‘Today, the Libingan ng mga Bayani harbors a Vietnam Veterans Memorial that commemorates the members of the Philippine contingents/civic action groups sent to Indo-China from 1964 to 1971.’
BIRD-WATCHING for this year’s National Peace Consciousness Month (Proclamation No. 675)?
“The newspapers and magazines called the pros ‘Hawks’ and the antis ‘Doves.’ Marcos knew the persuasive powers of his office and used them to his advantage. He conferred with the ‘Doves’ who instantly became ‘Hawks.’ The public expectation that the ‘Doves’ in the Senate would have their way became an illusion: with few exceptions, the ‘Doves’ suddenly became ‘Hawks.’ On July 14, 1966, Marcos signed the bill into law. The Philippines is now a participant in Johnson’s Vietnam ‘war’.” [Teodoro A. Agoncillo. History of the Filipino People (8th ed.). QC: C&E Publishing, Inc., 1990, pp. 503-504]
This was a summation of the debate over the law authorizing assistance to the South Vietnamese during Ferdinand E. Marcos’ first year in office: “The wily strongman even committed a contingent of Philippine troops to Vietnam, the Philippine Civic Action Group, or Philcag, early in his first term. Consisting of an engineering battalion and medical and rural development teams, the 1,350-strong outfit worked on non-combat missions, mainly civic projects.” [Luis H. Francia. A History of the Philippines: From Indios Bravos to Filipinos. NY: Overlook Press/Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc., 2014, p. 239] Predictably, there was severe criticism and the most polemical treatment comes from Amado Guerrero’s Philippine Society And Revolution, 4th edition (c. 30 July 1970): “As a rabid puppet of US imperialism, Marcos has outdone Macapagal in sending Filipino mercenary troops to participate in the US war of aggression in Vietnam and Indochina in general. Despite the worsening bankruptcy of the reactionary government, he dispatched the Philcag (Philippine Civic Action Group) to South Vietnam. Until now, there are Filipino mercenaries there who merely carry other labels, the Philcon, Operation Brotherhood and engineering firms…A year of Philcag adventure in Vietnam was worth P35 million.” [pp. 57, 89]
Such is the content of our history books. But did anybody bother to get the side of the Filipinos who had actual skin in the game? Only one: Ruben “Ben” Bautista Cal’s “Warriors for Peace: The Saga of the Filipino Soldiers in the Vietnam War” (first published in Metro Manila in 2016 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Philcag’s departure for Vietnam).
Why write this book? Ben Cal (a veteran journalist) himself said: “The book was conceived virtually out of the blue one morning at USSC coffee shop early last year shortly after I launched my other book, Victory at Bessang Pass. Over breakfast, Gen. Magno and Gen.
Carolina encouraged me to write another book about the Philcags in Vietnam. Without batting an eyelash, I accepted the challenge. The following day, I started researching and friends gave me photocopies about their Philcag experience. When I read them page by page, I discovered the great sacrifices our Philcag troopers had made despite the risk and ever-present danger.” [https://radyonatin.com/post.php/12364.cc7e7905a93c7d88]
Ben Cal and the Filipino Vietnam War veterans themselves put together 44 chapters. In lieu of a Preface, the “Warriors for Peace: The Saga of the Filipino Soldiers in the Vietnam War” begins with “Prelude to Vietnam Assignment” written by Magno detailing his genesis as an Army man, including his stint with Philcon 1 (the first Philippine Contingent sent to Vietnam by the Diosdado Macapagal administration), which serves as the book’s backgrounder.
Chapter 1 is purportedly “Brief History of the Indochina Conflict,” yet it already includes details of Philcag’s operations, particularly Task Force Bayanihan. Chapter 2 steps back in time with a recap of the Philippine Jaycees’ Operation Brotherhood, Republic Act 4162 and RA 4664. Chapter 3 (“A Brotherhood Forged in Hardship”) comes from the Ramos memoirs.
Chapter 4 purports to be about the “Great Debate” in the Philippine Congress on the issue of sending Filipino combatants to Vietnam (and does include the full text of RA 4664), but devotes space to the revelation of Ramos and Magno that most of the Philcon and PhilcagV-1 were Special Forces operators. Chapter 5 (“From Korea to Vietnam: ‘The Heart of a Matter’”) compares the Peftok (Philippine Expeditionary Forces to Korea) with PhilcagV.
Chapter 6 (“Martyrs for Peace”) is about President Marcos’ unannounced 26 July 1967 visit to the PhilcagV’s HQ in Tay Ninh. Chapter 7 (“The Philippines and Vietnam: the ‘Boat People’ and Good Neighbors”) is the 13 July 2008 Ramos Manila Bulletin column. Chapter 8 (“Vietnam Here We Come”) is about the first batch commanded by PA Captain Francisco Gatmaitan. Chapter 9 (“To The Vietnamese People”) is the full text of a leaflet made and distributed by PhilcagV-1. Chapter 10 is a brief “US supports Philcag deployment” but it is Chapter 11 (“Thanh Dien Forest”) that encapsulates PhilcagV’s non-combat contribution.
Chapter 12 mentions the Mata-Westmoreland Agreement of 20 July 1966 and the Mata-Tam Agreement of 03 August 1966 as well as the “most vicious” Viet Cong attack on the PhilcagV since the Filipinos’ arrival in Tay Ninh. Chapter 13 (“Command Survey Team and Advance Planning Group: 1st PhilcagVf 1966”) is Magno’s testimony. Chapter 14 (“Vietnamese welcome PhilCAG’s medical mission”) is the story of Colonel Socorro Regis Rana of the AFP Nursing Corps.
So it goes for 30 more chapters. Today, the Libingan ng mga Bayani harbors a Vietnam Veterans Memorial that commemorates the members of the Philippine contingents/civic action groups sent to Indo-China from 1964 to 1971. This pylon should trigger more studies on the SWOT of the Dau Tranh Vu Trang (“the Violence Struggle”), Johnson’s War (Escalation) and Nixon Doctrine (Vietnamization) as lessons in foreign policy, bureaucratic politics, and the profession of arms.
Be that as it may, Filipinos can also learn from the Nobel Peace laureates: “This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace…Today, I tell their stories too. I have brought with me some of my sisters from Pakistan, from Nigeria and from Syria, who share this story. My brave sisters Shazia and Kainat who were also shot that day on our school bus. But they have not stopped learning.”
[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2014/yousafzai/lecture/]
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons: “we represent the only rational choice. We represent those who refuse to accept nuclear weapons as a fixture in our world, those who refuse to have their fates bound up in a few lines of launch code.”
[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2017/ican/lecture/]
The winner for 2023 is Narges Mohammadi. These are the people worth emulating. Not the terrorists and criminals who masterminded, perpetuated, aided and abetted the Rizal Day Bombings of 2000 and the mass murder of the SAF 44 (2015 Mamasapano clash).
