Gonzales says Joma-CPP undertaking another bloody purge

Suspecting heavy infiltration by government agents, self-exiled communist leader Jose Ma. Sison has ordered a bloody purge among the ranks of New People’s Army (NPA) and other leftist organizations in the country, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said yesterday.

Gonzales said the purge ordered by Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), could be behind the latest rash of killings of local chapter leaders of Bayan Muna, Anak Pawis, and other suspected communist front organizations all over the country.

"Joma Sison is right in saying that the ranks of the NPA and other communist front organizations in the country are infiltrated by the government," he said, but added that "we don’t want this (purge) even if it would weaken them."

"We should take this sickening developments as a tragedy," he added.

Gonzales did not disclose how the government got hold of reports of a purge but said Sison, who remains in exile in the Netherlands along with other communist leaders, had recently repeatedly warned local rebels that their ranks have been heavily infiltrated by government agents.

Gonzales did not say when the reported purge began. There are varying reports as to the number of leftist killings since 2001. Bayan Muna officials said more than 500 of their members and those of other allied groups have been killed since 2001, and 56 for the first four months of this year alone.

Other reports cite a lower figure of over 100 militant leaders killed since 2001 and 11 since January this year.

The latest such incidents were on Thursday when two Bayan Muna leaders — Jim Mirafuentes and Jayson Delen — were gunned down in Daraga City in Albay and Daet, Camarines Norte, respectively.

Police said they were investigating the killings, but nobody has been arrested thus far.

Gonzales asked Sison not to continue with the purge, which he said shows "how bankrupt their ideology is."

The purge, he said, showed that CPP-NPA leaders are "remorseless" and have no compunction about "killing their own people" based on mere suspicion.

"In this day and age, we should no longer see these kinds of killings," Gonzales said.

Leftist leaders accused the military of staging the killings as part of its anti-communist campaign "Oplan Bantay Laya" and said human rights violations have worsened under the Arroyo administration.

Military officials earlier confirmed the existence of the plan but denied that it was targeted at leftist groups.

Authorities have repeatedly called for an investigation into the alleged malversation of public funds of Bayan Muna and other leftist members of the House of Representatives to help fund the military operations of the CPP-NPA.

Gonzales said at least 7,000 rebels have been killed in similar purges in the 1980s and early 1990s, such as the "Kampanyang Ahos" and "Oplan Zombie" that communist leaders later admitted to be a mistake.

The CPP-NPA, which has been listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, has been waging an insurgency in the country that claimed the lives of over 40,000 people. Its current strength is estimated at 7,000 armed regulars.

Except for two interim agreements on the conduct of formal negotiations and on human rights, very little progress has been achieved in the peace talks between the government and the Netherlands-based National Democratic Front (NDF) that began in 1986.

Peace talks broke down in July last year after the NDF, the umbrella organization of all mainstream communist movement in the country, withdrew from the negotiating table, saying it would prefer to wait for a new administration.

The government retaliated by revoking the immunity passes of NDF negotiators and filing rebellion charges against its leaders.

Palace officials said the CPP-NPA has been active in efforts to oust President Arroyo and install a junta with rightist military officers.