Palace to warring leftist factions: Spare civilians

Malacañang called yesterday on the communist New People’s Army (NPA) and the breakaway Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB) to spare innocent civilians in any effort to settle their ideological disputes.

"This is an internal problem between two groups that were formerly allied with each other. What we can only ask from them is not to place in the middle of their war the innocent civilians," Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in an interview with Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) yesterday.

He stressed that the major concern of the Arroyo administration is the maintenance of peace and order in the country.

Bunye made the statement a day after NPA spokesman Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal said they are gearing up for a showdown with RPA-ABB fighters led by former NPA chieftain Nilo de la Cruz.

Rosal had claimed De la Cruz and Arturo Tabara, another breakaway NPA commander who was shot dead in Fairview, Quezon City last Sunday, were working as military spies.

Rosal had claimed the RPA-ABB were principally formed by Tabara and De La Cruz in the 1990s to fight the NPA after they broke away from Jose Ma. Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) who is on self-exile in the Netherlands.

Bunye stressed the infighting between the erstwhile comrades in the communist movement is an internal problem that can only be resolved peacefully without hurting civilians.

For his part, administration lawmaker Rep. Prospero Pichay of Surigao del Sur called on the police and the military to remain alert and strengthen intelligence gathering on both groups.

"The interest of civilians should be considered primarily by the NPA and RPA-ABB before undertaking any plan that involves violence. Innocent lives should not be sacrificed in their brewing war against each other," Pichay said.

Pichay also called on the RPA-ABB not to launch retaliatory attacks on the NPA and allow the government to handle Tabara’s murder.

"Any retaliatory act on their part could only trigger violent response," he said.

Pichay stressed the authorities should be more vigilant following the adversarial statements made by the two communist rebel groups in their attempt to resolve their differences through more bloodshed.

"We cannot allow violence to reign and claim lives of innocent civilians," Pichay said.

"The police and military should ensure that there will no breakdown in peace and order amid the threats and counter-threats between the two warring groups," he said.

Rosal earlier claimed Tabara has been tagged as a "criminal" by the CPP-NPA even before he was assassinated last Sunday. He added Tabara exposed himself as "willing instrument of the military in its counter-revolutionary war."

Rosal said the CPP leadership wanted to disband the ABB after its partisans were found serving as guns-for-hire and staging kidnappings and bank robberies.

But then the RPMP-RPA has joined forces with the ABB after its leaders openly defied the orders of the CPP central committee to break up, Rosal said.

Tabara was gunned down along with his daughter’s 20-year-old boyfriend, Stephen Ong, Sunday night at the parking lot of SM Fairview in Quezon City.

Rosal claimed NPA guerrillas might have been trying to "arrest" Tabara to bring him to trial before a people’s court.

Rosal had told The STAR that Tabara and Ong were armed at the time of the attack, and the killers might have been forced to "defend" themselves.

The RPMP had denied claims Tabara was working as a spy for the military.

In a statement, the RPMP said Tabara’s undertakings of forming the group (could) "all attest to his conviction of pursuing a revolution."

Militants and members of Alab Katipunan and RPMP-RPA-ABB joined a motorcade to escort Tabara’s remains to the airport for a flight for Dumaguete City.

Alab Katipunan condemned Tabara’s assassination as an "attack to democratic and progressive community."

"He (Tabara) has been an inspiration to Alab Katipunan in a vision of a society where there is justice, peace and prosperity," the group’s statement said.

"We are witness to his firm resolve of achieving just peace, his passion in his struggle to bring in changes in the lives of the oppressed peoples especially the workers, the rural and urban poor and the indigenous peoples in Mindanao. All these he did for his unselfish love to his country and people," they said.

Two months ago, Senior Superintendent Rodolfo Mendoza, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group deputy chief for administration, relayed to Tabara "through intermediaries" of the possibility he would be assassinated.

Tabara was the third senior breakaway CPP leader to be assassinated since 2001.

Police said the killing of Tabara could be related to the assassination of two other former rebel leaders — Felimon Lagman at the University of the Philippines campus in Quezon City in February 2001, and Romulo Kintanar inside a Japanese restaurant, also in Quezon City in January 2003. Both cases remain unsolved up to now. - With Katherine Adraneda