(A story written by Juan Manuel Del Gallego, former Secretary to the Mayor of Ragay, Camarines Sur, where the Headquarters of the Philippine Army's 42nd Infantry Battalion was based from 1998-2002.)
On the night of July 28, 2001, a house located in Sitio Naposte, Barangay Amomokpok, Ragay, Camarines Sur, where several NPA rebels were allegedly staying was raided by elements of the Philippine Army’s 42nd Infantry Battalion.
Four suspected NPA guerrillas were killed during the ensuing firefight while another one, in his early teens was captured. His name was Mathias Rafael Padilla Din.
Din came from a well-to-do family from Northern Philippines. In fact, his mother is a sister of Rep Carlos Padilla. He was a 2nd-year Engineering student and scholar of the University of the Philippines – Diliman, when he was captured.
For the people of Ragay the news wasn’t really the encounter between the AFP and the NPA or the resulting body count, for they were already used to such violent incidents. What surprised them though was the capture of a rebel suspect – alive and unharmed!
Later, they would find out that faithful adherence to the AFP’s “Rules of Engagement” was being strictly observed upon orders of the 42IB’s new Commanding Officer, Colonel Danilo Lim.
As a prisoner under then Col. Lim, Din was never maltreated nor abused. It was Danny Lim himself who contacted the boy’s parents informing them of his condition and whereabouts. Upon his capture, the boy was emaciated and so weak that Lim suspected he either had typhoid or malaria. True enough, when he was brought to the Ragay District Hospital, he was found positive for malaria and was given the proper medication and treatment.
While in camp, he ate three meals a day on the same table with Lim, who even had his men fetch water from a distant source, for Din's personal hygiene use.
When the boy’s parents arrived at the Battalion Headquarters based in Ragay, they were welcomed inside the camp and were even allowed to stay until he was transferred to the Camarines Sur Provincial Jail, upon the court's order.
This short anecdote, from among the many throughout his career, exemplifies the true character of Danny Lim and what he stands for. His professionalism earned for him the respect of both, civilians and soldiers, which remains up to now.
Showing posts with label Military Career Officer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Military Career Officer. Show all posts
The Military's VIP
(Very Important Prisoner)
By Fe Zamora
Philippine Daily Inquirer
July 23, 2006
“Maybe I should have not been in the military,” Lim told a friend who had visited him recently at his heavily-secured military quarters at the Philippine Army Officers’ Village (Paovil) in Fort Bonifacio. “I cannot be a fence-sitter; never was, never would be,” Lim was also supposed to have said.
Outside his leafy abode, a group of soldiers man a makeshift checkpoint; another group had set up a sentry at the back, beefing up the guards at the Paovil gate, just 20 meters away from Lim’s house. Such airtight security arrangements have earned Lim the distinction of being “most important prisoner” in recent coup-prone military history.
Lim has been under military custody since a videotape of himself announcing his withdrawal of support from President Arroyo surfaced in a news program. The tape was to have been used on Feb. 24, when soldiers marching out of their camp were supposed to meet with civilians out in the streets to commemorate the Edsa revolt. It was proof, claims Malacañang, of a Leftist-Rightist plot against the government that justifies Arroyo’s proclamation of a state of emergency.
The charges that Lim would lead the conspiracy have surprised those who know him only as an indulgent father to his only daughter, Aika.
Just five years ago, Aika Lim dragged her father to the Cineplex in Glorietta. The older Lim had already forgotten what it was like to watch a movie. “I haven’t been inside a movie house since 1973,” Lim told the Inquirer then. Transformed from security-conscious officer into a dutiful dad, Lim was having a good time when Aika nudged him to take a closer look at their seatmate. It was Phillip Salvador, the movie actor whose tumultuous love affair with Kris Aquino had been the staple news in those days. Lim was amused, but Aika was adamant. She wanted her Dad to get Phillip’s autograph.
Putty
Lim, the hardline Army captain who negotiated that the rebel troops be allowed to return to barracks, weapons and all, can be putty in his daughter’s hands. An only child, Aika was a baby when Lim was detained for the December 1989 coup. A former detainee recalled several officers doing “infantry” duties in jail, among them Lim.
Another detainee, an alleged communist leader from Southern Luzon, Vic Ladlad, would be Aika’s godfather, a relationship that transcended the ideological divide between Lim and Ladlad. When Aika starred in her school’s musical production in 2001, Lim unabashedly invited media friends to watch the play. The souvenir program also showed ad placements from military organizations that could only have come from the solicitation of a very supportive father.
A consistent honor student in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, Lim was a freshmen at the University of the Philippines in Diliman when one of his classmates, Renato Heredia, came to class with application forms for the Philippine Military Academy (PMA). It was 1972. Martial law had just been declared. Lim said he signed up for the heck of it. “There were many who had signed up, so I joined the line,” he said. The successful examinees either had brothers at the PMA, like Heredia, or had fathers who were PMA alumni or military officers.
Second highest
Lim, the youngest of five sons of a Chinese migrant worker from Xiamen and a hardworking businesswoman from Bohol, did not top the exams, but the topnotcher backed out, pushing Lim, who had the second highest score, to the top slot. Lim was sent to the US Military Academy in West Point in 1974.
“I would have wanted to be a doctor, but it was too expensive,” Lim said. He did not want to burden his mother or four brothers, either. Lim’s father died when he was 5 and his mother raised the brood by herself. Since his older brothers finished college on scholarships, Lim felt he too had to get by on scholarship.
Fortunately, Lim found academics, especially the math subjects, a breeze at West Point. The regimented military life also suited him, as he adapted to it seamlessly. Even his marriage was something of a record, according to another classmate. Lim’s wife, Aloysia, was actually his neighbor and classmate from elementary to high school. “But there was nothing there then,” Lim once told the Inquirer. “(The attraction) came later.”
Upon graduation from West Point in 1978, Lim was sent to Jolo to head the all-Igorot Forward Recon Unit. The unit was often sent out to patrol the enemy lairs, chalking up seemingly endless encounters that had their senior officers shaking their heads in disbelief. A former pilot who sometimes airlifted the wounded recalled in jest that the Igorot troops never realized what they were getting into because Lieutenant Lim kept them drunk with gin.
Wounded twice
But Lim would himself be wounded twice from grenade shrapnels. After his second hospitalization in 1981, then Col. Arturo Enrile sought him out. “He told me, ‘I better take you out from here before you run out of luck,’” Lim recalled. From Jolo, Lim was transferred to the PMA, where he taught math subjects. He would also become the aide-de-camp to PMA Superintendent Brig. Gen. Jose Ma. Zumel, and administrative officer of PMA Superintendent Brig. Gen. Rodolfo Biazon in 1986.
In March 1987, a bomb exploded at the PMA grandstand, ripping off a roof and wounding several personnel, including then Col. Lisandro Abadia, the PMA commandant of cadets. Lim was among those suspected behind the incident, but this was never proven.
Before the incident, however, Lim had supposedly questioned the alleged anomalous deals at Biazon’s office. From the PMA, Lim was transferred to the Scout Rangers, the unit that he led in the takeover of the Makati Commercial and Business District in the December 1989 coup.
Doubts
The Feb. 23 videotape seemed to be an apt follow up. Lim’s doubts about President Arroyo’s mandate started soon after the May 2004 elections, when rumors circulated in the military circle about how some senior officers had allowed the President’s allies to use the military camps in the cheating operations, particularly in Basilan, Sulu, Lanao and Cotabato areas in Mindanao. There were also rumors that some units from the Marines and the Scout Rangers had reportedly refused to cooperate with Malacañang’s allies in the military.
Compounding the situation was the alleged braggadocio of some officers who were supposed to have orchestrated the cheating operations, to the consternation of the young officers, including some Rangers who sought out Lim for advice. A senior colonel who talked to Lim then told the Inquirer that he was concerned about the Scout Rangers that Lim headed. “Lim does not believe that GMA won the elections. This is problematic,” the colonel said of his former classmate.
Fearless prognosis
Lim’s doubts were reportedly shared by many officers, with one of them expressing doubts that the President would be hounded by questions about her mandate. “GMA cannot govern,” was his fearless prognosis, as of June, 2004.
The cracks in the military armor surfaced after the June 6, 2005 airing of the “Hello Garci” tapes, the wiretapped telephone conversations between Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and several personalities, including Ms Arroyo and her husband, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. The tapes seem to confirm allegations of fraud during the May 2004 elections, with at least four generals mentioned in the tapes as being involved. On July 8, 2005, a group of military officers had reportedly planned to withdraw support from the President, joining the group of senior cabinet members who had resigned en masse and urging Ms Arroyo to do the same for the sake of national unity.
But Lim prevailed over the disgruntled. Later that month, Lim’s group, the now-defunct Young Officers Union (YOU, also issued a statement of withdrawal from the 1995 peace agreement it had forged with the government. Lim denied the YOU statement. He also sent a text message to the Inquirer, to the effect that he was “under pressure from all sides.” In fact, Lim was under surveillance from the military and under intense courtship from the opposition. At the necrological rites for Capt. Rene Jarque at the Fort Bonifacio chapel in September 2005, Lim showed up by his lonesome.
Close tabs
But a civilian-clad soldier tailed him, always keeping within earshot of the general. Malacañang also kept close tabs of his activities, often inviting him to dinner at the Palace. By late January 2006, Lim had reportedly visited troops in Mindanao to sound them off about his plans to withdraw support from President Arroyo. An officer he talked with said Lim did not indicate he would “do something” anytime soon. “We talked and he said it was ’no go,’” the officer told the Inquirer. In less than a month, Lim would “go,” to the surprise of even his closest friends.
Since Feb. 24 when he was placed under house arrest, Lim has not been allowed to talk to the press. Some have managed to sneak in, however, accompanied by lawyers, priests and relatives. Former Inquirer reporter Andrea Trinidad-Echavez visited Lim one day in July. Lim had been Echavez’ sponsor at her church wedding to Dick Echavez in 2001.
According to Echavez, Lim was in good spirits, and seemed at peace with himself and the world. “He looks confident that all would end up well,” Echavez said. Having hit rock bottom after the 1989 coup, Lim knows only too well how to play his cards. “He’s a tactician. He’s been through a lot. What is happening to him now is chicken feed,” Echavez added.
Besides, people who’ve met Lim also know that the man would rather pay the price of taking sides than stay still, watching from the sidelines.
By Fe Zamora
Philippine Daily Inquirer
July 23, 2006
“Maybe I should have not been in the military,” Lim told a friend who had visited him recently at his heavily-secured military quarters at the Philippine Army Officers’ Village (Paovil) in Fort Bonifacio. “I cannot be a fence-sitter; never was, never would be,” Lim was also supposed to have said.
Outside his leafy abode, a group of soldiers man a makeshift checkpoint; another group had set up a sentry at the back, beefing up the guards at the Paovil gate, just 20 meters away from Lim’s house. Such airtight security arrangements have earned Lim the distinction of being “most important prisoner” in recent coup-prone military history.
Lim has been under military custody since a videotape of himself announcing his withdrawal of support from President Arroyo surfaced in a news program. The tape was to have been used on Feb. 24, when soldiers marching out of their camp were supposed to meet with civilians out in the streets to commemorate the Edsa revolt. It was proof, claims Malacañang, of a Leftist-Rightist plot against the government that justifies Arroyo’s proclamation of a state of emergency.
The charges that Lim would lead the conspiracy have surprised those who know him only as an indulgent father to his only daughter, Aika.
Just five years ago, Aika Lim dragged her father to the Cineplex in Glorietta. The older Lim had already forgotten what it was like to watch a movie. “I haven’t been inside a movie house since 1973,” Lim told the Inquirer then. Transformed from security-conscious officer into a dutiful dad, Lim was having a good time when Aika nudged him to take a closer look at their seatmate. It was Phillip Salvador, the movie actor whose tumultuous love affair with Kris Aquino had been the staple news in those days. Lim was amused, but Aika was adamant. She wanted her Dad to get Phillip’s autograph.
Putty
Lim, the hardline Army captain who negotiated that the rebel troops be allowed to return to barracks, weapons and all, can be putty in his daughter’s hands. An only child, Aika was a baby when Lim was detained for the December 1989 coup. A former detainee recalled several officers doing “infantry” duties in jail, among them Lim.
Another detainee, an alleged communist leader from Southern Luzon, Vic Ladlad, would be Aika’s godfather, a relationship that transcended the ideological divide between Lim and Ladlad. When Aika starred in her school’s musical production in 2001, Lim unabashedly invited media friends to watch the play. The souvenir program also showed ad placements from military organizations that could only have come from the solicitation of a very supportive father.
A consistent honor student in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, Lim was a freshmen at the University of the Philippines in Diliman when one of his classmates, Renato Heredia, came to class with application forms for the Philippine Military Academy (PMA). It was 1972. Martial law had just been declared. Lim said he signed up for the heck of it. “There were many who had signed up, so I joined the line,” he said. The successful examinees either had brothers at the PMA, like Heredia, or had fathers who were PMA alumni or military officers.
Second highest
Lim, the youngest of five sons of a Chinese migrant worker from Xiamen and a hardworking businesswoman from Bohol, did not top the exams, but the topnotcher backed out, pushing Lim, who had the second highest score, to the top slot. Lim was sent to the US Military Academy in West Point in 1974.
“I would have wanted to be a doctor, but it was too expensive,” Lim said. He did not want to burden his mother or four brothers, either. Lim’s father died when he was 5 and his mother raised the brood by herself. Since his older brothers finished college on scholarships, Lim felt he too had to get by on scholarship.
Fortunately, Lim found academics, especially the math subjects, a breeze at West Point. The regimented military life also suited him, as he adapted to it seamlessly. Even his marriage was something of a record, according to another classmate. Lim’s wife, Aloysia, was actually his neighbor and classmate from elementary to high school. “But there was nothing there then,” Lim once told the Inquirer. “(The attraction) came later.”
Upon graduation from West Point in 1978, Lim was sent to Jolo to head the all-Igorot Forward Recon Unit. The unit was often sent out to patrol the enemy lairs, chalking up seemingly endless encounters that had their senior officers shaking their heads in disbelief. A former pilot who sometimes airlifted the wounded recalled in jest that the Igorot troops never realized what they were getting into because Lieutenant Lim kept them drunk with gin.
Wounded twice
But Lim would himself be wounded twice from grenade shrapnels. After his second hospitalization in 1981, then Col. Arturo Enrile sought him out. “He told me, ‘I better take you out from here before you run out of luck,’” Lim recalled. From Jolo, Lim was transferred to the PMA, where he taught math subjects. He would also become the aide-de-camp to PMA Superintendent Brig. Gen. Jose Ma. Zumel, and administrative officer of PMA Superintendent Brig. Gen. Rodolfo Biazon in 1986.
In March 1987, a bomb exploded at the PMA grandstand, ripping off a roof and wounding several personnel, including then Col. Lisandro Abadia, the PMA commandant of cadets. Lim was among those suspected behind the incident, but this was never proven.
Before the incident, however, Lim had supposedly questioned the alleged anomalous deals at Biazon’s office. From the PMA, Lim was transferred to the Scout Rangers, the unit that he led in the takeover of the Makati Commercial and Business District in the December 1989 coup.
Doubts
The Feb. 23 videotape seemed to be an apt follow up. Lim’s doubts about President Arroyo’s mandate started soon after the May 2004 elections, when rumors circulated in the military circle about how some senior officers had allowed the President’s allies to use the military camps in the cheating operations, particularly in Basilan, Sulu, Lanao and Cotabato areas in Mindanao. There were also rumors that some units from the Marines and the Scout Rangers had reportedly refused to cooperate with Malacañang’s allies in the military.
Compounding the situation was the alleged braggadocio of some officers who were supposed to have orchestrated the cheating operations, to the consternation of the young officers, including some Rangers who sought out Lim for advice. A senior colonel who talked to Lim then told the Inquirer that he was concerned about the Scout Rangers that Lim headed. “Lim does not believe that GMA won the elections. This is problematic,” the colonel said of his former classmate.
Fearless prognosis
Lim’s doubts were reportedly shared by many officers, with one of them expressing doubts that the President would be hounded by questions about her mandate. “GMA cannot govern,” was his fearless prognosis, as of June, 2004.
The cracks in the military armor surfaced after the June 6, 2005 airing of the “Hello Garci” tapes, the wiretapped telephone conversations between Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and several personalities, including Ms Arroyo and her husband, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. The tapes seem to confirm allegations of fraud during the May 2004 elections, with at least four generals mentioned in the tapes as being involved. On July 8, 2005, a group of military officers had reportedly planned to withdraw support from the President, joining the group of senior cabinet members who had resigned en masse and urging Ms Arroyo to do the same for the sake of national unity.
But Lim prevailed over the disgruntled. Later that month, Lim’s group, the now-defunct Young Officers Union (YOU, also issued a statement of withdrawal from the 1995 peace agreement it had forged with the government. Lim denied the YOU statement. He also sent a text message to the Inquirer, to the effect that he was “under pressure from all sides.” In fact, Lim was under surveillance from the military and under intense courtship from the opposition. At the necrological rites for Capt. Rene Jarque at the Fort Bonifacio chapel in September 2005, Lim showed up by his lonesome.
Close tabs
But a civilian-clad soldier tailed him, always keeping within earshot of the general. Malacañang also kept close tabs of his activities, often inviting him to dinner at the Palace. By late January 2006, Lim had reportedly visited troops in Mindanao to sound them off about his plans to withdraw support from President Arroyo. An officer he talked with said Lim did not indicate he would “do something” anytime soon. “We talked and he said it was ’no go,’” the officer told the Inquirer. In less than a month, Lim would “go,” to the surprise of even his closest friends.
Since Feb. 24 when he was placed under house arrest, Lim has not been allowed to talk to the press. Some have managed to sneak in, however, accompanied by lawyers, priests and relatives. Former Inquirer reporter Andrea Trinidad-Echavez visited Lim one day in July. Lim had been Echavez’ sponsor at her church wedding to Dick Echavez in 2001.
According to Echavez, Lim was in good spirits, and seemed at peace with himself and the world. “He looks confident that all would end up well,” Echavez said. Having hit rock bottom after the 1989 coup, Lim knows only too well how to play his cards. “He’s a tactician. He’s been through a lot. What is happening to him now is chicken feed,” Echavez added.
Besides, people who’ve met Lim also know that the man would rather pay the price of taking sides than stay still, watching from the sidelines.
Letter of Commendation from LTC RICHARD T. RHOADES
DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
UNITED STATES ARMY INFANTRY SCHOOL
FORT BENNING GEORGIA 31905
UNITED STATES ARMY INFANTRY SCHOOL
FORT BENNING GEORGIA 31905
ATSH-B
3 April 1987
SUBJECT: Letter of CommendationCPT. Danilo Lim
Allied Student Training Detachment
United States Army Infantry School
Fort Benning, Georgia 31905
1. I commend you for your superb performance of the Infantry Officer Advance Course Army Physical Fitness Test.
2. Your perfect score – 300 points out of 300 possible – is most impressive. You were the only non-American officer in IOAC Class 1-87 to attain a perfect score on the event.
3. As you return to the Philippines, I wish you the best as you pursue what I am certain will be an outstanding career.
RICHARD T. RHOADES
LTC, INF
Senior Faculty Adviser
Letter of Commendation IOAC 1-87
DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
UNITED STATES ARMY INFANTRY SCHOOL
FORT BENNING GEORGIA 31905
UNITED STATES ARMY INFANTRY SCHOOL
FORT BENNING GEORGIA 31905
ATSH-SE-ASTD
3 Apr 87
SUBJECT: Letter of CommendationCPT. LIM, Danilo D. 900-87-0011
Infantry Officer Advanced Course 1-87
JUSMAG-Philippines, APO San Francisco 96528-5000
1. You are to be commended for your outstanding performance in the Infantry Officer Advanced Course Physical Training Programs. As a result of your diligent effort, you received the highest score possible on the Army Physical Readiness Test (300).
2. This score surpassed the majority of our US classmates and was the highest score obtained by an allied student in the past year. You have set the standard for all future allied officers and you are a great credit to the Army of the Philippines and your county. You epitomize the phrase “Lead by Example.”
3. I will expect you to continue this fine performance and to rise to positions of great responsibility in your army.
THOMAS J. WILSON JR.
Major, Infantry
Commander, Allied Student
Training Detachment
Award of Gold Cross Medal to 2LT Danilo Lim
GENERAL HEADQUATERS
ARMED FORCES OF THE PHILIPPINES
Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo
Quezon City
AGW3/AGA1 24 April 1980
GERERAL ORDERS
NUMBER 277
AWARD OF THE GOLD CROSS
Pursuant to paragraph 3d, Section I, Armed Forces of the Philippines Regulation G 131-052, this Headquarters, dated 24 April 1967, the GOLD CROSS is hereby awarded to
SECOND LIEUTENANT DANILO D LIM O-7665
PHILIPPINE ARMY
for gallantry in action during an encounter with numerically superior rebel forces at vicinity Kuta Batu, Talipao, Sulu, on 13 November 1979, while serving as Platoon Leader of the 1st Platoon, Forward Reconnaissance Unit (Provisional) that acted as spearhead of “Operation Crosswind” of 3rd Brigade, First Infantry (Tabak) Division, Philippine Army. While approaching their objective, the troops were assaulted by a group of well-entrenched terrorist. Immediately, Second Lieutenant Lim maneuvered his men and engaged the terrorist in a fierce gunbattle which resulted in the initial killing of 5 insurgents and the capture of their man-made fortification. While consolidating on a high ground, the platoon was attacked by about 100 heavily armed terrorist who were later on augmented by about a hundred more. As the defensive position of the platoon was subjected to heavy enemy fire and rounds of M79 and M203, his men including himself, were wounded one by one by devastating fires. In spite of wounds, he shifted from one position to another amid the crossfire, to rally his men to fight to the last. Undauntedly, he moved to the hardest hit section of the battle line and launched his grenades towards the enemy positions to stop the advance of the determined enemy forces. Through his gallant stand and able leadership, his platoon repulsed frontal assault and withstood the brunt of the rebel force for six hours until reinforcement arrived, forcing the enemy to withdraw in disarray. The government troops accounted for 20 terrorists killed and an undetermined number killed and wounded. By this display of courage, Second Lieutenant Lim upheld the highest tradition of Filipino Soldiery.
BY COMMAND OF GENERAL ESPINO:
OFFICIAL:
IGNACIO I PAZ
Major General, AFP
The Deputy Chief of Staff
SINFOROSO L DUQUE
Colonel, PA(GSC)
The Adjutant General
DISTRIBUTION:
“A”
“AUREMS”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
