The Siege Of Apuao Grande Read online

CHAPTER 2

  HOLIDAY PLANNING

  AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND, Monday, August.

  On Friday morning T.A. was told he had five days to complete a final viability report on a foreign investment opportunity he suggested to his supervisors’ months before. He quickly cleared his city desk and headed home where his personal research notes were. Uninterrupted, in his home office, he felt he might almost achieve the impossible timetable if he worked all weekend. Leaving the answer-phone switched on to screen calls, he got straight into the task. As expected, most of the calls were from his supervisor wanting progress reports. He ignored those messages.

  He lost track of time. It was getting dark outside though his watch only read 4:30 p.m. A glance out the window showed a dark grey sky, rapidly getting much darker. The clouds were rapidly rolling back on themselves, like surf onto a beach.

  Flashes of distant lightning appeared in the distance. A few seconds later the boom of thunder followed. He recalled someone, somewhere, told him that by counting the seconds between seeing the lightning and hearing the boom of the thunder you could judge how far away the lightning strike was. He just could not remember the details.

  With blinds closed and lights on, he felt isolated from the storm. The light drizzle had not yet turned to heavy rain which he loved to hear on his iron roof when he was drifting off to sleep. Only the occasional rumble of thunder reminded him of the storm outside. He thought about eating. Not cooking, just eating.

  A quick search through the deep freeze was disappointing but not fruitless. He found the easiest thing, a microwave pizza. It reminded him of a fat-bottomed woman with a flat chest. It was all base with very little on top. Perhaps now in his less than physically fit state he should not be so critical. He had only recently joked with his friends that his chest had only temporarily fallen to his stomach region.

  It was not just because he had reached forty. He did not feel bad about his physical appearance. He had always wished he was just that fraction taller. His one metre 79cm, or five foot 11 inches under the old scale, was not quite the seeming magic six foot figure he wanted to be. He had stopped regular long exercise runs since shifting to Auckland. His self-justification being there were no sizeable grassed areas nearby for running.

  He had tried footpath running, but that had proved dangerous as cars driven rapidly out of the driveways of the many multi-story apartment blocks nearby paid little heed to any pedestrians, walking or running. He had learned that the hard way, running into the sides of emerging cars.

  Proper food balance or correct diet had also become another problem. That was always something he could start next month. There was nothing hugely wrong with his physique. He had always been a solidly built athlete at school and university. It was just that his aerobic fitness level had dropped. His build kept the extra kilos well hidden.

  He found the cooking time on the wrapper, set the micro-wave accordingly and realised he had time to watch the T.V. news headlines. Relaxing into his armchair he switched on the T.V. with the remote control just as the news began. His pet angers were raised again as the announcers lead stories of the day were about politicians doing walkabouts. Was this of world importance? The micro-wave signalled dinner was ready.

  As he took the pizza from the micro-wave the announcer's voice caught his ear.

  "In a rural area of the Philippines, a successful and decisive blow was inflicted on the Communists' military wing, the New Peoples Army, (NPA) a few days ago.”

  T.A. raced in to the lounge.

  “A decisive operation by the Armed Forces of the Philippines successfully destroyed their organisation.”

  Standard stock footage of Philippines white sandy beaches and frond-roofed sun-shelters was being shown. No news footage of the actual site of the action.

  “The national leaders of the NPA were trapped and killed in an attack on their meeting place in Daet, Camarines Norte. A large ammunition cache on the premises exploded during the raid, killing all the occupants and several attacking soldiers."

  T.A.’s interest piqued. He was a frequent visitor to the Philippines and in particular the location of this encounter. It was very near to what he thought of as his little island hideaway, the island of Apuao Grande. It was just off the coast from Mercedes, near Daet. After two visits there with Malou, his Filipina girlfriend, it brought back good memories. He felt he was entitled to think of it as his paradise. Therefore anything that happened around his patch was important to him. Tomorrow he would buy several papers, but doubted there would be a follow up story. Only the preceding week the whole front page of both main dailies were devoted to the Prime Minister's surgery on an ingrown toenail, while a small paragraph on page 8 reported 600 drowned in floods in India. The newspaper owners, management and editors all knew where the big and rewarding stories were.

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  MANILA, PHILIPPINES.

  MANILA BULLETIN - TUESDAY, AUGUST

  OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT NEWS RELEASE

  EXPLOSIONS DURING RAID KILL NPA HIERARCHY

  "A detachment of the Armed Forces of the Philippines raided a suspected top level meeting of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New Peoples Army (NPA) yesterday in Daet, Camarines Norte. The raid was led by PATAG [Philippines Anti Terrorist Army Group], a specially trained group within the Parachute Brigade. A spokesperson from Malacanang Palace said the raid was very successful. In one action, PATAG had destroyed the entire leadership of the NPA.”

  “The raid followed information given by DPA [Deep Penetration Agents] working within the NPA The meeting of the national and cadre leaders had been called to discuss tactics and financing for activities over the next few months.”

  “A spokesman for PATAG said the massive explosion happened during the gun battle when incendiaries reached the large arms cache apparently stored under the business premises.”

  “Although 16 soldiers were killed and 14 wounded in the gun battle and explosion, over 100 NPA were killed and several captured.”

  "Most of the bodies were unrecognisable as a result of the blast, but the bodies of national leader Rafael Simosa and his deputy Isagani Cruz were among those killed. It is hoped that pathology reports can identify others at the meeting. The government believes that without leadership, the tens of thousands of NPA sympathisers will rejoin the mainstream of government policy."

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  In Manila, the government and the newspapers were making a big play from the event to get all the publicity they could. Newspapers, although distorting casualty figures on both sides, announced the success of the action in their own ways. Most quoted unnamed sources within the government and the Army to describe their version of the action. The leaders of the entire NPA organisational and military wings had apparently overcome factional rivalries to meet for the first time in an effort to get some consensus on policy. These were the representatives of the variously estimated 50,000-200,000 active members of the NPA. With as many as one million other supporters, each group had its own political aims. The purpose of this meeting was to establish a national and coordinated policy to destabilise the government.

  Willing unofficial sources padded out missing details. NPA heads from all round the Philippines had been arriving in Daet by road or speedy sea-going bancas into nearby Mercedes for days, then spirited away to various hide-outs in the area. After that, meetings had taken place in Daet and Mercedes in private houses and business premises. Some more cautious NPA members only attended meetings in the coastal fishing village of Mercedes. The coast gave quick access to their bancas should flight be required.

  The Army raid had been organised for the only night all were gathered at the one site. The explosion had been caused by the rocket penetrating the door and then successive walls until it hit an above-ground petrol tank of some 10,000 litres immediately behind the meeting place. Almost all those people within 30 metres of the blast were incinerated including 16 soldiers, 53 innocent neighbours, 116 NPA heads and 63 of th
eir security men. Those that had not been killed or injured in the explosion were killed or injured in the gunfight happening at the same time. A few prisoners were under hospital guard. Names were being kept secret.

  The government was maximising the political windfall surrounding the event until it was discovered that three of those killed were senior members of the Philippines Government. Two were Senators, the other a Governor. Other lesser government political figures had also attended.

  Despite that embarrassment, the government claimed the AFP was carrying out an official operation. Other rumours spread that the raid was an army officer on a pay-back mission of his own.

  The press, however, were playing the official line that 20 soldiers were taking part in the organised raid, but were surprised at the extent of the resistance. Publicly the Philippines Government was treating the soldiers as heroes who, although out-gunned and outnumbered they carried on with the attack, and unselfishly sacrificed their lives in the line of duty.

  Too many insiders knew the real story and the intended AFP punishment for the soldiers. It was still good press for a Government about to approach the World Bank and the United States for large Development Loans and Non-Repayable Assistance Grants.

  The government's financial losses from the forced closure of the American military bases, in the early 1980’s, was still being felt and was far greater than they had anticipated. Any politician conceding the closing of the US bases was a mistake would be tantamount to political suicide. Their own armed forces had become grossly underpaid in comparison to their position during the American presence. Though their equipment was still being supplied covertly by the USA, too much was being lost in the many operations against insurgents of both NPA and Muslim origins, according to government reports.

  The 1998 crash of the Asian economies had a deeper long term effect than could really be measured in dollar terms. Secret financial aid had again been provided by the USA to help the ailing peso, and yet again in 2008 economic crisis.

  What was not being reported was the real cause of the loss and final destination of the weapons. The Philippines President was badly misinformed. Even lower ranked officers had begun using extortion, blackmail and protection rackets against local businesses. Conversely, the number of their violent political opponents had begun to grow in strength, especially the NPA. In the south the Muslim Separatist Movement in Mindanao, under the general Islamic rise, were gaining ground. Cory Aquino's rise to power in 1986 had temporarily seen a drop in the number of dissenting rebel groups. Then her presidential successor, hero of the revolution, former General Ramos, managed to bring further high ranking NPA leaders back into the fold.

  Even with former Muslim guerilla leader Nur Misuari now in the democratically elected Government, the Muslims had recently stepped up their campaigns of kidnapping and harassment of non-Muslims. Both Muslims and NPA had been blamed for daring hit and run attacks against outlying army barracks.

  Since the American pullout, much of the social structure had turned around. Many attacks were not the NPA, but army extortion rackets getting their own revenge. Local army officers reported these attacks as being instigated by Muslim separatists or the NPA. Transferring blame helped both their careers and their pockets as they demanded more weapons.

  Whatever the public believed to be the truth behind the conflicting stories about the Daet raid and explosion, the NPA had received an enormous setback. The organisational links between the different factions had been severed. Details of known contacts were destroyed with the deaths of the leaders. What little information that was saved was languishing under army guard among the few prisoners who had survived. More details would soon be extracted from the prisoners by torture. Any rebuilding would have to be done from the ground-roots up with a whole new network having to be established. 100,000 active NPA members were leaderless.