The Siege Of Apuao Grande

by John Muir

CHAPTER 4

  EXPANSION & PRESS RELEASES

  ILIGAN, WEST MINDANAO.

  Raul's group was back from Manila in a week. The boat trip of two nights each way had allowed only three days in the capital. Despite that they accumulated three fully packed and very heavy suitcases of brochures.

  Warvic immediately got everyone sorting them into common location, then into mainland or offshore sites. Some brochures were duplicated many times over. When Raul apologised for the duplication, Warvic simply shrugged. Then she realised the number of different brochures produced by a resort and held by the greatest number of travel agents was important information. It gave an indication of each resort's prominence and popularity among tourists.

  "Raul, you're a darling. I just wished I had thought of it before." She liked to play to his effeminate side.

  Raul looked at Warvic with curiosity, yet knew better than to interrupt her train of thought.

  She had previously thought of priority based on price. But price did not mean big numbers of foreigners. Many catered for the foreign back-pack community. Popularity and common usage were the best priority. She would target the most popular resorts for foreigners.

  It was late into the night when she dismissed the staff. They had all offered to carry on but she wanted time to herself to digest all the information. She studied each brochure for each area in turn. It would not a problem finding enough suitable targets, but a case of narrowing it down to a manageable number.

  'Were there really this many? Where had she been hiding herself all these years?' She had been aware of the well known areas like Boracay, Bohol Beach, Dakak and Puerto Galera. Some of the smaller resorts would present interesting alternatives. The best known beaches had several resorts at the same general location. That could cause problems if the local resorts were spread over a wide area. There might be too many foreigners to quickly round up and control in a short time frame.

  Firstly her targets had to be easy to isolate or quarantine from locals, so her soldiers could establish themselves without local interference. Then the target had to be easily defendable, firstly against unexpected local resistance, then against the more organised and formidable AFP. Secondly, any resort must contain a good mixture of foreign nationalities to achieve maximum worldwide publicity. The problem of easy isolation could be overcome with careful selection. The problem of defendability would be overcome by on site research and studying photographs and videos that she would have taken of the resorts selected. The third criteria - numbers of foreign nationals - could be estimated from the amount of accommodation offered by each resort.

  By selecting an excess of possibilities she could then drop off the less preferable as necessary. Defendability depended not just on her available manpower, or even the firepower they would wield. The attitude of the locals would be critical. If the locals were anti-NPA, then the chances of success diminished accordingly. They could hinder any takeover by assisting the tourists and disrupt the subsequent escape of the NPA. If they were pro-NPA however, they could assist the NPA escape.

  A suitably defensive terrain would be critical. The source, direction and nature of any counter-attack would obviously vary. Nearby forest or jungle cover had to be thick enough to provide a place to hide when needed.

  She looked at the brochures and maps for the first resort she had considered, Boracay. It was not going to be as simple as she had first thought. Ideally Boracay would have been a small island and therefore easily isolateable. But Boracay was seven kilometres long, one kilometre wide at its narrowest point and 2.5 kilometres wide in the broader north. It was much larger than she had imagined. It was almost shaped like a chicken leg. There were several resorts on the island, not just one or two as she had thought.

  Adding to that, resorts were situated on both sides of the island with one in the north above the fat part of the chicken leg. Furthermore, there were three large barangays or villages as well as many smaller barrios. The island was filled with an intricate network of paths and trails between the villages and the resorts. All of those factors could cause a problem of control with the limited manpower she had envisaged for each operation. Tourists from all the resorts would have to be gathered in one area for easier control.

  Although the nationalities of the tourists had to be broad, it needed to be balanced against the amount of risk to which her soldiers would be exposed. After choosing the minimal danger, they then must have the best chance of escape when the objectives had been achieved. Once their presence at each resort was known it would be tested by AFP reconnaissance in small numbers. Her NPA was to inflict maximum damage on the AFP, then withdraw and escape. Hit and run.

  Failure at one or two resorts would be probable, and acceptable. Failure at many would mean the destruction of the remainder of her organisation. It would definitely be the end of her position within it.

  She would make escape suggestions but the final decision on the best method would be left to the leader on the spot.

  Any harm of foreign hostages would antagonise the foreign governments that she was trying to gain recognition and respect from. Harm to the locals would lose the support that she was seeking from a true popular uprising.

  Boracay would fall into the very short term category because of the large number of resorts. It had to be included as it was the most internationally acclaimed tourist destination in the Philippines. It would therefore attract the widest international attention. The world would see that the Philippine Government was not in control if the military could not protect international travellers at their international resorts.

  Seizures had to occur simultaneously. If her soldiers then disappeared like ghosts, it would seem to be even more evident that the participants were local NPA Any government reprisals against the locals would be playing right into her hands. It would further turn the locals against the government and toward her sphere of influence.

  Puerto Galera, on the north east of Mindoro, also had several prospective, though widespread, resorts. There were too many to isolate them all. If she concentrated on two or three areas, it might work. They could seize several resorts for the greatest effect then transfer hostages to one area from where her soldiers could escape easily.

  The air force had too few aircraft and the navy too few ships and boats to isolate so many islands. Their effect would be minimal. If escapes were made by suitable bancas, it would be too hard to distinguish between fishermen and her soldiers.

  After listing the assignments she wanted her staff to carry out, she realised more help would be needed to gather the information.

  Checking her coded diary showed there were sufficient existing funds to cover immediate capital requirements. Hopefully the funds had not been compromised by the Daet action. More would come later from bank raids. Firstly her shopping list was digital cameras with zoom lenses, and digital video cameras with lots of memory chips.

  Intensive training in their proper use would be needed. She dismissed the alternative to buying cameras by raiding camera shops. That could draw unwelcome attention from police if a member of her staff was discovered using a stolen camera. The whole operation could be jeopardised by taking unnecessary risks this early.

  She would get some cameras through an NPA supporter who owned a shop in Davao. He could bring the equipment to Iligan and train her personnel in their use. For the remainder of the equipment, she would spread the purchases between Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga.

  ----------

  The photography lessons proved to be a fun-filled and happy time. Warvic was impressed with the rapid improvement. After four days teaching the camera supplier went back to Davao wondering what the reason was behind all his work. Warvic did not confide in him at all. The balance of the equipment arrived before the end of the week.

  Paired as husband and wife teams each of the twenty-five teams was given a digital still camera and a video camera. Each team would visit three tourist resorts areas. None of them had ever been to any intern
ational resorts. The thought of spending a minimum of four days in each as holidaying Filipinos was appealing. While there they would video as much and take as many photographs of the areas as practical with emphasis on the terrain and buildings; then talk with locals and get a feel for local politics to see if there was any support for the NPA, obviously without revealing their own allegiances.

  Within 48 hours, all of the teams had departed. Warvic had to sit back and wait for their return.

  ----------

  Iligan, West Mindanao, September

  Warvic enjoyed the time alone. Her leg was now out of the restricting plaster, but she was shocked at the extent of the wasted muscle; it would have to be quickly rebuilt.

  She was ahead of the timetable she had set and the time alone allowed her to expand plans for each of the seventy-five targets. Each area had its own file on memory stick with scanned images and geographical notes, Information was building daily.

  Her other plan, discrediting of government officials and leading members of the community, would be stage-managed over the time leading up to the takeovers. Stories would be broken to the foreign press regularly to keep an international spotlight continually playing on the Philippines. It would be useless releasing anything to the Philippines press. The papers would approach the guilty parties and get a far better reward for not publishing the stories.

  It was better releasing verifiable stories to overseas papers, the chance of publication abroad increased. Most of the background information for discrediting officials was already in her possession. She knew the habit of keeping records of old indiscretions and corruption would pay off one day. That information would now be put to good use.

  The first story would go to the Japanese press. Wherever it was released, if it was newsworthy enough, it would soon be picked up by the other presses of the world. Then, once it had been printed around the world, the local press would have to run the same stories, or be accused of being in the pay of the guilty parties.

  Warvic did not care if the local press ran it or not. Her intention was to discredit Filipino politicians in the eyes of the world. She decided to pick the Japanese press partly because of their sense of self-righteousness in political matters, but mostly because of their government's influence on the World Bank. She did not like Japanese people. The few she had met still treated Filipinos as serfs. Their government self-serving attitude to de-afforestation of rainforest timbers, whaling and wildlife outside of their own country was hypocritical, but if their press and government could help her cause, she would use them.

  Warvic's first press release praised the Japanese Government and people for their continual generosity toward the Filipino people in times of natural disasters. Then she revealed details of a donation of 500,000 cases of canned tuna by the Japanese people after a disastrous tornado. It was donated to feed those who were made homeless and lost all their crops. She gave details of the name of the ship bringing the cargo in and the warehouse where the tuna was transferred to. Then she sprang the surprise. The Japanese tuna never reached the people for who it was intended. Affected locals received a reduced amount of inferior locally tinned fish and the Japanese tuna ended up on supermarket shelves.

  At that time she gave the supermarket price of a can of Japanese tuna as around 36 pesos while the price of the same canned local Filipino product was 12 pesos. Then, a price difference of 24 pesos or US$1.00 a can. Each case contained 24 cans, so some people had shared in a profit in excess of US$12 million for the whole shipment. Warvic named all those she knew were involved. She named the politicians who suggested the fish donation to the Japanese Government and arranged its shipping, and the bankers who put up the money to pay for the local Philippine tuna and local manufacturers who diverted 500,000 cases of local tinned fish. The same manufacturers had told the government they had no excess available to send to devastated areas, and could not even keep up with local demand from the supermarkets. She named the trucking firm that shipped the Japanese tuna to a secret warehouse, and the location of that warehouse.

  The Japanese tuna was stored before gradually being sold off to local supermarkets. Some was re-exported from the Philippines to enable profiteers to take their gains in non-Filipino currency. She estimated the profits of each of the senior people taking part at US$250,000. Everyone else all down the line received substantial, but lesser pay-outs, right down to the truck drivers taking part.

  She continued her letter to the selected paper in Tokyo thanking the Japanese people for their support and a final comment. The distribution was finally made of around 100,000 cases of Filipino tuna to hungry people, only twenty percent of the 500,000 cases of substituted Filipino tinned food. Eighty percent had been lost in shipping to the devastated areas by further pilfering and pay-offs to local officials.

  Her article asked, "Was it the intention of the Japanese government, to indirectly buy favour of Filipino government officials, or should the Filipino government officials have paid their profits to the rebuilding program?"

  Warvic was sure this was enough to get the Japanese press interested enough to start asking questions of their own politicians, or whether there was in fact an indirect pay-off to Filipino politicians. Some would want to know why only twenty percent of the substitute tuna got through. Others would want to know why all one hundred percent of the original Japanese tinned fish was not distributed to the people it was meant for. Whether it was theft of the original tuna or theft of 80% of the substituted fish was irrelevant to Warvic. She was disgusted either way.

  She knew that she could send the same letter, with little change, to the New Zealand press. Local Filipino tinned corned beef had been substituted for the much superior and larger tins of New Zealand corned beef. Another approximate US$8 million profit was made mostly by the same people, though that scam was uncovered and received a brief mention in the Filipino press, and lightly dismissed by the government as an unfortunate event. They offered the excuse that the New Zealand product was too rich for the stomachs of rural people and would make them ill.

  The New Zealand news release could therefore be prepared early and be ready to release at the most advantageous time.

  There were dozens of other subjects to be written about, many involving the former Marcos regime and previous World Bank grants and loans. Loans had been made to build selected power projects which were never started. The loan moneys advanced had never reached the Philippines Treasury. For USA stories the Washington Post would be sent the information.

  To capture the interest of the American reading public, Warvic knew she could point out a particular USA Aid package for development of a thermal power project in the Philippines. It was made by President Reagan directly to Marcos during a Marcos visit to the USA. The money never reached the Philippine Treasury. The thermal power project never got beyond the design stage as presented to Reagan. Warvic would then pose the question whether the money was a personal political pay-off to Marcos for his loyalty to the American government. She knew that Reagan would have given the money in good faith, but after the Iran/Contra affair the American public would question anything odd about the Reagan presidency years. That story she would send maybe two weeks after releasing the story on the substituted Japanese tinned fish scam.

  For those interested in the sex side of things as presented in the Clinton years, she had names for the representatives of the World Bank to the Philippines for progress inspection on approved sites. Those inspectors never left their bedrooms or hotel. They were too busy with government supplied female escorts.

  She could release at least one story about top Filipino politicians and businessmen every two weeks. She even had a few juicy facts about some of the church leaders, but she did not want to use these. Not at this stage of her plans anyway. She had enough information to discredit many Filipino politicians, business, and community leaders to keep the presses rolling.

  The time involved to fully document her plans left no time for beloved mah-jong or co
ckfights. No time either for discos on her now uncased but skinnier muscle-wasted leg; or for entertaining guests. The ideas were giving her greater satisfaction than mah-jong or cockfights. Her physical desires diminished with the increased hours spent on the computer.

  With her little teams away she could consider what additional information she needed to gather before approaching possible financiers.

  By drafting a whole new battle plan with previously untried tactics, if she could make it work, it could be a blueprint for popular uprisings in other countries. In years to come people might think of her as the Che Guevara of Asia. This appealed to her vanity. It was going to be hard work, but it was going to be worth it.

  ----------

  ILIGAN, WEST MINDANAO

  Soon after she had begun to formalise her plans, Warvic asked Suraido if he could arrange a secret meeting with an influential member of the Libyan Embassy. He had merely nodded affirmatively, but Warvic knew the nod would result in a meeting.

  Over the ensuing weeks, Suraido called on Warvic every Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturday evenings at her Iligan home. She become quite settled and looked forward to Suraido's visits feeling the friendship started many years ago had grown. It was as close as she had ever felt with a man. It was still non-sexual, and as far as Warvic was concerned, always would be.

  His visits balanced business and friendship. Firstly to ensure that she and her staff were secure and secondly to advise on his progress with unifying the Muslim groups. In response Warvic kept him informed on progress in re-establishing links to other NPA groups. She was pleased to report that most of the active groups in the jungles throughout the Philippines had acknowledged her contact with new communication lines. If the situation called for it, she could mount a campaign with nearly 20,000 armed supporters of the NPA. Any impatient question of when the meeting with Libyan official would occur might embarrass Suraido. It would happen.

  At the end of business discussions they would move off into friendly disagreement on politics or religion. They were always amicable without friction or noisy disagreement.

  Suraido's unexpected arrival on a Wednesday morning surprised Warvic. From the beaming smile on his face it had to be good news.

  "A Libyan attache from the embassy in Manila is visiting Iligan. He's going to give us a private meeting the day after he arrives. So, can you wait a few days?" The grin stayed broadly on Suraido's face as he delivered the news.

  Warvic came as close to giving Suraido a kiss as she was ever likely to, but did not.

  "When?" asked Warvic.

  "Soon. I'll let you know exactly in a day or two. I had to let you know as soon as I heard so you could finalise your submissions."

  "It'll be ready, don't worry," she responded.

  There were few travel restrictions on foreign Embassy officials, though the Philippines government did keep a closer eye on the activities of Muslim officials. They were always concerned about possible political influence being attempted in the Muslim mosques. Officially at least, the Libyans respected the predominance of Catholicism within the country.

  The presence of a Muslim official in a predominantly Muslim area was not out of place. Numerous Middle Easterner tourists visited Iligan and western Mindanao.

  Warvic felt sure she was as prepared as she could be for the secret meeting. Without disclosing details, her printed out plan was both full and precise. If necessary she would verbally provide detail but would not commit anything to print.