A Lesson for Oscar

THE PHILIPPINES

During his year in office, President Ferdinand Marcos has leveled a two-pronged attack on the troublesome pockets of Huk rebellion that still persist in parts of central Luzon more than a decade after the collapse of the main Communist insurgency. One weapon is a social-reform program that aims to undercut the Huks by building schools and hospitals, repairing wells and roads, and providing land-improvement loans to farmers. The other is the cold steel and hot bullets of a 3,800-man military force under Colonel Rafael Ileto, 46, who was named last winter to hunt down the hard-core Huk leaders.

When Ileto took over, no fugitive on the wanted list was considered more dangerous than "Commander Oscar," the pseudonym for Ricardo Ignacio, a shadowy gunman who was Huk chief tain in six towns in Pampanga and Tarlac provinces and also one of the Huks' most feared "enforcers." The government credited Oscar with at least 25 assassinations and abductions in recent months; Oscar himself openly bragged that he had led the ambush that killed the Huk-fighting mayor of Candaba last July.

One night last week, Colonel Ileto got a tip from a government informer that the elusive Oscar was hiding near by. Hastily the colonel sent seven army and constabulary platoons in searchlight-carrying, armored personnel carriers to a house near the village of San Pablo, 40 miles north cf Manila. Realizing that they were outgunned, the Huks inside agreed to surrender. But while 13 men, women and children filed out the front door, four rebels tried to make a break for it across the back porch roof. Aided by the glare of the searchlights, the troopers picked off the first three. The last man out was Commander Oscar. A full burst of automatic weapons blew him completely off the roof. Ileto's message was not likely to be lost on other Huks--that as long as the colonel is in command, an assassin is likely to get back all the bullets he shoots and then some.

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