5 reb-infested Pampanga towns under close watch

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Five Pampanga towns where armed communist rebels from either the New People’s Army (NPA) or the Rebolusyonaryong Hukbo ng Bayan (RHB) are present, have been identified as election hot spots.

Senior Superintendent Ismael Rafanan, provincial police director, said NPA and RHB guerrillas have frequently been sighted in the towns of Mexico, Candaba, Sasmuan, Sta. Ana and San Luis.

In Mexico, a spate of killings, apparently resulting from the rivalry between the NPA and RHB, which broke away from the mainstream communist group in 1998, has been going on since last December.

In the entire Central Luzon, at least 303 barangays have been identified as areas of concern in the coming elections.

Regional police and Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials, in a meeting last Friday, tagged the Bulacan towns of Angat and Doña Remedios Trinidad as "areas of immediate concern."

Other critical areas are Dinalupihan, Orani and Orion in Bataan; Hagonoy, Norzagaray, San Rafael and San Miguel in Bulacan; and Bongabon, Gabaldon, Jaen, Lupao and San Jose City in Nueva Ecija.

Rafanan said the five Pam-panga towns were identified as hot spots because of violent incidents there in the 1995 and 1998 elections.

At least 20 killings have been reported in Mexico town since the NPA admitted "executing" RHB leader Bartolome Quizon in his home last Dec. 2. The RHB apparently perpetrated the succeeding killings in retaliation for Quizon’s murder.

"We are looking into reports that some candidates in the towns are forming private armies in time for the May elections," Rafanan said.

On May 23 last year, the group of Mayor Catalina Bagasina, which included Jojo Ejercito, a son of deposed President Joseph Estrada, survived an ambush which the RHB staged in Sasmuan town.

Bagasina blamed her rival, former mayor Fernando Baltazar, for the incident. The two are again pitted against each other in the mayoral elections.

Human rights groups have expressed fears that in Mexico, the police are using the RHB against the NPA and that the splinter communist group could be used as a private army by some local candidates.

Police officers, for their part, fear that the NPA-RHB rivalry could escalate as the elections near, with each side supporting their own candidates or extorting "campaign fees" from local politicians who wish to campaign in so-called rebel-influenced villages.

Rafanan said at least 15 people have been arrested for violation of the firearms ban which took effect last Jan. 1.

Earlier, acting Comelec regional director Nicolas Fontelera said election officers in Nueva Ecija have recommended that the entire province be placed under Comelec control.

Fontelera said all 32 towns in Nueva Ecija might be placed under Comelec control due to intense political rivalries or NPA influence. — With Ric Sapnu