Top communist splinter group official captured

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo yesterday presented to journalists a top leader of a communist splinter group who was said to be responsible for the execution of hundreds of suspected government agents during the mid 1980s.

Miel Gracilla Laurenaria, 49, was captured on Saturday by military intelligence agents and the Philippine national police (PNP) from her residence in suburban Caloocan City, stated armed forces chief Lt. Gen. Benjamin Defensor.

Laurenaria was captured by authorities on the basis of a warrant of arrest issued by the municipal trial court in Quezon province for kidnapping and illegal detention of one of the victims she executed in 1994.

She is said to be a top official of the Revolutionary People's Army, the armed wing of the Marxist-Leninist Party of the Philippines (MLPP). Defensor said that Laurenaria is a former top aide to Jose Maria Sison, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder.

He noted that during her stint as a top CPP official, Laurenaria was ordered by Sison to implement a nationwide purge to weed out government agents from the party.

The purge, carried out between the mid-1980s and the 1990s, resulted in the torture and slaughter of hundreds of New People's Army (NPA) regulars, sympathisers and ordinary citizens who were suspected by the CPP of being agents of the government.

At least 3,000 suspected "counter-revolutionaries" were estimated to have been killed during the purge.

"After the CPP split in 1993 because of the disillusionment of several old cadres over the leadership of Sison, Laurenaria still chose to remain with the party.

"However, she felt betrayed that in spite of her dedication to the organisation and having spent the best part of her life fighting for the CPP-NPA, she was continuously maligned by the organisation," Defensor stated.

He said that in February 1998, Laurenaria became executive committee member of MLPP-RHB, a group made up of former CPP cadres who were disillusioned with Sison's leadership.

Defensor also added that until her arrest, Laurenaria was actively engaged in party building activities of the anti-Sison communist group by forming new mass bases and persuading CPP members to join the MLPP.

He said that the successful operation leading to the arrest of Laurenaria was an offshoot of the new operations plan, "Gordian Knot," a coordinated anti-insurgency effort of the military and the PNP against several communist rebel groups in the country.

He described the capture of the rebel official as a "big blow" to the insurgency movement. The CPP, however, dismissed reports of the capture of Laurenaria as propaganda aimed at projecting the image that the government is winning the war against insurgency.

"The MLPP is just a marginal organisation engaged mainly in extortion under the guise of waging a revolutionary movement. Laurenaria's capture has no effect on the CPP-NPA," a CPP cadre told Gulf News in an interview.

Two weeks ago, the Philippine government launched operations against communist insurgent groups under the campaign "Gordian Knot", following rebel attacks on government and civilian targets.

Despite the military campaign, Manila said it will continue to hold talks with the rebels, particularly the CPP-NPA and its representative, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF).

Arroyo's spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, told reporters: "The back-channel talks will remain open."

The Philippine government has avoided high-profile negotiations as well as imposing a ceasefire with the CPP-NPA-NDF, citing apprehensions that the talks will be used by the rebel groups to strengthen its forces and recruit more members.