The World: The Rebels: I Learned It from the Movies

Though the government-controlled Philippine press reports little about the worsening war with Moslem guerrillas, military leaders speak freely with foreign correspondents. The rebels are more elusive. TIME Correspondent David Aikman made contact with a band of them last week on Basilan Island. His report:

ACOMPANIED by an intermediary — a civilian Moslem who sympathizes with the rebel soldiers — I set out from Basilan City in a motorized outrigger called a pump boat. We rode through the tranquil coastal waters for 30 minutes, then turned into a narrow creek canopied with palm fronds. It was another 30 minutes before we reached the...