502nd Brigade:
Scourge of Isabela

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

July 16 in Mapalad, San Agustin, Isabela. Philippine Army troops under the 502nd Brigade summarily executed Comrade Teresa Dayrit-Garcia, a cadre of the Benito Tesorio Front. Garcia, who was taken alive, suffered eight gunshot wounds, one in the back of the head. Captured with her was Sheryll Arcilla, 22. Although unarmed, the military alleged that Arcilla surrendered an M16. She is being illegally detained and accused of involvement in the ambush of Col. Josefino Manayao on June 27 at the boundary of Barangay Linomot and Sta. Isabel in Jones.

The 502nd Brigade is a scourge to the people of southeastern Isabela. Along with battalions currently and formerly under its command, such as the 77th IB, 21st IB, 45th IB and 54th IB, it has a long list of terroristic crimes.

Garcia is only the latest hors de combat who has been brutally killed by the 502nd Brigade. A few of its other striking violations of the rules of war are the:

• murder of Comrade Cesario "Ka Deo" Piesa on January 30, 1998 at their camp in Barangay Sto. Domingo, Jones. Piesa was wounded and no longer able to fight;

• summary execution of Comrade Marcelo "Ka Mega" Astraquillo in August 1999 in Delfin Albano. Astraquillo had been captured and rendered incapable of fighting;

• murder of Comrade Lydia "Ka Ren" Sicat on September 7, 1999 in Barangay Dicamay Dos, Jones. Sicat, who was ill and bedridden, was shot in the head;

• summary execution of "Ka Makie" after he was captured in a firefight in Carmencita, Delfin Albano on May 25.

The ambush by an armed propaganda unit of the New People's Army on a convoy of the 502nd Brigade that killed 16 soldiers (not 13 as was previously reported) including its brigade commander Colonel Manayao and 54th IB executive officer 2Lt. Wilfredo Estanislao, was just punishment for the butcher brigade of Isabela.

The 502nd Brigade also has a long record of terrorizing the masses, conducting illegal searches of homes, illegal arrests and detention, arson and threats of arson against houses and barns, forcing civilians to act as guides in operations, beatings, rape and other abuses against women, training guns at civilians and discharging firearms in their presence.

They are also notorious protectors of logging companies and other comprador businesses in the province such as the environmentally destructive Royal Cement Corp. to be set up in Dicamay Uno and Dos in Jones despite fierce opposition from the people.

The 502nd Brigade once more bared its rabidly fascist character when it unleashed its terror anew in Jones and nearby towns after the ambush on Colonel Manayao.

On July 14 and 15, forces of the 5th Recon Coy under the 5th ID and 502nd Brigade led by Lieutenant Alburo and Captain Derla attacked various sitios in Barangay Villa Bello in Jones.

At the barangay center, they illegally ransacked the houses of Marcelo Arriola and Amajun Adsuara and tore down the wall of a civilian's hut allegedly to prevent NPA fighters from hiding in it. Not satisfied, the troops fired shots after supposedly being irritated by the noise made by merrymaking teenagers. They repeated the latter and perpetrated other terroristic acts against the masses in nearby sitios.

In a related incident, 502nd Brigade troops burned down the house of Virgilio Bayot, a poor peasant from Linomot, Jones on July 13.

Prior to this, the military had also ransacked and illegally searched houses in Villa Bello, Dicamay and nearby barrios of Jones on June 28 and 29.

In another grim violation of the people's rights, the 502nd Brigade murdered two civilians suspected of supporting the people's army and burned down a number of houses after an NPA unit was encircled recently in Dapis, Napaliong, Jones.

But since the troops of the 502nd Brigade feel the people's intense loathing, there is widespread demoralization among their ranks. This was marked by two platoons' refusal to provide support when the convoy of their own commanding officer, Colonel Manayao was ambushed, despite the fact that one platoon was only less than three kilometers away and the other could have reached the ambush site after a two-hour hike.

Two platoons of the butcher brigade were unable to move, fearful of the people's wrath.

July 2000
English Edition

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