The 16-year-old war between the Philippines Armed Forces (AFP) and the communist guerrilla New People's Army (NPA) has recently reached deep into the mountains of the island of Mindoro. The AFP has used helicopter gunships and widespread bombing in attempts to flush out the NPA soldiers from their mountain hideouts.

These recent military drives has displaced thousands of Mangyan people. The Mangyan, a tribal group inhabiting Mindoro, have historically resisted integration into the economy and culture of the lowland Filipino, as well as any widespread involvement in the guerrilla war. The mountains they inhabit have protected them from the encroachments of US and Spanish colonial forces, the Japanese occupation and later, the lowland Filipino majorities.

Philippines military policy has shifted away from a possible peaceful settlement through negotiations with the guerrillas or from economic and political structural changes that would undermine NPA strength. In March 1987 President Corazon Aquino told a class of Philippines military graduates that the time had come "to take out the sword of war' against the insurgency.

The Aquino government has also pledged to protect human rights. On 11 February 1987, President Aquino said the AFP would fight the insurgency with "the highest respect for human rights." But it appears the Philippines military does not entirely back her position. In a 2 March 1987 BBC interview, Gen. Honesto Isleta, spokesperson for the AFP, stated "On the ground war, I would say that if only there would be not this sword of Damocles, of human rights, over our heads. And perhaps if we look at these NPAs as...foreigners...in our country, not Filipinos, then we could go all out. To heck with human rights." Now with the declaration of "total war," the fighting has infiltrated the Mangyan mountain lands.

From the end of February through March 1988, various religious missions across the island received a flood of Mangyan refugees from the mountains. Estimates of the number of refugee families have reached 350, spread in makeshift camps across the province of Oriental Mindoro. Many families hiked down the side of Mt. Halcon and walked for two days to reach the protection of religious settlements. The Mangyan arrived with little or no food.

After learning of the evacuations, members of the Episcopal Commission on Tribal Filipinos(ECTF) and Catholic Bishops Conference visited the island. In their March 22 report, they stated that "bombing conducted by the military in central and southern Mindoro against suspected NPA guerrilla training grounds [has] triggered massive evacuations into several lowland towns and villages in Oriental Mindoro..." The refugees reported they had left their homes under threat of military attack. One villager said that other Mangyans told the villagers not to remain in their homes, warning" the mountains were going to be bombed, together with the settlements, and whoever remained in these places were going to be killed. They told us to go hide in the forest where the big trees grow and where we couldn't be seen. This is why we came down, because we were afraid."

Further south, another military drive forced the evacuation of two Mangyan barrios to an AFP-controlled town. A few days later, soldiers of the 271st PC Company, under cover of four helicopter gunships, attacked the two barrios. It was reported their homes and crops were burned, abandoned homes looted and livestock killed. No signs of NPA involvement were found.

A Mindoro Catholic bishop reported that the PC/INP commander of the region, Col. Jose Lalisan, had repeatedly threatened to bomb the area, to "systematically cleanse it of fighters of the NPA." Col. Lalisan was reportedly against the prior Mangyan evacuation because it served as a warning to the NPA of the imminent military drive. He insisted the only houses burned down were "NPA houses" if the houses were rebuilt, he said, it would be a sign "that the NPAs had come back." When asked about the extensive damage to the barrio by the helicopter gunships, he stated that the damage from rockets was only "in uninhabited forest areas and for the "psychological effect," "to drive away and confuse" the NPAs. He added the Mangyans had not fled he are because of the AFP military drive but because of the "revolutionary taxation of the NPAs." The military drive had succeeded, according to Lalisan because the AFP was able to "overrun and destroy" a newly built NPA training camp. He attributed this success to the cooperation of those Mangyans who reported sightings of the rebels and to the Mangyan "deep sense of nationalism."

Mangyans from both villages stated they had no involvement with the NPA. They did report that rebel soldiers periodically pass along the mountain trails.

The Newspaper Malaya's correspondent Ambo Manaligod wrote, on 15 May 1988, that "while the government officials and military authorities are busy seeking solutions to the problem of the insurgency, the Mangyans are also trying to find ways of solving their problems of lack of food and economic dislocation." With the destruction of their current foodstocks in the mountains and the pending rainy season, the Mangyans are deeply concerned about missing the new planting season. Not only will they be entirely dependent upon donated foodstocks in the lowlands, but they are isolated from their homes, living in temporary shelter in conditions of poor hygiene and nutrition.

* What are the connections between the superpowers military rivalry and the struggles for independence and justice in the Pacific region?

* What choices does the US have in the politically troubled Philippines? Is our foreign policy being held captive by the US bases there?

* Would US national interests be better saved by supporting Asian and Pacific efforts to separate from the nuclear arms race?

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