Tales from an NPA camp

CORDILLERA--''GET down!'' A New

People's Army squad leader signalled

his comrades with his left hand as

they went down the trail. They

croached, took up combat positions and resumed walking when

their leader stood up.

The guerrillas were on patrol after plotting tactical plans in their

forest hideout in line with a recent NPA directive for them to

launch new offensives against government soldiers.

Looking at the lush and thick forest from afar, one wouldn't

have known their camp was located in the area.

It was here where the clandestine meeting of the Inquirer with

guerrillas of the NPA's Leonardo Pacsi Command took place

after 10 hours of hiking under cover of the night to elude

government soldiers.

Before setting out for the hike, our guide had set his rules: No

talking, minimize sound of contact with leaves and bushes and

train flashlights straight and low to the ground.

We were met along the way by Ka Warli who brought us inside

a patched cellophane tent concealed by thick bushes as a heavy

downpour started.

Cellophane tents

Ka Warli, the LPC's political officer, said they used cellophane

tents as these were easier to carry and could be put inside one's

pocket easily in case Army troopers attacked.

The guerrillas disclosed the current trends of the communist

movement. Others told sad tales of a life in danger, emotional

trauma over separation from one's loved ones of hunger and

hardship.

Ka Warli said the NPA's ''rectification movement had now

passed its critical stages.''

''This was good as we were able to weed out the undesirables,''

he said.

Guerrillas said the NPA had been greatly affected by the split of

the communist movement into different factions with the

so-called ''rejectionists'' renouncing the leadership of Jose Ma.

Sison, Communist Party of the Philippines founder.

But in the Cordillera, they said they still recognized Sison's

leadership. ''There was no split in the region,'' they said.

Peace talks

They said they were not pinning their hopes on the results of

the peace negotiations between the government and the

CPP-NPA-National Democratic Front.

Ka Warli said the CPP-NPA is now trying to regain its lost mass

bases. Recruitment of new cadres is reportedly now the current

thrust of the movement for a protracted guerrilla war.

''Once the CPP-NPA has attained a degree of matching

government forces in terms of personnel and armaments, then

the movement may launch a major offensive to attain final

victory and take power from the reactionaries,'' Ka Warli said.

The guerrillas said an agreement between the CPP-NPA and the

government could not be attained under an Estrada

administration because of the government's strong-handed

policies against the movement.

''Once we have enough members capable of launching a major

war offensive, the government may finally listen to the

CPP-NPA's proposal and solution to attain lasting peace in the

country. That will be the time when the government may

seriously sit down with the NDF to conclude the peace talks,''

they said.

Committed guerrilla

Ka Long-aw, the squad sniper, said he would stay with the

movement until the CPP-NPA has attained victory.

He was in second year in college taking up business

administration at the University of Manila in 1986 when he

dropped out after his activist friends convinced him to become a

full-time revolutionary.

He vividly recalls an encounter in Abra in 1989 between an NPA

unit he was with and three squads of Cordillera People's

Liberation Front guerrillas then headed by former priest

Conrado Balweg.

He said Balweg was actually expelled from the CPP-NPA in 1986

for ''financial and sexual opportunism,'' contrary to Balweg's

claims that he left the communist movement due to ideological

differences.

Balweg formed the CPLA that year after convincing some

members of the NPA's elite Lumbaya Company to join him.

Balweg's brother, Jovencio or Ka Rudy, never joined the CPLA

and was still a top NPA cadre in the Cordillera.

''It was during that encounter that I experienced carrying the

dead body of a comrade,'' Ka Long-aw said.

Hunted fugitive

A product of the First Quarter Storm, Ka Warli said an NPA

guerrilla lives his life like a hunted fugitive. He said he longed

for his family who is staying in a remote town in the Mt.

Province. He has three children--a daughter and two sons.

He said he was nearly killed when his squad figured in a

gunbattle with government soldiers in Barangay Aguid in

Sagada, Mt. Province in February 1988.

Others related how guerrillas ambushed two truckloads of Army

troopers on the main road near the Sagada poblacion early

morning in 1988. Sixteen soldiers died during that ambush.

A guerrilla has to be alert most of the time, Ka Warli said. He

said they change camps every now and then to confuse or

elude Army troopers.

But during lulls in fighting, work in their camp like cooking and

washing the dishes is distributed equally among male and

female cadres.

''Gender sensitivity is practiced here,'' he said. ''Everybody here

is equal.''

Female leader

Ka Warli said they had groomed a female guerrilla in the LPC to

head a squad after cadres noted her combat abilities.

''But it was unfortunate as she later returned . . . to civilian life

after she told us that she wanted to live a normal life,'' he said.

''We debriefed her. Now she has a family. Anybody can get out

from the NPA as long as one does not do anything to derail the

movement like becoming an informer of the military,'' he said.

Ka Lawig, a 24-year-old female guerrilla, said she had been

treated well by her comrades and had not been discriminated

against since she entered the NPA in the early 1990s, when she

was in her teens.