Abaya: CPP-NPA still biggest threat

Communist insurgents still pose the biggest security threat to the Philippines, more so than Muslim extremists tied to foreign networks, Armed Forces chief Gen. Antonio Abaya said Thursday night.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its guerrilla wing, the 8,600-strong New People’s Army (NPA) have been waging a 35-year Maoist insurgency.

"The CPP/NPA is still considered the main threat to our peace and security because of its nationwide presence and demonstrated capability to launch armed rebellion and legal struggle in pursuit of its objective of seizing political power," Abaya said during a forum of the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC) at the Dusit Hotel in Makati City.

"Legal struggle," commonly refers to the insurgents’ use of front organizations to legally agitate against government while keeping clandestine ties to the rebels.

Abaya cited the communists’ "unlawful and immoral act of recruiting minors as armed combatants to beef up their dwindling ranks," as well as its stepped-up campaign of extorting money from businesses in the countryside.

While Muslim rebels are largely limited to southern regions of the Philippines where the country’s Muslim minority is based, the communists are known to be active in scattered areas throughout the country.

Abaya said government forces this year had succeeded in "reducing the CPP-NPA capabilities and influence in priority areas," but had been forced to divert their resources to securing the holding of May 10 general elections.

The communists had resorted to extorting money from candidates and campaigners in exchange for allowing them to campaign in areas of rebel activity, Abaya recalled.

Peace talks between the communists and the government are continuing despite the absence of a ceasefire between the two sides, Abaya said. "This will not impede our current operations against (the communists’) armed elements."

The last round of peace talks in Oslo, Norway, in June, foundered over the rebels’ demands for compensation for human rights victims. The communists are pressing the government to hold the next round of talks in Beijing.

To cope with the threats, Abaya said the military was upgrading its equipment and logistics procurement and concentrating on acquiring more "move-shoot-and-communicate hardware that will have more impact" on counterinsurgency operations.

In a separate speech yesterday, Abaya said the standing dispute involving claimant countries over the Kalayaan Group of Islands does not pose an imminent security danger to the Southeast Asian region.

He said while the territorial dispute over the Spratlys and Scarborough Shoal remains unresolved, the problem is being continuously addressed through diplomatic channels.

"On external defense, we do not detect nor foresee in the near future any inter-state armed conflict in our region." Abaya told MOPC officers and members led by its chairman, STAR publisher Max Soliven.

"While several issues still remain unresolved such as the conflicting claims on Kalayaan Island Group and Scarborough Shoal, mediation and diplomacy have, thus far, prevented hostilities in our part of the world," he added.

The KIG, which is being claimed by the Philippines, forms part of the bigger Spratlys Island Group, which is being claimed in whole or in part by China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.

Recently the Philippines called the attention of the Chinese government to refrain from conducting any activities in the contested area. The call came in the wake of reports that China has lined up several development programs in all its occupied islets in the Kalayaan group.

Beijing’s programs were apparently a response to Vietnamese activities virtually turning the area into a tourist spot for its citizens.

The claimant countries earlier agreed that no new occupations should be made on the other islands and to avoid restructuring of islands already occupied by a country in order to prevent conflicts.

The Scarborough Shoal is located northwest of the Philippines and southwest of China and is being claimed by the two countries.

While the two disputed island groups do not seem to be a problem for the Philippine military at the moment, Abaya admitted that it is monitoring developments on the Taiwan Straits and the Korean Peninsula, amid a possible row with the United States over the issue of nuclear weapons.

"We are still monitoring the developments in the Taiwan straits, in the Korean peninsula and other potentially volatile locations in Asia," Abaya said.

The US government has earlier warned North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs, which reports indicated would be the next likely target of Washington after Iraq. — AFP, Jaime Laude