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Orlando de Guzman bides his time in Cotabato as he waits to hear from "Azwar," his
MILF contact. |
"Meet me at 3 in front of the post office. I'll take my hat off
a few times so you'll know it is me." This text message, in abbreviated
Tagalog, appeared on my hand phone, and it came from our mysterious
MILF guide. I'll call him Azwar. I'd never actually met him, but
we'd traded a few messages the past couple of days.
The Philippines is one of the heaviest users of short messaging
in the world. It sends more text messages than all of Europe.
The MILF is just as hooked on "texting" as the rest of the country.
One MILF cadre told me that cell phones are just as important
as rifles.
The MILF is as hooked
on "texting" as the rest of the country. One MILF cadre
told me that cell phones are just as important as rifles.
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This text message from Azwar was significant. It was the first
one to refer to an exact location and time. All the other messages
I'd received had been deliberately vague and misleading. So
at 2:45 p.m., our van was waiting at the meeting point. We kept
the engine running so we could use the air conditioner, but
it was no match for the scorching afternoon sun. I was baking
by the time someone approached us. He wasn't wearing a hat.
We walked over to a nearby coffee shop, where he explained the
plan in clipped sentences. It boiled down to this: We were to
be taken to the MILF's stronghold in a sprawling jungle, to
an area known as Camp Abubakar.
As in the villages, life in Cotabato City continues despite the war. |
In 2000, Camp Abubakar fell to the military. Thousands of MILF
fighters had once trained there and used the area as a base. And
now the MILF's leaders had set up a shadow government there. It
had a clinic, a school, mosques, a jailhouse and even a paved
concrete road, courtesy of the Philippine government. The road
was called "Friendship Highway," from back when the government
and the MILF were still intent on forging some kind of peace agreement.
Now the MILF does not operate so openly. In fact, its movements
are highly secretive. The MILF's chairman, a Cairo-educated religious
preacher called Hashim Salamat, no longer makes public appearances.
Producer Margarita Dragon films MILF
fighters praying at Camp Abubakar. |
As we talked, I glanced around the coffee shop for possible
spies. A man behind us appeared to be taking an interest in
our conversation, but my companion carried on, stirring his
coffee incessantly. First, we were to drive outside of Cotabato
City to a small town, where we'd switch vehicles. We would then
take a dirt road to an even smaller village, where we'd unload
and immediately start walking toward the jungle. The big wildcard
was that the route we were going to take has more than a dozen
military checkpoints. We could avoid the checkpoints by avoiding
the roads completely, but that meant adding a whole day's walking
to the journey. Pressed for time, we opted for the quickest
route. We'd just have to talk our way through the checkpoints
if we were stopped. We were to set off at dawn the next day.
After leaving the coffee house, I got another text message
from Azwar, saying that the man we'd just met was not actually
him. It was his messenger. We would meet him the next day, he
promised.
NEXT: Into Guerrilla Territory
PREVIOUS: Midsayap Battle
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