Boholanos caught in the middle of war

IT is not easy to be caught in the

middle of a raging war between the

communist New People's Army and

the government.

This is what residents of Batuan town in Bohol learned when

some 200 NPA rebels raided the camp of the Philippine National

Police 7th Regional Mobile Group (RMG) in Barangay Rizal on

June 11.

The attack came about

7:30 a.m. as students

were walking down the

dusty road to attend

classes at the Rizal

Elementary School,

two kilometers from

the police camp.

Had the police decided

to fight it out, civilian

lives could have been

lost, said Gil Joreleo, who lives just across the camp.

''Thank God, the police did not fight back. There would have

been many casualties among the children,'' he said.

Joreleo said the students even played around the two Besta

vans that the rebels used. ''You know how it is with children.

They were playing around,'' he said.

The students were surprised when the heavily armed rebels

arrived from at least three directions.

''Some cried while others stood there, staring at the rebels who

were wearing fatigue uniforms,'' Joreleo said.

The guerrillas tried to calm the children, asking them to sit on

the dirt road, he said. But they pointed their guns at parents and

relatives who tried to rescue the children.

'Dapa!'

''Sibilyan o sundalo . . . sibilyan, dapa! (Civilian or soldier . . .

civilian, lie down!),'' Joreleo recalled the barking orders of the

rebels to the adults.

Joreleo said he and his neighbors laid down on the road and

stayed there until the rebels had fled to the mountains.

The raiders took more than 80 high-powered firearms, including

a 60-mm mortar from the policemen who did not fire a single shot

to stop them. It was the biggest arms haul made by the NPA in

recent years.

Top PNP officers quickly attributed the success of the raid to

the active support of the townsfolk. ''The residents gave the

rebels accurate information about the camp,'' said Deputy

Director General Edmundo Larroza, acting PNP chief.

Empty cans of sardines and puso (steamed rice wrapped in

coconut leaves) were found around the camp, indicating that

the rebels had stayed close to the area for at least 24 hours.

Insp. Jonas Ejoc, Batuan police chief, said the dissident

movement in Bohol got a boost when the town's vice mayor,

Jaime Decasa, defected to the communists in March.

Decasa, who came from a prominent family in Batuan, enjoys the

support of 80 percent of the town's population of 18,000, Ejoc

said.

Police authorities have identified at least five towns in Bohol as

under NPA influence. These are Batuan, Pilar, Sevilla, Bilar and

Catigbian.

Abusive

The NPA Chocolate Hills Command said the raid was staged in

response to complaints from farmers and residents against

abusive policemen in the RMG camp.

In a manifesto distributed to the townsfolk after their offensive,

the rebels said drunk camp personnel have been firing their

guns indiscriminately and harassing the women.

''The Regional Mobile Group has, in fact, lost the battle the day

it arrived in Bohol on Dec. 14, 1998,'' said the Task Force

Detainees of the Philippines-Karapatan chapter in Bohol.

Leonido Rose, chapter spokesperson, said the PNP could not

expect the people to develop rapport with the government

troops because they were forced by the policemen to build the

camp on top of a hill without compensation.

Chief Supt. Danilo Flores, police director in Central Visayas,

countered that the accusations were ''unfair.''

''Our men did small things for the residents. They gave them

money for their basketball uniform and brought a pregnant

woman to the hospital,'' Flores said.

''That is why our men were very disappointed with the residents.

They thought the residents were on their side.''

The battle for the hearts and minds of the Boholanos

heightened with the arrival of one battalion of Philippine Army

Special Forces on the island last weekend.

Archbishop Leopoldo Tumulak expressed concern that Bohol's

peaceful countryside could become a bloody battleground. ''I

hope both sides would respect the peaceful nature of the

Boholanos,'' he said.

No choice

Gov. Rene Relampagos disagreed with the PNP's assessment

that Boholanos have been actively supporting the NPA as a

matter of choice.

''I don't believe my constituents sympathized with (the NPA)

cause,'' Relampagos stressed. ''They would rather keep their

mouths shut out of fear and live a peaceful coexistence with the

rebels.''

''The Boholanos know that they are caught in the middle--the

NPA rebels on one side, and the government on the other,'' he

said. ''They would act to survive.''

Relampagos said the people have learned to lead normal lives

despite the war. ''Life is normal and peaceful even in the towns

under influence by the NPA. We have accepted the war as part

of our lives.''

The governor said he had tried without success to bring both

sides to the negotiating table. The NPA rejected the idea of a

localized peace talks, he said.

With the prospects of a bloody war looming over the island,

Tumulak said peace negotiations have become imperative.

''Bohol is a rich land. Nobody gets hungry here as long as you

toil the land,'' the archbishop said.

Boholanos only want to toil the land in peace.