometers to my south, and 80 to my west.
Alot of the groups considered to be Ilongo Land or Ilaga were actually allied roups of an altogether different nature. Groups like the TadTad (so called "Chop- Chops"), who wove Animist religion into their ideology. Head hunting, cannibalism, drinking enmies blood, believing bullets could not harm them or that they were even invisible were some of the more well know points.
By the early 1990s these groups had waned, however since the summer of 2008 they have been revided in a huge way. Tatooing has returned, a practice in disrepute for many years, symbolic only of criminals, is now becoming common place. Fetishes like wearing enemies ears on chains around the neck, wild boar tusks, even shrunken heads make them especially well known. Gone are the Garlands given to CAFGU, replaced by M16s and M4s gfiven directly to them by the Govt.
Then you have tribal armies, especially the Eastern Mindanao tribes, with some pro-Govt., less pro-Communist and so on. Clan armies, really only prevalent in the western half, but family militias fairly common all over Mindanao.
I once told Dtgergent and Crystal (Maria Callas) here on BL, in a Journal entry how Mindanao was home to a group called "Lost Command." The term "Lost Command" signifes any renegade military group but started with a man in my village, Col, Carlos "Laddie" Lademora, an Illongo who was stationed with the Constalbuty in Lanao Province on this island during the 50s as a Captain and learned his craft well.
When he left the PC (Constalbury) he took many loyalists with him and settled first on the island of Samr where illegal logging is a huge business (which has deforested the island onlt in 30 years, a landslide because of it just took place 3 days ago killing an entire clan).
On Samar, on 9/15/1981 a small group from his force entered a population center, Barangay Sag-od in the village of Las Navas where they rounded up the entire population. They then herded them into a school, telling them that he wanted to talk to them about "Peace," a sort of reeducation programme they tried to do back then.
The males were separated from the group and told that they would first need to help with a land clearing operation down the trail and led into the bush. Out of earshot, over the mountain behind their vuillage, they werere all killed. Then the women and children were forcibly interrogated over a local NPA commander named "Kummander Racel (sic.)" None knew anything or even the name so Lademora's men then murdered 45 women and children, blew up every hut in the village as well as that school.
The case drew International Attention and this caused Marcos to iron out a deal with Lademora to escape a charge of complicty in the act. Marco's Minister of Defence was the major shareholder in the Philippine corporation which was dforesting this medium sized island, I will omit that name for concern over moniitoring software which can zero in on any mentioning of a specific word. That man has large holdings here and is known to our family on a very close basis.
Avoiding all charges, he and his force withdrew from Samar and where did they go? San Franz!!! MY VILLAGE!
His patron from the lumber business had invested heavily in the joint Malaysian/Philippine concern that had brought off the British investment group that held the major shares in the Palm Oil plantation directly bordering our family lands.
This was in 89, and they have been here since, and this past spring almost executed a Government Minister who was in a convoy visiting the plantation which is the largest Palm Oil operation in the world. Luckily they were only pistol whipped and sent packing. Complaining to the Army Garrison in our village, the Govt. Minister was told that the only choice he had was to accept what happened as a "Learning Experience."Lademora is the man single handedly responsible for the phrase "Lost Command."
Lademora is getting older though, quite infirm but his group is thriving.
Then there was another "local hero" of sorts. Lt. Col. Alexander Noble , CO of the 23rd Infantry in the Army, formed a CAFGU force of mostly Higaonan tribesmen and in July of 1990 "went native" with his 400 man army and hundreds more Irregulars (part time soldiers).
His base of operations was in the Higaonan tribal area, west of Esperanza in my province, Agusan del Sur, in and around their holiest site, the mountain of Sinakungan.
6 Marine Battalions began a manhunt and after a very, very bloody 2 months they captured Noble. His men were mostly given Asylum and entered the Philippine Army as Govt. soldiers of the 36th infantry and deployed to our provincial capital of Prosperidad.
Tribal armies still function and add yet another facet to the dynamic.
Then there are the "Rido," clan feuds which affect not only Muslim and Lumad but Bisaya and Ilongo as well. As I have said, we are in the midst of a mildly bloody one now.
So, that should conclude my discussion of all the groups.
There are also vigilante Right Wing paramilitaries which aim to curb crime,college fraternaties here funtcion as militias too! See what I mean about Westerners complaining bout Gaza? Most are oblivious to the world.
So, I have given a moderate description of all the anti-Govt forces at work, now for the Govt side...
There is the AFP, "Armed Forces of the Philippines", which I began talking about in the beginning of my description of the wars here. It consists of the Army, the Marines, Navy, and the PNP, which is the Philippines National Police.
Unlike many countries, especially those in the West, the police here are nationalised, not on the municipal level. There are also a quasi- municipal force known as "Barangay Police," or "Village Police" but they are really nothing but an impotent Neighbourhood Watch.
then you have the CAFGU, which is a paramilitary raised by the Govt. They get 45 days training by he AFP and are then issued Garland rifles, whic are cheap WWII castoffs and are expected to go toe to toe with the guerilla armies which is really nothing more than a sick joke.
CAFGU grew out of the "Philippines Constalbury" which in its day was actually part of the armed forces, the 4th branch (at that time there was Army, Navy, and Air Force but no Marines).As with the Constalbury, CAFGU is usually made up of gangster types, although having a criminal record is SUPPOSED TO preclude membership.
There is also a little known related paramilitary that most Filipinos themselves are completely uunaware of, and as far as I know operate only here on Mindanao, the "SCAA," or "Special CAFGU Auxiliary."
CAFGU is entirely funded by the Govt. although it also takes pay under the table from the people who wish for "extra" protection, meaning any protection in reality. SCAA though takes both Govt. funds and private funds , primarily the later so that it is a more true to form Right Wing paramilitary.
Then there is the "Ilaga," which is Bisya for "Rats," which I have talked about in the past. They began in the early 70s, by Bisaya and Ilongo ethnics here on Mindanao, in response to Islamic pramilitaries like the "Black Shirts" and "Barracudas" who fought hand in hand with the muslim guerilla MNLF and MILF armies.
Their aim was to protect Bisaya and Illongo villages from Muslims guerillas and bandits.
Then there so called "Ilongo Land Grabbers, " a paramilitary under the "Illongo Land Association."
The Illongo are closely related to the Bisya, and both are primarily Catholic., Like the Bisaya the Ilongo come from more northerly islands and have been migrating here for about 100 years but mostly, like Bisaya, since the late 1950s.
The ilongo though tended to settle Western Mindanao while Bisaya (my wife's People) have setttled Eastern Mindanao. Eastern Mindanao had no Muslims whatsoever, save for some of the Bajoa Tribe, so called "Sea Gypsies" who lived only on their boats most of the year, a practice that is fading.
Badjoa were and are very marginalised, their islam being a form of mostly Animist practices which makes them anathema to most other Muslim tribes here. The point being though that there was no Muslims living on the land when Bisya came.
There were however Lumad, the collective name for Animist Tribals, what are called "Hill People" on Mainland Asia, like tribes in Laos, Nam, Cambodia, Thailand and so on. Virtually all Lumad at that time were completely nomadic, though the lands now in Bisaya hands were valuable hunting grounds, that became worthless to most Lumad once the Bisaya cleared them for farming.
By the 1920s most Lumad had run for the hills or deep in swamps and so there was little conflict after that. In Western Mindanao though, Muslims had settled there about 100 years before the Spanish claimed the islands so that when Ilongo and Bisaya made it there in the late 19th Century the Muslims were very well established. They even had their own nations, Sultantes, like Maguindanao, and the Sulu,(based on the more southerly Sulu archipelago but with territory on Mindanao).
The Ilongo and Bisaya though had the Spoanish, then the Yanks, and finally the Philippine Govt backing them and they were able to disposses many long term Muslim clans. From the late 19th Cntury there has been especially bloody fighting over land in that half of Mindanao, which begins about 140 kilometers to my south, and 80 to my west.
Alot of the groups considered to be Ilongo Land or Ilaga were actually allied roups of an altogether different nature. Groups like the TadTad (so called "Chop- Chops"), who wove Animist religion into their ideology. Head hunting, cannibalism, drinking enmies blood, believing bullets could not harm them or that they were even invisible were some of the more well know points.
By the early 1990s these groups had waned, however since the summer of 2008 they have been revided in a huge way. Tatooing has returned, a practice in disrepute for many years, symbolic only of criminals, is now becoming common place. Fetishes like wearing enemies ears on chains around the neck, wild boar tusks, even shrunken heads make them especially well known. Gone are the Garlands given to CAFGU, replaced by M16s and M4s gfiven directly to them by the Govt.
Then you have tribal armies, especially the Eastern Mindanao tribes, with some pro-Govt., less pro-Communist and so on. Clan armies, really only prevalent in the western half, but family militias fairly common all over Mindanao.
I once told Dtgergent and Crystal (Maria Callas) here on BL, in a Journal entry how Mindanao was home to a group called "Lost Command." The term "Lost Command" signifes any renegade military group but started with a man in my village, Col, Carlos "Laddie" Lademora, an Illongo who was stationed with the Constalbuty in Lanao Province on this island during the 50s as a Captain and learned his craft well.
When he left the PC (Constalbury) he took many loyalists with him and settled first on the island of Samr where illegal logging is a huge business (which has deforested the island onlt in 30 years, a landslide because of it just took place 3 days ago killing an entire clan).
On Samar, on 9/15/1981 a small group from his force entered a population center, Barangay Sag-od in the village of Las Navas where they rounded up the entire population. They then herded them into a school, telling them that he wanted to talk to them about "Peace," a sort of reeducation programme they tried to do back then.
The males were separated from the group and told that they would first need to help with a land clearing operation down the trail and led into the bush. Out of earshot, over the mountain behind their vuillage, they werere all killed. Then the women and children were forcibly interrogated over a local NPA commander named "Kummander Racel (sic.)" None knew anything or even the name so Lademora's men then murdered 45 women and children, blew up every hut in the village as well as that school.
The case drew International Attention and this caused Marcos to iron out a deal with Lademora to escape a charge of complicty in the act. Marco's Minister of Defence was the major shareholder in the Philippine corporation which was dforesting this medium sized island, I will omit that name for concern over moniitoring software which can zero in on any mentioning of a specific word. That man has large holdings here and is known to our family on a very close basis.
Avoiding all charges, he and his force withdrew from Samar and where did they go? San Franz!!! MY VILLAGE!
His patron from the lumber business had invested heavily in the joint Malaysian/Philippine concern that had brought off the British investment group that held the major shares in the Palm Oil plantation directly bordering our family lands.
This was in 89, and they have been here since, and this past spring almost executed a Government Minister who was in a convoy visiting the plantation which is the largest Palm Oil operation in the world. Luckily they were only pistol whipped and sent packing. Complaining to the Army Garrison in our village, the Govt. Minister was told that the only choice he had was to accept what happened as a "Learning Experience."Lademora is the man single handedly responsible for the phrase "Lost Command."
Lademora is getting older though, quite infirm but his group is thriving.
Then there was another "local hero" of sorts. Lt. Col. Alexander Noble , CO of the 23rd Infantry in the Army, formed a CAFGU force of mostly Higaonan tribesmen and in July of 1990 "went native" with his 400 man army and hundreds more Irregulars (part time soldiers).
His base of operations was in the Higaonan tribal area, west of Esperanza in my province, Agusan del Sur, in and around their holiest site, the mountain of Sinakungan.
6 Marine Battalions began a manhunt and after a very, very bloody 2 months they captured Noble. His men were mostly given Asylum and entered the Philippine Army as Govt. soldiers of the 36th infantry and deployed to our provincial capital of Prosperidad.
Tribal armies still function and add yet another facet to the dynamic.
Then there are the "Rido," clan feuds which affect not only Muslim and Lumad but Bisaya and Ilongo as well. As I have said, we are in the midst of a mildly bloody one now.
So, that should conclude my discussion of all the groups.
There are also vigilante Right Wing paramilitaries which aim to curb crime,college fraternaties here funtcion as militias too! See what I mean about Westerners complaining bout Gaza? Most are oblivious to the world.