Metro PNP ready for CPP-NPA attacks

The Metro Manila police, particularly the Western Police District and the Northern Police District, have prepared themselves for any eventuality that may arise on the 32nd founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines tomorrow (Dec. 26).

WPD director Chief Supt. Avelino Razon Jr. has ordered all his field and station commanders to be on alert for possible attacks by urban partisan units of the New People’s Army, the CPP’s military arm.

And so has NPD director Senior Supt. Jose Marlowe Pedregosa. "The entire NPD force has been alerted and their vacations cancelled due to this occasion," Pedregosa said.

The WPD chief revealed they have received raw intelligence reports that the NPA urban guerilla units are planning to stage harassment attacks in Manila, particularly in the Chinatown business center where banks are also located.

"We have received such reports. I have ordered our intelligence units to see to it that these acts will not push through," Razon said.

Razon theorized that the NPA, the CPP’s military arm, may launch harassment attacks against Chinese-owned establishments to send a strong message to President Estrada, who is known to be very close to the Filipino-Chinese community.

For his part, Pedregosa said that despite several threats in the past by the CPP-NPA to conduct sabotage operations as part of their observation of their anniversary, none of it materialized.

"But we are not taking them for granted for this group is just awaiting for an opportunity to strike," Pedregosa added.

Pedregosa likewise called for the residents’ cooperation by reporting to the police suspicious persons they might observe in their locality.

He said that though the NPD’s intelligence network has been doubled, people’s cooperation is still the best deterrent for whatever the leftist rebels are planning to launch.

Superintendent Honorato Donato, NPD-District Intelligence and Investigation Division (DIID) chief, said yesterday that so far his office has not received any reported movements by the CPP-NPA in the northern part of Metro Manila.

Donato said that the CPP-NPA has always threatened to conduct bombing activities and other terrorist acts in the metropolis during their anniversary.

"We are always ready for any eventuality," Donato assured.

Pedregosa ordered the deployment of more uniformed and plainclothes policemen in crowded areas such as shopping malls, bus terminals, movie houses, and other vital installations. "Security has been doubled in these places," he said.

NPA units usually conduct attacks on government and military installations, especially in the provinces, to mark the founding anniversary of the CPP on Dec. 26, 1968.

Just recently, NPA rebels staged sporadic attacks in Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya and Nueva Ecija particularly against businessmen who refused to pay what they call revolutionary taxes.