Today is now Saturday Janurary 31st, 2009 and it is now 12:58 AM here in the Philippines.
Continuing from the previous entry...
So the army began the over flights and bombing runs, and managed to force SOME units onto the westerly heading, through the Barangay at the end of Mangga (our road), on the western side of National Hiway.
Most however were smarter and had apparently coordinated their retreat. They were practically swimming through our paddies , but we do not engage unless engaged, trying best to stay as neutral as possible unless directly threatened.
Then the aircraft came back and I would say it was the first true victory for the amry in quite a while. At least 60 bodies have been brought into Poblasiyon/Poblacion, the center of our village. As for pro-Govt. forces, I only know of 18 dead and 11 are paras.
The army really can claim it as a tactical victory, although I really think it was terrible fot hem to dot his while they could have been much more beneficial to the community by effecting AID and rescue during the flooding.
In other NPA news, yesterday in Butuan they lobbed a grenade through the window of a government official who also has the dubious enemty of being a Double Enemy of the People for his work as an executive at Dole, the Western fruits company before entering public service. No reports on deaths yet.
In the village of Carmen which is right over the border of Agusan del Norte the 4th attack in as many months has taken place this week at an Iglesia ng Krsito (Church of Christ).
Iglesia should not be confused with the US based Church of Christ although like it, it IS a Prtestant sect. It is homegrown, and run by a single family, whose patriarch founded it in the first years of the 20th Century.
It has a rather positive distinction of having a very beautiful edifice, the same structure, in most every large non-Muslim town in the country. The buildings are very beautiful, real Americana in the middle of the SE Asian tropics.
The religion has attracted controversy for its very strict rules. Members are required to attend every Church function unless given written permission not to do so. If they fail to, they are fined huge amounts by local standards and there has also been issues of families ostracising close members for dropping out of the church or refusing to join in the first place.
Here, and in Cotabato Provinces (there is a Norte and Sur just as in Agusan) these churches have been targetted by NPA (communists) and in Cotabato by Muslims as well.
In Tampakan village the police station was raided by 50 NPA guerillas yesterday, 1/28, using rifle grenades. Noone seems to have been badly hurt although there were 3 police wounded in the attack which netted weapons, Laptops, and phones.
When Arroyo was taking off from Butuan Air Port there was a firefight right down the road between NPA and the 30th Infantry, but with a twist. the NPA were in black fatigues which is something altogether new. Some are trying to suggest that it might have been an attempt on the President but I do not infer much from it although it is a first.
On Monday, 1/23 the police station in Carmen (Agusan del N.) was raided fro the 2nd time, and the weaponry removed, etc, the 50 man NPA formation killed 1 policeman.
Yesterday, in Davao City, which is HIGHLY unusual (not since the very early 90s) the NPA set an unsuccessful ambush but did manage to detonate a claymore mine and wound 7 soldiers and 1 para in an 8 truck Govt. convoy of KM-450 trucks. VERY unusual given the role the Davao mayor has played in the recent release of two POWs held by the NPA (trading on the release of jailed NPA guerillas).
In Targum, which is in between us and Davao, 5 NPA from Front 53 surrendered in the Amnesty Programme, turning in a nice amount of weaponry.
Closer to us, in Com Val, the new province of Compostela Valley which sits in between us and Davao del Norte Province, the army has redeployed the 503rd Infantry to Arba, and the 41st Infantry to the nearby village of Ba'ay Licuan.
The army has also raided two NPA safehouses, one in Maco village earlier this week and then yesterday a house in Barangay N'gan in Compostela village.
Another thing that made me sit up and take notice was the last issue of the NDF's newspaper, online as well as in handbills. the NDF as I explained is the National Democratic Front ans is the umbrella for both the NPa (New Peoples' Army) as well as the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines). the paper, "ang Bayan" has a first page editorial calling the Israeli Operation in Gaza a US conspired operation to murder indigenous Peoples and so on.
As a dual Israeli/US I am more in tune to such threats than a person otherwise might be. I am now officially the only Israeli on the island, and probablly the only Jew with Rizza off on Cebu...speaking of which, our females and children are going to be returning, G-D willing or as we say in Bisaya "Buyag" (not the same meaning but the same intent) after the weekend. Right now we want to make sure most of the armed threat has dissipated as well as giving the Provinces a bit of time to dry out and get the AID trucks off the few passable roads we have (all of one major road plus Mangga, ours).
The Operation was noticed by the NDF, et al as well as major Islamic groups here but this si the most vehement piece to date and the only one linking it to US actions. The NPA makes no secret that while it has not targetted even American soldiers in a couple of years it still holds them to be viable targets. I am not in ANY official capacity here, certainly would never be in any american capacity ANYWHERE but because I am so light skinned (I am blue eyed after all) I am mistaken for American in many places.
Here all white people are considered to be American until proven otherwise (hahaha), and they are all called, males anyway, "Kano" for "American." that or the ubiqitous "Joe,"something I must have mentioned in another entry I am sure.
"Joe" is for "GI Joe" since the WWII mystique is alive and well in this once bastion of pro-Americans goodwill...at least until it got sucked dry under the US crony Marcos who beld the country and its people dry.
I soemtimes give the family a good laugh by screaming "Hi Joe!" whenever we pass rubberneckers. A white person here attarcts mad attention.
In my old Journal I had talked about how girls here LOVe white men. 2 Filipina BLers, D'tergent and MariaCallas took me to task saying they did not think so at all but then they are cosmopolitan, upper class women from Manila. When you are in the "Provinces," as anyplace outside of Cebu City or Manila is called, you will be innundated with stares until it drives you mad. You will also be told "Hi Joe" or more rarely "Go Home Joe!" by the locals.
The 2 BLers said that they think it has to do with the extreme poverty here and that it would be the same with any foreinger. I then replied, and probablly convinced both of them by reminding them that noone ehre studies "Arabic" or goes to Paki themed dating websites to meet THOSE freign men (internet dating is disgusting here, and everywhere but not in the sense that it is something digusting per se, just how it is handled here but that is another rant and nothing really to dow ith what I am discussing).
Ihe point though... We have an African man who lives down Mangga, over the Surigao line and we soemtimes see him walking past our compound. True, people look but only for a second and then go about their business and no women give a damn. A white man? Forget about it! I get women jumping off busses !!! I will be in the front of the compound, playing with my main dog Jumbo (the picture of him as a pup is in Gallery), letting him eat other dog's shit across the road, and a Bacehlor (busline) will be speeding pass and then slam on the airbrakes, and a gaggle of girls will get off and even approach me!!!
It has only happened twice in a year or so but that is enough of an indicator. I am no movie star and certainly noone worth twisting your nech to see let alone jumping off of speeding busses! Yet it happens. Is it any wonder that you have 80 year old Yanks and Europans coming ehre and marrying 18 year old girls? DIGUSTING but to each their own. I guess i should not talk since i will soon be 42 and have a 25 year old wife although that is not really a huge difference. Just seems that way to me because I have known her since she was a baby.
Will get to the rest of the guerilla violence this week in a following post...
Continuing from the previous entry...
So the army began the over flights and bombing runs, and managed to force SOME units onto the westerly heading, through the Barangay at the end of Mangga (our road), on the western side of National Hiway.
Most however were smarter and had apparently coordinated their retreat. They were practically swimming through our paddies , but we do not engage unless engaged, trying best to stay as neutral as possible unless directly threatened.
Then the aircraft came back and I would say it was the first true victory for the amry in quite a while. At least 60 bodies have been brought into Poblasiyon/Poblacion, the center of our village. As for pro-Govt. forces, I only know of 18 dead and 11 are paras.
The army really can claim it as a tactical victory, although I really think it was terrible fot hem to dot his while they could have been much more beneficial to the community by effecting AID and rescue during the flooding.
In other NPA news, yesterday in Butuan they lobbed a grenade through the window of a government official who also has the dubious enemty of being a Double Enemy of the People for his work as an executive at Dole, the Western fruits company before entering public service. No reports on deaths yet.
In the village of Carmen which is right over the border of Agusan del Norte the 4th attack in as many months has taken place this week at an Iglesia ng Krsito (Church of Christ).
Iglesia should not be confused with the US based Church of Christ although like it, it IS a Prtestant sect. It is homegrown, and run by a single family, whose patriarch founded it in the first years of the 20th Century.
It has a rather positive distinction of having a very beautiful edifice, the same structure, in most every large non-Muslim town in the country. The buildings are very beautiful, real Americana in the middle of the SE Asian tropics.
The religion has attracted controversy for its very strict rules. Members are required to attend every Church function unless given written permission not to do so. If they fail to, they are fined huge amounts by local standards and there has also been issues of families ostracising close members for dropping out of the church or refusing to join in the first place.
Here, and in Cotabato Provinces (there is a Norte and Sur just as in Agusan) these churches have been targetted by NPA (communists) and in Cotabato by Muslims as well.
In Tampakan village the police station was raided by 50 NPA guerillas yesterday, 1/28, using rifle grenades. Noone seems to have been badly hurt although there were 3 police wounded in the attack which netted weapons, Laptops, and phones.
When Arroyo was taking off from Butuan Air Port there was a firefight right down the road between NPA and the 30th Infantry, but with a twist. the NPA were in black fatigues which is something altogether new. Some are trying to suggest that it might have been an attempt on the President but I do not infer much from it although it is a first.
On Monday, 1/23 the police station in Carmen (Agusan del N.) was raided fro the 2nd time, and the weaponry removed, etc, the 50 man NPA formation killed 1 policeman.
Yesterday, in Davao City, which is HIGHLY unusual (not since the very early 90s) the NPA set an unsuccessful ambush but did manage to detonate a claymore mine and wound 7 soldiers and 1 para in an 8 truck Govt. convoy of KM-450 trucks. VERY unusual given the role the Davao mayor has played in the recent release of two POWs held by the NPA (trading on the release of jailed NPA guerillas).
In Targum, which is in between us and Davao, 5 NPA from Front 53 surrendered in the Amnesty Programme, turning in a nice amount of weaponry.
Closer to us, in Com Val, the new province of Compostela Valley which sits in between us and Davao del Norte Province, the army has redeployed the 503rd Infantry to Arba, and the 41st Infantry to the nearby village of Ba'ay Licuan.
The army has also raided two NPA safehouses, one in Maco village earlier this week and then yesterday a house in Barangay N'gan in Compostela village.
Another thing that made me sit up and take notice was the last issue of the NDF's newspaper, online as well as in handbills. the NDF as I explained is the National Democratic Front ans is the umbrella for both the NPa (New Peoples' Army) as well as the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines). the paper, "ang Bayan" has a first page editorial calling the Israeli Operation in Gaza a US conspired operation to murder indigenous Peoples and so on.
As a dual Israeli/US I am more in tune to such threats than a person otherwise might be. I am now officially the only Israeli on the island, and probablly the only Jew with Rizza off on Cebu...speaking of which, our females and children are going to be returning, G-D willing or as we say in Bisaya "Buyag" (not the same meaning but the same intent) after the weekend. Right now we want to make sure most of the armed threat has dissipated as well as giving the Provinces a bit of time to dry out and get the AID trucks off the few passable roads we have (all of one major road plus Mangga, ours).
The Operation was noticed by the NDF, et al as well as major Islamic groups here but this si the most vehement piece to date and the only one linking it to US actions. The NPA makes no secret that while it has not targetted even American soldiers in a couple of years it still holds them to be viable targets. I am not in ANY official capacity here, certainly would never be in any american capacity ANYWHERE but because I am so light skinned (I am blue eyed after all) I am mistaken for American in many places.
Here all white people are considered to be American until proven otherwise (hahaha), and they are all called, males anyway, "Kano" for "American." that or the ubiqitous "Joe,"something I must have mentioned in another entry I am sure.
"Joe" is for "GI Joe" since the WWII mystique is alive and well in this once bastion of pro-Americans goodwill...at least until it got sucked dry under the US crony Marcos who beld the country and its people dry.
I soemtimes give the family a good laugh by screaming "Hi Joe!" whenever we pass rubberneckers. A white person here attarcts mad attention.
In my old Journal I had talked about how girls here LOVe white men. 2 Filipina BLers, D'tergent and MariaCallas took me to task saying they did not think so at all but then they are cosmopolitan, upper class women from Manila. When you are in the "Provinces," as anyplace outside of Cebu City or Manila is called, you will be innundated with stares until it drives you mad. You will also be told "Hi Joe" or more rarely "Go Home Joe!" by the locals.
The 2 BLers said that they think it has to do with the extreme poverty here and that it would be the same with any foreinger. I then replied, and probablly convinced both of them by reminding them that noone ehre studies "Arabic" or goes to Paki themed dating websites to meet THOSE freign men (internet dating is disgusting here, and everywhere but not in the sense that it is something digusting per se, just how it is handled here but that is another rant and nothing really to dow ith what I am discussing).
Ihe point though... We have an African man who lives down Mangga, over the Surigao line and we soemtimes see him walking past our compound. True, people look but only for a second and then go about their business and no women give a damn. A white man? Forget about it! I get women jumping off busses !!! I will be in the front of the compound, playing with my main dog Jumbo (the picture of him as a pup is in Gallery), letting him eat other dog's shit across the road, and a Bacehlor (busline) will be speeding pass and then slam on the airbrakes, and a gaggle of girls will get off and even approach me!!!
It has only happened twice in a year or so but that is enough of an indicator. I am no movie star and certainly noone worth twisting your nech to see let alone jumping off of speeding busses! Yet it happens. Is it any wonder that you have 80 year old Yanks and Europans coming ehre and marrying 18 year old girls? DIGUSTING but to each their own. I guess i should not talk since i will soon be 42 and have a 25 year old wife although that is not really a huge difference. Just seems that way to me because I have known her since she was a baby.
Will get to the rest of the guerilla violence this week in a following post...