The whistleblower: The lone survivor among approximately 60 Muslim youth said to have been summarily executed in the 1968 Jabidah Massacre.
The situation: More than 40 years ago, recruits were brought to the Corregidor Island to prepare them for "Operation Merdeka," Arula told Inquirer.net. At the time, it was a confidential plan of the Marcos administration to take control of the Malaysian state of Sabah, which the Philippine government claimed to be part of the country's territory.
The revelation: After one of the recruits tried to raise their complaints against the officers to Malacañang, the officers fired at them all. Arula, then 27, said he sustained a gunshot wound to the left knee but he persevered and swam for four hours across the Manila Bay. According to Case Unclosed, the massacre "reawakened the Bangsamoro people and provided the spark for the formation of the Moro National Liberation Front."
In 2008, Inquirer.net reported, "(Arula) admitted that his revelations, which triggered a full-blown Senate inquiry but led to nothing, ruined not only his future but also his children's... (He said most of his life) was spent in fear and in hiding." Rekrut, a 2010 Cinemalaya entry, was inspired by the Jabidah massacre.
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