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Saturday, September 02, 2006
Military to sue communist leader over 'purge'
MANILA -- Armed Forces Chief Hermogenes Esperon said they would file charges against Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Ma. Sison and two others implicated in the "purging" of at least a hundred ex-communist rebels and civilians in Leyte.
Esperon said they are coordinating with other agencies for the filing of multiple murder charges against Sison and National Democratic Front (NDF) chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni and Bayan Muna party-list Representative Satur Ocampo.
Sison, currently the chief political consultant of the NDF, was chairman of the CPP when the purging, dubbed "Operation Anti-VD", was implemented in the 1980s while Jalandoni and Ocampo were CPP central committee members.
Quoting witnesses, military officials earlier said the three communist leaders were the ones who ordered the purging of the victims on suspicions that they were working as deep penetration agents (DPAs) of the military.
The skeletal remains of victims of the "purging operations" were exhumed by the military in a mass grave in Inopacan town in Leyte on August 26. Military officials said they hope to recover 200 more remains as their information disclosed that 300 persons were buried in the grave.
"Of course, we are filing cases against them. We have witnesses," said Esperon of Sison and Jalandoni, who are based in Utrecht, Netherlands, and Ocampo. "This kind of atrocity will make us more determined to finish the fight against the NPA and its front organizations," he added.
Esperon said the military hopes to downgrade the strength of the NPA to just 2,000 from 7,000 in four years. "By 2010, we are expecting to reduce their number to 2,000. They will be rendered useless," said Esperon.
"An avalanche of developments will outrun them," said Esperon while admitting that that the NPA "remains the biggest threat to national security because it has a terrorist character and a nationwide scope."
"It's only the Philippines which is facing insurgency problem. It's really an embarrassment but you (public) are seeing that we are doing our best (to defeat them)," said Esperon.
On whether the NPA is attracting new commanders, the top military official said: "Their new leaders did not grow from the mountains. Their present leaders grew in the streets, those from the front organizations." (VR/Sunnex)
(September 2, 2006 issue)
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