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MARAG VALLEY
Paradise lost,
paradise regained?
By Alfred Dizon
Apayao

"This is dedicated to our rebel soldiers who returned back to the folds of the law and the soldiers who did their best to bring peace to Marag Valley. We are proud of you. We thank you for your efforts to bring peace to this place.''

THE INSCRIPTION was written by an Isneg elementary student in a brass marker in Marag Valley, a once war-ravaged tropical forest and former stronghold of the New People's Army in Luna, a hinterland town of Apayao.

The screaming headlines about atrocities committed in Marag may have faded like most disposable news items and whittled down to an occasional brief phrase on the inside pages of national dailies. After all, there are scores of more recent stories of atrocity, human tragedy and crime.

But residents fear the headlines may return again soon if the government does not address the seeds of insurgency and almost two decades of war starting in the late 1970s.

Militarization

Militarization in Marag won't just go away. The Inquirer found this out during a visit to this ''Valley of Dreams'' last month.

Residents said they still feel the trauma, pain and hardship of the war years. But more than 10 years of being chased around the mountains in the tri-boundaries of Apayao, Cagayan and Kalinga by contending forces have taught them precious lessons in survival and resilience.

Earlier declared by the military as a ''No man's land,'' Marag is now considered as a ''Paradise lost, paradise regained'' by government officials. That may be farthest from the truth.Underneath Marag's peaceful, idyllic exterior and lush greenery is a seething revolutionary and environmental time bomb. And the NPA rebels are just waiting in the wings to regain their former stronghold.It was in Sitio Bucao where the residents told their story--how the military drove them away from their farms and how they jumped from their homes when the loud volleys of gunfire pierced through the cool, quiet night.

They also told tales of how they were branded as insurgents, with their relatives getting killed for resisting land speculators, government and military men from exploiting their rich natural resources and from grabbing their ancestral lands.What the residents are concerned about now are recent developments which they said are fomenting the seeds of discontent among the people, which may erupt into a full-blown insurgency.Millions of pesos had been poured in by the Aquino and Ramos administrations for the military's ''weapons of destruction'' like guns and bullets to drive away the rebels in Marag.

Later, they tried to implement projects to entice residents to trust the government and make them return to the fold of the law.Despite these, they said, poverty among the people, lack of social services, land-grabbing, harassment and illegal logging by outsiders or land speculators are again making the people restless.Marag barangay captain Nelson Oamil summed up their sentiments: ''We don't want to return to that period in our lives during the war years which had traumatized us. We hope the government and those who would want to exploit us should remember the high costs of the insurgency war.''

Pieces of evidence of the war years still litter the area--booby traps, strafed or burned houses, man-made tunnels, caves and even land mines still abound.But this time, Oamil said, only wild animals like pigs and deer have been trapped or killed in the traps intended by the NPA to maim, capture or kill government soldiers.

Like Vietnam

''Marag was then the Vietnam of the Philippines,'' said Luna Mayor Betty Versola. ''Soldiers were wary then of venturing into Marag as they could even be ambushed.''

She said attempts by Army soldiers have failed to dislodge the rebels as they used combat tactics of the Vietcongs in their successful fight to drive away the Americans from Vietnam in the 1960s through the 1970s.

Versola said the rebels had installed traps in the rivers to discourage the military from venturing into the area. ''There are still a lot of traps here and these could be dangerous to unsuspecting hikers, mountaineers or visitors.''

Versola was a school teacher in Marag during the war years while her husband, Bienvenido, was mayor of Luna.

Back to normal

''Everything is back to normal in Marag now. And anybody can visit the area without fear of being harmed,'' said Versola, who replaced her husband as mayor last May.

Officials of a detachment of the Army's 50th Infantry Battalion based in Marag, however, said they are not taking any chances as the rebels could attack anytime.

''We know some NPAs are still in Marag or its outskirts. But we are prepared in case they will try to overrun us,'' TSgt. Fermin Jacinto, squad leader of the Army detachment, told the Inquirer.The soldiers had set up a 30-foot wooden tower in Bucao. The tower is manned on a 24-hour basis to detect NPA presence.

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.