My Npa Dad Could Beat Up Your Npa Dad

[ekimswish]

I know this discussion of NPA's always lets me down a bit. For some reason I want it to be a noble cause led by a Filipino Che Guevara/Robin Hood, with RAMBO type fighters, and it's never that. But they do, apparently, serve a purpose. Last month a couple guys attempted to rob OR rape my stepdaughter, and they were caught by the police. Ever since then, our side has attended seemingly weekly court hearings or procedures, while their side has tried to make a side deal with us. I don't want a side deal, though, because anyone who attacks a 12 year old girl deserves jail time, so we've turned down their offers. One offer was money. Another offer, or packaged with the money offer, was the man will be sent by his family back to the province. Both, lame. Anyways, now they're name-dropping NPA connections if we're serious about putting their son behind bars. Our father's friend responded the same, telling them to be careful mentioning NPA's because they don't know her connections either (her dad is a local leader or something from the same small area the other family's originally from). And really, I don't care either way. I care, but it's hard to take seriously a family with no money. I doubt the NPA work for free. But this isn't the first time we've been protected by an NPA connected soul. Years back when we first arrived in the Phils, we lived in a forest-squatter area on a hill, where my father in law was in a legal battle over the land titles with the self professed owner organization and his organization. It was a dangerous situation with a lot of threats. They did a good job of not letting me in on the danger, but I later found out, and the reason no one touched us was because an old man named TaiHwan was with us. He was just an old 50 some year old, looking 60 due to poverty (now deceased), so why were they afraid of him? He was an Ita tribes person from some area loaded with NPA's, and people knew he'd be well connected. My wife also tells me stories from her area of NPA families, and it seems people give them a lot of respect (good or bad, depending). But it feels like elementary school boasting, the way people always claim to have NPA connections to fight their fight and do their dirty work. I remember the school days when we always estimated how many car loads of back up certain area-tough guys could get if they needed it. Our claims were always fictitious and exaggerated, based on imagination. I'm hoping this NPA name dropping thing is the same. Hoping.....