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By Len Espinosa, Central Luzon Bureau
and Francis Lagniton, Senior Editor
Second of three parts
SOMEWHERE IN CENTRAL LUZON—The increased
activity of the New People’s Army may bolster claims that the
communist insurgency is growing by leaps and bounds all over the
country but many rebels are saying the leadership of the 36-year-old
communist rebellion is beginning to look like the very evil they
despise.
“Sumali kami sa pakikibaka dahil kailangan ng
pagbabago sa lipunan pero nakita namin na bulok na rin ang pumunuan
ng kilusan [We joined the struggle because there was a need for
change in society but we saw that the leadership of the movement has
also become rotten],” said Ka Arby, a 30-year-old rebel who
surrendered to the military in September.
In a secret meeting on the outskirts of one of
this region’s 12 cities, Ka Arby was very forthcoming about his
personal circumstances but asked The Manila Times to withhold vital
information for fear that his former comrades might find him or his
loved ones and mete him the summary justice feared by all NPA
guerrillas.
But Ka Arby said he had very little to lose now
since his wife left him because of his decision to join the NPA.
“The hard thing to swallow,” he said in Filipino, “is that NPA
leaders are becoming like the people they oppose.”
As an example, Ka Arby cited the corruption of
their unit commander, a certain Commander Arnold, who would pocket
whatever revolutionary taxes they would collect from businessmen and
politicians.
He and his comrades would often be ordered to go
to some town and collect a sealed envelope from a businessman or a
politician. He named some of the businessmen and politicians but
asked The Times to withhold the information because that would give
away their identities and endanger their lives.
“You cannot ask how much was collected from a
certain person. You cannot ask what that money will be used for.
That is forbidden,” Ka Arby said. “You just follow and
follow.”
Before agreeing to an interview with The Times,
“Ka Arby,” who went by another alias in the NPA, and his
comrade, Ka RJ, insisted that their names be changed and that
information that would identify them or their comrades be withheld
in the published report of the interview.
“Ganyan talaga sa NPA, walang puwedeng umalis
maski ano ang dahilan. Puwede ka magpaalam, pero hindi ka naman
papayagan [It’s really like that in the NPA, no one may leave
whatever the reason. You may ask but you will not be permitted]”
Ka Arby said, relating some of his comrades’ futile attempts to
ask for leave to be discharged from a rebel unit even because of
family issues.
He conceded that many people in the countryside
still support them, especially through valuable food donations, but
he believed that these donations were given to the NPA more out of
fear than faith in the cause. “What choice would you have if you
had nine men, armed with M-16s, at your backyard?” Ka Arby asked
with a smile.
“But, if truth be told, there are fewer people
who really believe in the movement and that is because of the
corruption of the leadership,” he said.
“They cannot even recruit decent people,” he
said. “If not police characters, they can only recruit kids.”
Ka Arby said that although many veteran fighters
are leaving the movement and have begun to live quiet if anonymous
lives in many areas in Central Luzon there are also an increasing
number of teenagers joining the NPA in the months before his
surrender.
He attributed the rise in recruitment not only
to the apparent policy adopted by the NPA and the Communist Party of
the Philippines (CPP) but also to the erosion of public trust in the
rebel movement.
“The struggle is no longer in the hearts of
the comrades because of the corruption that they themselves see,”
said Ka Arby, who continues to live in fear of retaliation from the
communist rebels he abandoned.
Ka RJ said one of the reasons the NPA appeared
to have become more active is because of a recruitment tack it
adopted just before he joined the rebellion.
“Its organizers in the towns will promise you
almost everything,” he said in Filipino. “The NPA will tell
prospective recruits, who are mostly very poor folk, that their
families will be supported by the movement.”
Ka RJ admitted he was also recruited through the
same line. “The NPA promised support for my family and I
couldn’t resist because I am just a slash-and-burn farmer,” he
said.
Ka RJ said the NPA fulfilled that promise in his
first three months in the guerrilla movement and his family got
three cavans of rice and some vegetables but that support has since
stopped. He said he was nagged by the thought that his family was
starving while he was out in the woods fighting for his corrupt
commander.
To be concluded
Part 1 |Part
3 |
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