CMO BATTALION: MOVING FORWARD

By Col Buenaventura C Pascual

 

 

         As the commander of this unit and just like any military leader I have two vital tasks at hand, i.e. to accomplish the mission of the battalion and to take care of the welfare of the personnel.  The Civil Military Operations Battalion has a unique mission of preventing the recruitment of CPP-NDF-NPA from various sectors of the more than 12 million people in Metro-Manila and denying them of logistics, financial and organizational support from these same sectors.  A gargantuan job for a newly organized battalion whose organic personnel had come from the attached and unassigned officers and enlisted personnel of HHSG, and augmented by DS from the contribution of infantry and armor divisions of one platoon each.  This means that significant numbers of our key personnel – although they possessed the potentials to be civil-military operators – are distracted and disturbed by the very slow pace of the trial proceedings of their cases. But they did perform well and operationalize the new doctrine of Special Operations Team in White Area or SOT-WA in the National Capital Region. Thus amusingly the unit has exceeded the expectations of many that even the CIC, SND, CSAFP and CGPA were aware of the 30% reduction of CTM initiated mass actions in Metro-Manila and the decreased number of participants from thousands to a hundred and less as the convincing results of civil-military operations.

         With the given problem of a new unit, the administrative concerns of the men were first attended to restore the individuals’ morale, spirit and sense of purpose, then came the building of the SOT-WA squad for its teamwork and effectiveness.  We emphasized that SOT-WA operators must be sensitive to the needs of the people and diligent to their work to be successful.  After a month in office, I observed the frequent conduct of investigation to erring personnel for various minor and major offenses like AWOL, exhausting the S1 and S2 personnel and even the company commanders in the process which greatly affect their performance in SOT-WA operations.  Maintaining the high level of discipline is always a headache to the commander – especially in internal conflict like the CPP-NDF-NPA, the longest running communist telenovela in the world, and so much so with Metro-Manila as the AOR – but definitely it is essential to win the hearts and mind of the community and the commander cannot impose discipline alone. To improve and maintain the discipline of our men, the Sergeant Major organized the NCOs into a Council of Elders that provides counseling and pep talk to the needy soldiers and in doing so; the NCOs themselves became conscious of misbehaving.  Slowly they had transformed and set the good example.  I reinforced the system with no physical contact policy to erring subordinates and maximize the power of AW 105 by giving productive punishments like gardening, cleaning the barracks and office and so forth.  The no maltreatment policy is imposed to everyone to avoid the transfer of oppression phenomenon which the civilian may become the final recipient of military cariño.

         The SOT-WA doctrine, although under review has two approaches, first the process of cooptation with the leaders and members of the CPP-NDF-NPA front, allied and affected sectoral organizations  and secondly the formation of counter-organizations from the different sectors, winning over existing unaffected public organizations or non-government organizations and strengthening the local government units particularly the barangay.  The leaders and members of affected urban poor sectoral organizations are easily coopted when issues are resolved like land disputes which could be settled either through relocation program as in the case of Pandacan community living along the railways or community mortgage program (CMP) and direct buying scheme that are financed by the national and city governments.

         These cases are predominant in Barangays Payatas and Commonwealth of Quezon City. With the entry of soldiers in the community, the masses are awakened for years in believing that the manipulations of Gabriela, Kadamay, Anakpawis and even Akbayan will lead to free land titles.  Additionally there are breakthroughs on the dialogues and group discussions with leaders and members of the front and allied organizations among the urban poor, professional and student/youth sectors.    In figures, the CMO Battalion had addressed the 46 urban poor sectoral organizations by coopting 14 and forming 86 counter-organizations in Manila, Quezon City, Marikina and Taguig.  And the unit is presently sustaining the gains from these sectors while moving forward to the next target sectors. 

         

         Before the deployment in the depressed areas, it was perceived that the urban poor sector is controlled and organized by militant groups however during the initial survey and sectoral study, one of the findings is the masses will embrace anybody or any group that can give little comfort to their miseries.  Peace and order is a basic problem of the community, so the soldiers are easily accepted because of the built-in capability to provide physical security to the people.  For long term, the barangay defense systems are strengthened to every community and they become the shield against militant groups’ infiltration.

         Other significant measures to plug the flow of CPP-NDF-NPA political cadres from the student and youth activists are extensive campus lectures, legal offensives and strengthening the PUP ROTC program. Firstly, the campus lecture tour is basically proactive SOT-WA targeting unaffected audience like college freshmen, and 3rd and 4th year secondary students.  Applying the blank paper theory, the students are being immunized from later communist teachings once they understand our lecture first. The four-hour program composed of a power point presentation by an officer, live testimony of Ka Tina and interactions with students have produced cooptation also to some members of LFS in the audience.  In many occasions, these members of LFS even reinforced the program by sharing their experiences in activism.  Secondly, on legal offensives we have convinced the parents of two PUP students that integrated to the NPA on December 2007 to file petition of Writ of Amparo against PUP activists, Bayan Muna party-list and Kabataan party.  After months of trials, the students were forced to go back to their families by the revolutionary movement. The two cases provided us information about the CPP-NDF-NPA course of action when parents of full time activists turned NPA sought court intervention.  Lastly, the PUP ROTC program is another kind of reactive SOT-WA wherein strengthening and supporting the cadet corps to lure the freshmen to take the program instead of the CWTS will change the distorted nationalistic activism in the Mabini Campus.  For this year there are only 18% of the ten thousand first year college students enrolled in ROTC while the rest are completely exposed to the teachings and deceptions of militant student organizations.

         In conclusion, the CMO Battalion is moving forward to clear and hold the frontline of the communist insurgents’ white area that provides manpower and resources to keep the protracted armed struggle alive. It is all about winning the hearts and mind of the community and also winning over our misguided fellow Filipinos in the revolutionary movement.