NPA may 'make presence felt' on Good Friday

MANILA, Philippines - Communist rebels are expected to “make their presence felt” on Good Friday as the movement's peace talks with the government remained stalled, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said Tuesday.

“Perhaps because the peace talks are not moving, they may make their presence felt,” Gazmin said in a press briefing.

He added: “They may engage in activities or incidents that will make them noticed."

The defense chief did not specify what activities would be conducted by the insurgents to make them noticeable.

Authorities, however, previously claimed that rebels usually attack civilian establishments or police outposts to project strength.

State forces are intensifying their monitoring as the 44th anniversary of the New People’s Army (NPA) nears. The NPA, the armed unit of the communist movement, was founded on March 29, 1969.

Meanwhile, Gazmin said the peace talks would not succeed if the communist rebels’ stance is unclear.

“You have seen the sincerity of the government. You have also seen the insincerity of those we are talking to. They keep changing their positions. We won’t have an agreement if that’s the case,” he said in Filipino.

Gazmin rejected the demand of the National Democratic Front (NDF) to free the rebel leaders who are allegedly working as peace consultants. The NDF represents the communist rebels in the peace talks.

“They (NDF) want most of those we have arrested to be included in the list of those authorized (to be part of the peace talks). That cannot be because we have laws and they have cases. They have warrants of arrests” Gazmin said.

“We cannot grant some of their demands,” he added.

The NDF has been demanding the release of rebel leaders who are allegedly acting as peace consultants. The NDF said the detention of the supposed peace consultants violates the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).

Under the agreement, communists working as peace consultants enjoy immunity from arrest.

The alleged NDF peace consultants who are in jail include rebel leader Alan Jazmines and NPA commander Tirso Alcantara. The two are facing various criminal charges.

In July 2011, negotiators from the communists and the government went to The Netherlands to determine if the NDF’s jailed consultants were covered by the JASIG.

They agreed to open a sealed envelope stored in a safety deposit box kept by the parties eight years ago in a bank. The envelope was supposed to hold the photos and aliases of the consultants.

The envelope, however, did not contain actual photos of alleged NDF consultants using their aliases, but only diskettes allegedly containing photos that could not be decrypted.

The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) said the NDF’s failure to comply with the terms of the verification mechanism rendered the JASIG inoperative.