Alex Boncayao Brigade

Alex Boncayao Brigade
Also known as ABB
Country Philippines
Leader(s) Filemon Lagman
Nilo dela Cruz
Foundation 1984
Split from New People's Army
Motives Proletarian revolution
Active region(s) Luzon, Visayas
Ideology Marxism–Leninism
Size 500[1]

The Alex Boncayao Brigade, also known by the acronym ABB, was the urban assassination unit of the New People's Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Organized in 1984, the unit broke away from the New People's Army as a consequence of a split in ideology during the 1990s.[2] In 1997, the Alex Boncayao Brigade allied itself with the Revolutionary Proletarian Army, the armed wing of the Revolutionary Workers' Party.[3][4]

Background

The Alex Boncayao Brigade was established in May 1984 and was named after a labor leader killed by Philippine government security forces the year before. The brigade became especially active after the departure of then-President Ferdinand Marcos as a consequence of the People Power Revolution, and during the term of President Corazon Aquino.

In 1993, Filemon Lagman and several cadre of the Manila-Rizal regional committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) broke away from the mainstream group, taking the Alex Boncayao Brigade with them. In 1994, Lagman was arrested in Quezon City, putting a damper on the brigade's activities. The ABB itself, headed by Nilo dela Cruz, would eventually split from Lagman in 1997 after an internal rift.[5] Lagman would later give up the armed struggle and become a labor union organizer. He was assassinated in 2000, allegedly by members of his former revolutionary group.

Nilo dela Cruz, using the alias "Sergio Romero", was arrested that same year in Bulacan after crashing his car while being pursued by government intelligence agents. It would later be revealed that Dela Cruz had allied the ABB with the Revolutionary Proletarian Army, forming the Revolutionary Proletarian Army - Alex Boncayao Brigade.[2] This was not the first time Dela Cruz had been arrested, or used an alias; in the 1970s he had been detained in the Youth Rehabilitation Center at Fort Bonifacio under the alias "Mario Saldaña". He had kept a low profile then and his true identity was never discovered.[6] In 2003 it was reported that Dela Cruz had "shifted from terrorist activities as leader of the ABB to organizing the labor forces of the Philippines into trade unions".[4]

Activities

The Alex Boncayao Brigade is credited with the assassinations of nearly 200 police officers from 1984 until 1993.[4] In 1984, the ABB claimed responsibility for the assassination of Police General Tomas Karingal, a former Chief of the Quezon City Police Department. In 1989, they claimed responsibility for the assassination of United States Army Colonel James N. Rowe, an adviser to the Philippine Army.[4] Consequently, the US government added the ABB to its Patriot Act Terrorist Exclusion List[7] in 2001.[1]

In 1996, the ABB also claimed responsibility for the assassination of Philippine Constabulary Lt. Col. Rolando Abadilla, a former chief of the Metrocom Intelligence and Security Group. As proof of the deed, they turned over the late Abadilla's wristwatch to a Catholic priest, Fr. Robert Reyes.[8][9]

In 2000 a rifle grenade attack was carried out against the Department of Energy in Manila and Shell Oil offices in the Visayas were strafed. The group claimed credit for the attacks to protest rising oil prices.[1]

Peace talks

In 2000, Nilo dela Cruz of the ABB and Arturo Tabara, leader of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army, announced their intention to engage in peace talks with the government of Joseph Estrada; this resulted in a truce with the Philippine Army in December 2000.[4][3] This in turn prompted a vehement condemnation from Filemon Lagman; in a press release he branded Tabara and Dela Cruz "scoundrels masquerading as revolutionaries".[10]

A film entitled Alex Boncayao Brigade: The Liquidation Arm of the NPA starring Ronnie Ricketts was released in 1988.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Background Information on Other Terrorist Groups" (PDF). United States Department of State. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  2. 1 2 Leifer, Michael (2013). Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Southeast Asia. Routledge. p. 51. ISBN 1135129452.
  3. 1 2 Peace Talk Philippines. "Background of the GPH and RPMP/RPA/ABB Peace Process". Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB)". Thomson Gale. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  5. ↑ Santuario III, Edmundo. "A 'Dirty War' And The Death Of Popoy Lagman". Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  6. ↑ Hilario, Ernesto M. (28 March 2014). "The NPA, a tunnel, and a prison escape plot". Rappler. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  7. ↑ "Terrorist Exclusion List". United States Department of State. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  8. ↑ Aning, Jerome (29 December 2012). "Aquino pardons 8 inmates but not 'Abadilla 5'". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  9. ↑ Reyes, Robert (6 May 2008). "PHILIPPINES: Christmas with a Dead Man's Watch". Asian Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  10. ↑ Lagman, Popoy (27 December 1999). "Tabara and Dela Cruz: Scoundrels Masquerading as Revolutionaries". Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  11. ↑ "Alex Boncayao Brigade: The Liquidation Arm of the NPA". IMDB. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
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