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Left-wing rebels vowed to launch more attacks against government and
military targets in Mindanao as thousands of troops have recently
been sent to the strife-torn region to fight insurgency.
The New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of
the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), said the deployment of
military forces in southern Philippines will give the rebels
opportunities to carry out more “tactical offensives,” the
television network GMA News reported late Friday.
Military officials said the deployment of more
troops in the southern region was in response to growing NPA attacks
in the provinces.
Marco Valbuena, a rebel spokesman, said the NPA
forces have launched hundreds of successful tactical offensives
since last year.
The more recent was the raid on a drilling site
in Davao del Sur’s Kiblawan town on July 19, when rebels carted
away a dozen firearms from the firm’s arsenal, he said.
Valbuena said the deployment of additional
troops would not affect rebel offensives in Mindanao.
“The deployment of troops will in no way
hinder the advance of the armed revolutionary movement,” he added.
“On the contrary, by pouring in more fascist troops and
brutalizing more and more people in its campaigns of suppression,
the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] succeeds only in teaching
the people the need to wage armed revolutionary struggle against the
reactionary regime.”
“The redeployment of AFP troops allows the
armed revolutionary forces in other guerrilla fronts greater leeway
to step up their revolutionary work and continue tactical offensives
against small and isolated enemy units,” he said.
Earlier, Defense Secretary of the Philippines
Gilberto Teodoro said the government operations against the NPA are
ongoing, despite a proposal by military chief General Alexander Yano
to forge an “indefinite cease-fire” with rebels to pave the way
for the resumption of suspended peace talks with the leftist
leaders.
On Wednesday, a military official said that NPA
rebels, according to the “intelligence information” he got, have
been deploying their hit squads in Metro Manila, targeting some
government functionaries, including military and police officials.
The NPA has been fighting against the government
the past four decades for the establishment of a leftist government
in the country.
Rebel leaders broke off peace talk with the
Arroyo government in 2004 after accusing the government of reneging
on its commitments to free all political prisoners and to put a stop
to political killings, among others.
Mixed reactions
In press statement on Saturday, Senate Minority
Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. backed Yano’s proposal for a
cease-fire with the NPA to create an atmosphere conducive for a
possible restart of the long-dormant peace talks with communist
rebels.
But he was dismayed by Teodoro’s hawking
stand, adding, “It is not good for the Defense establishment to
speak in different directions.”
The senator called for a review of the
administration’s all-out-war policy in the face of persistent
skepticism that this is the right solution to the insurgency
problem.
In another press release, the Bagong Alyansang
Makabayan, or Bayan, said the “unchanged” government policy
toward the Communist Party of the Philippines clearly means that
there is no room for peace negotiations to address the underlying
causes of the armed conflict under the current administration.
The NDF (National Democratic Front)-CPP-NPA has
repeatedly said they would not lay down their arms until essential
socioeconomic and political reforms are undertaken. Otherwise, the
rebel front considers any talk of unconditional and indefinite
cease-fire to be capitulation and political suicide on their part
because it will mean reneging on their revolutionary principles.
-- Xinhua with The Manila Times
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