Terrorist Leader’s Daughter Different Way of Life
Andrea ‘Drei’ Toledo (35) is feeling grateful that she is still able to survive to this day after the hard and relentless struggle she has gone through. She decided to speak out publicly against her own father when her mother was tortured in 2017 for 9 months and 5 days. In her email to me, Drei revealed that she would probably have chosen to fight in silence if her mother had not been tortured and killed by her father, Antonio Toledo.
It was during this harrowing period that Drei finally decided that she could no longer fight her father secretly as she had the last few years, since 2007 to be exact. Drei used her platform as a journalist to expose her father, the NPA clan and what they did to her mother.
“I would not have done this so publicly if my father did not torture and murder my mom. But after my mom’s torture, I realised that keeping quiet (for some perverted sense of “family honour”) did not make any sense because I can still end up sadistically tortured (and not just murdered) like my mom. That was why I decided to finally break the silence,” Drei said.
After that, she got help and protection by the Philippine Government. Nearly a year after Drei “condemned” her father for being a terrorist leader, it was in late 2017 the CPP-NPA was officially designated a terrorist organization by the Philippine Government. And at the end of 2018, the NTF-ELCA was formed. Unfortunately, Drei’s mother was not helped. She was shot dead by her own father in May 2018.
Drei’s father was a man with an important position in the leadership of the New People Army (NPA) a communist-terrorist organization in the Philippines. According to Drei, since she was 4 years old, her mother had told her that they were an NPA “clan” and that there was no way out of the clan but death. And somehow the perspective that communists are evil is etched in Drei’s mind which makes her reject indoctrination. Drei became an enemy of her own father.
Drei was isolated by her father in her home filled with religious books from Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Baha’i. Drei found emotional comfort by reading all of these books, although her father later recommended her to read books on atheism and communism which Drei felt never aligned with her thinking.
At the same time, Drei realizes that the presence of religious books and religious scriptures in her home are only props used by her parents as props among those whom Drei calls “Communist Termites” who are trained to destroy religion from within.
Drei’s father and mother were in high positions in the national administrative order in the Philippine Government. And when Drei was growing up, her father occupied the highest position in the National Spiritual Assembly (NSA) which is the highest body of the Baha’i religious community. While her mother, who later became the secretary of the NSA, was given a position in the government and paid a high salary. She served in to siphon funds from the Philippine Government and use the stolen funds for terrorism financing, including for propaganda, budgets for bribing mainstream media, and for the procurement of firearms such as bombs, ammunition bullets, chemical precursors, and so on.
Nor does she understand the troubling contradictions in her father’s actions, namely exposing his charismatic and professional personality in public and torturing his own kids with hunger and violence. Torture of hunger, domestic violence which Drei calls violence in closed doors and the deliberate deprivation of material which is expected to make Drei vulnerable and then accept indoctrination and become part of her father’s group. As the daughter of the leader of a terrorist group, Drei did not even escape various assassination attempts such as being poisoned and hit-and-run by her father’s orders.
“The NPA from my family attempted to kill me when I wanted out, Mashallah, I was allowed to survive,” she said.
My Mom Didn’t Want Me To End Like Her
Since sitting in 6th grade, Drei has learned to be independent. She sells recyclables that she can find in her home and from trash at school such as ink cartridges, bottles and used paper. Drei would use the money from the trash to buy food for her and her brother. While in high school, Drei and her brother received a full scholarship from the mayor. While in college, 17-year-old Drei took a full-time job and took time off from college to raise money which would later be used to pay for school needs. After the money he collects is enough, she will return to college. When the money runs out and Drei has to raise money again, she will take a day off from college to work full time and return to school the following semester when the money has been collected.
“This was my method of choice in order to keep my independence, and so that I was not beholden to anybody, especially the commie recruiters in university assigned to me by my dad,” she said.
Drei’s determination stems from her mother’s message that Drei and her brother don’t accept money from other people if they don’t work hard to earn it and don’t know where the money is coming from. Drei’s mother also taught that her brother and herself should always question the motives of someone who behaves too well, even if the intention seems good. It also made Drei firmly refuse the expensive food and about Php 30,000 – Php 50,000 per month offered by the Recruiting Committee of the Communist Party where Drei studied. Even though Drei was almost always hungry at the time, she still refused and just kept quiet while listening to the recruiting committee trying to make her the committee leader at the student organization at the University.
Drei’s mother was only 12 years old when the Communist Party recruited her and her sister as communist child soldiers from the Manobo tribe by a Communist Termite Priest and nun in Gingoog City, Mindanao, Philippines. The recruitment was the “price” that Ms. Drei had to pay for a school scholarship and benefits from the Communist Party.
“Mom didn’t want me to end up like her,” said Drei.
When Drei was 18 years old, she met her first mentor to teach her about counter-terrorism, Professor Amparo Pamela Fabe. Who helped Drei to cut off from the communist community at the University and also told her that her father was the leader of a communist group – a disguised terrorist and never really left the communist movement.
Then Drei meets with a therapist to help her deal with all the trauma she has been through in her life journey. Including overcoming the stockholm syndrome she felt because she had abusive parents. She is guided to slowly distance herself and then permanently break off ties with all members of the abusive and toxic family.
Now, Drei has become a very consistent figure in the fight against radicalism. Not only being a journalist, Drei has also written several books and conducted research including the kids soldier. Drei found out that children and youth will always be vulnerable to terrorist operations that use aspects of drug addiction. According to her, the drug rehabilitation program run by the Philippine Government is very important, but not enough. A holistic approach to deradicalization, especially kids soldiers, requires the involvement of all family members.
“Not all children are built like me, who can survive on their own, cut off permanently from all terrorist family members,” Drei said.
And the most effective way to save someone from radicalism, especially women and children, is to use her story as an example, about the daughter of a terrorist leader who chose a different way of life, away from terrorism. Because, sometimes they have a feeling, “What do these so-called deradicalization experts know about our life, if they were not born into terrorist clans?” she said.
Then by creating a new family. From what Drei experienced and she observed from his research, every individual needs protection and a sense of security when they decide to get out of a radical environment, and cut ties with their terrorist family and friends. Because, if continuously exposed, it will be impossible to maintain their deradicalization process.
Finally, if there are other factors felt by victims of radicalization such as drug addiction, alcoholism, sex addiction, sadism, Stockholm syndrome and so on and there is a tendency to irritability, hostility, and violence, the deradicalization program should also consider a tailored approach to dealing with PTSD. In addition, programs that provide employment opportunities for adults and academic scholarships for children to achieve what they aspire to are also worth considering.
