An ‘80s thing

I AM amazed at how the incidents of violence in the ‘80s are continuing to influence events in this country nowadays. The latest is, of course, the bloody serving by the police of a warrant on the Parojinogs in Ozamiz City last Sunday. That incident led to the killing of Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog, his wife Susan, his brother Octavio Jr., his sister Mona and 11 members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team (BPAT).

The ‘80s can be considered as the period that the communist-led rebellion was at its height. It had gone to the extent that, aside from the increase in the number of New People’s Army (NPA) fighters and the number of guerrilla bases and fronts, armed city partisans (also called sparrow units) roamed some major urban centers like Davao, Cebu and Metro Manila (remember the Alex Boncayao Brigade?).

If I am not mistaken, ACP operation, which includes assassinations of so-called counter-revolutionaries and bad elements, was first tested in Davao City. The bringing of the armed conflict to the cities naturally increased the violence in these areas. In the said city, much of the violence was observed in the slum district of Agdao, inviting retaliation that heated up the situation further.

Soon the area was labeled “Nicarag- dao,” a play on the words Nicaragua and Agdao. The Latin American country was in the headlines that time after the leftist Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (FSLN or the Sandinista National Liberation Front) toppled the corrupt government of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The United States then worked to topple the Sandinista government by funding Nicaraguan rebel groups known as the “contras,” thus continuing the spiral of violence.

It was during this period when the police and the military encouraged the formation of anti-communist vigilante groups to help battle the insurgents, the more popular (or notorious, if you will) being Davao City’s Alsa Masa. In Cebu, there was the Sagrado Corazon Señor, also called Tadtad. In Misamis Occidental, there was the Kuratong Baleleng, the one mentioned in backgrounders on the Parojinogs in the recent Ozamiz City incident.

Incidentally, it was apparently this kind of situation that partly shaped the Duterte style of leadership. Duterte became Davao mayor at what can be considered the latter part of that violent period when hit squads from both the government-backed vigilante groups and communist rebels roamed the city. At one time, the President even claimed that the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) was an anti-communist vigilante group.

Founded by the Parojinog patriarch Octavio Sr., the Kuratong Baleleng eventually shifted its activities from going after insurgents to engaging in kidnapping for ransom, bank robbery and other illegal activities. The money was eventually funneled into politics, allowing the Parojinogs to control Ozamiz City and become a player in Misamis Occidental governance. Octavio Sr. was killed in 1990 while his son, Renato, then a Misamis Occidental Provincial Board member, was killed in 2002.

Last year, the President linked Octavio’s other son, Reynaldo, the Ozamiz City mayor, to the illegal drugs trade. Then came Sunday’s killings.