Alsa Masa
DAVAO CITY -- The NPA reign of terror in Davao City abruptly ended when their hitmen executed three of its city partisans task to collect revolutionary tax. Barely in their teens and have no idea of how to even fire a gun when they joined the NPA, the three new recruits, were among those assigned to collect taxes from the already over-burdened mass base in Agdao and all the squatter communities that lined the coastal villages of Davao City. The poor families were taxed by the NPAs since most of the rich families have left Davao and settled either in Metro Manila or abroad for safety.
The NPA executioners had wanted to instill fear on the squatters’ enclaves to squeeze more from their own mass base. The 1-kilo rice and three can goods were no longer sufficient to feed the growing number of armed NPA fronts the order was to add P10 to P50 more per family depending on their earning capacity.
The three, along with the squatter families, were “invited” to attend what they were told was an important meeting. When everybody had gathered, the three were executed in front of people who assembled in the Gotamco basketball court.
The birth of ALSA MASA
The ruthless execution of the non-combatant tax collectors, however, failed to sow fear but instead ignited anger in the community.
Tangatue and Pala wasted no time in taking advantage of the brewing implosion within the ranks of the CPP/NPA. “Panahon na sa pag-alsa sa mga katawhan (It’s about time for people’s uprising!),” Pala intoned in his evening program.
Overnight, the NPA and its “Sparrows” were hunted by their comrades. In less than 12 hours they lost their mass base in Davao City following a massive peoples uprising succinctly described as “alsa masa”. I cannot be exact with the time now. The uprising was triggered by execution of the tax collectors who unknown to the triggermen and the higher echelons of the CPP/NPA, were close kin of their top urban commander in Agdao. By nightfall on that eventful day, only the staccato of gunfire and the wailing of dying men were heard. The eerie calmness in Davao City followed by daybreak and rumors quickly spread the NPAs and their deadly “Sparrows” were neutralized by forces within their ranks led by Commander Boy Ponsa of Agdao.
The People’s uprising
Alsa Masa was not a vigilante group to start with. But because of the popularity of the Alsa Masa uprising, which became a byword, a number of those who joined the movement against the CPP/NPA organized themselves into groups and called themselves Alsa Masa. Col. Franco Calida nurtured the movement. He allowed the former rebels to keep their firearms to protect themselves from reprisals from the communist military fronts. The CPP/NPA waged a bloody purged of its ranks. Rumored in those uneasy times were “operation ajos” and “operation zombies” – a bloody purge waged by the communists against each other. The members of Alsa Masa managed to let the loose ends meet by selling door mats and brooms in business establishments. Even as they have ceased to be members of the urban guerilla group, pan-handling human rights watch groups portray them as lawless vigilantes.
The fake story about DDS and EJK
Senator Leila De Lima’s repeated attribution of the Davao Death Squad (DDS) to Pres. Rodrigo Duterte is nothing but her stoic belief that the then Davao City Mayor organized DDS. In those trying and gory times, Duterte had just passed the bar and was one of the two Tanodbayan investigators assigned in Mindanao. He later became Assistant City Fiscal of Davao. Politics was never in the wish list of Digong who, at the height of insurgency, was prosecuting policemen, military and suspected NPAs over the so many deaths taking place in the city.
Interviewed long after his retirement, General Tan-Gatue best described Duterte as somebody “we could depend on for legal advice” during his tour of duty as Metrodiscom Commander of Davao City and later as Regional Commander of the INP. He said he knew more of his mother, Soledad, because of her comments. “She was our critic”, he added.
He said, “we all hold prosecutors and judges in high esteem”. He said that he only met Duterte because of cases involving policemen which the fiscal was investigating. Tan-Gatue shrugged off the Senate investigation of extra-judicial killings where Senators De Lima and Antonio Trillanes alleged that Duterte organized the DDS.
When asked about witnesses Edgar Matobato, a hitman for hire, and Arturo Lascanas, who were dubbed by De Lima as whistle blowers and claimed to be members of DDS, Tan-Gatue raised his eyebrows and with a smirk answered with a question: “How can that possibly be?”
Drug and crime syndicates
Fast forward in the unraveling of events, as quickly as the NPAs disappeared in urban center of Davao City, kidnap for ransom (KFR) and drug syndicates crept in coupled with “akyat bahay gangs” and robbery with rape. Tan-Gatue had left Davao and requested to be transferred. Rumors had it that he was displeased with Gen. Fabian Ver putting another level of authority called Regional Unified Command on top of the INP and the military. There were arrests order emanating from RUC and the INP were made custodians of those detained which were against his policy. The Marcos dictatorship exited in 1986 after the EDSA revolt. The Cory revolutionary government shut down the Batasan Pambansa and started the purged of all duly elected officials unfriendly to her regime and replaced them with people of the regime’s choice.
Duterte’s entry in politics
Then Fiscal Duterte was pushed into politics because his mother, the venerable Soledad R. Duterte, whom everybody calls “Nanay Soling”, refused to accept the appointment as vice mayor as a prize for her role as among the original pillars of the Yellow Friday Movement. The revgov of Cory Aquino had a solid organization in Davao led by the late businessman Jesus V. Ayala who was the prime mover of the YFM. When Nanay Soling turned down the offer, JVA had her name crossed-out and put the name Rodrigo instead.
The ever reluctant politician, Digong, was thrown into the fray by politicians identified with Cory Aquino and the opposition who had long been supportive of the late governor – Vicente Duterte, whose unblemished career made him an icon in Davao. The Vice Mayor ran against the Cory’s annointed candidate, Zafiro Respicio, the OIC Mayor. In that same electoral derby, Jun Pala who was in the apex of his popularity, also ran. It was a close fight among the three but Pala formally conceded defeat in favor of Duterte to discourage Respicio from entertaining the idea of protesting the results. I should know for I wrote his two paragraph speech in a yellow pad paper conceding defeat. The late Odillon Mallari, a lawyer who volunteered free legal assistance to Pala, was so mad he conceded defeat. (PNA)
(to be continued)
