Military seeks tougher measures vs terrorism

BAGUIO CITY – The military’s spokesman urged Congress yesterday to pass tougher laws to give more teeth to the government’s campaign against terrorism and insurgency.

Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan, spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), chided the political leadership for complacency amid the deteriorating peace and order situation.

He said other countries confronted by 25,000 armed rebels would have considered it a state of emergency.

"It’s funny. We have some 25,000 rebels in our midst and we still do not regard (ourselves as being) in an emergency situation," Adan said here.

He noted that the United States Congress acted speedily in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

Adan pointed out that American legislators crossed party lines and united to push a common agenda against terrorism.

On the home front, he regretted that the proposed national identification system, which he said could have helped track down suspected criminals, was shelved because of vigorous opposition from various quarters, particularly leftist organizations.

Adan also underscored the need to amend the country’s banking laws to allow the freezing of the assets of individuals and corporate entities suspected of maintaining links with terrorist groups.

He said the AFP is prodding the political leadership to craft an anti-subversion law that can meet the challenges of the times.

Of the 25,000 rebels, Adan said 12,000 are armed combatants of the New People’s Army, the military arm of the local communist movement. About 1,000 are members of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group, which has gained notoriety for ransom kidnappings in southern Mindanao.

Another 1,000 rebels are followers of jailed Gov. Nur Misuari, who staged a short-lived revolt in Min-danao in an apparent bid to prevent the holding of elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) last Nov. 26 to select his replacement.

The rest belong to the Muslim secessionist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has been fighting for an independent Islamic state in Mindanao, but signed a ceasefire accord and held preliminary peace talks with the government earlier this year.

The Abu Sayyaf bandits who are still holding an American missionary couple and a Filipino nurse seized in a kidnapping spree earlier this year, have been targets of a massive military campaign in the island province of Basilan.

The followers of Misuari, who was captured in Sabah, Malaysia a few days after the Sulu revolt was launched, were also being pursued by government forces in Zamboanga.

Adan also said the NPA strength has swelled over the past five years from 6,000 guerrillas to some 12,000 at present.

"They (NPA rebels) are increasing at an average of 15 percent a year nationwide," Adan said, adding that the communist insurgents remain the biggest threat to national security compared to the Abu Sayyaf, the MILF and Misuari’s group.

Adan surmised that majority of the NPA’s new recruits were minors "because they are the most vulnerable to communist propaganda."

Maj. Elmer Quiros, AFP civil relations chief for Ilocos and the Cordillera regions, confirmed that the NPA has been gaining strength since 1995.

Adan brushed aside apprehensions that waging an all-out drive against the rebel groups, specifically the communist insurgents and the Muslim separatists, would adversely affect ongoing peace talks with them,

He said as far as the military is concerned, these groups have always been considered as "dissident terrorists."

"We just don’t highlight it because we might be asked why we talk with terrorists," Adan clarified.

He scored the political leadership for treating Jose Ma. Sison, founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), with kid gloves. "Government has leaned backwards so many times, but Sison continued his insurgency campaign," he said.

Adan also cited the entry of leftists in the House of Representatives, specifically Satur Ocampo, Liza Maza and Crispin Beltran of the party list group Bayan Muna as a "new milestone" in the growth of the rebel movement.

Meanwhile, Adan said the AFP and the Philippine National Police have been placed on alert against possible attacks by NPA rebels to mark the CPP anniversary on Dec. 26.

KM leader admits NPA recruitment of minors

A 26-year-old leader of the leftist Kabataang Makabayan (KM) in Baguio City admitted that the NPA has been recruiting minors.

KM spokesman Banuar Bagnos said majority of the NPA rebels in the Ilocos and Cordillera provinces are young people.

"The youth are also part of the larger society suffering from the ills of nationwide poverty and intolerance by government," Bagnos said in a secret press conference in an undisclosed place in Baguio City to mark the 37th anniversary of the organization.

"The youth are no different from the older ones, so some (of them) have decided to take up arms and join the growing number of red fighters," he added.

Bagnos also stressed that "more than ever, the condition for waging a revolution is more ripe now."

He claimed that there are now 250 KM members in the Cordillera region, from a mere handful five years ago.

Bagnos’ wife, aged 22, reportedly joined the NPA two years ago, leaving their two-year-old daughter in the care of relatives.

Bagnos said he is set to join her in the mountains in a few months, along with several other KM members.

"We are not relics of the past. We have more pressing issues now than in 1964 when KM was first made," Bagnos said.

"We are still relevant. We are still fighting for revolution. I am very proud to be part of history," he said.