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Families still hopeful(EDITOR'S NOTE: As the Communist Party of the Philippines marks its 35th founding anniversary this Friday, the Inquirer is coming out with this special report on the bloody purges within the party in the 1980s. With the country under Ferdinand Marcos' rule by martial law, the outlawed Marxist-Maoist party rose to the height of its political and military strength. It was also a time of infiltration by "deep-penetration agents" by the Marcos military. Within the party, hundreds of men and women who had dedicated their lives to what they believed was a noble cause, were suspected of being...

GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Where are Sgt. Jeremias Rosete and the three other “prisoners of war” of the New People’s Army (NPA)? Rosete’s family raised this question over the weekend after the central committee and local units of the Communist Party of the Philippines-led National Democratic Front (NDF) pointed at each other as to who could say if the four NPA captives are now dead or still alive. Jerry Rosete, brother of the captured Marine intelligence officer, said the NDF must immediately clarify if his brother and suspected government intelligence agents Wilfredo Maldecir, Pepito Simbulan and Herminia Sorongon, who were...

COMMUNIST rebels in the Philippines vowed to expand armed fronts all over the country to the size of a company from a small group of about 10 to back their offensives against the government, according to a document from the insurgents, a copy of which was obtained by INQ7.net. In the Three-Year Plan of 2003-2005 of the Communist Party of the Philippines released a day before its 35th founding anniversary, Armando Liwanag, chairman of the CPP central committee said, they would build guerilla fronts to cover majority of the municipalities, launch "regional strike forces," and increase the number of fighters...

AGTONGANON RANGE, Philippines -- Christopher Suazo was in the jungle, wearing torn jogging pants and cradling an M-1 rifle. At 18, he had managed only three years of schooling when he joined the Communist Party three months ago. Like many others, Suazo was motivated by a perceived injustice. His father and uncle, both farmers, were killed in March -- gunned down, he said, by the hired hands of a town mayor whom the military protects. The Communist rebellion in the Philippines began 35 years ago. It foundered but has regained strength and, according to military estimates, now counts 10,000 fighters...

THE Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said the revolutionary movement continues to gain strength in Panay Island amid massive military operations. "The rebel movement registered significant gains in 2003 as it frustrated intensive military operations," the CPP said in a statement marking their recent 35th Founding Anniversary. A military officer in the region, however, said there is no reason for the CPP to celebrate because it has done nothing for the country except contribute to the destruction of government properties, killing of own comrades and conduct of extortion activities. He added if the underground movement wanted reforms they should...

Ka Roger’s raspy voice filters out of the morning radio program, casual and so commonplace that millions of Filipino listeners have come to regard it as part of the daily news rather than a disturbing presence of a guerrilla openly challenging a government. “There are two governments in this country, the revolutionary government and the reactionary government,” said Roger, nom de guerre of Gregorio Rosal, spokesman for the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA). “They can’t deny that we exist and we exercise government powers,” Rosal said. Nilo de la Cruz,...

THREE separate encounters between government soldiers and New People’s Army rebels were reported on Tuesday, a day before the government’s Christmas truce takes effect. The Philippine National Police headquarters at Camp Crame reported that the clashes took place in Camarines Sur, Negros Oriental and Compostela Valley, all known NPA strongholds. On Monday President Arroyo declared a suspension of military offensives for the Christmas season. The truce will last until midnight of January 6. The NPA said, however, that it would observe its own truce from December 20 to January 4. Reports said the first encounter took place in Sitio Gullid-gullid,...

WHO ARE the extortionists? It's the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA), said Carapali Lualhati, national commander of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army and its armed wing, Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB). Lualhati, also known as Stephen Paduano, said the people of Negros are not "illiterate" to know who really are the extortionists. He said the underground movement wherein he was a member some 10 years past, is responsible for extorting revolutionary taxes in the uplands especially from politicians come election time. The NPAs are also responsible for the burning of Ceres buses for the owner's failure or refusal to...

KORONADAL CITY, December 5, 2003 (STAR) By Ramil Bajo — The Moro Islamic National Liberation Front (MILF) and the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) have reportedly forged a tactical alliance by consolidating their forces to prevent politicians and government forces from entering five remote barangays in T’boli, South Cotabato. T’boli police head chief inspector David Quistadio, however, refused to confirm the report but said that in the last elections the two rebel groups agreed to strengthen their presence in their ‘controlled territories’ to prevent politicians from going there. "Sa ngayon wala pa kaming naririnig pero posibleng mangyari...

<p>MANILA &#8212; New People's Army rebels attacked government forces 335 times in the first nine months of this year, making the Marxist-led movement a greater threat in the eyes of Philippine intelligence chiefs than al Qaeda and its local allies.</p>

A GOVERNMENT militiaman and a rebel were killed and three others were wounded in an encounter Wednesday in Polangui town, Albay province, a military report said. Elsewhere in the country, troops overran three New People's Army satellite camps in remote areas in the provinces of Laguna, Agusan del Sur and Leyte, according to Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jose Kakilala. Kakilala said a civilian auxiliary under the 22nd Infantry Battalion was killed in a clash Wednesday with the NPA in the village of Danao, Polangui, Albay. He said an NPA rebel was also killed in the clash, while one soldier and...

<p>WRANGELL-ST. ELIAS NATIONAL PARK, Alaska, Sept. 28 — Psalms sat on Papa Pilgrim’s right knee and Lamb perched on his left. Thirteen more of his children - all of them with names from the Bible, several of them packing pistols - crowded around. So did his exhausted-looking wife, Country Rose.</p>

GENERAL SANTOS -- Four soldiers were killed and another three wounded in separate clashes with communist guerillas in the eastern and southern areas of the country, reports said Sunday. The troops were conducting humanitarian work near Ligao City in Albay Province when they ran into 20 communist New People's Army (NPA) rebels. The resulting gun battle resulted in the death of four soldiers, the military said Sunday. "The communist terrorists were in the vicinity intimidating the people when the encounter occurred," said Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jose Kakilala said. "The troops suffered four killed during the encounter, while the (rebels)...

Communist guerrillas killed two policemen, stole cash and firearms and burned down a police station and a bus in separate attacks in the Philippines, the military said Tuesday. A New People's Army (NPA) band attacked the police station in Santa Lucia town in Ilocos Sur shortly before midnight Monday, killing two officers and wounding two others, military spokesmen here said. The rebels set fire to the building and to a police vehicle before fleeing with an undetermined number of firearms from the police armory, they added. At about the same time, NPA rebels robbed passengers of a bus and then...

Elite NPA assassins target George Bush? By Karl B. Kaufman, Reporter and Anthony Vargas, Correspondent THE communist New People’s Army has deployed at least 50 of its “elite, highly trained” troops in Metro Manila to carry out an assassination assignment on US President George W. Bush, who is scheduled to visit the country on October 18, military sources said. Requesting anonymity, the source said the deployment began as early as August “to establish an intelligence network” that would relay information and details to the NPA chain of command about Bush’s eight-hour visit. “Their first assignment is to link up with...

LEGASPI -- Two soldiers and a civilian were slain while three other civilians were wounded in a communist guerilla ambush near Daraga town, south of Manila, police reports said Saturday. The two soldiers were waiting for a bus to Daraga on Friday when a hit-team from the communist New People's Army (NPA) shot them dead. One civilian was killed and three others were wounded by stray bullets, the police report added. The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which has waged a 33-year Maoist campaign to topple the government. The government has recently said...

CLAVERIA -- Military troops overran a New People's Army (NPA) camp in this Misamis Oriental town Thursday, wounding in the process three communist rebels and seizing five firearms, sophisticated communication devices and subversive materials. The communist insurgent camp in Sitio Dugo-dugo in Claveria was being used to spy on military communications in Mindanao, an Army commander said. An undetermined number of communist rebels escaped in the gun battle for the camp although bloodstains indicated the rebels suffered casualties in the fight, said local battalion commander Colonel Rainer Cruz. A team from the 9th Infantry Battalion's Bravo Company led by 2Lt....

LEGASPI—Communist guerrillas on Friday killed a policeman and five other people in an ambush on the central island of Masbate, police said. New People’s Army (NPA) rebels detonated a landmine and opened fire with assault rifles on a mini-bus on the road near the town of Baleno, killing six passengers and wounding two others, said regional police spokesman Supt. Benjamin Suratos. The dead included a policeman, three members of a government militia force helping the army fight the NPA, and two civilians, Suratos told reporters. Reports sent to Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City said the fatalities...

PAGADIAN -- Armed men believed to be communist rebels seized a commuter bus and briefly held its passengers before setting it on fire in northwestern Mindanao, police said Tuesday. Twenty suspected New People's Army (NPA) guerrillas on Monday flagged down the vehicle near the town of Tigbao in the Zamboanga peninsula, Provincial Police Director Godofredo de los Santos said. The passengers were let off unharmed before the gunmen torched the bus, he said. The motive for the attack could be extortion, de los Santos said, noting that the owner of the bus has been receiving demands from the NPA to...

Intense gun battles between the military and communist rebels in the upland barangays of Mt. Province have reportedly crippled the livelihood of countless farmers who are now too afraid to go to the farm. Mt. Province Provincial Police Office director Supt. William Aspilan, however, said not one villager has sought refuge in a safer place up to now. In the province of Abra, the military is reportedly starting to take control of some of the identified strongholds of the New People's Army (NPA), reports said. According to Aspilan, clashes are still going on at the boundary of Barangays Dalican, Mainit...

Some 60 suspected New People's Army (NPA) rebels attacked the Philippine Navy headquarters in Barangay Ungos, Real, Quezon on Tuesday, killing two people and injuring five others. Senior Supt. Federico Terti, Real police chief, said the rebels came around 11 a.m., onboard a motorized banca while others used a jeep and a van. Killed in the firefight were Coast Guard Petit Officer Jovit Denamarca and an unidentified sailor. Five others were injured including a policeman, two navy men and two Coast Guard personnel. Terti said the rebels seized an M60 machine gun and rifles before leaving onboard two motorized bancas...

Communist guerrillas gunned down a deputy provincial police chief and one other officer in the eastern Philippines island of Catanduanes at the weekend, police said Monday. Chief Inspector Loreto Tablizo, the deputy police chief of Catanduanes province, was shot dead in the provincial capital Virac on Sunday by eight suspected New People's Army (NPA) guerrillas as he stepped out of a cockfighting arena, a police report said. A woman was wounded in the ambush. A police officer was also killed in a suspected NPA ambush near the town of Caramoran on Saturday, the report said. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced last...

BACOLOD CITY - The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) paid tribute to the late Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) founder and chairman Hashim Salamat, calling him a “great fighter and leader of the Moro people.” At the same time, it said it was “happy” over the assumption of Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim to the top post of the secessionist rebel organization. In a statement, CPP spokesman Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal also said that the communist rebels “foresee the continuing positive relationship and cooperation between the CPP-National Democratic Front(NDF-New People’s Army and the MILF-[Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces]” under Murad, who, he...

BACOLOD CITY - The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Monday ordered the New People’s Army (NPA) to“exploit and exacerbate the fractiousness and mutinies within the military by launching more and more tactical offensives.” The order was contained in a statement e-mailed Monday by the CPP information bureau just as President Arroyo delivered her State of the Nation Address (SONA). It also came a day after a short-lived military mutiny ended in Makati City. The CPP statement said the order was issued by Party spokesman Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal after the 20-hour mutiny by 269 young officers and enlisted men...

Seven communist guerrillas were killed in two clashes in Luzon and in the Visayas, the military said Thursay. Five New People's Army (NPA) rebels were killed in a clash with soldiers in Samar on Wednesday, said military central command chief, Maj. Gen. Jacinto Ligot. Soldiers killed two other NPA fighters near the northern town of Tubo on Tuesday, regional military spokesman, Lt. Col. Preme Monta said. The NPA shot and wounded an army lieutenant in the southern town of Buenavista on Tuesday, army spokesman, Lt. Col. Jose Kakilala said. Troops, meanwhile, unearthed on Monday a mass grave allegedly of ex-NPA...

Communist guerrillas killed eight soldiers and seriously wounded another in an ambush in the northern mountain town of Bontoc, security officials said Tuesday. The attack on Monday was the biggest by the communists in Luzon this year, police and military reports said. New People's Army (NPA) guerrillas ambushed the troops as they were escorting the body of a soldier who had been killed in another incident. President Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the government would ensure the perpetrators of the attack "will be brought to justice". The 9,000-strong communist New People's Army (NPA) has recently stepped up attacks on government...

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Communist guerrillas on Monday said they will demand that candidates in next year's Philippine general elections give them money, guns or bullets in exchange for permits to campaign in far-flung rebel-influenced villages. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has denounced such practices by the New People's Army rebels as extortion and warned would-be candidates against giving any kind of support to them. Philippine officials say such extortion and recent deadly attacks by the guerrillas reinforce a U.S. and European Union decision last year to blacklist the guerrillas as terrorists and launch a campaign to cut the rebels' support....

President Arroyo said on Saturday, she would launch "comprehensive countermeasures" in different sectors to fight an upsurge in communist rebel attacks in the countryside. "The response to the violence of the NPA (New People's Army) is our launch of comprehensive countermeasures where we will simultaneously use military, political and legal action to fight this group," Arroyo said in a radio speech. "We are combining all necessary measures to stop this threat and defeat it by the use of force, political action and long term social reforms," she added. The President said she would also take up the growing influence of...

Stalinism may have collapsed in Eastern Europe, but its Maoist progeny is alive and well and on a killing spree in the Philippines. One of Stalinism’s specialties has always been the physical elimination of its political opponents, particularly those on the left. Today, more than a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), is carrying on this tradition in the name of “national liberation” and “anti-imperialism”. In the past seven months, they have gunned down three members of the Filipino non-Communist left, and...

PANGASINAN -- Suspected communist guerillas killed the mayor of Tayug town in Pangasinan and an aide in a pre-dawn attack outside a cockpit Sunday, the military said. Tayug Mayor Guerrero Zaragoza died instantly when armed men fired at him while he and his companions were about to leave an arena holding cockfights at 2:45 a.m., said policemen who responded to the crime alarm. "There is a pit with barbed wire fence at the left side of the coliseum where the assassins took cover. The area is a field," said Senior Insp. Jess Panguid, member of the 3rd company of the...

AFP officials say MILF ordered $2-M in arms from Nokor spy By FERNAN MARASIGAN TODAY Reporter The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has ordered more than $2-million worth of armaments and sophisticated weapons from an alleged North Korean intelligence officer, as part of rebel plan to launch an all-out war against the government, military officials said Thursday. The officials said the rebels also plan to purchase minisubmarines to augment its fighting capability. These orders and plans were revealed, the military added, by documents seized from the house of MILF chairman Salamat Hashim, when the military overran the rebel camp in...

Washington has asked the Dutch government to freeze the financial assets of a Netherlands-based communist group involved in a bloody 33-year rebellion in the Philippines. Officials in Manila expressed the hope that the U.S. request may also help their campaign to have The Hague deport a small group of exiled communist leaders, who could face criminal charges at home. The move came shortly after Secretary of State Colin Powell announced he was officially designating the Philippine Communist Party and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), as a foreign terrorist organization. Last week Philippine President Gloria Arroyo said U.S.-trained...

Fresh from their recent successes against Islamic extremists, U.S.-trained armed forces in the Philippines will now be deployed against communist rebels, using anti-terrorism funds provided by Washington. President Gloria Arroyo this week ordered troops who have been fighting the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) under U.S. guidance to be redeployed against the New People's Army (NPA), which is responsible for a bloody 33-year insurgency. "The war on terrorism does not distinguish between ordinary terrorists and those espousing a political ideology," she said. The decision brought a swift and angry response from the group's leader. From exile in Europe Tuesday, he called...