NPA attacks indicate split in insurgent leadership — Ermita

Recent attacks by communist rebels amid a Christmas truce indicate a possible split in the insurgent leadership, a senior adviser of President Arroyo said yesterday.

This developed as members of the New People’s Army (NPA) torched a staff house of a real estate firm in Mexico, Pampanga last Saturday.

Earlier, rebels killed an Army captain in Aurora and torched a bus in Cebu even as the two sides had declared unilateral Christmas ceasefires that would last until early January.

Retired Gen. Eduardo Ermita, presidential adviser on the peace process, said the recent attacks suggest that "the people at the top may not be in control of their people on the ground."

"We have received information that other factions may have their own motives in trying to disrupt the peace negotiations," Ermita said in an interview on ABS-CBN television.

The national government is holding informal consultations with the exiled leadership of the NPA’s political wing, the National Democratic Front (NDF) in the Netherlands, with a view to restarting peace talks that were halted last June.

"There could be policy differences," he said without elaborating. "And that group happens to be in the Philippines."

Ermita said the Arroyo administration remained committed to seeking a political settlement to the 32-year rebellion "until we see an irreversible trend" that the rebel leaders are no longer interested in talking.

"However, some goodwill measures will have to happen before formal talks can resume," he added.

Asked when he thought the talks could resume, Ermita said: "In all probability it would happen after the holidays, in January."

Mrs. Arroyo had declared a Dec. 10-Jan. 6 unilateral Christmas truce – the government’s response to the NDF’s announcement of its own Dec. 15-Jan. 15 ceasefire.

However, communist rebels shortened the other day their one-month ceasefire, deciding to end it on Jan. 6 to coincide with government’s own declared truce.

The Army was not surprised by the NDF’s decision to shorten its truce, saying the rebels have time and again "proven to be insincere in pursuing peace with the government."

"It’s not about the length of the truce period, the issue here is their sincerity. Before this, they burned a bus and killed one of our officers. All these are indications they are not sincere with their ceasefire," Army chief Lt. Gen. Jaime de los Santos said.

Last Thursday, suspected NPA rebels killed Army Capt. Eufronio Villaluz, a staff officer of the 70th Infantry Battalion, in Aurora province. Two day earlier, the rebels torched an air-conditioned passenger bus along the national highway in Catmon town in Cebu.

Rebels strike anew

Pampanga police director Senior Superintendent Ismael Raf said NPA rebels burned down last Saturday a staff house of the Lakeshore Developers Central Country Estates to protest a development project by the firm in Mexico, Pampanga.

Raf said some 30 heavily armed fighters arrived at the Lakeshore compound on board three vehicles and introduced themselves to the firm’s security personnel as policemen from Camp Olivas. The attackers, clad in fatigue uniforms, then disarmed some 16 guards and took a computer from one of the offices before torching the staff house and fleeing.

One of the guards said he overheard one of the attackers saying, "dapat bigyan ng leksyon and Lakeshore na yan (Lakeshore should be taught a lesson)."

The NPA has claimed that the development of a subdivision in an area covering three barangays would lead to the displacement of farmers. Lakeshore, however, has reportedly compensated affected residents. – Ding Cervantes, Paolo Romero