Philippine Communists threaten more attacks

Communist guerrillas vowed to intensify attacks ahead of the May elections to help bring down President Arroyo’s administration because of her strong ties with the United States.

A spokesman for the 35-year-old Marxist insurgency also warned American troops training Filipino soldiers in counterterrorism to stay away from rural communist strongholds or face rebel attacks.

Mrs. Arroyo has relied on US military aid to take action against Muslim extremists and the communist insurgents, and has angered nationalists and leftists by supporting the US-led wars against terror and in Iraq.

“Bringing about the collapse of the Arroyo regime is the only rightful reward for all of its puppetry to the imperialist US,” rebel spokesman Gregorio Rosal said during a clandestine news conference Tuesday in a northern jungle guerrilla encampment.

Journalists were invited to the conference on condition that they not reveal its location or take photographs of the guerrillas’ faces.

He said a peace deal with Mrs. Arroyo, who has called for a resumption of talks with the guerrillas, was “impossible.”

However, he said the rebels would be willing to resume formal peace talks, suspended since 2001, with any of Mrs. Arroyo’s three major rivals -- movie action star Fernando Poe Jr., former senator Raul Roco and Christian evangelist Eddie Villanueva -- if they win.

All three have called for political unity and expressed willingness to open peace negotiations with the guerrillas.

Despite lacking weapons for new recruits, Rosal said the guerrillas would intensify offensives against the Arroyo’s administration. Last year, he said the rebels seized more than 330 high-powered firearms in raids and clashes with government troops.

Rosal said the rebels had no intention of attacking Americans as long as they stay away from rebel-influenced areas.

“The joke going around the New People’s Army is that American soldiers are easier to target because they have bigger frames to aim at,” Rosal said.

In 1989, the NPA rebels shot and killed Col. James “Nick” Rowe, a US military adviser to the Philippine armed forces. And in early 2002, the Pentagon reported that a US Air Force MC-130H plane was hit by gunfire and sustained light damage while flying over the north as part of joint training exercises with Filipino troops. No one was injured.

The guerrillas investigated the incident and found out that tribesmen supporting the NPA shot the aircraft with hunting rifles because they felt it was intruding into their ancestral area, according to Ka Filiw, a spokesman for the guerrillas operating in the country’s mountainous north.

Guerrilla activities have intensified in recent months after the United States included the NPA and Communist Party of the Philippines founder, Jose Maria Sison, on its list of foreign terrorists.

From a few dozen guerrillas in the late 1960s, guerrilla strength peaked in the mid-1980s to more than 25,000 nationwide. But the number dropped to as low as around 6,000 following a major split in the local communist movement in the early 1990s, surrenders and battle casualties.

However, the military has reported rebel strength has steadily increased to a current force of 9,300 men with 7,000 firearms.

Malacañang, meanwhile, said that it may decide to extend the suspension of offensive military operations against communist insurgents, which lapsed on Tuesday, if they abandon their plan to extort money from candidates campaigning in rebel-influenced areas.

Presidential Political Spokesman Michael Defensor said in a news briefing that the administration coalition has “no plans of paying a single centavo to the communist rebels.”

“In fact, we would like to pursue and extend the truce as long as the NPA will abandon extortion activities in the light of the coming elections,” he said.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a news briefing that the government will study the feasibility of an extended suspension of military offensives (SOMO) despite the rebels’ seeming disinterest.

“Let’s try to get stronger indications of good intent on the other side before we pursue the matter of extension of the SOMO,” he said.

The Armed Forces earlier said that prospects of a SOMO extension were dimmed by the recent declaration of the Communist Party of the Philippines that it would impose a permit-to-campaign (PTC) fee on candidates seeking to campaign in rebel-influenced areas.

Bunye said the Armed Forces and the National Police are already implementing countermoves against the NPA’s thinly- disguised extortion activities.

He said candidates are required to report to the authorities “any group demanding payment in exchange for the freedom to campaign.”

Bunye declined to comment on claims that some administration candidates had paid PTC fees to the NPA, saying these are mere allegations until proven.

The CPP is reported to be demanding P500,000 from aspiring governors, P300,000 from congressional bets, and between P50,000 and P300,000 for mayoral bets.

For a whole party slate -- governor down to board members -- the rate is said to be at least P1.5 million.

The CPP reportedly earned P40 million from candidates, which was used to sustain the communist movement.

Communists remain thorn on govt side -AFP

Communist guerrillas remain a serious problem in the Philippines despite battlefield losses over the past year, a military spokesman said Friday.

The New People's Army (NPA), one of the longest-running left-wing insurgencies in Southeast Asia, saw its ranks decline to about 8,800 at the end of 2003 compared with 9,200 a year earlier, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Lucero told reporters.

Over the same period, government forces killed or captured 875 guerrillas and seized 321 firearms in 299 clashes, while clearing 246 of 2,500 villages of rebel activity, he added.

However, Lucero said the NPA remained in 107 "guerrilla fronts", or areas of operation, and that its arsenal had increased slightly to 6,133 firearms compared with 6,120 a year earlier.

The rebels focused on "strengthening and multiplying their front organizations as their political support for their armed struggle," Lucero said.

The NPA has been waging a Maoist guerrilla campaign since March 1969.

President Arroyo called off peace talks with the rebels two years ago following the assassination of several politicians by guerrilla squads.

Rank	Location	Receipts	Donors/Avg	Freepers/Avg	Monthlies
11	Washington	701.00	27	25.96	461	1.52	285.00	17

AFP rejects extension of cease-fire

By Karl B. Kaufman, Reporter

THE Armed Forces on Thursday rejected the propoed extension of the cease-fire with the New People’s Army owing to the rampant pre-election extortion of the communist rebels.

In its recommendation to Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita, the military viewed the proposal for a unilateral suspension of military operations “with some apprehension.”

“The CPP-NPA has not expressed a similar interest or a mutually shared interest in declaring a cease-fire, so if a cease-fire is going to be unilateral, then it might not be as fruitful as if it was a mutually declared one,” said the Armed Forces vice chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia.

The recommendation came after a two-day command conference at Camp Aguinaldo that was attended by the military’s top generals. The conference ended Thursday afternoon.

Ermita is expected to send the Armed Forces’ recommendation to President Arroyo today for her decision.

But the military also said it is open to the idea that the suspension of military operations be declared in selected areas all over the country.

Since the government’s Christmas truce ended on January 6, the military has intensified its operations in the four regions where communist rebels are extorting money from candidates. These are the Compostela Valley, the Davao provinces, Quezon province and the Caraga region in Mindanao.

Garcia said the “permit-to-campaign” racket by the NPA, which demands candidates to give financial support to the rebels in exchange for permits to campaign in rebel territories, is the main reason the military thumbed down the extension of the cease-fire.

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