Martial Law and Revolution

After Marcos declared martial law in 1972, the state began to interfere more directly in local affairs. Individuals were then summarily arrested for tree cutting, and fertilizer delivery was temporarily banned. Acting under a questionable sanitary theory, local military forces demolished pigpens located underneath houses and destroyed all swine fed on human waste. These actions devastated many households living in areas too remote for commercial farming.

Such arrogant policies prompted a quick reaction; by 1972 the revolutionary New People's Army (NPA) started recruiting local students. Shortly thereafter, economic collapse bolstered the budding rebellion. Several knowledgeable Buguias residents estimate that some twenty local students hiked to the eastern mountains to join the mixed Ilocano, Kalanguya, and Ifugao guerilla bands already established there.

Under the leadership of a man from northern Buguias municipality, one guerilla band established an informal base at Bot-oan. In these early years the rebels regularly hiked through Buguias, sometimes asking for food and lodging, on their way to purchase supplies at Kilometer 73. By 1975, NPA territory had expanded to include the whole of eastern Buguias municipality.

The presence of an NPA contingent in Buguias prompted the state to establish a Philippine Constabulary camp north of Lo-o. Soldiers were also billeted in Buguias, where they frequently quarreled with the local youths. Road construction formed another anti-insurgent policy; the major roads east of Buguias were primarily designed for military operations and financed through military channels. The U.S. Air Force, Camp John Hay, and the 206th Home Defense Team together financed the Bot-oan road (Baguio Midland Courier April 27, 1975). The largest battle in the Buguias region marked this road's opening; the inaugurating committee, which included several high-ranking military officers, was met by a well-coordinated, although not entirely successful, ambush (Baguio Midland Courier Feb. 14, 1976).

The increased pressure of the Philippine military, the building of roads, and even the rapid clearing of forests, gradually weakened the NPA's position in Buguias municipality. The rebels also encountered personnel difficulties. The Benguet recruits supposedly

found life in the mountains, characterized by the dull diet of sweet potatoes that their parents had so happily abandoned, to be a trying ordeal. The partial recovery of the vegetable industry in the late 1970s also helped lure the locally born guerillas back to village life. Popular support for the rebels, never overwhelming, also began to evaporate as Buguias citizens increasingly came to see rebellion as more of a threat to their remaining prosperity than as a promise for a more just regime. Meanwhile, the local cadre retreated out of the municipality and into the oak forest fastness of western Ifugao Province.

But the NPA did remain strong in the Tinoc district. This region has been neglected and victimized more than any part of Benguet. Here a mixed group of Kalanguya, Ifugao, and Ilocano guerillas has enjoyed much local support. In the early 1980s they temporarily seized Tinoc, disarmed its police, and imposed a curfew. This guerilla band appears to support itself in part by cultivating marijuana, much of which is supposedly sold ultimately to the American servicemen of Clark Field and Subic Bay.

Since all attempts to construct a road between Tinoc and Buguias have failed, military actions in western Ifugao have been limited. Airborne parties have, however, destroyed Cannabis patches and strafed suspected guerilla bases. Such actions have further turned the locals against the Manila government. In September 1987, NPA fighters raided a munitions supply near Tinoc, and in early 1988 guerillas were again seen in the hinterlands of Buguias.