Stars and Sickles - An Alternative Cold War

[Hrvatskiwi]

For a recount of the independence struggle of the North Borneo Federation, see: https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...rnative-cold-war.280530/page-12#post-10272930

The North Borneo Federation, also known as North Kalimantan​

The granting of the independence of the North Borneo Federation (also known as North Kalimantan) was achieved in November 1971 after long rounds of negotiations between various parties involved. Despite the communist-influenced Sarawak People's Guerrilla Force and North Kalimantan People's Army's leading roles in the insurgency, achieving independence from Malaya and the establishment of a stable nation required compromise with other factions in North Bornean politics. As such, the results of elections held under Malayan governance to local legislatures were recognised. A unicameral parliament was established, the Dewan Negara, which had 90 seats: 32 from Sabah, 10 from Brunei and 48 from Sarawak. All 10 Brunei seats were held by the Parti Rakyat Brunei (Brunei People's Party, PRB). The Sarawak seats were divided between the largest single party, the Parti Rakyat Bersatu Sarawak (Sarawak United People's Party, PRBS) with 12 seats, the Parti Kebangsaan Sarawak (Sarawak National Party, PKS) with 12 seats, the Parti Pesaka with 8 seats and the Sarawak Alliance, comprised of the Parti Bumiputera (11 seats) and the Sarawak Chinese Association (4 seats, for an Alliance total of 15). The remaining seat was won by an independent. The 32 seats of Sabah were divided between the Sabah Chinese Association, and the Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Sabah Bersatu (United Sabah National Organisation, PKSB). The Sabah Chinese Association was nevertheless practically under the sway of the PKSB leader Datu Mustapha bin Datu Harun, better known as Tun Mustapha, leaving Mustapha in virtually complete control of Sabahan politics. Upon independence, a new constitution establishing the state also selected the Sultan of Brunei as the head of state. Whilst the Bruneian monarchy had opposed the PRB, an action which had been a major catalyst for the North Bornean rebellion in the first place, they were forced to accept the position of a purely ceremonial constitutional monarchy, giving up the absolute power they had held in their small kingdom. The alternative would likely had been the exile or complete destruction of the royal house, so Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and the Seri Begawan Sultan (retired Sultan) Omar Ali Saifuddien III were forced to acquiesce to the will of the rebels. Whilst Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah was Head of State, he remained Sultan of Brunei only. Opposition to the idea of Bolkiah as Sultan of the whole nation was steadfast from Tun Mustapha, whose defection from Malaya was necessary to achieve independence. He would never allow even de jure authority of the Sultan over Sabah. As such the Sultan of Brunei was merely President of the North Bornean Federation. The first Prime Minister of North Kalimantan was A.M. Azahari, leader of the PRB. The three provinces of North Kalimantan would also each be headed by a Chief Minister. Azahari would play this role for Brunei, Tun Mustapha for Sabah and Jugah Anak Barieng (better known as Tun Jugah), founder of the Parti Bumiputera and paramount chief of the Iban people (known by the British as Sea Dayaks) would take the mantle of Chief Minister for Sarawak. The contested nature of politics in Sarawak would give Tun Jugah much less influence than his peers in the other two provinces, however. The first post-independence elections were selected for June 1976, with all three provinces to synchronise their elections for the first time. In the meantime, a shaky alliance of the PRB, PRBS and USNO governed the nation.

Between independence and the 1976 elections, there was a great deal of political flux in Sarawak. The Parti Bumiputera and the Parti Pesaka would merge in 1973 (negotiations for a merger had been ongoing for years) forming the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (United Bumiputera Heritage Party, PBB). The PBB now effectively controlled 23 seats. In response, the PRBS and the PKS began to send out feelers to each other regarding potential future collaboration. If united, they would have 24 seats, eking out a majority in the next Sarawak election if no seats were turned. The North Kalimantan Communist Party (NKCP), founded on the 30th of March 1971, was essentially a formalisation of the armed communist movement which had fought against the Malaysia plan. The NKCP was, due to its illegality, unable to contest the elections held under Malayan supervision during the konfrontasi period, and as such held no parliamentary seats. Also aware that amongst some Dayak chieftains there were concerns about alliance with communists, the NKCP didn't show any intention to run for seats themselves, but receiving financial assistance from China, Korea and Indonesia, the NKCP was one of the most well-funded political forces in the country. Using these funds to establish various social programmes appealing to the poor of the Sarawak townships, they rapidly acquired a committed and easily-mobilisable political base. NKCP sympathisers actively infiltrated the PRBS, which was also able to be swayed towards certain NKCP policies by promises from chairman Wen Ming Chyuan to mobilise their supporters to vote for the PRBS in the upcoming elections. The NKCP was also highly-influential in Chinese schools and local trade unions in the area, giving them a political strength greatly out of proportion with their representation in the democratic institutions of North Kalimantan. The NKCP's actual leadership was mostly ethnic Chinese. The PBB was a multiracial centre-right party which represented the interests of various Dayak ethnicities and also represented a significant number of local Malays also. Whilst they were fairly moderate on most issues, the party was occasionally rather clumsy and slow to arrive at new policy proposals, due both to the enduring internal divide between the Bumiputera and Pesaka wings of the party, regionalism among the various Dayak groups, and the differences in interests between the Chinese business class represented in the Sarawak Chinese Association and the Dayak people, most of whom were relatively poor. The PKS was largely comprised of moderate Dayaks (such as its leader Stephen Kalong Ningkan) and Malays. Overall it was a social-progressive party, but the strong anti-communist stance of Ningkan was a major factor behind the NKCP not openly endorsing the PRBS prior to election, as not to spook off the PKS and foreclose the possibility of toppling the PBB leadership of the province.

Bruneian postal stamp depicting Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah​

In Brunei, the PRB continued the policy of development that had been promoted by the Sultans, but aiming at wider benefit for the ordinary Bruneian, subsidising fisheries and meat and egg production in order to encourage the greater consumption of proteins by locals by making them more affordable, and the establishment of a sovereign wealth fund which would give a portion of oil revenues to each registered adult Bruneian. With the high oil prices of the 1970s, this would result in a sudden rise in incomes and living standards amongst the population of Brunei, as well as encouraging economic development. The Brunei construction boom and concomitant economic growth saw Bandar Seri Begawan double in population in a mere seven years. Investment in rural electrification, sanitation and drainage infrastructure, and agricultural equipment loans also improved the lifestyle of the rural peasantry in the province. The latter especially improved yields in Limbang, the so-called "rice bowl" of Brunei which had been transferred back to the region with North Kalimantan's independence (along with the island of Labuan, off the coast of Bandar Seri Begawan). Rural development saw a significant drop in malaria contraction and fatalities. Despite being better for the average Bruneian, Sultan Bolkiah continued to be a thorn in the side for the PRB, both him and his father often attempting to use their personal wealth to undermine Azahari's party and their governance.

In control of the most Dewan Negara seats out of anybody, Tun Mustapha had effectively been the kingmaker both in the independence negotiations and in the establishment of a post-independence government. Nevertheless, despite his power, he had an intense local focus; not interested in the goings-on in Brunei and Sarawak, he instead sought to rule Sabah as his personal fiefdom. Tun Mustapha had been a notable anti-Japanese resistance leader in the region, and since the Second World War had rose to become the most significant political figure in the province. In 1961 he had established the PKSB as a vehicle for his political ambitions in the region and worked towards independence from Britain, collaborating with Donald Stephens' (Muhammad Fuad Stephens from 1971) United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation, which was merged into PKSB in 1967, when Mustapha took control of Sabah (through the state election), although technically under the aegis of Kuala Lumpur. Tun Mustapha had a number of issues with the Malaysia government, most notably the share of Sabahan oil revenues. At one point, Tun Mustapha refused to sign an oil agreement with the federal government that would leave only 5% of Sabahan oil revenues in the province, and he demanded at least 30% so that he could put aside funds for the development of Sabah province. In order to convince Tun Mustapha to join their side in negotiations at the end of the North Kalimantan War of Liberation, the rebels allowed Sabah to retain 50% of its oil wealth; something they reasoned that they could afford to do due to oil revenue also coming in from Brunei, which had never actually been part of the Federation of Malaysia. In his time as Chief Minister of Sabah, Tun Mustapha took it open himself to ensure the supremacy of Islam in the province; he succeeded in converting a number of indigenous villages en masse which had prior adhered to traditional belief systems, and engaged in a state harassment campaign against Catholic missionaries operating in the province. On several occasions, using expiration of temporary residency permits as a pretext, he would send hundreds of police to arrest individual missionaries, in an effort to intimidate locals into shying away from the Christian faith. Mustapha also sponsored the creation of the United Sabah Islamic Association in 1969 and encouraged the settlement of Moros from Sulu and Mindanao in Sabah. He even went so far as to sponsor Moro rebels against the Philippine government. Seeking to reform the multicultural, multiethnic and multiconfessional Sabah province into a hegemonically Malay-speaking, Muslim region, Tun Mustapha banned the broadcast of languages other than Malay in radio and discouraged the use of English as a lingua franca. This campaign was relatively successful, with 75,000 conversions to Islam in 1974 and 95,000 in 1975. Whilst this flew in the face of constitutional guarantees to freedom of religion and multilingual governance, Tun Mustapha's position as a kingmaker in North Bornean politics allowed him to institute whatever policies he wanted in Sabah [253].

Tun Mustapha, kingmaker and unopposed Chief Minister of Sabah​

The June 1976 election saw little change in the electoral map of the provinces of Brunei and Sabah. Tun Mustapha's ability to mobilise the PKSB political machine left him unchallenged in Sabah, and the popularity of the PRB's development campaigns in Brunei left the Parti Sultan established by Hassanal Bolkiah unable to make any inroads amongst the people [254]. The real electoral battlefield was the province of Sarawak. Once again the PRBS and PKS allied with each other against the PBB/Sarawak Chinese Association Alliance. But this time, able to mobilise the urban poor with aid of the communists, and able to fund a strong campaign utilising funds from Revolutionary Nusantara, the PRBS is able to turn the predominantly Chinese Kuching Barat, Miri and Semera constituencies, leaving the Sarawak Chinese Association only winning a single seat, at Igan. The Alliance were able to convince Lias Anak Kana, the independent from Ngemah, to come to their side. Whilst the race was extremely close and recounts were necessary in several provinces, with the outbreak of electoral violence particularly between communist political activists and PBB supporters in various townships, the PRBS-PKS partnership was only able to turn one non-Chinese-dominated constituency. This still left the PRBS-PKS with 28 seats to the Alliance's 20. With the PRBS-PKS likely to resume their electoral alliance with the PRB in the national race, leaving them with a guaranteed 38 seats out of the 90 total, this left the Alliance's only hope to get Tun Mustapha onside, Mustapha's lack of interest in national governance could then allow Tun Jugah to become Prime Minister and use his federal post to interfere with the PRBS' provincial agenda. One term of lame duck governance of Sarawak would almost certainly allow political power to swing back in his favour come 1981. The cunning Tun Mustapha, well aware that he held the national destiny in his hands, took overtures from both sides of the aisle. In the end the PRBS held an ace up their sleeve; behind closed doors, they passed word to Tun Mustapha that they maintained a close clandestine relationship with the government of Revolutionary Nusantara, and that not only would Nusantara be willing to guarantee the defense of Sabah against Philippine claims of sovereignty over the area, but that they may even be willing to assist in the equipping and training of Moro insurgents in the Southern Philippines. Ong Kee Hui, founder and leader of the PRBS, even promised to ask Aidit if Nusantara would be willing to encourage emigration by Nusantaran Muslims to Sabah if Tun Mustapha were to back him as Prime Minister. It was a deal Tun Mustapha couldn't possibly refuse.

In January 1977 the new government of North Kalimantan was formed. A mere formality, once against Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah was selected as President of the North Bornean Federation. Ong Kee Hui was Prime Minister, Stephen Kalong Ningkan of the PKS was appointed Chief Minister of Sarawak as a sign of gratitude (although his party would only be able to pass policies through the state legislature with PRBS support, leaving him in charge in name only), Azahari remained Chief Minister of Brunei and Tun Mustapha of course was once again Chief Minister of Sabah. This coalition government held an overwhelming 70 out of 90 total national seats, leaving the opposition largely ineffectual and limited to activity within Sarawak province. The new government immediately began to deepen ties with international partners, most notably China, Korea and Nusantara. A number of major arms acquisitions deals were made with the People's Republic of China, including the purchase of North Kalimantan's first jet aircraft, the Chinese Chengdu J-7 (a license-built MiG-21). Large quantities of small arms and ammunition, mostly somewhat outdated, were purchased from Vietnam and Korea. Two modified Kashin-class destroyers were also purchased from the Soviet Union, the Ognevoy ("fiery") and Smely ("valiant"), renamed to the Langmeitong ("hornbill bird") and Kemerdekaan ("Independence"), respectively. A defense agreement was signed with Nusantara, which pledged to come to North Kalimantan's aid against any foreign violation of its territorial sovereignty. It became increasingly obvious to the rest of the world that the North Borneo Federation was becoming sometwhat of an oddity: a parliamentary democracy petro-state in Southeast Asia, aligning itself with the socialist East. It was yet to become evident exactly what this would mean for the future of the region.

Ong Hee Kui, founder and leader of the PRBS and second Prime Minister of North Kalimantan​

===
[253] IOTL, with Sabah as part of Malaysia, Tun Mustapha's disputes with the Malaysian Federal Government led to him openly promoting Sabahan separatism. In response, the powers that be in Malaysia sponsored the creation of the BERJAYA party under the leadership of PKSB Secretary-General Harris Salleh. BERJAYA managed to defeat PKSB in the 1976 state election. ITTL, with Sabah as a province of a smaller federation, and Mustapha as essentially ensuring whoever he supports becomes national rulers, there is no force willing to incur his disapproval by sponsoring an alternative. As such doesn't get ousted in the mid-1970s.
[254] The Parti Sultan is not an IOTL entity. I figured that given the bad blood between the PRB and the Sultan, the latter would at least attempt to form an electoral vehicle to reassert his power.

 

[Hrvatskiwi]

All-female security team for all-female bank in Cubao​

The 1969 Philippine election resulted in the provision of another four-year term to the incumbent President Emmanuel Pelaez. Having proven the efficacy of his policies of promoting agronomy and agricultural development, Pelaez's government was able to secure investment from Japanese keiretsu conglomerates. The Philippines possessed a number of attributes which were attractive for these companies. Aside from an increasingly well-educated, but relatively cheap workforce, there were also a great deal of Filipinos who spoke English, and as such could be useful for selling products in America. The agricultural sector was of particular attraction to Japanese investors, as the climate of the Philippines encouraged the production of tropical fruits that were difficult to cultivate in Japan. These investments gave a further boost to Philippine science, with many Filipino scientists learning from Japanese colleagues sent from Japan. Advertising campaigns in Japan that encouraged the consumption of Philippine produce depicted it as a carefree tropical paradise, serving to boost Japanese interest in tourism in the Philippines. In order to cater to this increased demand, a number of resorts in the various islands of the Visayas province were made specifically to cater to Japanese tastes and sensibilities. This helped to strengthen ties with Japan, which as the pro-US, non-communist island nations of East Asia, increasingly felt a sense of kinship. In the Philippines itself, the traumas of the Japanese occupation during World War II were not forgotten, but especially for younger people, forgiven, and it became a short-lived trend to see young Pinoy women in Manila carrying parasols with Japanese patterns on them. In Japan, a concurrent trend saw Japanese ladies adopting elements of the Spanish-colonial-influenced dress styles common in the Philippines, the more colourful the better. A notable cultural product from the increased intertwining of Japan and the Philippines was the 1973 film Batak, the first Filipino kaiju film[255]. The titular monster is a gigantic crab-like beast which emerges from the sea after being summoned by a mangkukulam, or witch. The summoning was solicited by a poor family living in a barrio in an unnamed city in the Philippines who sought to take revenge on a landlord for the rape of their teenaged virgin daughter and her subsequent suicide when she found herself pregnant with her rapist's child. Whilst the crab does end up killing the landlord, in doing so it also continues on a massive rampage, destroying the barrio and causing the death of the entire poor family, with the exception of the family patriarch who is emotionally broken by his grief. The crab engages in wholesale slaughter including killing and eating the mangkukulam. Eventually the massive beast is tracked by a team of Japanese and Filipino scientists working together, and a joint American-Philippine military response succeeds in killing the creature after a massive aerial bombardment. It is discovered that the Batak was in fact a female, and that she was carrying underneath her body clutches of large eggs. The scientists order the destruction of the eggs, which is accomplished using flamethrowers; the film ends on a cliffhanger with a fisherman further down the coast stumbling across mounds on a beach. Scraping aside some of the sand, he discovers clutches of the Batak eggs, which hatch and he is overrun by the hatchling monsters. They march inland into the jungle in number and the credits roll. The film is seen internationally as one of the best examples of the kaiju genre outside of Japan. Not only is the film much more mature in tone than many of the European and American creature features, but it builds on the symbolic tradition of the Japanese classic Gojira. Whilst Gojira was a film about nuclear catastrophe, Batak was a commentary on the threat of communist infiltration. The crab, an large red animal capable of travelling in the sea and on land, can be read as an allegory for Nusantara or China, and the threat itself is caused by an outburst of frustration and anger at the bourgeois by the poor, which then spirals out of control and causes their own destruction as well. The United States and Japan assists the Philippines in vanquishing the immediate threat; although the implied continuation of the depredations of the monsters on the islanders speaks to the need for continued vigilance and preparedness.

1973 saw the election of Fernando Lopez, who continued to focus on the economic development of the Philippines, this time with an added emphasis on infrastructural projects, building roads, rail and bridges between settlements, as well as promoting rural electrification and the construction of a number of new airports and hospitals throughout the country. It is during this period that the Philippines established an embryonic air ambulance service, allowing rapid response to medical emergencies in remote villages in the Philippine countryside. This managed to save a great deal of lives, although of course its efficacy was limited by weather conditions. The Lopez presidency, whilst largely remembered as a transitional presidency, was also a period of prosperity, the economic policies of the last fifteen years starting to pay high dividends for the Philippine Republic; during the four years from 1973-1977, the Philippines had the fastest growing economy in Asia. In 1977, the election was won by Ninoy Aquino. During his tenure, Aquino was notable for his expansion of social programmes and laying the groundwork for the welfare state in the Philippines. He established independent watchdog organisations in order to curb corruption, and did his best to rein in some of the excesses of the Philippine military establishment, dismissing commanders that engaged in atrocities during the fight against the Moro insurgency. Whilst he kept close military ties with the United States, and allowing for American occupation of a naval and air base in Ilocos Norte, he rebuffed requests by the American President George Wallace to base US Marines throughout the Philippine islands.

A wide variety of Philippine produce sold in ever-greater numbers by Filipino farmers during this period​

A communist insurgency was in fact active in the Philippines during the 1970s. The Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) was founded on 26th December 1968, coinciding with the 75th birthday of Mao Tse-Tung by Jose Maria Sison, who adopted the nom de guerre Amado Guerrero. The ranks of the PKP initially numbered only 500, but grew steadily [256]. The PKP's operations were initially confined to the tri-boundary zone of Alaminos, Bani and Mabini in the province of Pangasinan on the main island, Luzon. The PKP had split from the older PKP-1930, a traditional Soviet-facing Marxist-Leninist party. By contract, the PKP was Maoist in orientation (as was evident in its foundation date). Soon after establishment, the PKP linked up with the small remnants of the Hukbalahap movement that remained scattered throughout the remote countryside and on March 29th 1969 established its militant wing, the Bagong Hukbong Bayan (New People's Army, BHB). On 24th April 1973 they also established the Pambansang Demokratikong Hanay ng Pilipinas (National Democratic Front of the Philippines, PDHP) as an umbrella group for communist-influenced organisations, including indigenous rights groups, trade unions and other leftist political parties. As the PKP pursued a strategy of "protracted people's war", they sought to expand recruitment through the infiltration of barrio organising committees in poorer urban areas. These were established by the PKP with the stated objectives to lower land rent, eliminate usury, and ensure the "annihilation of enemy troops and the elimination of landlord despots, enemy spies and such bad elements as cattle rustlers, extortionists, robbers, murderers, arsonists and the like". The BHB insurgency, reaching its peak in 1974, would gradually shrivel up for a number of reasons. Firstly, many of the leaders, including Jose Maria Sison and the BHB leader Bernabe Buscayno (better known as Kumander Dante) were arrested. Secondly, the steady economic growth and improving living standards for ordinary Filipinos made the sacrifices of living a guerrilla lifestyle in the countryside not seem worthwhile. Thirdly, the support of the United States' Jackson and Wallace administrations in the training and equipping of the Philippine security forces allowed them to effectively respond to BHB attacks, isolating and eliminating units. Finally, under pressure from all directions, the movement began to splinter as a result of internal schisms. Although the BHB insurgency would continue into the 1980s, it ceased being a significant threat from 1976 onwards.

American-made poster distributed in the Philippines, representing Juan de la Cruz, personification of the Filipino everyman, ready to defend his country from Communism​

A more serious threat to the Philippine state was the separatist movements of the Moro people of Sulu and southern Mindanao. Dissatisfaction had been slowly coming to a simmer in Mindanao for decades; both the old American colonial government and the post-independence Philippine governments had pursued a policy of intra-ethnic migration by settling Christian Filipinos from Luzon and Visayas into the region from the 1920s onward. By the early 1970s, Christians outnumbered both the Moro of southern Mindanao and the Lumad peoples of the northern part of the island. Population growth spurred competition over limited resources, especially land, and Moro dissatisfaction grew as the commercial agriculture sector expanded but largely benefitted the Christian settler populations. With Mindanao being the closest region of the Philippines to the Equator, tropical fruits grew particularly well in the region, but the indigenous groups of the area saw little benefit from the boom in the trade of this produce. The spark that ignited the conflict was the 1972 Cotabato massacre [257]. An attack by armed Moro (who, as it would turn out, were armed by Tun Mustapha of Sabah in North Kalimantan) attacked and killed three police officers. The attackers were acting out of their own volition (and likely paid to do so by Tun Mustapha) but a disproportionate response by military and police in the town, including the killing of 30 Muslims engaging in prayer at a local mosque which the police mistakenly thought was sheltering the cop-killers, led to outrage amongst the Muslim population of Mindanao and Sulu. Whilst the Palaez administration sought to bring to justice the police that engaged in the massacre, uncooperative local authorities covered for the perpetrators, who were unable to be singled out by the federal government. This was interpreted by many Muslims as demonstrating a lack of care for the plight of the indigenous peoples of Mindanao. Organisations calling for the secession of Mindanao and Sulu (and some even claiming that Palawan should be part of a new indepedent Muslim state) popped up like mushrooms after a spring rain; the first of these groups was the Muslim Independence Movement founded by the former governor of Cotabato, Datu Udtog Matalam. Cotabato was in many ways a microcosm of the internal colonisation of the southern Philippines and as such it is hardly a surprise the city produced a disproportionate number of Moro militants. As traditional leader of the local Muslim community, Matalam had also held gubernatorial power; but an influx of Christians forced him out of that seat. The MIM manifesto published by Matalam called for the establishment of a "Republic of Mindanao and Sulu" as an Islamic state; he later wrote a "Declaration of Policy" which confirmed that Christians would be safe and provided equal citizenship rights in such a state. He later claimed to merely be pursuing autonomy within a federal Philippine state. The rapid diluting of the initial militant message would be off-putting to many Moro, who flocked instead to groups such as the Bangsamoro Liberation Organisation and the Moro National Liberation Front (these two groups would merge soon after their establishment). It seemed that Matalam had, unsuccessfully, hoped to ride the wave of Muslim anger to build a political machine for himself[258]. The Moro National Liberation Front was founded by Nur Misauri, who had cultivated an interest in politics during his tenure at university, and had even formed a radical student group in 1964, the Kabataan Makabayan (Patriotic Youth) with Jose Maria Sison. He had become a lecturer at the University of the Philippines in political science until leaving when the MIM was established. The Moro National Liberation Front, with support from Sabah, would engage in armed resistance against the Philippine state virtually from its inception. The Malayan government attempted to broker a peace between the two groups, which broke down, but different stances within the MNLF on a potential peace with the government caused a rift between the followers of Misauri and Salamat Hashim. An actual split in the group was prevented by the influence of Tun Mustapha, who threatened to cut both groups entirely from support if they were to schism. From the 1980s onward, the Moro insurgency would intensify, as Jakarta began to lend its support to the MNLF, igniting yet another regional crisis.

Map representing the regions of traditional Muslim influence in Mindanao and Sulu

Moro militant armed with M-60 machine gun, likely captured from Philippine security forces​

===
[255] This is an original idea of a film of mine; not OTL.
[256] Historically the PKP grew exponentially due to the abuses of President Marcos. Without Marcos in the picture ITTL, their growth is far less than OTL.
[257] This didn't happen historically. IOTL, the catalyst was the 1968 Jabidah Massacre, but this is butterflied away by no Marcos presidency.
[258] This can be inferred from Matalam's actions OTL. IOTL, Matalam quit the whole Muslim separatism platform when offered a cabinet position by Marcos.