By most accounts here, 9-year-old Grecil Buya was a bright and playful girl who often missed class because she liked to catch spiders.

She lived in a shack with her parents and three siblings, peasants in the province of Compostela Valley, the hotbed of the Communist insurgency in this part of the southern Philippines.

MANILA, Philippines -- She was 9 years old. She had big brown eyes and
shiny black hair. She liked spider-fighting and watching “Wowowee,” and
woke up at six every morning for the hour-long walk down the mountain
to her second-grade class. Her teacher said she should study harder,
and she did, because she was a little girl who wanted to be a nurse
someday. She had a medal for “Most Neat” at the end of the school year.
In the summer, she played with the other children, racing rubber bands
while hopping in green-slippered feet.