Truce broken in Mindoro

MANILA, Philippines - The military and communist rebels yesterday accused each other of violating the Christmas ceasefire when an Army squad clashed with New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro last Thursday.

1Lt. Frank Sayson, spokesman for the 2nd Infantry Division (ID), said the rebels ambushed soldiers who were supposed to meet with an NPA member wanting to surrender.

“The 2ID believes it did not violate the truce between the government and the New People’s Army. The skirmish is an act of self-defense against an attacking NPA,” Sayson said in a statement.

Despite sporadic fighting, including the killing of 10 Army soldiers in a Dec. 14 rebel ambush, both sides have agreed to resume formal talks on Feb. 15-21 in Norway’s capital, Oslo. The military and the rebels also approved a Christmas truce that took effect on Dec. 16 and will last until Jan. 3.

The Armed Forces Southern Luzon Command (SOLCOM), which supervises the operations of the 2nd ID, said the rebels were the ones who violated the truce. 

“SOLCOM Commander Lt. Gen. Roland Detabali condemned the ambush staged by the NPA and said that the incident was a clear violation of truce committed by the (rebels) in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro,” said SOLCOM spokesman Col. Generoso Bolina.

Military officials said that the rebels fired at soldiers waiting to receive an NPA member who wanted to surrender at Sitio Upper Balading, Barangay Bayotbot in San Jose town on Dec. 23.

They claimed that the rebels tried to sabotage the surrender of their comrade, who was identified as Christian Corpuz Bascos.

The NPA’s Lucio de Guzman Command had denied the military accusations, saying that the Army troops mounted an attack that led to the arrest of three people in the area, including Bascos.

Higom Magarang, spokesman for the command, said their fighters were just resting inside a house in Sitio Balading when the attack ensued. The rebels reportedly retreated to avoid having civilian casualties.

Magarang also claimed that Bascos was only visiting his girlfriend while the two others arrested were visiting a sick relative.

Sayson said the meeting with Bascos was not a military offensive but part of civil-military operations. “It is a peaceful facilitation of (Bascos’) desire to live a peaceful life. Bascos was not kidnapped nor held by the military. The rebels are just making issues against the troops to cover up their violation on the yuletide truce and appease their loss – a surrendering comrade,” he said. 

Detabali ordered his troops to uphold the ceasefire and also reminded them to remain alert and respond to armed confrontation when necessary.

“The incident should not discourage everyone (from giving) peace a chance to succeed,” Detabali said in a statement.

The military said the incident in Occidental Mindoro was the second time the rebels violated the truce. The first time was when insurgents tried to kill a militia man in Guihulngan, Negros Oriental last Dec. 20.

Sayson said the rebels are just making issue with the military to cover the NPA’s violation of the truce.

Sayson said the encounter started when NPA rebels ambushed nine soldiers en route to their camp in Barangay Batasan, San Jose after conducting a humanitarian mission.

The troops immediately returned fire forcing the rebels to withdraw to different directions. The firefight lasted for about two minutes.

After the brief battle, an NPA rebel identified as Bascos surrendered and yielded his M16 rifle and ammunition to the Army.

The military reported no casualty on either side, but NPA rebels claimed that a certain Stephen Lester Barrientos was killed during the brief firefight.

Sayson said Bascos had executed an affidavit on his voluntary surrender before notary public Modesto Marigmen the next day.

He said soldiers from Second Infantry Division believe that they did not violate the ongoing truce.

Youth organizations and human rights advocates led by Anakbayan Timog Katagalugan and Karapatan Southern Tagalog condemned the alleged military offensive in Mindoro, leading to the killing of Barrientos, a member of the Southern Tagalog Cultural Network.

SOLCOM spokesman Bolina said that NPA rebels attacked the Army squad led by 2Lt. Saber G. Balogan of Charlie Company 80th Infantry Battalion.

Lt. Col. Rogelio P. Percol, commander of the Army’s 80th IB, sent Balogan’s squad to facilitate the surrender of an NPA guerrilla in Barangay Bayotbot, San Jose.

Bolina said the expected surrender of the NPA rebel, however, did not push through and rebels later attacked the Army squad returning to headquarters.

Meanwhile, promises by President Aquino to tackle poverty and corruption could boost upcoming peace talks with rebels and make irrelevant the country’s communist insurgency, the government’s negotiator

said.

Chief government negotiator Alexander Padilla said that behind the scenes, negotiators on both sides have already agreed to resume talks after six years - fruits of the political goodwill and optimism that followed the May election of a reformist President.

Aquino represents “the new dynamics” of the Philippines, Padilla said.

Padilla said that Aquino, who enjoys support across the political spectrum as the son of revered democracy icons, would inject honesty, good faith and a strong advocacy for reforms and human rights into peace talks that have often been undermined by mistrust and weak public support.

CPP vowed to continue recruitment

The CPP vowed to intensify its recruitment activities and continue the “people’s war” despite the upcoming peace talks.

In a statement during the party’s 42nd anniversary yesterday, the CPP said its goals could not be achieved solely through peace negotiations.

The party accused the government of wanting to use the talks as an instrument “for deceiving the people” and “pressuring the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) towards capitulation.”

“The revolutionary forces and the people are aware of these objectives and thus, even if they push for whatever can be achieved through peace talks, they harbor no illusions that revolutionary objectives could be achieved through these alone or in the main,” CPP said.

“They are fully aware that their patriotic and democratic aspirations can only be effectively pushed in peace negotiations alongside the primacy of people’s war and mass struggles,” it added.

CPP claimed that without the people’s army, the Filipinos “have nothing and can never hope to complete the struggle for national liberation and democracy.”

“The NDFP carries on the peace negotiations because these provide the opportunity to articulate the program for a people’s democratic revolution, to win more adherents to the revolution and to be open to possibilities presented by the worsening crisis of the ruling system,” it said.

The resumption of formal peace talks between the government and the NDFP has been set tentatively on Feb. 19-25 in Oslo, Norway.

Sought for comment, the military said the CPP’s armed wing the New People’s Army (NPA) remains a potent threat” even if its strength has declined significantly.

“Among the other threat groups, it is still the most potent at this point in time but imagine from a very high of 25,000 (in 1987), now it’s down to 4,700. The decrease is significant,” Armed Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta told radio dzBB.

Mabanta said the military would continue to support the peace process and uphold the Christmas ceasefire that took effect last Dec. 16 and will remain until Jan. 3.

“We believe the leadership of the (rebels) is really bent on pursuing a negotiated peace talks. The problem is with such a very loose organization, are they really able to influence their leaders at the lowest level?” he said.

“The mass organizations of workers, peasants, national minorities, urban poor, women, youth, migrants, professionals and others must run far ahead of the party in recruiting their own members from the unorganized masses,” it said.

“The units of the NPA must be increased by fighting the enemy forces and seizing their weapons. The NPA units must wage only battles that they can win. They do so by concentrating enough strength to wipe out an enemy force, using such elements as surprise, favorable terrain and favorable conditions,” CPP said.

CPP said the NPA must give priority to “battles of annihilation” like ambuscades and raids.

“Enterprises that do not comply with the rules and regulations of the people’s democratic government, disregard and violate the welfare and interests of the people, and conduct abusive and antagonistic actions… must be banned, disabled or dismantled,” it said.  

The CPP also called President Aquino “the chief representative of the exploiting classes” and scored him for maintaining the country’s ties with the US.

“His (Aquino’s) promise to lift the people from poverty and misery is a big lie,” it said.

Jose Maria Sison founded the CPP on Dec. 26, 1968. It has been waging a protracted Maoist insurgency for nearly four decades, which has left more than 40,000 people dead.

The government had tried to hold negotiations with the CPP but these efforts failed in 2004 after the United States and the European Union placed the party on their list of terror groups.

Talks between the government and the insurgents were supposed to resume in Oslo, Norway last year. The negotiations, however, failed after the government rejected a demand to free some consultants of the rebels who are facing criminal charges.

Rebel spokesman George Madlos said oppressive conditions in the country that have fostered poverty, corruption and rights abuses had remained under Aquino.

“We will continue to wage the revolution because it’s right and we’re in a position to intensify attacks,” Madlos said in a statement.

The military, meanwhile, has softened its counterinsurgency strategy, which has been linked to extrajudicial killings of hundreds of left-wing activists and suspected rebel sympathizers.

The new six-year program unveiled last week seeks to wean away civilian communities from the rebels and includes support of advocacy groups from outside the government in addressing human rights concerns.

Political analyst Ramon Casiple said it showed that a part of the 120,000-strong military has agreed to adhere to human rights safeguards.

“It’s no longer the body count approach. This is a war for hearts and mind,” Casiple said. “The rebels should realize that the ground is shifting.”

The CPP has criticized the new plan. In a statement this week, it said it “will keep on engendering the revolution until the entire rotten, puppet, reactionary system is brought down.”

With Ed Amoroso, Michele Zoleta, AP