Under the Gun

By Anthony Spaeth

TIME (edisi Asia) · TIME edisi Asia, 9 Mei 2005; laporan utama tentang militer Filipina (7 halaman). Bagian dari entri majalah TIME (Asia) 9 Mei 2005 · 2005-05-09

Identifier

KBA-KLP-2005-0001

Type

Kliping

Publisher

TIME (edisi Asia)

Date Issued

2005-05-09

Bibliographic Citation

TIME edisi Asia, 9 Mei 2005; laporan utama tentang militer Filipina (7 halaman). Bagian dari entri majalah TIME (Asia) 9 Mei 2005

Creator

Anthony Spaeth

Subject

Angkatan Bersenjata Filipina Konflik Moro Jolo Abu Sayyaf Nur Misuari Hubungan sipil-militer Perang melawan terorisme

LC Classification

UA853.P6 — Angkatan bersenjata Filipina

LCSH Subject

Philippines. Armed Forces Insurgency -- Philippines -- Jolo Island Moro National Liberation Front Civil-military relations -- Philippines

BISAC Category

POL012000 POLITICAL SCIENCE / Security (National & International)

Language

Inggris

Description

This clipping contains a report by Anthony Spaeth entitled "Under the Gun" from TIME magazine, Asia edition, 9 May 2005. This report is the main article on the Philippine military flagged on the corner banner of that issue's cover with the title "The Philippine Military: Poor Morale and Endless Wars". The scan consists of seven pages, including an opening page with a large photograph of a soldier and a subheading stating that the Philippine military is grappling with low morale, poor equipment, and stubborn armed groups, a problem which according to the editors belongs not only to the Philippines but to the whole region. This entry is linked to the parent entry for TIME magazine, Asia edition, 9 May 2005, in the same collection. Spaeth opens his report with the story of Lieutenant Colonel Dennis Villanueva, commander of the 53rd Infantry Battalion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Villanueva is portrayed as an officer with nineteen years of combat experience, respected by his men, and known to be close to his soldiers. In February 2005 he was planning leave to be with his family, but fighting broke out on the island of Jolo, Sulu Province. On 10 February 2005 he sent a text message to his wife that his troops were under attack. Shortly afterwards his battalion came under mortar fire near a hamlet, and mortar fragments wounded Villanueva along with a number of soldiers. He was evacuated to a civilian hospital in Jolo town, but died from heavy blood loss. According to the report, he was the highest-ranking Filipino officer killed in combat in years. Villanueva's story is then developed into a puzzle that reveals institutional problems. His family and some of his fellow officers believe he could in fact have been saved. The report contains the testimony of a young officer wounded with him: the first helicopter to arrive at the landing zone left without taking any casualties, so the wounded soldiers had to wait dozens more minutes. Differing versions of the severity of the wounds and the speed of evacuation between field testimony and statements by the military leadership become Spaeth's entry point for discussing poor logistics, the shortage of airworthy helicopters, and minimal combat medical facilities. The next section widens the focus to the condition of the Armed Forces of the Philippines as a whole. Spaeth describes around 125,000 soldiers fighting almost every day, often against the same enemies their fathers and grandfathers faced, with outdated weapons. He notes shortages of body armour, basic equipment, and maintenance, as well as the very frequent changes of chief of staff under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The report quotes defence officials who acknowledge that reform plans worth hundreds of millions of dollars had done little to reverse a decade of decline. The United States, which since the war on terror had increased military aid and training programmes, is portrayed as paying close attention to this situation out of concern that parts of the Philippines might become a haven for terror networks, like the ungoverned areas of Somalia. Spaeth also links low morale to the history of political discontent within the military. The Philippines experienced more than ten coup attempts in the nineteen years before this report was written. He mentions ideas circulating among retired officers about the need for a new structure of government, even a military junta, as a sign that frustration among soldiers had not died out. The historical section of the report explains how the hopes of the early 1990s, when Fidel Ramos became president, communism weakened, and a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front was signed, gradually collapsed. The New People's Army revived, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front continued fighting, and Nur Misuari, founder of the Moro National Liberation Front, rebelled again in November 2001 before fleeing to Malaysia, being extradited, and being detained in Manila. The report also presents field coverage from Jolo. TIME's correspondent accompanied the commander of the Southern Command on a visit to an area newly "cleared" of rebels. Spaeth describes military operations resembling the pattern of the Vietnam War: soldiers mark villages controlled by rebels and then move in, while residents flee. At the height of the fighting, tens of thousands of Jolo residents were living in temporary evacuation centres. The guerrillas faced were partly from the Abu Sayyaf group, but most were longtime Misuari loyalists. The report also touches on two versions of what triggered the fighting: the military called it a rebel attack, while the rebels accused the soldiers of provoking the conflict. For Southeast Asian studies, this report has high value as a primary source. It records the security situation in the southern Philippines at a time when the United States made the region a "second front" in the war on terror, and when civil-military relations in Manila were tense. A few months after this report was published, the political crisis of the Arroyo government deepened, and in February 2006 the government declared a state of emergency after a coup plot was uncovered. Readers can trace this timeline to understand how problems of troop morale and welfare were related to political instability. This report is also highly relevant for comparative study with Aceh. In February 2005, when Villanueva was killed in Jolo, the Indonesian government and the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh Movement) had just begun a round of negotiations in Helsinki that culminated in the Memorandum of Understanding of 15 August 2005. Both conflicts involved Muslim identity-based movements in peripheral regions, protracted military operations, displacement of civilians, and peace processes with ups and downs. The difference in their outcomes—relatively sustainable peace in Aceh and protracted conflict in Sulu and Mindanao until the establishment of the Bangsamoro in 2019—provides rich comparative material for researchers of conflict resolution. From a journalistic perspective, Spaeth's report is a typical example of the international news magazine style: it begins with a dramatic human story and then broadens into structural analysis with quotations from officials, experts, and data. The strength of this approach is its vividness, while its weakness is its reliance on limited sources and a perspective resting largely on military officials and American observers. The voices of the Tausug community in Jolo and of the rebels appear only to a limited extent. Readers need to supplement it with academic studies of the Moro conflict and human rights organisations' reports on military operations in Sulu. Physically, the scan consists of seven colour magazine pages with several photographs, including photographs of soldiers in combat and the evacuation of casualties. The scan quality is fairly good, although the text near the central fold of some pages is slightly curved. The full text of the article is not copied into this catalogue because the copyright belongs to the author and publisher; this description is a curatorial account to help users understand its content, context, and research value. Suitable search subjects include the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Moro conflict, Jolo and Sulu, Abu Sayyaf, Nur Misuari, the Moro National Liberation Front, civil-military relations, and the war on terror in Southeast Asia. For citation purposes, the reference can be written as follows: Anthony Spaeth, "Under the Gun", TIME (Asia edition), 9 May 2005.

Rights

Koleksi pribadi KBA13 Academy

Is Part Of

Collection

Clippings