When Datu Juan Lindahay donated three hectares to the government in 1960 for the Lantad Elementary School, he did it on condition that should any of his descendants be fortunate enough to get an education, that they be allowed to work there as teachers. Over half a century later, his son Bruno has called on that promise.
Of A Promise Kept-A Higaonon’s Walkabout in Lantad (Oil Painting by Marianito Torres) (photo by Mike Baños, NPN)
Like most of his neighbors, Datu Bruno Lindahay was born in the fertile valley of Sitio Lantad, Barangay Kibanban, 890 meters above sea level and 25 kilometers from the national highway linking the Municipality of Balingasag to the rest of Misamis Oriental and the Caraga region.
Also, like 95 percent of the 1,000 residents of Lantad, Datu Bruno is an ethnic Higaonon. His ancestors were originally from Barangay Napiliran but were forced up the mountains during the Spanish occupation and have lived in the boondocks ever since.
Now 68, he finished 4th grade at the Lantad Primary School in 1964 at an age when other teeners like him were already finishing high school. The school only attained elementary status in 1997, so many residents like Lindahay had to content themselves with finishing primary school.
But this didn’t deter him from running for barangay councilor and winning in 1970.
During this time, Datu Bruno was already quite prosperous by the standards of that period. He had three-hectares in Lantad planted to corn and coffee and was also buying the produce of his neighbors and selling them for a profit at Balingasag Public Market.
The Good Life
It was relatively easy to travel to Balingasag then. It was easy to hitch a ride with a logging truck of the Vulcan logging firm, which first improved the Kibanban-Lantad road for its logging operations in 1970. Although it ceased operations barely two years later, it left a passable road over which Lindahay and his neighbors could go to either Balingasag (18 kms. downhill) or Gingoog City (nine kms. uphill).
In 1980, the road was restored by the Maningo logging firm which operated until 1982. Then in 1981, the New People’s Army (NPA) started its activities in the area.
Before the provincial road was reopened, the people of Lantad had no choice but to transport their produce like abaca on horseback to Bgy Kibanban, 4 hrs away. (photo by Wowel Condeza, PIO)
Lindahay says it was ignorance, rather than poverty, which the NPA took advantage of to impress its ideology on the lumad residents of Lantad.
“It wasn’t poverty that was the enemy because during this time, we were already producing vegetables and fruits which we transported to Balingasag as ‘backload’ in the Maningo dump trucks at least twice a week,” Lindahay recalls. “Oftentimes, the truck had to come back for a second trip due to the volume of agri-products we produced.”
The Dark Ages
However, it was the beginning of the ‘‘dark ages’’ in Lantad. In 1982, the New People’s Army (NPA) assassinated Kibanban barangay chairperson Hospicio Khu, a Filipino-Chinese businessman who used to have the biggest house in Lantad.
In 1984, despite being the incumbent barangay committee chairman for agriculture, Lindahay was arrested by the now defunct Integrated National Police (INP) as a suspected NPA sympathizer and tortured inside his own house in Lantad. His wife ran for help to then Balingasag Mayor Porferio Roa who interceded on his behalf with the INP and saved him from further torture.
A view on the road on the way to Lantad. (photo by Wowel Condeza, PIO)
“I was repeatedly punched and struck with the barrel of their guns. They stuffed dukot (burnt rice) and sili (chili peppers) in my mouth and burned my skin with cigarettes. Then they tied me up and hung me by the church,” he recalls.
As soon as he was released, Lindahay fled and hid in the hills where he eventually joined the NPA. “I was swayed by the NPA’s promises of free education, medical services and true agrarian reform that would make us owners of our own land,” he admits. “They also promised us we would all be part-owners of big businesses in Cagayan de Oro like Gaisano and Del Monte when the NPA won its People’s Revolution against the government.”
However, the NPA in turn suspected him of being a government informer due to his long public service as a barangay councilor in Kibanban and he was tried by a kangaroo court. He was eventually released after one Dante Cagais interceded on his behalf. The five other suspects in the kangaroo court were executed by the NPA.
The ‘People’s Government’
In 1987, the National Democratic Front-Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (NDF-CCP-NPA) set up a “People’s Government” in Lantad and took over the functions of all government services including health and education. It became the NPA’s Front Committee 4B, North Central Mindanao Command’s guerrilla base which supplied logistics to communist guerillas in Northern Mindanao and the Caraga Region.
Lantad became a showcase for the NDF-CPP-NPA which functioned as the de facto government from 1987-1990 and even issued land titles to residents.A cooperative store was even set up to ostensibly serve the residents but in reality served as the logistics center for arms, ammunition and supplies for the rebels.
“We had up to 200 guerrillas training here in 1990 with weapons just like the military’s,” recalls Lindahay. “Our comrades would come down every week to buy around P30,000 worth of food and supplies from our cooperative store.
“Lantad was vulnerable to the CPP-NPA because no government presence could be felt there,” said former Misamis Oriental Vice Gov. Norris C. Babiera. “We knew all along that a military approach is not the answer; we had to provide economic opportunities, too,” he added.
During the three-year period when the “People’s Government” held sway in Lantad, education was limited to rudimentary reading and writing and indoctrination in communist propaganda. Classes were taught by “teachers” who finished only 3rd or 4th grade because Lindahay believes the communist insurgency thrives on ignorance and deceit and didn’t want school children to learn too much and see through their deceptions.
Kuta Lantad
To secure Lantad, the NPA utilized indigenous Higaonon bush craft to isolate the hamlet from the government, police and military. The Militia ng Bayan (MBs, the NPA counterpart to the government-organized local militia or Cafgu) planted land mines and booby traps such as the abo-abo (boulders triggered by a trip wire), batik (sharpened bamboo sticks concealed in holes underfoot) and gahong (using bagakay or young bamboo sticks as suyak or spikes) making Lantad virtually impregnable.
As a result, government forces resorted to bombing and strafing Lantad from the air with MG-520 helicopter gunships and propeller driven fighter-bombers like the Vietnam era T-33 more popularly known to locals as the “Tora-Tora” and twin-prop OV-10 Broncos which were capable of dropping 500-lb bombs.
Bones of suspected NPA purge vicitms uneartherd in Lantad by Army troopers (photo courtesy of the Phil. Army)
Lindahay claims NPA guerrillas suffered minimal casualties from the air attacks since they took shelter in underground foxholes around Mt. Balatukan. Military aircraft were allegedly unable to drop lower for more accurate strafing and bombing runs since the NPA posted snipers in the upper hills who could virtually shoot down on the attacking military aircraft. They were also equipped with hand-held walkie-talkies which enabled them to coordinate the movement of forces where they were most needed or furthest from harm from the air attacks. It was only much later when the military forces started their systematic ground offensive that the NPA began to suffer serious casualties, Lindahay claims.
Writing on white paper
During the early 1990s, the CPP-NPA began sending Lindahay and other “witnesses” of alleged AFP atrocities to speak at forums organized by militant left-leaning student groups in CPP hotbeds such as the University of the Philippines and the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
As his interaction with his colleagues from the movement grew, Datu Bruno gradually realized that the NPA was taking advantage of illiterate rural folk to sway them with anti-government and communist propaganda. When the NPA ordered him to transfer to Agusan when the military offensive made Lantad too hot for them to remain any longer, he refused and told them he would stay and face the consequences in Lantad.
The first local government vehicle enters Lantad after 20 years. (photo by Wowel Condeza, PIO)
In retrospect, Lindahay believes many like himself were swayed by the promises of the NPA because they did not know that all those promises were in fact basic services already being provided by the government.
“When government was restored to Lantad, we were very happy that many of the NPA’s promises were in fact being provided by the government like free education, scholarships from the NCIP, free medical and health services from Philhealth.”
Addressing the root causes of insurgency
When former Congressman Oscar S. Moreno became governor in 2004, he set out to make Lantad a showcase for the province’s peace building efforts. “We cannot address insurgency unless we address the root causes of insurgency,” noted Gov. Moreno. “This is the overriding agenda of Misamis Oriental and the Provincial Peace and Order Council: Address the root causes of insurgency so we can achieve peace.”
“Instead of addressing the insurgency by military force, the armed forces and police partnered with the PPOC in dealing with the conflict by bringing the government closer to the people,” said Teodoro Sabuga-a, Jr., PPOC executive director. “Peace was won using peaceful initiatives proving that civilian authority can subdue the real enemies: poverty and inequity.”
The NPA made a last-ditch stand to return to Lantad in 2004-2005, reorganizing the residents into cadres but they were finally thrown out by the 8th IB in late September 2005, enabling the provincial engineer’s office to repair and restore the Kibanban-Lantad provincial road.
Before that time, Lantad was accessible only through narrow dirt roads by foot or horseback. According to Lindahay, before the road was rebuilt, they could no longer bring their agricultural produce to the market. The sick would die on the way to the hospital. The teachers could only hold classes three days a week instead of five. The military and the police seldom visited the place to provide security for the residents.
Restoring Lantad
In 1997, Lindahay was again elected as a barangay councilor of Kibanban. In his long interaction and service as a public servant, Lindahay said it was only now that the capitol managed to deliver services to Lantad residents, most important of which was the restoration of the Kibanban-Lantad barangay road and its upgrading to a provincial road.
Higaonon tribal leaders in Lantad (photo by Mike Baños, NPN)
“Since the road was restored, people have been encouraged to plant more coffee, banana, abaca and corn since it was now possible to bring our produce down to Kibanban and Balingasag poblacion itself and get a bigger profit,” Lindahay said. The turnover of a solar dryer in 2006 and the organization of the farmers into a multi-purpose cooperative enable them to sell more produce at a higher price to their buyers.
For his part, Lindahay has managed to expand his modest farm to 10 hectares and he has resumed his trading in vegetables and fruits. This has enabled him to send his children to school in Balingasag and Cagayan de Oro. “With the habal-habal, we can now send our peanuts, corn, coffee beans and other produce to Balingasag Central Market so they don’t rot waiting to be transported.”
His wife Bae Flora and two of his children help him till his farm which he has distributed among his seven children. Since their marriage in 1970, Bae Flora has constantly been by Lindahay’s side through thick and thin and is now the head of the women folk in Lantad. She notes the huge difference in Lantad’s economy, culture, health and education after peace was restored.
Crossing the rivers on foot can be dangerous during the rainy season. (photo by Mike Baños, NPN)
“All of what we dreamed for in our lives is coming true,” she said. When the Moreno administration took over the reins of the province’s leadership and Balingasag Municipal Mayor Alex Quina was elected, she said their family had been able to avail of medical services for free through their Philhealth cards.
“When my son was operated twice in five years, we didn’t even pay a single centavo of our medical bill,” she recalls. “When my husband underwent a cataract operation and gets asthma attacks which he got from being tortured by the military in 1984, we don’t pay even one centavo at the Provincial Hospital in Balingasag because the pharmacy is open day and night to give us medicines when he is admitted. Even when he is not admitted, we can still get medicines from the munisipyo any hour of the day or night.”
As a concrete example of Misamis Oriental’s thrust of inclusive peace thru development, she said even the wives and children of insurgents still in the hills enjoy the benefits of Philhealth cards.
Bae Flora says it was only when the Kibanban-Lantad road was restored and they were again able to avail of basic services from the provincial government that her family was able to enjoy a better quality of life through their farming which provided them cash to buy fresh fish and rice in Balingasag Central Market.
Today Lantad has become a model of what could happen when the government, the military, and other stakeholders work together to bring peace and development to a community.
Forgiveness and Absolution
Lindahay holds no rancor against the military now and is grateful to the solders for helping give back the community to its residents.
“That was in the past, and I have totally forgiven them now,” Lindahay said, noting a dramatic change in the military’s attitude toward the people these past few years. “They are polite, they help us in our livelihood, they help us repair the roads, they would contribute money when we do our tribal rituals, and they even donated P50,000 when we had to do expansion work for our chapel,” added the tribal leader who also attended an OP Kors! training tailored for communities.
Bae Flora said the woman of Lantad’s foremost concern now is for better livelihood to provide for the education of their children.
“We need to help our husbands by increasing our income from our livelihood,” she noted. “Because our husbands did not finish high school, they can only do farming. Corn takes four months to harvest and all can be lost to a single storm in only one hour. Security is no longer our concern since government is now on our side instead of against us.”
However, while they welcome the increased opportunities education provides for their children and grandchildren, the increasing costs of education it costing more and more of their household income.
“Our financial status needs to be improved substantially. Basic education used to be only one year of kindergarten and six years of grade school. But the new curriculum now requires 3 years of pre-school, six years of elementary, and six years of high school.”
But still they hope for a better future. Datu Bruno has managed to collect on the education department’s promise to his late father by having his daughter-in-law, Gemma Tabamo-Lindahay, 30, who is married to his second son Apolinario, teach pre-school at the Lantad Elementary School.
The Higa-onon’s Walkabout in Lantad had come full circle.
– INDNJC –