About three or four weeks ago family members in New York began getting very nervous about a hurricane that was shaping up to be nearly a perfect storm in the negative sense of the word. As that was taking place one of thr two dozen typhoons (the Pacific equivalent to a hurricane) slammed into Luzon, the island upon which Manila sits as well as it being home to Joysa and her family. Joysa's home in the municipality of Hagonoy, in Bulacan Province sits literaLly 15 meters (45 ft) from a major river. Every high tide there is at least 1.5 meters (4.5 ft) of water in her living room.
With this typhoon, which co-incidentally struch during high tide, she and her family had to climb atop their roof and wait for whatever pittance the govt. decided to air drop to them. I wired her a few hundred US Dollars but until now there is still no electricity there although the waters have greatly receeded.
Then, this past weekend 300 NPA (Maoist) guerillas attacked 4 mining outfits all owned by the Sumitomo Corporation, a huge Japanese company. All 4 are roughly 25 klicks from me (20 miles more or less). It was an incredible attack in , all in the town of Claver which they blew up two ocean going freighters, at least 142 tandem dump lorries, more than 3 dozen backhoes, etc, etc. All in all they wracked more than 1.5 Billion US in destruction in just that one attack. They only killed four soldiers in the mine's paramilitary but also took 4 prisoners. The result has led to a massive redeployment into this part of hell. It seems that when it rains, it pours as the saying goes.
Yesterday afternoon a govt. soldier was killed capturing an NPA camp 2 klicks off of our cattle operation in the town of Esperanza. I have never seen the Flips launch an operation of the current magnitude. Our island already has 70% of the military deployed on it and they are now focusing their full power on our sector. Our guys (BULIF) are operation 24/7 but that isn't unusual.
The common law wife of that Scottish man, Luisa Galvez, the woman that was kidnapped? She was freed over the weekend after the MILF, the Muslim guerillas holding her fled as their camp was being overrun. She was shot in both legs but will live to tell about it.
5 new kidnappings since Sunday but they are all local victims so nooone cares, what a world. I did find a bit of cheer though; on Sunday a 10 year old girl in the town of Magpet was talking to her 21 year old male cousin when he grabbed her, dragged her into the jungle, and bashed her face in as he raped her. Thinking she was dead he left her buried in a shallow pit covered with banana leaves. The girl revived, made her way home and now the bastard is being hunted by the family. Sometimes good people do win.
With this typhoon, which co-incidentally struch during high tide, she and her family had to climb atop their roof and wait for whatever pittance the govt. decided to air drop to them. I wired her a few hundred US Dollars but until now there is still no electricity there although the waters have greatly receeded.
Then, this past weekend 300 NPA (Maoist) guerillas attacked 4 mining outfits all owned by the Sumitomo Corporation, a huge Japanese company. All 4 are roughly 25 klicks from me (20 miles more or less). It was an incredible attack in , all in the town of Claver which they blew up two ocean going freighters, at least 142 tandem dump lorries, more than 3 dozen backhoes, etc, etc. All in all they wracked more than 1.5 Billion US in destruction in just that one attack. They only killed four soldiers in the mine's paramilitary but also took 4 prisoners. The result has led to a massive redeployment into this part of hell. It seems that when it rains, it pours as the saying goes.
Yesterday afternoon a govt. soldier was killed capturing an NPA camp 2 klicks off of our cattle operation in the town of Esperanza. I have never seen the Flips launch an operation of the current magnitude. Our island already has 70% of the military deployed on it and they are now focusing their full power on our sector. Our guys (BULIF) are operation 24/7 but that isn't unusual.
The common law wife of that Scottish man, Luisa Galvez, the woman that was kidnapped? She was freed over the weekend after the MILF, the Muslim guerillas holding her fled as their camp was being overrun. She was shot in both legs but will live to tell about it.
5 new kidnappings since Sunday but they are all local victims so nooone cares, what a world. I did find a bit of cheer though; on Sunday a 10 year old girl in the town of Magpet was talking to her 21 year old male cousin when he grabbed her, dragged her into the jungle, and bashed her face in as he raped her. Thinking she was dead he left her buried in a shallow pit covered with banana leaves. The girl revived, made her way home and now the bastard is being hunted by the family. Sometimes good people do win.