Anne Buenaventura
Media Liaison Officer
Information Bureau
January 5, 2004

This interview was given by Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal on January 5, 2004 to reporters that attended the press conference which took place in the Cordillera Region. Prior to the press conference, a series of articles came out in the Philippine Daily Inquirer regarding the anti-infiltrator campaigns which were carried out during the '80s in Southern Tagalog, Mindanao and other places and by other organs. What follows are the answers provided by Ka Roger to questions posed on that night.

Ka Roger, a series of articles came out in the Philippine Daily Inquirer regarding the excesses in the cleansing of so-called deep penetration agents, such as what happened in OPML, (Operation Missing Link, an anti-deep penetration agent campaign in the Southern Tagalog region in the latter part of the '80s). What is your reaction to this?

I read the series that you were referring to in the Inquirer. I also read the paper's editorial on January 2 which contained the seemingly out-of-place attacks on the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The truth is that the CPP has long since taken a stand against these episodes of madness, strongly denounced the torture, abuse and killings, and decisively disciplined those who had erred and corrected grave errors.

The Inquirer intentionally devoted a lot of space and put an exceptional stress on this matter. But it only succeeded in sensationalizing the issue and not promoting an objective and in-depth discussion of it. It recalled details but not in an all-sided way and not really in context. Falsehoods and half-truths were mixed in with truths. We know full well that this is the usual way to twist the truth, to highlight and make something that is not true appear to be true.

According to the Inquirer, although the CPP took action, these occurrences are not yet a closed matter. What can you say about this?

Everyone has seen that the Party is serious and determined to give justice to the victims of this tragedy - both to those saved by the Party and those who perished. It has made a key analysis and taken steps on the entire development and in every case. In reviewing the OPML, there isn't a case that has not been resolved and had an action taken.

The Party did not avoid examining itself and admitting whether or not the Party, its cadres or forces, had committed errors. The criticism and self-criticism within the Party and the revolutionary movement was complete in response to these errors. The victims who were rescued were rehabilitated. They were made to understand what happened; together with helping them becoming active once more, they were given spiritual, material, medical, psychological and social support in order to help them overcome the trauma from their bitter experience.

To the best of its ability, the Party reached out to the loved ones of those that perished. The Party talked to them and, in all humility, asked for their forgiveness, and provided any kind of compensation that it could afford. Nevertheless, there may still be a few that may not yet have been reached and talked to because they are not known or have not yet been found.

Can you share what you know about the OPML? When and how did it start? How did it bring damage to the CPP? How did it stop?

In the early part of 1988, it was reported that some government DPAs (deep-penetration agents) were able to infiltrate the Southern Tagalog Urban Committee Party organization. The committee formed the Task Force Missing Link (TFML). At first, it was only an ad hoc unit, and its task was limited. It was only going to investigate that report. Not long afterward, the Executive Committee of the Regional Committee sanctioned it and expanded it to the entire region based on the immediate conclusion of the TFML that the entire region was infiltrated by DPAs.

This progressed from the middle of the year. Upon the decision of the ST leadership, the arrest of suspected DPAs began. There was no regard for the appropriate processes. The rights of those arrested in the Party, people's army and revolutionary movement were trampled.

In almost all, if not all, the cases, the treatment towards those arrested became harsh and violent, contrary to policies and guidelines. The use of torture to extract "confessions" became the norm. The rationale for the use of torture came from the handbook on intelligence work prepared then by the General Command under the leadership of Romulo Kintanar. There was no longer any difference from the usual deeds of the military and police. In reviewing the events on the OPML, the Party and people's army have already repudiated this handbook.

Were the leaders then of ST aware of this? If they knew about it, why did they not stop this immediately?

Miel Laurenaria - who was then "Ka Amanda" - knew all of this. She was then the secretary of the Regional Committee of ST. She was the one who principally gave sanction and upheld the OPML and stood as the principal sponsor of the TFML. She was herself situated along the Quezon-Laguna border where the OPML took place. She was unmoved by what she witnessed. That was because she was really convinced that the enemy penetration of the Party organization in the region was serious; therefore, it was possible to do everything to all suspected enemy agents.

She was one of the most delirious during that time. I observed and became most familiar with her, and she even became my friend. But she was really delirious and frightened. I myself witnessed how she became hysterical whenever other comrades would just stare at her. The TFML was even able to convince her that her own husband was a DPA.

Did the Party have no organizational processes which could have avoided these from worsening?

Many. There is the ideology of the Party that is committed to truth, freedom and democracy, in the correct style of thinking and action. Aside from this, there is the principle of democratic centralism, the policies and guidelines of the CPP, NPA and the people's government. These guarantee democratic rights and processes. They ensure the functioning of appropriate judicial processes. They explicitly forbid torture, even the debasement of human beings, and the ill treatment of captives. And most of all, there is the masses' supervision of the Party.

Democratic centralism should have served as the automatic internal mechanism of the Party to stop the OPML from prospering. But the ringleaders of the OPML gravely violated it. If we think about it, its implementors arrogated their own power - the leadership of the region and the TFML. In reality, there was no longer a Party to speak of. Bourgeois and petty-bourgeois organizational practices prevailed then. They were no longer subordinate to the collectives and higher organs which belonged to the Party. Although their perceived problem was so big and so much a priority, they did not even bother to seek the approval of the Central Committee.

The OPML prospered because it attacked the ideology and destroyed the organizational processes of the Party in ST. The scientific proletarian methods were carelessly replaced with bourgeois and fascist methods.

Were these not reported to the leadership of the CPP?

When news about the OPML reached the Central Committee, it was late and the situation was already serious. Even worse, the OPML had already reached the point of going after the national center. The OPML had already reached the conclusion that the entire Party organization had supposedly been infiltrated by DPAs, including the Central Committee. There were supposedly enemy sleeper agents in the center itself who could be activated at any time in order to deliver blows to the leadership. Plans were already made to arrest certain comrades in the CC and other national organs. At the same time, the plan to "Save the Center" was already being implemented to secure certain CC comrades in order to "take care of them" there in the camp of the ST center being used by the OPML.

What was the response of the national leadership of the CPP to this?

A few months had already gone by before the CPP leadership became aware of the OPML. Laurenaria only reported it when it was already serious and without any reporting of the outright abuse and violation of the rights of those arrested. The center's apprehensions were already strong just from the news from others. There was just no exact information reaching them.

The center's doubts became even stronger when Laurenaria reported the "shattering" conclusions of the OPML and invited the national leadership to "seek refuge" in ST. To know the entire truth and to take immediate action, the comrades of the center followed them into the camp of the leadership in ST. Immediately after arriving, without even resting from the long trip, the comrades of the center immediately talked to the comrades they had come across and investigated the events that transpired then. Laurenaria was shouting "Victory!" in the belief that the comrades that came would side with the OPML. She was gravely mistaken.

How did those in the Party leadership face those they were able to reach there?

They immediately took action. They read the situation. One of the first things they looked at was the situation of the NPA. Its forces were the ones serving as camp security, arresting officers, jail custodians, torturers and executioners. They talked to the NPA commanders there. They assessed that these commanders would still accept the truth that would come out of the investigation and follow the decisions of the national center.

After this, the national center immediately suspended the OPML in order to study it first. All of the arrests, interrogations and tortures were stopped. A Review Board was formed. Aside from the comrades of the Executive Committee of the Central Committee, it included other members of the Central Committee in the area, and included the secretary of the region, the leaders of the territorial commissions in Southern Luzon and the leaders of the National United Front Commission. It also included Ka Simeon (Armando Teng), the former secretary of the region before Laurenaria.

One by one, the case of each person arrested and detained was reviewed. All of the records were taken. Each case was dissected to the smallest detail. All of the evidence, including where and how it was obtained, was reviewed as well.

It was proven that there was not a single infiltrator among the accused and those who became victims of the OPML - both those who they had found still languishing in detention and those who were no longer alive.

All of those who were still detained were immediately released. The names of those who had perished were cleared and honored as martyrs of the revolution.

What has become of its initiators?

The initiators were given disciplinary action and there was a big error in implementing it. Laurenaria was adjudged with having committed the big error in the OPML. Her responsibility was heavy so the disciplinary action imposed on her was also heavy. She was stripped of all of her responsibilities and forbidden to lead any Party unit at any level. Later on, she betrayed the Party and the revolution. The head of the TFML was expelled from the Party, and subsequently, turned his back to the revolution.

The secretary of the territorial commission in charge was also expelled from the Party. Nevertheless, he remains loyal to the cause and continues in involvement in the movement. After several years of thoroughgoing rectification and demonstrating loyalty to the revolution, he has been accepted back into the Party.

Most of the others who were involved and given disciplinary action have shown honesty. They underwent re-education, humbling self-criticism, rectified in a thoroughgoing way and still continued in their revolutionary involvement.

How were those who became victims of the OPML assisted?

After the OPML, the new leadership of ST formed a program of recovery of the Party and the movement in the region in order to rebuild the many damaged parts of the organization and the work.

One of the principal stresses was the assistance and rehabilitation of the cadres, forces and masses who were victimized and affected.

Most of the cadres and forces among the OPML victims that were rescued by the Party were immediately able to return to revolutionary work. A good number were also delayed before returning. Others, meanwhile, chose to stay outside, although they continue to maintain links and remain supportive of the revolution. The Party understands what has happened to the victims and continues to exert as much effort as it can to help them recover.

We linked up with and talked to all we were able to reach among the surviving kin of the victims. In front of those victimized and their loved ones, the comrades who committed errors humbly presented themselves and conducted self-criticisms, asked their forgiveness, and provided any kind of assistance they needed within the means of the Party and the revolutionary movement.

Most of the loved ones of the victims broadly understood what transpired, forgave the comrades who committed errors, and remained participants or supporters of the revolution. Even to those who were very angry, the comrades sought to explain themselves tirelessly until they would subsequently offer their forgiveness and become supportive once again.

There are still a few loved ones of the victims who remain difficult to reach and have not been talked to. Just as I have said in the past, the door of the Party is always open to accept them, to know the details of their cases, and to resolve them to the extent of its ability.

Weren't there also those who turned their backs to the Party?

Indeed, there were, but they are only a few compared to an even greater number who remain in the Party or support the revolution. Some of them simply could not accept the explanations provided them, the pleas for forgiveness and the rectification to the errors which had transpired.

But the others, especially the noisiest and the most virulent in their attacks on the Party, left not because of their experiences in the OPML. Many of them even continued in their actions for a few years after the OPML. They only left after the Party launched the Second Great Rectification Movement (SGRM) in 1992. They could not accept the more comprehensive and more deep-going CPP rectification of its past errors. They were also involved in these errors.

If we think about it, relinquishing and deviating from the basic principles and correct line and other errors as a result of this are also the very root of the OPML and similar episodes of anti-infiltrator campaign madness. For instance, the thinking grew strong that spies had infiltrated the ranks because corruption, lack of discipline and coarse manners proliferated among many comrades and Red fighters, because of the bureaucratic and commandist style of many cadres and commanders, and because of the lack of diligence in mass work and other results of militarism, urban insurrectionism and other relinquishments and deviations of the Party from its basic principles and correct line. Even the enemy retaliation and failure in the field of armed struggle, which in truth were brought about by the dominance of military adventurism, and even the wholesale arrests of urban-based national organs of the Party, which in truth were brought about by becoming too comfortable in the cities and carelessness in security, were blamed then on DPAs within the organization.

Many of the initiators of the errors and deviations from the line of the Party also became victims of the anti-infiltrator campaigns. So in a manner of speaking, they became victims of the monsters they had created. Today, they attack the monster but they refuse to accept responsibility for having created the monster in the first place. They deviously make it seem as though it is the original sin of the Party, while it was only the result of their violation of the basic principles, policies and golden practice of the Party. They make it seem as though the Party did nothing to oppose it, whereas when the Party became aware of it, it immediately investigated and resolved it, decisively stopped it and comprehensively took steps of rectification.

Included among these initiators is Manuel Quiambao who is one of those behind the group PATH (Peace Advocates for Truth, Justice and Healing). He was a victim of the OPML who was directly rescued and helped by the Party center. He accepted then the self-criticism of the Party and immediately resumed his involvement. But not long afterward, because of his previous sickness of insurrectionism and reformism, he joined with others in launching an insurrectionist scheme in the cities. They kept these schemes from the Party leadership. Beginning 1992, in collusion with other initiators of errors and traitors, he completely went against the rectification movement. Today, he is engaged in thoughtless slander and intrigue against the Party and the revolutionary movement. He even uses the OPML as his scapegoat.

What are the lessons drawn from these bitter experiences?

In 1992, the Central Committee of the Party comprehensively summed up the episodes of anti-infiltrator campaign madness and drew lessons from them. In relation to this, the need was reaffirmed to firmly grasp and follow the Marxist-Leninist principles and methods of knowing things, principles and organizational guidelines of the Party, and the particular guidelines on evidence, the study of security and the implementation of revolutionary justice.

In particular, the Central Committee ratified the "Guidelines on Evidence and About the Investigation, Prosecution, Trial and Protection of Suspects and Captives" which was earlier formed out of the summing up of the OPML in order to serve as a guide for similar cases that Party units will face in the future.

As a result of this, the Party is confident that comrades are deeply imbued with the principles and this policy, and the bitter experiences of the past will not be repeated.

What can you say about your personal involvement in the OPML?

I was among those who first met to decide what to do then. Except for that, I was no longer directly involved in any other major decision in implementing the OPML. When it was about to begin, it just so happened that I was deployed in a far-flung front so I did not have any place from which the OPML could be launched or revolve around. It took a long time before decisions could reach me - which usually would already be in the process of implementation.

But because I myself believed then, I went along with the decisions afterwards. Anything that was asked of me, I carried out. I followed the order of the ringleaders when they asked me to arrest my own collective mates in the front.

How did you accept the summing-up and judgment on the OPML?

It was absolutely correct to characterize it as one big "episode of madness." The comrades then became delirious, paranoid, were not themselves, afraid of something they could not see, and afraid of something that was not true.

When the OPML was summed up, I wholeheartedly accepted that it was really wrong. And when the document of the SGRM, "Reaffirm Our Basic Principles and Rectify Errors," I wholeheartedly accepted it. I prepared myself for any possible disciplinary action in accordance with the Party constitution.

You mentioned that the disciplinary action that was imposed on you was relatively light. Can you share this with us? What was your part in bringing about the damages?

I was given a stern warning. It was even lower than what I had expected. I was once again made secretary of the very area where the OPML took place in order to head up the big work in recovering from the heavy damage there. Before I was deployed to another front, I became the secretary of the front in the Laguna-Quezon border near Banahaw. I was returned there to head up the big recovery work there. I was concerned that it was going to be difficult but I accepted it as my challenge and as part of my own rectification. I also figured that directly helping to re-establish the front that I previously headed up but which was destroyed by the OPML would lessen the pangs of my conscience.

At first, it was rather difficult because the remaining members of the Front Committee refused to attend meetings. They were concerned that perhaps the manacling would again be repeated. Some cried, and there were those who were very angry because they knew that I was also involved albeit minor. But we persisted in talking to them and explaining to the comrades.

They forgave me and the vigor, trust and our comradely relations were restored. My confidence that their understanding would also be broad, that they would be able to overcome their displeasure in the interest of the revolution, proved correct. I began to admire their selflessness, their being genuine revolutionaries and communists even more.

Although most of them understood and resumed their involvement in the movement, there were also those who became passive and did not accept any work. We cannot blame them because of the gravity of the trauma they experienced and the big sins that comrades committed against them.

After some time, we were able to recover considerably in the front. I was able to stay there until 1994 so I was able to witness the dramatic resurgence and advance of the guerrilla front there.

From your experience, what was the most difficult?

It is most difficult to explain to the spouses, children, siblings and parents of those who perished. Because they are seething with anger. I prepared myself to accept the cursing and reprimanding. I have prepared myself to accept all kinds of heavy words. And I teach other comrades not to be disheartened, even if they curse us. That is nothing compared to the fate of their loved ones.

My instructions to comrades at first, when we know that those we face are angry, if it is just cursing, be prepared to accept it. We must understand that what had happened to them was intense. If we are going to be hurt, we must just retreat. Now, if we are surrounded and they are going to hurt us, we will not fight back even if blood should flow.

Fortunately, we have not faced anyone who really intends to hurt us. They really sob, tears flow from their eyes as well as from their nostrils, they are simply angry. But afterwards, they warmly receive us again despite what has happened. I am deeply moved.

It was then that I realized that the masses - no matter how big your mistake as long as you explain yourself, humble yourself, and show sincerity - have a broad patience and understanding. Their embrace and support for the revolution quickly returned. All of those we had talked to accepted our explanations and remained supporters of our movement.

For as long as we know there is someone who has not yet been addressed, who has not yet been spoken to, who has not been given an explanation, who has not yet been implored forgiveness, and who has not yet been persuaded to return to the movement, we will immediately make an effort to link up with and talk to that someone. I take it upon myself up to now, together with continuing to rectify, to explain and to account to the loved ones of the victims and the masses. Whenever there is someone in need and especially when I myself am requested, I am always ready and available to face up and explain.

Up to now, there are still a few families that we talk to. And whenever we talk, I am still distressed by it. I cannot forget what has transpired and continue to have regrets. At the same time, I am gladdened and inspired by the masses who continue to embrace the Party and the revolution. #

(Basahin sa Pilipino)

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