Tata Pido speaking in a protest action. (BULATLAT FILE PHOTO)We were receiving reports from our Party-list members in the upland barrios that they were being harassed by the Philippine Army soldiers and paramilitary groups like the CAFGU (Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit). The ANAKPAWIS party list organization was being branded as New Peoples’ Army (NPA) and the members as NPA supporters. Their membership cards were confiscated by the soldiers. There were incidents when the Philippine Army soldiers stopped them at the checkpoints and took away their farm tools (for copra making) and even the cooked food they had prepared for several days’ work. In March 2004, I went to the Quezon Provincial Board Council to file complaints against the Philippine Army Infantry Battalion stationed in the 4th district of Quezon. The Provincial Board council held (3) hearings on our complaints. The farmers and ANAKPAWIS members from the barrios came to Lucena (provincial capital) to attend the hearings.
In the third and last hearing, the commanding officer of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Southern Luzon Command (SOLCOM) Gen. Pedro Cabuay arrived with a group of farmers from Bondoc Peninsula. During the hearing, Gen Cabuay and the other officers openly called me a Communist and an NPA. Gen Cabuay asked me: “What can you say about the reports that you have been in the mountains, in the NPA gatherings?”
I replied: “The agenda in these hearings are not about me. The agenda is about the complaints of the farmers and the ANAKPAWIS members against the abuses of the Phil Army soldiers.” I think we should let the hearings proceed according to the set agenda”. The Provincial Councilors agreed with me; and refused to let General Cabuay derail the discussions. When the army officers persisted in bringing the discussion to my being a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP); the provincial councilors refused to back down. The Councilors took turns in explaining that the Anti-subversion law has been repealed in 1992. This is the law during the time of the Dictator Marcos which outlawed the CPP. When the farmers and the other rural folk heard the explanations, they clapped and cheered the councilors.
One week later, the AFP-SOLCOM in a nationwide radio broadcast again called me a communist and an NPA.
During the election campaign we received many reports of harassments of our party list municipal and barangay chapters. The other candidates also warned me that they had received reports that I would be attacked by the government security forces. On 10 May 2004, election day, we decided I should leave Gumaca immediately after casting my ballot. So Medy and I left for Manila. But two days later, 12 May, we had to go back to Gumaca to supervise the post election work –getting reports on the vote counting, the ANAKPAWIS staff had to go back to their own barrios, etc.
We arrived at our office in the afternoon. A while later, around 17.00 hours, I was standing by the little corner store and waiting for a tricycle, to go to town. I suddenly felt something hard hit my head. I fell into a small ditch. Then I opened my eyes and I could see two men shooting me. So I closed my eyes. After a while the shooting stopped. Then I heard my kasama (companion), Ka Rudy, shouting: “Tata Pido has been shot! Help! Help!” Then I felt Ka Rudy and a tricycle driver lifting me out of the ditch. They put me in a tricycle and brought me to the Gumaca district hospital. The hospital is about 500 meters from Camp Natividad police camp. There I was put on a metal trolley bed, in the lobby of the hospital. I could see many plainclothes police standing around. So I got very angry and said in a loud voice, ”You, policemen, you will not hear me begging for my life!” Then I saw my wife and my daughter had arrived. I told my daughter, “I don’t want to see anybody crying. These murderers will be happy if they see us crying.”
The initial diagnosis of the resident physician was: there is a bullet inside the patient’s head, possibly in his brain. Since there is no surgeon here and we do not have the needed equipment. It is best to get an ambulance and bring the patient to Manila at once. The district hospital had no X-Ray machine; also no ambulance. So the kasamas decided to bring me first to the other hospital to rent their ambulance. Then the doctor from the private hospital arrived with the ambulance. He talked to Medy and told her—“I don’t think the wound on the cheek is entry point of the bullet. There are no gunpowder burns around the wound. The patient is losing so much blood, if we bring him to Manila, he might die before we get there.” (Manila is nearly 200 kilometers from Gumaca).“ I want to bring him to the other hospital where there is an X-Ray machine, and I can operate on Tata Pido if necessary,” the doctor told Medy. Medy was asked to sign a waiver/agreeing to the doctor’s plan to operate.
The X-ray report showed that in spite of the nine gunshots I sustained, there were no shrapnel in my brain, or any vital organs. There was shrapnel lodged in the abdominal muscles under my ribs. The doctor decided to operate at once. After the operation I stayed in the hospital for five days and then the doctor said I may leave for Manila and be cared for by the doctors in the progressive medical organization .
After the attack Medy and I discussed what we should do when I recover from my wounds. We decided we should go back to our political work. To stop and in political lingo ”lie low” would mean we gave the fascist Arroyo regime what it wanted—to “silence me”.
By the end of 2004 I decided I was well enough to go back to political work. So Medy and I asked to be given work assignments once more.
7. Did you know who were behind this murder attempt? Were the culprits ever caught and held responsible for their crime?I am positive that Gen. Pedro Cabuay, Gen. Alfonso Dagudag and the officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Southern Luzon Command in cooperation with Gen. Jovito Palparan were behind the murder attempt.
On 29 June 2004, I filed my formal complaint against them at the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) Monitoring Committee –Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.
On 25 September 2006, together with many other victims of human rights violations, I filed my case before the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC).
As far as I know the Gumaca police have made no moves to even identify the two gunmen much less find and arrest them. After sixteen years. I know that justice will come when the Filipino people’s movement achieve national liberation and democracy.
8. I understand you and your wife Medy have been visiting political detainees regularly. How many political detainees are currently behind bars and what about their physical and mental condition?Medy and I are now in our 70’s and so our political activities have limitations. Aside from going to political demonstrations and meetings, since 2012 we decided that visiting our political prisoner friends can be a regular activity for us.
All the political prisoners are charged with common crimes –murder, multiple murder, robbery in band, arson, illegal possession of firearms, illegal possession of explosives. As of this writing, there are more than 600 political prisoners in jails all over the country. Except for the political prisoners in Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig City, they are mixed with common criminal prisoners in the prison cells.
Physical conditions in the jails are very bad. The jails in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao are very overcrowded. Sunning and physical exercise in the open are limited to one or two hours a week. Water supply is unsafe and limited. The food is very bad. Prisoners must buy their own personal hygiene needs—bath and laundry soap, shampoo, toothpaste, etc.
The corruption is very rampant in the Bureau of Corrections (in charge of prison facilities for convicted prisoners) and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (in charge of jails for detainees still not convicted).
In the Maximum Security Compound in national penitentiary in Muntinlupa, in spite of the pronouncements of the Duterte government, the illegal drug trade continues—conducted by the drug lords confined there.
According to the authorities the Maximum Security Compound can accommodate 6,500 inmates, but now there are more than 19,000 inmates there. There are 45 political prisoners in the Maximum Security Compound, they are confined in a brigada attached to the church building of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente.
In October 2019, the Bureau of Corrections chief Gerald Bantag, ordered that the make-shift shacks of the prisoners in the Maximum Security Compound be demolished. As of this writing, hundreds of prisoners have to stay in the open spaces, with pieces of tarpaulin, or plastic sheets for protection from the sun, rain and now ash fall from the Taal Volcano.
The political prisoners (PPs) have very high morale. Among themselves, they have regular study and discussion sessions – on the economic and political situation in the Philippines, developments in other countries. In many jails the political prisoners conduct literacy-numeracy lessons for the non-political prisoners.
In all the jails, the PPs are regarded with respect by the non-political prisoners, because they are disciplined and they are always ready to help. The non-political prisoners ask the help of the PPs in appealing their cases in court, e.g. writing letters, getting what are the necessary documents and knowing where to get them, etc.
9. Are you in one way or another still active in trade unions or political organizations?Yes, I am still active in the Fisherfolk organization, Pamalakaya. I am Vice-Chairperson Emeritus. This means I am asked to speak in demonstrations or meetings whenever the other officials cannot attend. I am still active in the Southern Tagalog chapter of Anakpawis .
Even when I am not a speaker, I still attend demonstrations, political meetings whenever I can. Sometimes, student and youth groups invite me to speak in their schools, or in the urban poor communities. I am especially glad to be with the young people because then I can really feel and see the bright future of the revolutionary struggle. In these young people—many of them as old as my own grandchildren– I see the fruit of my generation’s 50 years struggle.
10. How do you personally assess the three and a half years of the Duterte administration?I agree with Jose Maria Sison: “Conditions are such that Duterte was able to pretend as being patriotic and progressive in order to win the 2016 elections.” But like his idol, Dictator Marcos, Duterte has brought so much misery to the people.
Duterte regime’s fascist drive is a brazen display of force and abuse of state powers. He seeks to terrorize the people and to silence the broad masses against worsening oppression.
In the face of Duterte’s brutal fascist drive, more and more Filipinos, especially young people, are encouraged to join the New People’s Army. To quote Jose Maria Sison: “Duterte, like Marcos, has become the best recruiter for the New People’s Army.”
After three and a half years of the Duterte regime, I can say that Duterte will surely end up in the garbage bin of history. Even now the majority of the Filipino people hate him and speak of him in ridicule.
https://www.bulatlat.com/2020/01/31/the-many-lives-of-pido-g/
