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Thursday, August 30, 2007
4 communist rebels nabbed (9:10 p.m.)
MANILA -- Goverment forces captured four communist rebels in Quezon after a brief firefight in the face of a military directive to troops to be alert against possible rebel attacks in retaliation to the arrest of communist party founder Jose Ma. Sison.
Two of the captured rebels were identified as certain Marlon, vice platoon leader of the Pamprobinsyang Yunit Guerilla of the New People's Army (NPA) unit operating in the province, and certain Joan, said to be a member of the same rebel unit.
Army 2nd Infantry Division public information officer Carlo Ferrer said the firefight broke out in Barangay Almacen in Unisan town at 4 p.m. last Wednesday.
He said 76th Infantry Battalion operatives were conducting combat operations in the area when they stumbled upon the 30-man rebel group that was in possession of two submachine guns, ensuing a firefight.
After a 15-minute exchange of successive gunfire, Ferrer said the rebels withdrew towards the east direction. The pursuing troops later captured the four rebels near the encounter site, the official also said.
Ferrer said the government troops led by Second Lieutenant Wilmar Jun Daraog were continuing with the pursuit operations.
The skirmishes broke out shortly after Armed Forces Chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr. imposed a nationwide red alert to avert possible plans by the NPA to launch retaliatory attacks on government and military installations.
Sison, who is on a self-exile in the Netherlands since the late 1980s, was arrested on Tuesday by Dutch authorities for the murder of former communist leaders Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara several years ago.
House majority leader and Davao Representative Prospero Nograles cautioned Sison followers in the country against pushing with their threats of retaliatory attacks, saying this will only confirm their terror status in the global community.
"Their group (NPA) has been tagged as a terrorist group. If they push through with their threats, it will only confirm their terror tag in the global community," he said.
Malacaņang, meanwhile, said it expects the communist movement to weaken following the arrest of Sison.
"I think that's expected. So you can imagine, when the head is adversely affected, then you can see what happens to the rest of the body. That is the same with any organization," said Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita.
Ermita said during the time of the Filipino-American war, the Philippine revolution started to fall out when President Emilio Aguinaldo was "neutralized" by the Americans.
He said the NPA has strength of a little over 7,000 all over the Philippines. "Not really very strong but definitely it (arrest of Sison) will weaken them," he added.
He said while the government is expecting "the worst" from Sison supporters, it is standard operating procedure that security forces prepare for it.
"The assumption is there is always that threat," he said.
Ermita said the Philippines' working with the Dutch government for the arrest of Sison does not jeopardize the peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF) because both have the same end -- to put a stop to the fighting.
He said if the peace talks would not continue at the national level, there are still efforts to reach out to the insurgents in the field through the local government officials and the police and military.
In a related development, Bayan Muna party-list Representatives Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiņo filed House Resolution 197 asking the House committee on peace, reconciliation and unity to investigate the arrest of Sison, noting its political implications in the peace talks.
"There are indications that Prof. Sison, a political exile who has sought refuge in the Netherlands for the last 20 years, was not accorded due process and denied his rights as he was not apprised of his alleged crime and was in fact treacherously arrested when he went to the police station with his lawyer upon invitation of Dutch authorities regarding a separate complaint he had filed in 2001," they said. (VR/JMR/Sunnex) |
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