Woman Led Tank Assault on MILF's Camp Rajamuda
By Carolyn Arguillas, PDI Mindanao Bureau Chief
RAJAMUDA, Pikit, North Cotabato--The soldier who led three tanks into the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's Camp Rajamuda is a woman. Senior military officers are all praises for the bravery of 1st Lt. Maria Victoria "Vicky" Blancaflor-Agoncillo, 27, the lone female soldier among the eight battalions tasked to capture Rajamuda in mid-June. Executive officer of the 26th Mechanized Infantry Company of the 2nd Light Armored Battalion, Vicky led her tanks through hostile rebel territory, side by side with ground troops of the 2nd Marine Battalion and the 1st Infantry Battalion. A member of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1997, Vicky, a resident of Novaliches, belongs to the first batch of female PMA graduates.
The tanks and the soldiers avoided the road, knowing that the MILF rebels had planted landmines where they expected the military to pass. At times, the troops had to make their way through waist-deep waters, the tanks alongside of them. But days after the experience, hunted down by reporters here, a media-shy Vicky modestly downplayed her role in the nearly four-day ground assault of the rebel camp. "Although there was resistance (from the MILF), it was manageable," she said. "We were able to push forward." The officer has been assigned to Camp Siongco in Awang, Maguindanao, for a year now. She also led her tanks in the assault on Sarmiento, Camp Abubakar in the first week of June.
Her classmates say that Vicky's talents, apart from commanding tanks, include singing. Her singing, however, will have to wait. Until the war is over. Hubby a 'mistah' Her husband, 1st Lt. Napoleon Agoncillo, a "mistah" (classmate), is executive officer of the 17th Scout Ranger Company, 2nd Scout Ranger Battalion, Special Operations Command of the Army. "Theirs is a good story," said Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesperson of the Army's 6th Infantry Division. The two were wed last December 31, and Vicky still sports "Blancaflor" on her uniform.
Ando told the INQUIRER that Vicky's husband used to be assigned in Luzon but was deployed to Mindanao a few weeks ago. "Only then did they see each other again," he said. Vicky said she last saw her husband two weeks ago, shortly before the operations to capture Rajamuda. Bashful of publicity, Vicky left the Rajamuda Elementary School compound Thursday morning, apparently sensing that journalists' cameras would focus on her. She was gone before the flag-raising ceremonies. Reporters managed to interview her only after pestering Col. Hermogenes Esperon, the 602nd Brigade chief, and Maj. Gen. Gregorio Camiling, commanding general of the Army's 6th Infantry Division.
The senior officers, proud of her achievements, had her summoned, and she was left with no choice but to face the reporters. Same question Vicky must have been asked the same question several times: Why choose tanks? Her immediate answer: she wanted a combat assignment but didn't want to join the infantry. "Since I had joined the Army, I wanted a good career there," she told the INQUIRER. During her interview, she was flanked by her upperclassmen at the PMA, three young men from Class 1996 who beamed with pride as Esperon told reporters they had part of the frontline assault on Rajamuda.
"Rajamuda was captured by Batches '96 and '97," said 1st Lt. Gremel Brual of the 40th IB's Bravo Company, noting that "mistahs" were rarely deployed together for one assignment. Brual was with classmates Steven Cabanlet of the 32nd Company of the 2nd Marine Battalion and Fermore Ogoc of the 40th IB's Alpha Company. They led their troops as Vicky led her tanks into Rajamuda in the ground assault that began on June 16 and ended at 11 a.m. on June 20. Government troopers are still holding operations in Pagalungan, Maguindanao, across the Rio Grande de Mindanao, the section of Rajamuda that remains uncaptured. The Pikit side of the camp, however, has been officially declared under government control.
* Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer/June 25, 2000
NOTE: For her gallantry in action, 1Lt. Maria Victoria "Vicky" Blancaflor-Agoncillo was later awarded a Gold Cross Medal by Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Angelo Reyes in an emotion-filled ceremony at Camp Rajah Muda in Pikit, North Cotabato. Lt. Agoncillo, of the 26th Mechanized Infantry Company, 2nd Light Armored Battalion, Philippine Army, received the medal on June 24, 2000 for her role in the capture of five MILF camps in Central Mindanao.
