Palace to ABB: Terrorism won't lower oil prices

Terrorism won't bring down oil prices.

Presidential Spokesman Fernando Barican urged yesterday the communist rebels to stop bombings and other terrorist acts to compel oil companies to roll back prices of gasoline and other fuel products.

Barican issued the statement following a rash of bomb blasts at the Department of Energy (DOE) building in Taguig and major depots of Pilipinas Shell and Petron in Amlan town, north of Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental.

Barican said the attacks could only capture headlines and encourage other criminal elements to do the same.

"Terrorism is not only unacceptable as a political tool, but also futile, because it is not in the power of our government to unilaterally lower world prices of oil, or order OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) to increase production," Barican said.

The communist rebels' urban hit squad Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB) and the Revolutionary Proletariat Army (RPA), a breakaway faction of the mainstream New People's Army (NPA), have owned up to the attacks on the DOE and the depots of the two oil companies last week.

"They (ABB guerrillas) are harming the people and the situation. Terrorism can hurt innocent civilians. It does nothing to persuade oil producing countries to increase their production. I wonder how the bombing of Filipino offices can persuade OPEC to lower oil prices," the Malacañang official said.

RPA-ABB leader Lualhati Carapali said the bomb blasts and the strafing of the DOE headquarters and the oil depots were meant to serve as a wake-up call for the oil firms and the government to stop abusing the people.

Carapali also warned of more rebel attacks if fuel prices continued to increase.

Barican said the government remained hopeful that formal peace talks with the communist rebels would resume despite the bomb attacks which he said put the RPA-ABB's faith in the negotiations to a test.

"We don't want to prematurely abandon the prospects of peace. On the other hand, we cannot negotiate in the face of continued terrorist acts," Barican said.

He also urged the rebels to discontinue their terrorist acts. "There should be no more terrorist acts. This is a sensitive time and a critical time. We are calling on them to proceed with the peace efforts," Barican added.

Meanwhile, the radical Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) accused the government of orchestrating the bomb attacks, saying the raids were part of a bigger psychological warfare hatched up by the military.

"Through such bombings, the psy-war tacticians in the Armed Forces may be conditioning public opinion about the necessity for more military operations against the NPA and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)," Bayan secretary general Teodoro Casiño said.

He pointed out that both the NPA and the MILF have nothing to gain from the attacks. "It is simply illogical for the NPA and the MILF who want to gain popular support for their cause, to engage in such bombing operations," Casiño said.