His back was hunched as he went down from the bus, his gait slow; sometimes he shuffled as he made his way to the application area a few meters away. One of his younger comrades helped him, extending a hand for him to hold as if it was a walking cane.
His hair was greyed, his skin rough.
He paused before he made the few final steps to a plastic table draped in white tablecloth by a caterer.
He tried to reach his full height of around more than five feet, and adjusted his polo shirt, mustard yellow, as if he was about to enter the JS prom hall, an experience he probably never had.
As he tried to stand tall, I saw his eyes under whitening brows, the slight glint, the wary, not angry, demeanor telling the story of one who has seen since his teenage years death, skirmishes, the many chases through forests, perhaps, love, loss and, as romanticized later on by Communist Party founder Jose Maria Sison, one who had become “… Keen to the rustle of leaves…The smell of fire. And the ashes of departure.”
Of course it must be said that those guerrillas Sison once described as “like poets” have now become almost like an army of thugs and extortionists who have a string of “victories” in killing unarmed civilians, torching trucks and machines not yet sentient enough to fight back but kicking up dust in thewake of their hasty flight when superior fighters of the Army chase them in combat.
At the southern end of the Masaligan (monicker of the 79th) Hall, chafing dishes lined a buffet table On it werw heaps of chopsuey, rice and litson manok, frugal fare for a significant occasion that marked more than 20 years of negotiations between government and the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade once scorned by the “RAs,” fanatics of Sison, as “traitors of the revolution.”
The entire command group of the battalion led by their commander, Lieutenant Colonel Arnel Calaoagan, were around to witness the event as ranking national officials of the National Amnesty Commission and the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, Reconciliation and Unity led the event.
To Calaoagan, the application for amnesty signal the start of the return of civil rights to the more than 200 rebels after a long wait.
“Some of them already have children who have finished college,” lawyer Leah Armamento said on the sidelines of the application.
Armamento, who chairs the National Amnesty Commission, pointed out a final peace agreement was signed in 2005 between the government and the RPA-ABB but it took around 19 years for this last step as it was only last year that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr issued Proclamation No. 404 that pardoned former Communist rebels for crimes punishale under the Penal Code and special laws in furtherance of their political beliefs.
The senior Marcos, namesake of the sitting president, was ironically the one who placed the country under Martial law that was blamed by Communist leaders as the cause of their insurgency as it allegedly spawned massive rights violations.
She added it took a while for their Commission to be formed after Marcos Jr issued his proclamation.
Armamento also said the RPA rebels under the “Tabara Paduano” faction are easier to negotiate with as they have already organized themselves.
Tabara, who chairs the Kapatiran, voicedhopes that peace is at reach now compared to previous decades as she pointed out that the Thursday event was also a testament to the persistence of Kapatiran to stickk with their peace pact with government amid the delays in the implementation of its provisions and the challenges that came their way.
Among which was the assasinations of theirs members by the New People’s Army.
“Many were killed defenseless, some were in front of their families,” Tabara said as a, result of the demobilization of the RPA and the turnover of their firearms to the government.
This prompted the forming of Community Defense Units until government decided to integrate the former fighters into the CAFGU Active Auxiliary, the paramilitary force.
Asked if this peace would be something herhusband would have wanted to see, Ka Inca said: “of course” as she added that pursuing peace and social reforms was at one point of her copung with grief after her husband waa killed by the NPA.
Ka Inca admitted the road to social reforms might be long and winding as she noted that some of the issues that drove them to the hills in their teens remain like poverty and corruption remain but she admitted real change can only happen when everyone moves towards it and only through peaceful means.
He had been a fighter for the most part of his life and as he sat on a plastic chair inside an Army headquarters that used to be just targets for their taktikal nga opensiba, he whose used to be anonymous, known only az “Ka” reached for the pen from Ka Inca.
