World | Philippines
Military raises alert after Arroyo remark
The Philippines military raised the alert level for retaliatory attacks as President Gloria Arroyo praised the arrest of the founding chairman of the Philippine Communist Party in The Netherlands for allegedly ordering the murder of two former allies in Manila.
- By Barbara Mae Dacanay, Bureau Chief
- Published: 23:45 August 29, 2007
Manila: The Philippines military raised the alert level for retaliatory attacks as President Gloria Arroyo praised the arrest of the founding chairman of the Philippine Communist Party in The Netherlands for allegedly ordering the murder of two former allies in Manila.
"It is a step toward peace and a victory for justice and the rule of law," said Arroyo after the Dutch police arrested Jose Maria Sison, the founding chairman of the 38-year-old Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
"This is history catching up with Mr Sison. This is the long arm of the law catching up with Mr Sison," said Lt Col Bartolome Bacarro, spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
He gave assurance that the military is prepared for attacks from the 7,000-strong New Peoples Army (NPA), the armed wing of the CPP. Senator Aquilino Pimentel said that Sison's arrest was "Holland's way of pressuring the CPP to seriously pursue peace talks with the Philippine government".
"Efforts are now underway to ask the leftists to return to the negotiating table," said Jesus Dureza, of the government's peace process commission. He did not say if the government is pursuing peace talks with another faction of the communists in the Philippines.
Sison was accused of ordering the killing of Romulo Kintanar, who was shot dead in a restaurant on January 23, 2003, and of Arturo Tabara and his son-in-law Stephen Ong, who were gunned down in a parking lot on September 26, 2004. The NPA admitted responsibility for the assassinations.
Ordering the death of ex-allies is considered a crime in the Netherlands, said officials from The Netherlands. Kintanar was a CPP Central Committee and Politburo member, and an NPA chief until his arrest in 1988. Tabara was former head of CPP's command in central Philippines.
FALLOUT
Detention threatens peace negotiations
The Philippines braced yesterday for a fallout of the arrest of Jose Maria Sison, a top communist leader as his colleagues vowed to intensify their 39-year-old insurgency.
The National Democratic Front, the Marxist umbrella, condemned the arrest and raids on Sison's office and at least seven other addresses in Utrecht and the nearby town of Abcoude.
"Contrary to the claims of Mrs Arroyo, the arrest of Prof Sison and the raids conducted are bound to terminate the ongoing peace negotiations," said NDF official Fidel V. Agcaoili, who called the allegations against Sison "trumped-up charges".
- AP
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