Read Online Rebels of Mindanao by Tom Anthony - Free Book Online Page A

ready to give up for the night.
    The breakfast buffet was opening, and Hargens walked through it with Galan, telling him, “Your government has asked JUSMAG to help you defeat the revolution, but you won’t let us use our troops. What the hell is your logic?”
    Galan was evasive. “It’s political, Luke, not tactical. I just do what our President tells me to do.”
    â€œMe too. Our president’s objective is to keep the Philippines in our camp.”
    â€œWe are in your camp, Luke, but if you butt into our business, the next generation might vote us out. Too many GIs hanging around bars. Good luck to all of us when they elect the next semi-pro karaoke singer. You guys may no longer be welcome here.” Their plates filled at the buffet table, they sat down and joined the others.
    Galan had run for president in the last election but withdrew when the current president’s position looked solid. He was a sharp guy and a good man, and always ready to talk politics. Over breakfast he gave his opinion: “The Abu Sayaf are not a political or religious movement, they’re just a bunch of hooligans with a constituency.”
    But Hargens saw a military reality. “Gentlemen, we share the same problem. If the Abu Sayaf get that five million, it could swing the balance. We don’t want to lose a third of the Philippines. By the way, we can take out any target you give me. If your President can convince ours and I get an OK, just give me the coordinates.”
    Galan could not let such a statement pass, “But none of your combat troops on the ground! There must be a better way.”
    Thornton and Liu looked at each other while their bosses argued and shared the same thoughts: political factions were so out of touch and far apart that it was impossible to resolve their differences. And now the country had a civil war to fight, and the two of them were in the middle of it.
    After breakfast, as the group broke up and began to go their separate ways, Hargens pulled Liu back for a moment and gave the colonel something to think about, “How does this sound to you, Reggie? Who would you rather get the cash, them, us, you, or your old German language teacher?”

7
Ugly Maria
    U gly Maria came by her name honestly. The Tagalog culture incorporated the name Mariafe into its language as a pleasant and fancy-sounding word, a melodious and Spanish-rooted name for ladies. Mariafe was meant to imply the Virgin Mary and faith, the precise Spanish translation. But when she told her name to the infiltrator under the bridge, Mahir slightly misunderstood the meaning. He spoke some Spanish at a conversational level and misinterpreted her name as Maria fea, Spanish for ugly, a name much more suited to her attributes, and once he repeated it in camp, it stuck and the others picked it up permanently. She never noticed the continuing but unintended insult, nor would she have cared anyway.
    There seemed to be two distinct body types among the women of Mindanao—either the slim and graceful brown girls with perky breasts, tight butted and boasting world-class ratios, or those with belly girth broader than the bust, due to heredity and a diet of pork fat, rice andindifference. Mariafe Van Wert was an example of the latter and emphasized her androgynous ugliness by cutting her hair short, which made her virtually indistinguishable from the bulky males, especially because she habitually wore unisex shirts and trousers.
    Mariafe had difficulty engaging in extended conversations, but was street savvy and had found a way to get a foreigner to marry her, sight unseen, through an Internet service. An aging Dutch fruit importer from Rotterdam, Hans Van Wert, intrigued with seeing the land where his produce originated and in need of a caretaker before he died, flew to General Santos City for the ceremony, after which they moved into a three-room house in Mariafe’s village. He did not last long. A few