Far from the pressure of urban life and away from any vestiges of modern day implements, Col. Emiliano Gupana, Commander of the 402 Infantry Batallion, humored us one afternoon with his experiences working alongside the Jollibee mascot at San Luis, a municipality of Agusan del Sur, in one of their community projects recently given, after having found out that Lumads, in general, are essentially generous and gregarious human beings.
Gasping for breath after sauntering to his steep camp at New Leyte, Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur, along with The Daily Corridor publisher Boy Visitacion, the seemingly calm mood atop the camp somehow tried to soothe the imbalance of having to grasp a clear intake of air amid the aroma of coffee served that afternoon. But when the Jollibee anecdote went full blast in our conversation, the formality of the talk somehow went from casual to utterly comical.
The experience somehow made him a different person in that even in such a casual gathering, like the one they initiated with the Jollibee mascot, he found out that the Lumads, no matter how varied their personal choices are, are still very much a close-knit group. This was evident when a hamburger distributed among those who attended the program was eaten practically with the same stuff as what one of their leaders ate, with no meat in it, and all the rest of the group followed suit. The Colonel, after seeing this unique collective trait, wishes to incorporate it, not only on his own rank, but to the community as well.
A Boholano-Cebuano by blood, and son of former government employees, Col. Gupana was immediately installed into the ranks of the Philippine Army after judicious years in the military school, worked his way up in the ranks and is now at the helm of that steep New Leyte camp, overlooking the entire Agusan green.
The Green Issue
A once reluctant soldier during the early days of his military career Col. Gupana has been identified, even among his associates, as one who pushes the issues of environment a little further than the rest of his ranks in the AFP. But still reluctant over the supposed labeling, the Colonel said, “Wala man pud gituyo. Cguro maybe because I like the rustic life, yon bang close to nature.” And he said that being an environmentalist is not something he tends to do on a daily basis, but that he only does it on the context of his relations with the Lumads.
He even went further by narrating certain ritual activities of those tribal people, particularly the “Sinakungan” festival of Esperanza, where various Lumad tribes would gather themselves on a mountain of that town said to be the “holiest of holies” and offer an “Ininay inamay”, a series of personal litanies, a prayer of offering to “Mambabaya” (God), either asking for forgiveness over a damaged crop or asking for a blessing over a year of plenty.
Col. Gupana was once a commanding officer of Task Force Raptor of the Philippine Army, one of the designated special action groups assigned to pursue environmental as well as civil issues such as illegal logging and human trafficking. Task Force Raptor has seized at least a handful of illegal logs when it hit Davao del Norte earlier in the century.
After witnessing such tribal activities like that of the “Sinakungan”, the Colonel suspected that because of his sporadic attendances and his overt admiration of these rituals, he was slowly labeled as someone who takes a curious approach on nature, a trait that is still considered a rarity among the politically-charged image of the AFP.
Although he admits that the problem of nature is as pressing a threat as it is in other areas in the Mindanao island, it concerns him in way that after his military career ends, the Colonel said, “I’ll go back to farming after the army.” “Like I said, I could live in Makati if I want to, but, ako man gud gusto nato kanang way gubot, peaceful bah,” he said.
Under Fire
Part of his admiration with everything nature is the Lumad themselves. “Lumads are unschooled maybe, ignorant pa, but they fight hard for what they believed in,” he said, after learning the sorry plight of some of the IPs (indigenous people) being indiscriminately used on the other side of the cause, that is, under the New People’s Army.
Of all the provinces of the Caraga Region, according to the Colonel, 50 per cent of it hails from the Agusan area, and out of those who joined the omnipresent battle cry of the red revolution, 70 per cent of it are IPs, and most of them joined the bandwagon out of being philosophically infiltrated and emotionally enticed to think the other way around in favor of the iron curtain.
The Colonel said that because of the inherent sincere attitude of the Lumads, those who controlled the supposed “revolution”, are constantly feeding them with ideological and political concepts, citing the very structure used even in strategies of military operations by “arousing, organizing and mobilizing” certain individuals, in this case, the indigenous people, for it to advance the hammer and sickle needed for the revolution.
This prompted him to reach out at every corners of the operation, even attempting to participate in those tribal ritual exercises. “Everywhere I go I always make acquaintances with every sector of the community, yon bang reaching out” he said. Also stressing the need to maintain a testimony, he even encourages to put on an example at all times, citing the street parable “Between a drunk priest and a good soldier, changes are, ang ordinaryo na tao, would choose the drunk priest, kahit anong bait ng sundalo,” he said, under the rush of hot coffee sips.
Looking Back
It was in August of 1980 that the hunt for acquaintances in life came to a sudden halt when bullets went flying just above his head and eventually hitting him with a shrapnel on his lower left rib, when he was assigned at Lanao Sur as part of the peacekeeping force negotiating with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). The experience, the Colonel soberly admitted, had a piercing effect on his life.
The shot came at an exact time (9:15 AM) when his grandfather died. Named after his late grandfather, the Colonel narrated even further that just before his grandpa breathe his last, the old man requested that his relatives be on his side and went on to utter a premonition to the young Emiliano saying, “Perteng giyera.”
This, of course, refers to the shooting incident happened miles away in Lanao, where the Colonel witnessed the bloody passing away of some of his comrades at his side.
After learning the death of the old man, Col. Gupana, then, according to him, a hot-blooded, aggressive soldier, refused to spend at least a single night in the hospital, and eventually decided to intentionally escape the hospital just to be with the old man who somehow learned of the incident long before he would be confined in a hospital full of depressed and wounded souls.
The incident of witnessing a dead soldier at his side enabled him to have a personal mission of his own in that, as much as possible, he would personally inform the relatives of the deceased. It was a mission that has something to do with the death of his grandfather.
The Laborer and the Artist
Still humbled by the Jollibee experience, where he saw the tears streaming from the Lumads’ faces after seeing the amiable mascot amid their midst, the Colonel is again planning to offer the same program in other areas of the province as part of the reaching out process his rank longs to bring about.
But during those light moments, the Daily Corridor categorically asked him who the real Col. Gupana is, the latter refused to raise himself up and in a droll way said, “If a man works with his hand, he’s a laborer. If a man works with his brain, he’s an artist. But if a man works with his hands, works with his brain and with his heart, that man is Boy Visitacion.” And erupting from an unexpected laughter, the Colonel repeatedly refused to put himself under such tag.
“Pero seriously I want to bring back our nationalistic principles, our country no longer has that nationalistic pride,” he said, after seeing utter disregard of such trait even in the army. He constantly encourages his associates to sing the national anthem with passion and even wear their uniforms with dignity and pride.
How he wished to have that support of the military by at least saying a prayer in those masses and services offered by practically every church in the country, as opposed to other nations where the church people would find time to pray for those in the armed forces.
The Colonel even brushed off talks about being offered a political seat in the future and said, “I just want to pursue creating that foundation, kana bang murag school for special children ug kanang mga blind. Naa na koy na-determine na lugar diha sa San Francisco . Kanang inato lang gud permiro.” He plans to pursue this with his family and live a relatively quiet life.
When asked about his children following his rugged path, the Colonel is all support if such decisions would come at any given moment, but emphasizing to them the need to always look back and acknowledge those who have been instrumental to those little successes that they are enjoying now.
And as our coffees ran cold amid the engulfing breeze of the elevated camp, the restive Colonel said, “Pero para sa ako, it is much easier to be physically courageous than to be morally courageous. Kay daghan na kaayo kug nakita na at the outset kusgan kaayo, pero diha na lagi magdaug kung naa ba gyud syay morale bah. Kay kung wala na, di gihapon magsilbi. Dili lang man gud giyera ang para sa sundalo, maningkamot pud ta para sa kalinaw”
True to the military adage of never leaving your man in the field of battle, the Colonel said, “I hope I have satisfied all your inquiries.” “Unya, ayaw lang pasobraa, kanang tinuod lang,” he jokingly said, to somehow ease the already heavy subject of war, Lumads and the environment.
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