An Alternative to Bloodshed : The Lantad Option on the All-Out War vs. the CPP-NPA
Mike Banos
July 11, 2006
Mabuhay po kayo Maj. Gen. Cardozo Luna and the proud men and women of the 4th Infantry ´Diamond´ Division, the guardian of Cagayan de Oro and Northern Mindanao!
It´s interesting to note that while some LGU chief executives support the President´s initiative for an all-out war, still others opt to take a different tack to solve the problem.
Already, with the offensive barely two weeks old, the body count of alleged NPA guerrillas killed in Bukidnon and Agusan del Sur stands at ten and counting. We can´t really blame Bukidnon Gov. Joe Zubiri for choosing to unsheathe the sword of war, after rebels burned all the equipment of a construction firm building a barangay road in Bgy. Zamboanguita at the capital city of Malaybalay simply because they refused to pay revolutionary taxes.
Even the Church appears to have given a tacit nod o the President´s all-out war: Catholic bishops have denounced what they described as the rampant murder of innocent civilians by New People´s Army (NPA) guerrillas waging one of the world´s last Maoist rebellions.
The bishops said many murders were "reported by our people as allegedly perpetrated by insurgents" in support of their bid to build up their armory and over "failure to pay revolutionary taxes or blood debts to the people."
On the other hand, despite numerous atrocities committed against both civilians and government soldiers by the communists in Misamis Oriental in the past two decades, Gov. Oscar Moreno has opted to continue extending the olive branch by bringing government closer to the people.
I´m intrigued by the ultimate outcome of these two wars: GMA´s all-out war to wipe out the communist insurgency for good in a year; and Oca Moreno´s war for the hearts of the people which he admits would take a little longer, or maybe much longer, but which he believes would be more fulfilling, more rewarding and most important, more enduring in the long run.
I´ve never been inclined to solve a problem by throwing money at it. According to former RAM leader Alex Noble and Davao Mayor Digong Duterte, if the one billion pesos allocated by GMA for the campaign doesn´t go to improving the lot of the soldier on the ground and make them better equipped to fight the enemy, all that moolah is as good as flushed down the drain. I agree.
Even the world´s most powerful nation has found to its sorrow that its little "police actions" in Iran and Afghanistan didn´t end with the defeat of the opposing military forces. It was just the beginning and already, the American death toll for policing both countries has exceeded the casualties they sustained when they were facing the opposing armed forces in conventional warfare.
From Lebanon, to Somalia, to Vietnam, Afghanistan and Chechnya, it´s always been the same refrain: the military action is just a prelude to the real war fought by civilian guerrillas and for which the occupying forces would have hell to pay.
On the other hand, there´s this little experiment in Misamis Oriental called Lantad. Once the regional base of the communist insurgency in Region 10, government agencies led by the provincial government teamed up to do what they deemed was the key to ending the insurgency in the area where the CPP-NPA has been the shadow government for the past 25 years: restore the Kibanban-Lantad road.
Gov. Oca told me Lantad was not only a key test for his administration, in fact, he calls it a "threshold" which would be a showcase of how to win the hearts and minds of the people indoctrinated by 25 years of Maoist communist ideology and a quarter century during which the insurgency was the virtual government in the area.
"It´s difficult to attain peace through peaceful means but it is more rewarding," he said.
He told me Lantad was targeted as a showcase for Misamis Oriental because it was a symbol of he past neglect of previous administrations: government lost by default because of its failure to bring basic services to the people. It is a symbol of Misamis Oriental´s wealth in agriculture which he described in his 2nd State of the Province Address last Monday as the "real resource where the best of the province can be seen", and wherein the future of the province lies. And not the least, and perhaps most of all, because of Lantad´s role in history as the regional command of the CPP-NPA.
Set in a plateau some 890 meters above sea level at the end of a seemingly impassable 18-kilometer road, Lantad became the daunting symbol of the insurmountable goal, set high above the clouds, seemingly impossible to reach and grasp, and which everybody, including the governor himself, had serious doubts about.
Even the military commander in the area admits it was a daunting task to bring back Lantad to the sphere of government´s influence. "It´s a tall order to bring peace and order to Lantad and wean it away from the influence of the NPA," said Lt. Col. Andrelino Colina, commanding officer of the Philippine Army´s 8th Infantry Battalion assigned to cover the area. "Lantad used to be the focal point for insurgency in Misamis Oriental and Agusan and NPA propaganda was very active, distributed leaflets saying government was bound to fail and challenging us to stay and make good of our promises."
But once the decision was made to restore the road, everyone from the armed forces to the various agencies of the provincial government became singular in purpose and focused on their individual roles in making the impossible dream come true. And so it was that last Saturday, July 8, 2006, Gov. Oca and his band of dedicated men and women rode in on the first government and military vehicles in over 20 years to enter the Lantad poblacion to the oles and bravos of an appreciative and grateful populace.
Colina acknowledges much remains to be done, including keeping the insurgents from coming back, but he is elated that the residents who previously did not look beyond the next day´s meal or the next week´s supply of rice are now busily planning their future.
"I am heartened by the change in the attitude of the people," Colina said. "Previously they were hostile, indifferent, and supportive of the NPA and would not change allegiance until they saw, felt and tasted tangible evidence of government support."
So far, aside from the road, the capitol team (of which the military and police remain key players) has set up a multi-purpose dryer cum basketball court, repaired the elementary school and capilla, concreted the communal toilet and bath/water supply, and distributed P30,000 worth of goats and seed materials to the community cooperative for livelihood projects.
Because the habal-habal can now negotiate the 18-kilometer stretch from Lantad to the national highway in Balingasag in less than two hours (it used to take a minimum of three hours by foot or horseback just to get to Bgy. Kibanban poblacion, 11 kms. downhill) trade and commerce has started to flourish again, and there are now three sari-sari stores to replace the cooperative store which the insurgents used as a front for their logistics/resupply center.
If he was still around, Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, would have been proud at how Team Capitol has epitomized in Lantad what he once said about people empowerment:
"Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day." With the residents so empowered through their own volition and enterprise, Jefferson´s warning that "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance" doesn´t seem so daunting a task today as it once was when they first chose the path to peace over armed struggle.
INDNJC -
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