Show off or show of force?
Military intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Jose Calimlim shrugged off yesterday, as a mere ploy to attract attention, the recent attacks in Metro Manila by the communist rebels' urban hit squad Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB).
Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado also belittled the rebel attacks as isolated incidents which the military can effectively contain.
Meanwhile, Philippine National Police chief Deputy Director General Panfilo Lacson dared CPP founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison to come home from self-exile in the Netherlands and prove his charges that he (Lacson) was coddling the Revolutionary Proletariat Army (RPA), a breakaway faction of the mainstream New People's Army (NPA), and the ABB.
"The rebels waged these attacks because they want to project to the people that they are still a force to reckon with," Calimlim said in a telephone interview with defense reporters at the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
Calimlim claimed that the communist guerrillas felt they were being neglected by the government which has indefinitely shelved peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF), the political wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
The RPA-ABB has owned up to the bomb attack on the Department of Energy building in Taguig last Thursday, as well as the strafing of the oil depots of Pilipinas Shell and Petron Corp. in Negros Oriental the previous day.
RPA-ABB leader Luwalhati Carapali said the raids were meant to be a wake-up call for the oil companies and the government to stop abusing the people.
Carapali also warned of more rebel attacks if gasoline prices continually increase.
Earlier, President Estrada met with Arturo Tabare and Nilo de la Cruz, leaders of the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa (RPM), the political arm of the RPA-ABB, in what may be the first step toward the resumption of the peace negotiations between the government and the communist insurgents.
The RPA has accused the government of insincerity in pursuing the peace negotiations, saying the government peace panel failed to manifest "confidence building measures" by not releasing all political prisoners.
During their meeting with the President, De la Cruz and Tabara sought the issuance of safe conduct passes to all RPA-ABB leaders involved in the peace talks, as well as the dropping of all pending criminal charges filed against them.
Calimlim also brushed aside the rebels' threats to bomb more government offices and oil depots unless gas prices were rolled back.
"I don't believe they can do it. We can contain this. We are on top of the situation," Calimlim said.
He also downplayed the ABB attacks as mere harassment tactics.
Mercado, along with AFP chief Gen. Angelo Reyes and National Security Adviser Alexander Aguirre, was summoned to the Senate by Senate President Blas Ople who inquired about the military's capability to handle the escalating attacks by both the communist rebels and the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Ople expressed belief that the MILF and the NPA were attacking military detachments in Mindanao to gauge the troops' capability in resisting such raids.
Mercado and Reyes assured the senators, however, that the situation could neither be taken too lightly nor too seriously.
"We must not react as headless chickens. We can show them that the government is in full control of the situation and that no force other than the government can win a war in the country," Mercado said.
He admitted, however, that it was not easy to second-guess guerrilla warfare tactics. "They (rebels) retreat when we are advancing, harass when we are resting, and attack when we are sleeping."
But the military hierarchy has ruled out more rebel attacks this month as the AFP and the police were geared up for such eventualities.
Reyes gave assurances that despite the rash of rebel bombings in Mindanao and in Metro Manila, the government remained open to peace negotiations.
For his part, Lacson scored Sison for waging a psychological war in the Philippines from afar.
Sison has claimed that Lacson and some PNP officials, in connivance with the RPA-ABB, were trying to create an emergency situation "to justify the escalation of repression and carry out terrorism."