The death squads were then known as “skull squadrons” because of their practice of beheading their victims who were mostly suspected members or supporters of the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon (Hukbalahap or People’s Anti-Japanese Army) or the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB or People’s Liberation Army).

Col. Napoleon Valeriano of the Philippine Constabulary (PC) supervised death squad operations to suppress local peasant resistance under CIA direction, Karnow wrote.

During the Marcos dictatorship, the PC organized an armed group known as “Monkees” in Tarlac province, and other similar groups in the region, that killed hundreds of suspected members or supporters of the newly-formed New People’s Army (NPA), as well as the political opponents of Ferdinand Marcos.

It is well known that the Marcos dictatorship reigned with covert CIA backing. Human rights records show that 1,166 people, mostly unarmed peasants, were killed at the height of the dictatorship from 1972 to 1983.

After Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino was installed president in 1986, armed vigilante groups and fanatic cults organized by the Philippine military sprouted across the country. They were a component of the government’s “total war” counterinsurgency campaign within the aegis of the “low intensity conflict” doctrine of the U.S. government.

As many as 50 vigilante groups were formed in the entire country. Records show that 1,064 persons were killed, including 135 cases of massacres, during the Aquino presidency.

The groups, like the Alsa Masa and Tadtad in Mindanao, gained notoriety for mutilating the bodies of their victims. Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, a U.S. military adviser and a high profile CIA operative, is widely believed to be involved in the formation of said groups.

Invariably, albeit without public acknowledgement, death squads are an integral part of the government counterinsurgency program.

Oplan Bantay Laya

Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL) is a five-year program of the Arroyo government aimed at eliminating “threats to national security.” It started in 2002 and at first, targeted “terrorist” groups and the armed secessionist movement in Mindanao island.

The OBL was formulated by the Philippine government as its part in the “global war on terror” doctrine of the US.

In 2003, the OBL program was shifted to neutralize and destroy the threat posed by the New People’s Army (NPA) and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Central Luzon is among the seven regions identified by the military as priority targets in the implementation of the OBL.

In 2004, the Arroyo government received $4.6 billon for military and economic assistance and $30 million for counterinsurgency exercises from the U.S. government.

The gruesome shooting of seven strikers on Nov. 16, 2004 at the picket line at the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita placed the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP) and President Arroyo in a defensive posture as the government was blamed for the carnage.

Bible

In January 2005, the government declared that the strike of the plantation and sugar mill workers in Hacienda Luisita has become “a matter of national security” through a Power Point Presentation entitled Knowing the Enemy which was made available to the public.

The AFP also came out with a book titled Trinity of War which, like the presentation, deals on how the government intends to destroy the CPP and the NPA basing primarily on their study of the events in Hacienda Luisita.

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