Reds reject Christmas truce

BUTUAN CITY — New People’s Army rebels rejected yesterday a Christmas ceasefire with the government, a day after killing two police officers — one of them a woman — and wounding another during a raid on a police station in Agusan del Sur.

Killed were Police Officers 2 Rommel Avenido and Juliet Legaspi-Lozada.

As the NPA guerrillas overran the Loreto police station, they wounded Senior Police Officer 1 Nelson Mendez.

Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, NPA spokesman, said the rebels saw no purpose in the truce and accused government forces of killing members of allied leftist groups.

"The Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army see no reason to declare a ceasefire this Christmas and New Year," he said in a statement.

Reacting to Rosal’s statement, Armed Forces deputy chief of staff Lt. Gen. Samuel Bagasin said a unilateral Christmas and New Year ceasefire would not stop troops from fighting the NPA.

"The ceasefire will not totally tie our hands," he said.

"The ceasefire is only to turn the AFP into defensive mode, but it will not prevent us from protecting our patrol bases, from protecting civilian communities and from protecting civilian infrastructure."

Bagasin said President Arroyo has yet to approve the Armed Forces recommendation to declare a two-day truce with the NPA.

It is now up to political leaders whether or not to approve the recommendation for a limited truce, he added.

Malacañang is expected to decide soon on the military’s recommendation to declare a ceasefire on Dec. 25 and Jan. 1.

Agusan del Sur police director Superintendent Samuel Yordan said the firefight lasted for 10 minutes as the NPA raiders penetrated the police station and overwhelmed the 10 policemen on duty.

The rebels stole seven M-16 and three M-14 rifles as well as a 9-mm. pistol from the police armory, Yordan said.

He said NPA rebels in four vans surrounded and attacked the Loreto police station in Agusan del Sur on Wednesday.

One of the four vehicles carrying the NPA raiders belongs to the Loreto municipal government, Yordan said.

The rebels fled in the Tagum City-registered passenger vans toward sitio Manawe, Barangay Sto. Tomas also in Loreto, police said.

Meanwhile, Ka Maria Malaya, NPA spokeswoman for Northeastern Mindanao, told broadcaster Erwin Dano over dxBR Bombo Radyo in Butuan City that rebels wounded eight soldiers and three civilians in an ambush in Jabonga, Agusan del Norte last Tuesday afternoon.

Malaya apologized for the killing of the civilians, which she said was "accidental and unintentional," and said they were trying to reach their families to compensate them.

The raid on the Loreto police station was carried out by the NPA’s Southern Mindanao Front based in Compostela Valley and Davao provinces, she added.

Malaya warned the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police against going near the site of the NPA’s 36th anniversary celebration on Dec. 26.

"We warn the military and the police not to go near the venue or else they may face the biggest (regret) of their lives as we have altogether been preparing for it," she told broadcaster Erwin Dano of Bombo Radyo Butuan during a live broadcast yesterday morning.

However, she did not say where the annual celebration would be held, claiming if the military and the police are ready to attack the site, the rebels would be prepared.

Last year’s NPA anniversary celebration was held at a hinterland village in Rosario, Agusan del Sur, just a few kilometers away from the national highway.

In 2003, the NPA anniversary celebration was held in a hinterland village at the boundary of Lianga and Barobo towns in Surigao del Sur, also a few kilometers away from the national highway.

Prominent politicians headed by Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Vicente Emano were reportedly in attendance.

Military and police authorities claimed they knew the site, but kept silent about it until the celebration was over.

The 8,000-strong NPA will mark its 36th anniversary on Dec. 26.

The military said it has recommended a two-day Christmas and New Year unilateral ceasefire, which is still subject to approval by the President.

Last October, communist rebels attacked adjacent Talacogon municipal police station in Agusan del Sur, killing a police officer and wounding another as they destroyed privately owned telecommunication equipment nearby.

Since Nov. 17, 33 government troops have died fighting NPA rebels, who suffered a similar number of, if not more, casualties.

NPA rebels also attacked and destroyed 22 cell sites of Globe Telecommunications since July to date. The latest attack was in Aurora province the other day. — With Jaime Laude