Airlift Counters Rebel Influence in Neglected Area : Manila Reaches Out to Villagers

When the helicopters landed in this long-forgotten mountain town one recent weekend, the hundreds of outstretched arms were living testimony to nearly a decade of poverty and neglect.

They bore the tattoos of human struggle for survival--the scars of untreated infections and cockroach bites--and they were shriveled by malnutrition and disease.

But after the villagers had reached out and fought in a mad scramble for such basics as soap, food, medicine and clothing, there was laughter and joy that day. It had been, after all, many years since the government from Manila had actually reached back.

Indeed, when a ton of goods was airlifted to Silvino Lobos on a recent Saturday, it was the first hopeful sign that at least one branch of government is trying to reach into the Philippines’ impoverished rural heartland. Until now, the 19-year-old Communist insurgency has continued to grow under the rule of President Corazon Aquino, largely because the bankrupt national government has failed to deliver basic goods and services to the people.

Rabbits and Rosaries

And when government returned to Silvino Lobos, which consists of 21 remote villages, it came in the form of basketballs, bath soap, seeds, antibiotics, eggs, meat, T-shirts, rubber sandals, first-grade textbooks, 38 live breeding rabbits, 300 Roman Catholic rosaries and even a wooden statue of the baby Jesus.

There were also military doctors, dentists and about 100 U.S.-made uniforms and combat boots for the infantrymen who have spent more than a month walking the mountains of northern Samar province.

Indeed, the airlift alone was a great feat. There are no roads to the village of Gecboan, where the goods actually landed. The village, a 2-day walk from the town center, has no water, no electricity, no farm land, no hospital, no school and, until now, no hope.

But no one could have been happier that Saturday than Maj. Gen. Restituto Padilla, commander of the Philippine army, whose troops have begun a campaign to reclaim the heart of a province long known as “the laboratory of the Communist insurgency.”

“Unless the politicians and officials come out and bring the government to the people, our efforts will all be negated,” said Padilla, who accompanied Philippine Sen. Ernesto Maceda, the airlift’s sponsor, to the village.

“It will just be a vicious cycle of nothing but war, unless we can adopt Maceda’s attitude throughout government and begin sacrificing for the people as government servants,” he added. “If this happens, then we will have a chance to end this insurgency.”

“The only problem is,” Maceda shouted as he handed out candy to Gecboan’s hundreds of children, “this is the job of the president’s Cabinet. They are the ones who should be out in villages like this every day--not just the senators and congressmen.”

Way to End Rebellion

Maceda, a longtime Aquino supporter who has assumed the role of constructive critic, said he believes the government could crush the rebellion if Aquino’s advisers took one trip such as his each week.

“Our military commanders tell us that 20% of our barangays (villages) are infiltrated by the (Communist) New People’s Army,” Maceda said. “If all 250 of our Cabinet- and sub-Cabinet-level officials and top-ranking generals visited one village a week, we could cover all 8,000 infiltrated barangays in just eight months.”

He conceded: “They do go out, but they’re limiting themselves to the (provincial) capitals. Maybe it’s because they’re tied up with Cabinet meetings . . . and some of them value their weekends too much.”

But in the case of Reynaldo Espinar, government is indeed beginning to serve the people.

At 24, Espinar, the new mayor of Silvino Lobos, is among the nation’s youngest officials. An articulate accountant, he replaced an old-time mayor as part of a new breed of young, progressive politicians who made inroads in traditionally corrupt, rural Philippine politics in February elections.

Espinar was born in Silvino Lobos and watched as it deteriorated, as the national government gradually forgot that his and so many towns like his even existed.

“In 21 years as mayor, my predecessor visited this village of Gecboan exactly twice,” Espinar said, smiling as Maceda’s men and a company of soldiers unloaded box after box of “goodies” for his townspeople.

‘Kangaroo Court’

It was in part for that reason that the New People’s Army paraded then-Mayor Henaro Yamamoto into the town square in 1981 and put him on trial in front of the townspeople. The “kangaroo court” found Yamamoto guilty of “crimes against the people.” But when the rebels asked for a show of hands on whether the mayor should be executed, the people said no.

Instead, he was exiled from the town, and for his last 5 years in office lived either in Manila or in the provincial capital of Catarman, 15 miles from Silvino Lobos. Even after Aquino took power 2 years ago and fired most of the nation’s 1,600 mayors, her advisers persuaded her to retain Yamamoto. But the mayor still could not visit his town, which was in rebel hands.

Now, the new, young mayor said he travels often to all of his town’s widely scattered villages. He listens to the villagers’ problems and tries his best to work with both the army and the rebels, who have a battalion-strength of 500 armed regulars in northern Samar.

“The people here do not really like the rebels, but for so long they were the only ones here,” Espinar said. “Occasionally, we would see (government) soldiers here, but they would simply come and go. The (rebels) stayed. What choice did our people have?”

When asked what effect Maceda’s airlift will have on his town, Espinar grinned and replied: “The people of Gecboan will never forget this. To them, it doesn’t matter if Maceda is a senator or a Cabinet official or a general. He is government, and he has brought them something. Memories are long here--for the bad and the good.”

Village elder Aproniano de la Cruz, nearby, nodded. He is 59 and cannot remember the last time a doctor came to his village. (The regional health director later explained that the job for government doctor in Silvino Lobos has been vacant for 20 years because no one is brave enough to work there).

Although Maceda concedes the government’s largely moribund Cabinet departments must follow up on his visit--and he is pressuring the government to send two teachers and a midwife to the village--he concluded that even a one-shot handout can be effective in a nation now tired of war.

“The problem is, our government has been on its knees too long praying for the wrong kind of miracles,” the senator said. “The kind of miracles that we need are the kind of miracle that happened today to Gecboan. That was a miracle to them--government coming out of the sky with food, medicine and clothing. And you need those kinds of miracles to keep hope alive.”