No special treatment for NPA communists

Members of the communist New People's Army (NPA), the military arm of the 33-year-old Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), will be treated like common criminals and will not be given special treatment accorded to rebels, a senior official said.

"Members of the NPA are no longer considered rebels since the repeal of the anti-subversion law in 1992," said Philippine National Police chief, Director General Hermogenes.

The repeal of the anti-subversion law means membership to the NPA and the CPP does not constitute a crime. The government has been hunting down NPA members, and the police and the military has also filed charges of illegal possession of fire-arms and explosives against them.

"If they get involved in activities inimical to society, then they will be tried as criminals," Ebdane explained. He did not say if this will affect the stalled peace negotiations between the government and the communist National Democratic Front (NDF).

Utretch-based Jose Maria Sison, founding chairman of the CPP, recently boasted of the growth and advancement of the CPP-NPA. Police and military officials admitted that NPA membership is growing by seven per cent annually. It reached a peak of 25,000 in the 1980s but dwindled to 5,000 in the 1990s.

Major General Rodolfo Garcia, commanding Northern Luzon, admitted that the CPP's strategy of "going back to the basics" has helped the underground movement to recruit more members and regain their "lost" guerrilla bases.

Sison blamed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for indefinitely suspending the peace negotiations with the NDF, and added that she is being pressured to scrap the stalled talks altogether.

Arroyo has given orders to the armed forces and police to escalate their campaigns of suppression against the NPA, claimed Sison. He noted that it was "in utter subservience to the U.S. line of pursuing large-scale terrorism under the pretext of combating terrorism".

Sison also alleged that Arroyo and the U.S. are fighting the Abu Sayyaf Group which is not a real terrorist group but only "disgruntled elements of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)".

The military has arrested a total of 16 suspected NPA members around the country, he noted. "There is an ongoing joint pursuit being conducted by the police and military against communist guerrillas which is gaining headway."

Clashes have continued meanwhile between the police and the NPA. On Thursday night, NPA hit-men gunned down a "spy cop" in northern Ilocos region.

Unidentified men, believed to be the members of the NPA operating in Sta Cruz town, in Ilocos Sur, gunned down Senior Police Officer Victor Jallorena, 50, said Ilocos Police Director Chief Superintendent Arturo Lomibao.

A lieutenant was also shot dead by a sniper as his men raided a communist camp in Isabela, northern Luzon, on Thursday. Three others were also killed in the clash, reports said.

Jallorena had received death threats earlier when he was an intelligence officer in the Cordillera region. His body was found yesterday morning. He had sustained several gunshot wounds.

The NPA operates in Sta Cruz town and the hinterland in Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte together with the splinter communist faction, said Lomibao. "They (rebels) increased at least from three to five per cent last year," he said.

Army 1st Lieutenant Meliton Biernes died after a three-hour clash that also left three soldiers wounded, according to another report. The clash began when the military raided a hut where the communists were holding a meeting, in Isabela.