Dr. Dennis Acop
After my month-long leave in the US following graduation from West Point, I had to come home to the Philippines to begin my eight-year (mandatory) return service with the Armed Forces of the Philippines. On the flight home, I had similar mixed emotions as I had four years earlier going the opposite direction. Then I was so homesick as I had left family and a girlfriend (before Joji) while at the same time apprehensive about life in both West Point in particular and the United States in general. This time around, I was anxious about what to expect in the Philippine armed forces and at the same time excited about seeing Joji again this time in Manila. There she was waiting for me along with her sister and her sister’s boyfriend soon as my plane landed. I wanted to smother her but my shyness took hold of me. And Joji warned me: ‘We are no longer in America!’
So they drove home to Quezon City while I was driven by my cousin Romeo Acop ‘70 to a relative’s house in Pasay City. But soon as we could, Joji and I were on the phone burning the landline. Such telephone calls between me and her became a constant whenever we could through our courtship and married life. Then I took time to visit my parents in Baguio before I came back down again to begin my tour of duty in the armed forces. My initial orders assigned me to the Philippine Army but subsequent orders reassigned me with the Philippine Constabulary. We had four service branches back then: Army, navy, Air Force, and the Constabulary. I remember asking my uncle Agapito Canlas whom I stayed with in Pasay how to get to my initial posting which was Camp Castaneda, Silang, Cavite — the home of the PC Special Action Force at that time. Uncle Pitong and aunt Nena were such great hosts each time I stayed with them. It was unfortunate that my aunt suffered a stroke by then and had to be taken cared of by my good uncle for several years until she passed in 1987.
My uncle instructed me to ride the bus to Tagaytay then transfer to a jeepney which will take me to Silang. That I did with my army green duffel bag containing all my gear in tow. Soon as I reached the PC SAF headquarters, I was instructed by LT Rizaldo Tungala ‘79 to quickly change into fatigues and report to join the ongoing Ranger training. That was in July 1983. I recall that soon after undergoing the obstacle course, I just threw up from exhaustion. I couldn’t forget that sadistic sign posted up on the hill which you come across soon after you reach the top. It read: ‘There is nothing in this course but pain’. That was my welcome home to the Philippines!
The PC SAF battalion was just being formed in mid-1983 as I joined the Constabulary. It was envisioned to be the elite unit of the PC. We became the pioneers of this unit. Avelino Razon ‘74 was tasked by PC Chief Lieutenant General Fidel Ramos USMA ‘50 to organize the PC SAF from the ground up. Graduates of elite foreign courses were selected to compose the pioneering team, train cadres, and grow the outfit. These notable officers included: Razon, Reynaldo Velasco ‘71, Rosendo Ferrer ‘76, Silverio Alarcio ‘76, Samuel Pagdilao ‘79, Tungala, Villamor Bumanglag ‘79, Leocadio Santiago ‘79, Ager Ontog ‘80, Marcelo Manalo, Eduardo Ballatan, Crispiniano Acosta ‘82, Andy Gauran ‘82, Alex Sugay ‘82, Miguel Laurel ‘82, Reynaldo Corpus ‘82, Antonio Borja ‘82, Antonio Gumiran ‘83, and myself. The first half of this list was the cadre while the second was the leadership of the first Ranger class which culminated that November following a live test mission in central Luzon.
Specialization courses quickly followed right after the Christmas holidays. These included: intelligence, demolitions, sniping, communications, medic, and heavy weapons. Then airborne training. Then select groups went into further more specialized training. I found myself selected into the counter revolutionary warfare training where I was designated assault group team leader. The training was physically intensive as were the other courses we undertook but this one was exceptional in its intensity and regularity and the tons of rounds we fired to attain instinctive shooting proficiency. Then VIP security training. I was also in it where it was basically the secret service kind of training that was taught. Both latter courses were delivered to us by a team from the Ministry of Defense Security Group under Colonel Gregorio Honasan. I did not yet know at the time that the training we received from Honasan was already part of the preparations for a contemplated coup against Marcos by the Reform the Armed Forces Movement. As a junior officer then, I was compartmented by my superiors and only realized what was happening when the EDSA Revolution came in February 1986.
The SAF alternated its energies between training and operations. If we were not in training mode, we were conducting search and destroy missions against the communist new people’s army somewhere. The SAF was the nationwide strike force of the Philippine Constabulary so we were hitting the communist insurgents all over the country. Tough missions were given us by the territorial commands. We regularly conducted surgical operations when and where needed as directed by higher headquarters. We were in and out of an area even before the locals realized what hit them. Ranger operations were the specialty of the SAF then which included hitting targets in darkness while in patrol bases during light. My kids never knew what their dad did for a living back then and probably still can’t believe it even if I narrated the same today.
As the elite unit of the PC, the SAF was also frequently called upon to represent the PC in special civil-military events like the October 1984 reenactment of the MacArthur Leyte Landing between Philippine and American forces. The unit was also tasked to participate in the 1984 RP-US ‘Balikatan’ Exercises at Fort Magsaysay in central Luzon. The focus of that combined exercise was special forces cross-training which included specialization training, parachute jumps (day and night), and cross-country patrol over the Sierra Madre to Dingalan Bay in Aurora province. I participated in both these events and remember each one clear as day. As if these were not enough, the SAF still was called upon to represent the PC during notable parades like the PC and AFP anniversaries.
Through all these career demands, I would go to Joji or call her whenever I could. I even remember one time while we were marching parade at the Luneta and there was a break. Taking advantage of the lull, I stole a visit into the nearby Manila Hotel where I found Joji in the clinic where she worked. Her aunt Naomi was the head nurse there where her late husband had been the hotel general manager. When I graduated from Ranger school in November 1983, Joji sent me a congratulatory telegram where she sent ‘Congratulations. I love you.’ I still have that telegram in my wallet. Each time I was in a military mission, Joji always lighted a candle in church and prayed for me. She was my angel who kept me safe through harm’s way. At the Senior Officer’s Quarters of Ramos inside Crame where I stayed, I often called her at home burning the landline until my skin was full of mosquito insect bites from hours of conversation. We dated weekends whenever I was allowed off-base. I would fetch her from home or the clinic and we’d take-off. Anywhere. It didn’t matter. So long as I was with her. And we were together. Even for a brief moment.
