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The National Democratic Front (NDF), which represents the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) in the peace negotiations with the Philippine government in Oslo, Norway, is pushing for the holding of the next round of talks in the China by the end of March. NDF panel chairman Luis Jalandoni said Beijing has already sent "positive feelers" to both parties that it is willing to host the talks. The Philippine government and communist guerrillas wrapped up four days of peace negotiations in Oslo on Saturday with a compromise on the thorny issue of whether the...

Communist New People's Army (NPA) rebels ambushed a police patrol on Monday, killing eight of them in the central Philippine island of Masbate, police said. The attack came two days after peace negotiators from the government and the rebels concluded talks in Oslo to find a lasting political settlement to more than three decades of armed insurgency that has killed more than 40,000 people. Police spokesman Joel Goltiao said soldiers and police were verifying reports on Monday that a village chief in Milagros town was also killed in rebel fire. "Eight policemen were killed when their jeep hit a landmine,"...

CAMP MELCHOR DELA CRUZ, Gamu, Isabela—Suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels ambushed a military foot patrol in a remote town in western Cagayan on Sunday, killing five soldiers and wounding two others, an officer here reported. Maj. Rogelio Migote, spokesman for the 5th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army based in this camp, said the ambush occurred in Barangay Illuru Sur in Rizal, about 100 kilometers away from Tuguegarao City in Cagayan. Migote identified the dead as Sergeants Danilo Sanchez and Patricio Icudan, Cpl. Gervacio Agapito, Private First Class Vicente Valdez Jr. and Justo Welba, a member of the Citizen’s...

A SENIOR Philippine military official on Wednesday accused unnamed politicians of giving weapons and money to communist guerrillas in a bid to boost their chances in the May general elections. These politicians are aiding the New People's Army (NPA) to gain safe passage to rebel-influenced areas when the election campaigning starts on Feb. 10, Armed Forces Vice Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Rodolfo Garcia told reporters. "Our intelligence people have been dutifully submitting the names of politicians who have given money or even those politicians who in lieu of money have given instead arms," he said. "We have been able...

COMMUNIST rebels attacked government and other targets with impunity on Friday and Tuesday, destroying a cell site, burning buses and a cargo truck and putting a power plant under siege. Four Air Force soldiers were killed in the attack on the National Power Corp. Plant in Calaca town, Batangas province. While in Dumarao town, Capiz province, the guerrillas destroyed a cell site of the Globe Telecommunications firm. The guerrillas burned three buses in Canlaon City in two separate attacks Friday and Saturday. On Tuesday, guerrillas burned a cargo truck owned by a sugar planter in Silay City, Negros Occidental province....

Rebel spokesman Gregorio Rosal reads a statementfrom his laptop computer during a clandestine pressconference Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2004 at the communist NewPeople's Army encampment in northern Philippines. NEW PEOPLE'S ARMY ENCAMPMENT, Philippines -- Wearing his trademark Mao cap and neck scarf, Gregorio Rosal appeared in a communist rebel jungle camp with the tools of his trade: an M-16 rifle, laptop computer, a pocket radio, mobile phones and a harmonica. For more than a decade, the frail Philippine rebel spokesman has built a reputation for public relations on behalf of the Marxist guerrillas, countering the military's portrayal of the fighters as...

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...

IT is easy to see the Inquirer special report series by Juan V. Sarmiento on the bloody purges of the Communist Party in the 1980's as another case of the revolution devouring its own children. This is a deterministic view. The polarization that happened then, fostered on the one hand by a newly restored democratic government that sought to reassert democracy and turn back the gains of the communist insurgency by a military push, and on the other, by a communist movement that was trying to recover lost ground after missing the boat at the Edsa Revolution, appeared to have...

Families still hopeful(EDITOR'S NOTE: As the Communist Party of the Philippines marks its 35th founding anniversary this Friday, the Inquirer is coming out with this special report on the bloody purges within the party in the 1980s. With the country under Ferdinand Marcos' rule by martial law, the outlawed Marxist-Maoist party rose to the height of its political and military strength. It was also a time of infiltration by "deep-penetration agents" by the Marcos military. Within the party, hundreds of men and women who had dedicated their lives to what they believed was a noble cause, were suspected of being...

GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Where are Sgt. Jeremias Rosete and the three other “prisoners of war” of the New People’s Army (NPA)? Rosete’s family raised this question over the weekend after the central committee and local units of the Communist Party of the Philippines-led National Democratic Front (NDF) pointed at each other as to who could say if the four NPA captives are now dead or still alive. Jerry Rosete, brother of the captured Marine intelligence officer, said the NDF must immediately clarify if his brother and suspected government intelligence agents Wilfredo Maldecir, Pepito Simbulan and Herminia Sorongon, who were...

COMMUNIST rebels in the Philippines vowed to expand armed fronts all over the country to the size of a company from a small group of about 10 to back their offensives against the government, according to a document from the insurgents, a copy of which was obtained by INQ7.net. In the Three-Year Plan of 2003-2005 of the Communist Party of the Philippines released a day before its 35th founding anniversary, Armando Liwanag, chairman of the CPP central committee said, they would build guerilla fronts to cover majority of the municipalities, launch "regional strike forces," and increase the number of fighters...

AGTONGANON RANGE, Philippines -- Christopher Suazo was in the jungle, wearing torn jogging pants and cradling an M-1 rifle. At 18, he had managed only three years of schooling when he joined the Communist Party three months ago. Like many others, Suazo was motivated by a perceived injustice. His father and uncle, both farmers, were killed in March -- gunned down, he said, by the hired hands of a town mayor whom the military protects. The Communist rebellion in the Philippines began 35 years ago. It foundered but has regained strength and, according to military estimates, now counts 10,000 fighters...

THE Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said the revolutionary movement continues to gain strength in Panay Island amid massive military operations. "The rebel movement registered significant gains in 2003 as it frustrated intensive military operations," the CPP said in a statement marking their recent 35th Founding Anniversary. A military officer in the region, however, said there is no reason for the CPP to celebrate because it has done nothing for the country except contribute to the destruction of government properties, killing of own comrades and conduct of extortion activities. He added if the underground movement wanted reforms they should...

Ka Roger’s raspy voice filters out of the morning radio program, casual and so commonplace that millions of Filipino listeners have come to regard it as part of the daily news rather than a disturbing presence of a guerrilla openly challenging a government. “There are two governments in this country, the revolutionary government and the reactionary government,” said Roger, nom de guerre of Gregorio Rosal, spokesman for the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA). “They can’t deny that we exist and we exercise government powers,” Rosal said. Nilo de la Cruz,...

THREE separate encounters between government soldiers and New People’s Army rebels were reported on Tuesday, a day before the government’s Christmas truce takes effect. The Philippine National Police headquarters at Camp Crame reported that the clashes took place in Camarines Sur, Negros Oriental and Compostela Valley, all known NPA strongholds. On Monday President Arroyo declared a suspension of military offensives for the Christmas season. The truce will last until midnight of January 6. The NPA said, however, that it would observe its own truce from December 20 to January 4. Reports said the first encounter took place in Sitio Gullid-gullid,...

WHO ARE the extortionists? It's the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA), said Carapali Lualhati, national commander of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army and its armed wing, Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB). Lualhati, also known as Stephen Paduano, said the people of Negros are not "illiterate" to know who really are the extortionists. He said the underground movement wherein he was a member some 10 years past, is responsible for extorting revolutionary taxes in the uplands especially from politicians come election time. The NPAs are also responsible for the burning of Ceres buses for the owner's failure or refusal to...

KORONADAL CITY, December 5, 2003 (STAR) By Ramil Bajo — The Moro Islamic National Liberation Front (MILF) and the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) have reportedly forged a tactical alliance by consolidating their forces to prevent politicians and government forces from entering five remote barangays in T’boli, South Cotabato. T’boli police head chief inspector David Quistadio, however, refused to confirm the report but said that in the last elections the two rebel groups agreed to strengthen their presence in their ‘controlled territories’ to prevent politicians from going there. "Sa ngayon wala pa kaming naririnig pero posibleng mangyari...

<p>MANILA &#8212; New People's Army rebels attacked government forces 335 times in the first nine months of this year, making the Marxist-led movement a greater threat in the eyes of Philippine intelligence chiefs than al Qaeda and its local allies.</p>

A GOVERNMENT militiaman and a rebel were killed and three others were wounded in an encounter Wednesday in Polangui town, Albay province, a military report said. Elsewhere in the country, troops overran three New People's Army satellite camps in remote areas in the provinces of Laguna, Agusan del Sur and Leyte, according to Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jose Kakilala. Kakilala said a civilian auxiliary under the 22nd Infantry Battalion was killed in a clash Wednesday with the NPA in the village of Danao, Polangui, Albay. He said an NPA rebel was also killed in the clash, while one soldier and...

<p>WRANGELL-ST. ELIAS NATIONAL PARK, Alaska, Sept. 28 — Psalms sat on Papa Pilgrim’s right knee and Lamb perched on his left. Thirteen more of his children - all of them with names from the Bible, several of them packing pistols - crowded around. So did his exhausted-looking wife, Country Rose.</p>