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Mortar and sometimes heavy artillery is used to ward off rebel attacks
at Midsayap. |
News of the battle at Midsayap first came to us via -- what else
-- the radio. Our film crew was loading our gear into our van
when we heard about a pitched firefight raging in Midsayap, about
45 minutes from our hotel. Our driver, Bong (we affectionately
called him Commander Bong), knew the area well, as did our guide,
George Vigo -- a fearless local reporter and a friend whom I'd
worked with on my first and subsequent assignments in Mindanao.
The battle at Midsayap was close enough to get to and film as
it was unfolding.
Military reinforcements arrive to help civilian militia against a sudden
rebel attack. |
We arrived at the front line even before the military's reinforcements.
There were sporadic bursts of gunfire, coming from armed pro-government
civilians who were keeping the MILF from advancing. At some
point I knew we'd have to film a gunfight, and I expected the
worst. I had brought along two kinds of bullet-proof vests:
a light one and a much heavier one for high-velocity rounds,
the kind used by the U.S. military and made famous by all those
television war correspondents in Iraq.
I hate war and I hate guns. I grew up in the northern Philippines
during the communist insurgency's heyday in the 1980s. I lived
in the midst of war, and I still get the same visceral reaction
to guns as I did when I was younger. But more than anything,
I was gripped with fear.
Farmers are armed and must patrol their fields at all times. |
One of the strangest things about the front line in Mindanao
is that life carries on as usual. Sure, there are frightened
people hastily packing their pots and pans and rounding up their
cattle to flee. But then there are those who choose to stay
and calmly carry on with their daily farm tasks. Rice is cooked,
chickens are fed and wood is chopped as bullets fly overhead.
These are the people who've seen enough conflict to know exactly
when to stay and when to go. The thunder of mortar doesn't move
them until it is close enough to shake the earth beneath their
bare feet. It's a sadly confusing truth that you can actually
grow accustomed to a war raging literally in your own backyard.
I suppose this is what more than 30 years of conflict will do
to you.
Children cover ears while watching Midsayap
battle. |
What's even more disturbing about Mindanao's front line is
how much of a spectacle it is. No battle is complete without
its own army of children, teenagers and grannies watching the
whole thing as if it were a movie. They gather by the hundreds,
milling about and cheering every time Filipino soldiers fire
deafening 105mm artillery rounds on enemy positions. They mockingly
yell, "Allah Akbar" -- a sacrosanct Arabic phrase meaning "God
is great" -- at MILF rebels pinned down by gunfire. The children
scratch around in the dirt for black gunpowder pellets spilling
out of crates of artillery rounds. Some of the kids light the
pellets uncomfortably close to live shells. When gunfire rings
across the rice paddies, those who are working in the paddies
don't stop what they're doing -- they just watch while they
work. It makes wearing a bullet-proof jacket seem pointless;
it makes the wearer look like a buffoon.
NEXT: A Messenger From the Underground
PREVIOUS: Hearing Voices
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