Police told to crush leftist urban hit squads

President Gloria Arroyo called on the police and military to crush communist urban hit squads which have been operating in Metro Manila and other metro areas nationwide.

The order was meant to trace the assassins of Romulo Kintanar, who was ambushed by suspected members of the mainstream communist New People's Army (NPA) on Thursday.

Arroyo asked Interior Secretary Jose Lina, and Police Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr to "immediately form a special task force to neutralise urban guerrilla hit squads which may be operating in Metropolitan Manila".

"The brutal slaying of former NPA leader Romy Kintanar cannot go unpunished," Arroyo said when she joined Kintanar's family at a funeral parlour in suburban Quezon City.

The new task force would be "empowered to use all means in our democratic arsenal to carry out my instructions," Arroyo added.

She named Police Chief Superintendent Romeo Maganto as head of the task force. Police Chief Superintendent Roberto Delfin and Police Senior Superintendent Roberto Mendoza, will assist Maganto.

Kintanar was former head of the NPA, who launched in the 70s the urban hit squad called Sparrow Unit in Mindanao. The creation of the Sparrow Unit spearheaded the creation of various urban hit squads, the most notorious was the Alex Boncayao Brigade, which killed U.S. anti-insurgent expert Charles Rowe in 1989.

He was captured in 1988, escaped in 1989, and was recaptured in 1991. When he left the mainstream CPP in 1991, he was placed on the NPA's hit list in 1994.

Former president Joseph Estrada appointed Kintanar consultant of the Technical Education Scientific Development Authority. During Arroyo's time, he became security consultant of the Bureau of Immigration and the National Electrification Administration.

Kintanar belonged to the so-called "reject communists" who were against the rule of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison, whose camp has been engaged in peace talks with the government since 1992.

Meanwhile, former NPA commander Luis Reyes was shot dead in front of his restaurant in Bulacan province outside Manila yesterday. Last year, Reyes surrendered to authorities and decided to give up the armed struggle his group had espoused 34 years ago. Authorities said both Kintanar and Reyes were killed by the NPA.

Earlier, Defence Secretary Angelo Reyes said those who wanted to give up the group's armed struggle would be killed by the NPA.

At the same time, presidential Chief of Staff Rigoberto Tiglao asked for additional security because he was also included in the NPA's list of assassination targets.

"I refused to be terrorised and I am more than willing to fight and die for our nation," said Tiglao, adding, "I am quite confident that none of my my comrades of three decades now in the Communist Party, both here and in Utrecht, believes that I have done anything to deserve a murder order from the party or from any group."

Last year, NPA spokesman Gregorio Rosal declared Tiglao as "enemy of the people".

The CPP founder was quoted as saying that Kintnanar's death was the handiwork of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the purpose was to blame him for the assassination, so that he could be extradited from the Netherlands.

"The CIA had Kintanar killed so they can make it appear the NPA as behind it," said Sison, adding, "It is a possible scenario. The U.S. is finding it hard to invent a reason for me to be extradited from the Netherlands." Last year, the U.S. included the CPP-NPA in its list of foreign terrorist organisations.

Sison added: "I believe Kintanar joined the complex world of criminals that involved police officers and this was where he got stuck."

In the past, Sison said, Kintanar was accused of having masterminded the killing of suspected spies in the movement.

Congressman Satur Ocampo clarified that the CPP order on Kintanar was for "political isolation", not liquidation.

Ocampo was spokesperson of the communist National Democratic Front (NDF), which has been engaged in peace talks with the government since 1992. In mid 2001, after the NPA killed two Congressmen, Arroyo called off the talks, which she helped revive in early 2001.