I am reviewing the Mindanao and Sulu insurgency.
There has been a complete change of policy in Sulu. Now we will depend on the local executives, the mayors, to maintain peace and order with the Constabulary—not the Army and the Marines.
The mayors and civil government officials are caught in the crossfire. They are trusted by neither side. Under the old policy they were disarmed and they only support the Army and the Marines. Now they are responsible. And now they bear arms. And they have to go after the insurgents many of whom may be relatives.
We may have lost them and with them all the civilian population under the old policy for they had secret arms anyway. The AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] would be completely
Official Gazette for March 17, 1973: THE PRESIDENT promulgated two presidential decrees aimed at providing delinquent taxpayers all the liberalization and the facilities to enable them to settle their obligations with the government voluntarily and without suffering the penalties imposed on tax evasion. Presidential Decree No. 156 was issued by the President to encourage self-declaration of hidden or untaxed wealth and acquisitions up to last year. Presidential Decree No. 157 was issued providing amnesty for unrecorded or undeclared acquisitions made in 1972. To guarantee the confidential nature of the taxes paid under these decrees, the President issued Letter of Instruction No. 65, directing all heads of departments, bureaus, agencies and instrumentalities of the government, to observe the secrecy of the taxpayers’ declarations made pursuant to the decree and to hold them “forever inviolate.”
THE PRESIDENT issued the following message on tax amnesty on unexplained wealth: “The period for tax amnesty will expire on March 31, 1973. One who avails of this amnesty by making a voluntary disclosure of any previously untaxed income and/or wealth and pays the 10 per cent tax due thereon will be relieved of all civil, criminal, or administrative liabilities arising from or incident to such disclosure. I assure you that all such statements or disclosures, as well as the payment of the amnesty tax, will be held in strictest confidence and shall forever be kept inviolate. They cannot be the subject of any inquiry, examination, and verification nor could they be used as evidence against, or to the prejudice of, any declarant in any proceeding before any court of law or body, whether judicial, quasi-judicial, or administrative, in which he is a defendant or respondent. Let this be the solemn covenant between the taxpayers and the State, upon which I ask the people to entrust their confidence in the integrity of the government’s commitment.”
SECRETARY OF PUBLIC Information Francisco S. Tatad called on the Filipino Boy Scouts to bring the message of national discipline to the remotest areas of the country to the end that discipline would become a way of life for all our people. The DPI secretary made this appeal at the grand opening of the third regional boy scout jamborette in the Bicol region which opened in Legazpi City with about 6,000 boy scouts from the region attending. National discipline, Mr. Tatad said, is the key to the transformation of the nation. The DPI secretary took account of the fact that all over the country, national discipline was gradually taking root, and that “among the humblest of our people, there is now a growing of pride in what they are, in what they can do, in what they can become.”
THE PRESIDENT made a short flying trip to Mindanao and Sulu to make an on-the-spot survey of the area where government forces had to turn back Maoist-led attacks on government outposts during the past few days. The President found the situation in Cotabato, Basilan, Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga del Norte to be under control. Insurgency has practically been crushed, and the insurgents are on the run, the President noted. He also noted the morale of the government troops and the Muslim and Christian civilian population in these areas to be “extremely high.”
isolated, fighting alone against the entire Muslim population.
“There are no more horrendous odds than this. And we must now change those odds.” I told the military.
“It is a gamble and a risk,” I continued, ‘‘but if we do not risk this, we will certainly lose the battle,” I concluded.
The military went along, with Gen. [Jose] Rancudo voicing the fear that it may be impossible to disarm the 4,400 policemen we arm now, and Col. Alcoseba who feared that the policemen may not be attached by the AFP troop will. And the policemen will never go after their relatives.
But Commodore [Romulo] Espaldon explained that if the policemen are made to swear under the Koran by an Iman, the policemen would go after the insurgents.
So we shift to the tight of Muslim against Muslim in Sulu. But the military will keep their military options and capability just in case.
Hunger will stalk the Muslim areas in a few weeks if the fighting does not stop.
Flexibility not rigidity. Ingenuity not dull routine and standard and expected solutions. Quick and fluid action not slow and cautious and hesitant reaction.
We create the situation, not just react to it.
This is the secret to successful guerilla and counter-guerilla operations.
Commodore Gil Fernandez, Commander of SOWESCOM [Southwest Command] has grown arrogant, short-tempered, abrasive and openly hostile to the Muslims.
His only solution to insurgency in Sulu is killing and violence.
Shelling and air attacks have resulted in casualties to civilians which have turned the Muslims, specially the relatives of casualties, against the government.
He has also humiliated civilian public officials like the governor of Sulu with the peremptory order that henceforth the governors in his jurisdiction (Sulu, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur and the cities thereat including Basilan and Zamboanga City).
He has ridiculed mayors in the presence of their followers with contemptuous and scathing remarks.
And belittled their capability to help fight the insurgents—giving them no alternative but to quietly negotiate a modus vivendi with the insurgents, who are in the first place relatives and/or friends.
If he continues, he would antagonize the entire Muslim population.
And he disobeyed the orders I issued not to initiate any attack in December on Sibalo Hill. He did, claiming it was only a preemptive of an attack by the insurgents. But he went all the way to the hill (about five kilometers) and in the process got ambushed and abandoned his command when they were pinned down in a ravine.
This was revealed to me by the late Commodore [Rudiardo] Brown, Commander of the Marines when I inquired why the Marines suffered 17 KIA [killed in action] dead in the ambush.
And the battalion commander as well as the company commanders who knew the situation had advised against the attack on the hill.
When I confronted him at Pangarap, he (Commodore Fernandez) never indicated that he had actually personally commanded the attack.