Sunday, November 05, 2006
Police file rebellion raps against RP's communist leader
MANILA -- Police investigators have filed a rebellion complaint against the self-exiled founder of the Philippines Communist Party claiming he ordered a raid on an international airport in the central Philippines, officials said Saturday.
Police Superintendent Rene Gumban said a rebellion complaint was filed to prosecutors Friday against Jose Maria Sison, who is based in the Netherlands, for ordering the New People's Army raid on Oct. 8 in Silay City. The NPA is the Communist Party's armed wing.
"The case is being studied by the Silay City Prosecutor's Office," said Gumban, the regional chief of the police's Criminal Investigation and Detection Group. "We based it on statements made by rebels captured in follow-up operations after the airport raid."
About 30 rebels, disguised as police, disarmed guards and destroyed equipment at the airport in Negros Occidental province worth at least P25 million using homemade bombs and kerosene. There were no reported injuries.
Communist umbrella, the National Democratic Front, quickly denounced the rebellion charge against Sison as "fabricated only for propaganda purposes."
"The charge is factually groundless. He has nothing to do with the tactical offensives of the (NPA) even as these are legitimate under the Geneva Convention and its protocols," Fidel Agcaoili, chairman of the NDF's human rights committee, said in a statement Saturday.
Agcaoili also said the government has no jurisdiction over Sison, who is under the protection of the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights.
"We have a number of witnesses and we believe that our case will stand up in court," Gumban countered.
The Japanese government funded the airport project in the sugarcane-producing region 470 kilometers (280 miles) southeast of Manila. It was scheduled for opening early next year.
Sison faces a string of murder and rebellion charges in the country, including for the failed coup plot against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in February.
The rebels have been waging a Marxist rebellion since the late 1960s. Two years ago they withdrew from Norwegian-brokered peace talks on ending 37 years of insurgency, saying the government was not making efforts to remove them from US and European lists of terrorist groups. (AP)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Pampanga. (November 5, 2006 issue)
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