The remote town of Pio Duran, with its palm and thatch-roofed homes, had never known a decent road, while a decades-long communist insurgency lurks threateningly in the background.
So it comes as little surprise that, while they are accused by some of being “occupiers” in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, US Marines have been welcomed in the impoverished and sometimes dangerous central region of Bicol.
“This is Bicol, so [the insurgency] is an ever-present factor,” local mayor Roger Arandia said, referring to the 5,200-member New People’s Army (NPA). “But everyone needs a road.”
PHOTO: AFP
It is by no means on the scale of reconstruction efforts in the Middle East, for example, but the Marines are on a “hearts and minds” mission here that is winning them many friends locally — and inevitably drawing a few enemies too.
Aside from roads, they have rebuilt schools damaged by typhoons, treated 22,000 residents with various ailments and even given anti-rabies shots to pets in what is one of the nation’s poorest regions.
“I don’t get into the whys of an insurgency or anything. What I’m here to do is help people,” said Brigadier General Ronald Bailey, commander of a US Marine expeditionary brigade consisting of around 40 troops.
They form part of the more than 6,000 US soldiers involved in military exercises in Bicol, Luzon and Mindanao.
The non-combat segment allows Washington to dispense its largesse to earn goodwill in the former US colony’s poorest areas, which are typically troubled by insurgencies.
It took about a month to turn a 3km dirt track into a proper road linking Pio Duran to the coastal resort of Donsol, where most visitors to Bicol head, Marine Staff Sergeant Chad Anderson said.
The locals’ response was “outstanding. They appreciated it a lot,” said Anderson, from Maine.
But the threat from the NPA is never far away. They have warned they are prepared to attack the US forces, although there have been no reported direct assaults yet.
However, they have come close, wounding one local soldier who was part of a Philippine unit guarding the Marines as they built another road.
While the Americans have tried to avoid getting involved with the issue of the communist insurgency and say their role is to improve basic services for the locals, some Filipinos hope they will indirectly also be making it safer.
Building roads “enables the government to bring basic services, so naturally it has an immediate impact on the insurgency,” Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said.
He said the rebellion has persisted for so long “because we have not been able to address it properly due to lack of manpower.”
US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney would not rule out helping the government in Manila fight the rebels in Bicol.
“Right now we are very happy with where we are in our relationship,” Kenney said.
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