MARAG VALLEY - Paradise lost, paradise regained?

Military and government officials admitted that the NPA had set

up a ''shadow government'' in Marag when it controlled the area.

Such government had long been disbanded, residents said. But

they added that they would rather not talk about it or they could

be branded again as NPA sympathizers.Their wariness is

understandable.

''During those war years, it was difficult for residents as they

could be branded as NPA or military informants by either side.

Some civilians had been killed or tortured by contending forces

on suspicion of being spies,'' Versola said.

Even before the government launched Operations Thunderbolt

and Salidummay in the early 1990s to fully reclaim Marag from

the rebels, human rights organizations and other groups had

claimed that the military had resorted to killing or torturing

civilians, even children, to discourage them from supporting the

NPA.Versola said the government efforts have been rendered

futile until the two major military operations flushed out and

decimated NPA forces. But the operations resulted in the

wounding or killing of scores of civilians.At the marker site on

the grounds of the Marag Elementary School, around 200

persons, both military and NPA combatants and civilians, were

listed to have been killed during the insurgency war in the area.

But residents said more names were not included.

Records of human rights groups, like the Task Force Detainees

of the Philippines and the Ecumenical Movement for Justice and

Peace, showed around 500 people in Marag and its nearby

towns have been killed or are still missing.

Some residents said they have been sympathetic to the rebels

due to military abuses and the countless teaching sessions they

underwent from NPA cadres on the need for revolutionary

struggle to improve their lives.''While the NPA rebels were here,

they helped us harvest crops in the fields without expecting

anything in return,'' said a resident, who requested anonymity.

''But when the military came, they butchered our chickens and

pigs without asking permission from us. I don't want to

remember those years. But a lot of the people here have died in

Marag due to military abuses or offensives.''

Showcase for peace

Aside from military operations, the Aquino and Ramos

administrations had tried every possible means to reclaim Marag

from the rebels to make it a government showcase of its

programs and sincerity in bringing back rebels and their

sympathizers to the folds of the law.Versola said at least 60

houses have been given by the Ramos administration to Marag

residents through the Department of Social Welfare and

Development.

The newly created National Commission on Indigenous Peoples

built a two-room comfort room for the still unfinished Bucao

Day Care center. The center is a project of the DSWD in

Apayao.

The National Irrigation Administration started two communal

irrigation systems in the area in the early 1990s but these were

abandoned due to the unstable peace and order situation.

Versola said then President Fidel V. Ramos visited Marag in

1996 to turn over the houses to residents and symbolically

inaugurate the Luna-Marag road.

The Ramos administration had allocated around P1.6 million to

improve the road. The money was reportedly coursed through

the Army's 50th Engineering Brigade based in Luna.

''I don't know what happened to the money but the Marag Road

was never improved despite release of the funds by the

Department of Budget and Management,'' she said.