ILAGA/PULAHAN, My TITO (Husband of Tita Carolina Estrada)FELICIANO LUCES/COMMANDER TOOTHPICK : ILAGA/PULAHAN founded during the 1970s during the martial law years when civilians were recruited into militia groups. The formation of civilian militias was part of a general process of militarisation that took place in rural areas across the country throughout the martial law period. They were used to counter the insurgency operations of communist and Muslim rebels (CPP-NPA or New People’s Army—the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines—and MNLF or Moro National Liberation Front), or as instruments of terror against rural populations, depending on one’s point of view. ILAGA/PULAHAN led by Feliciano Luces who went by the nom-de-guerre of Commander Toothpick. Luces came from Pikit near Cotabato in Mindanao, and originally fought for the MNLF. He had a reputation as a fearless fighter. However, after a lengthy gun battle with government troops in which he reputedly ran out of ammunition and resorted to hand-to-hand combat, he was eventually captured and taken to Camp Aguinaldo for interrogation. He was held there for seven months during which time his captors were allegedly unable to break him. He was then taken to Malacañang Palace in Manila where he personally surrendered his gun to President Marcos. In return, Marcos gave him an amnesty. Luces was thus transformed from a guerrilla at the margins or periphery of the state into a military asset of the Marcos régime.
ILAGA/PULAHAN was created with the specific intention of taking on the CPP-NPA in central- southern Luzón, and Luces was recruited as the group’s leader. The military provided ILAGA/PULAHAN members with money and weapons and other logistics, aiding them in their so-called counter- insurgency operations. Luces himself provided group members with a technology of the body that would enable them to go fearlessly into battle. Members undertook an initiation ceremony and would have to endure their bodies to be struck twenty-one times by bolos (a machete). SPECIAL THANKS TO MY SARISARI STORE: Haring Bakal
