AFP: Rebel out to sabotage SONA nabbed

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) announced the arrest yesterday morning of a top communist party leader reportedly involved in a plot to sabotage President Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.

Lt. Gen. Pedro Cabuay Jr., commanding general of the Southern Luzon Command (Solcom), said the arrest of Nilo Cardinal, alias Ka Cho, secretary of the provincial committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines in Sorsogon, also confirmed the CPP’s direct participation in ongoing moves to oust Mrs. Arroyo from office.

Cabuay said Cardinal was in a supporter’s vehicle when it was intercepted by Army intelligence agents at a military checkpoint in Barangay Taisan in Sipocot, Camarines Sur at about 12:15 a.m. yesterday.

Cabuay said Cardinal’s four other companions at the time of his arrest, including his wife Julieta, were also invited for questioning.

According to Cabuay, Cardinal was on his way back to Sorsogon from Manila when the Army and elements of the 31st Infantry Battalion placed him under arrest based on pending warrants for homicide and rebellion charges filed against him early this year in Irosin, Sorsogon.

Seized from the Sorsogon-based CPP leader were several brand-new cell phones, a personal computer and a caliber .45 automatic.

AFP spokesman, Brig. Gen. Jose Angel Honrado said yesterday that the arrest of Cardinal was part of special measures being undertaken by the military to ensure that the forthcoming SONA would be peaceful.

"The AFP’s intelligence units are leaving no stone unturned in order to preempt the communist terrorists’ plot to disrupt GMA’s address," Honrado said.

"The CPP-NPA may deny that it plans to sabotage the SONA but our people know that the likes of Roger Rosal cannot be trusted," he added.

Reacting to the allegation of sabotage, the CPP branded it "a big lie," saying no New People’s Army (NPA) guerrilla will participate in street demonstrations during the President’s SONA on Monday.

CPP spokesman Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal readily dismissed government intelligence assessments that NPA guerrillas were planning to infiltrate SONA rallies to wreak havoc.

The "NPA-infiltration bogey" is a "worn-out lie," Rosal said.

The military "tale," Rosal claimed, was meant only "to scare people away from anti-Arroyo protests."

The NPA is the CPP’s armed wing.

"Nobody believes anymore in the PNP and AFP’s oft-repeated yarn about NPA-infiltration of anti-Arroyo rallies," he added.

In a statement, the AFP claimed that Cardinal was in Manila for a series of consultation meetings in Metro Manila with other party leaders, including the NPA, to strategize and muster support for the CPP’s "Oust GMA campaign."

Cabuay said that Cardinal and other CPP party leaders met in Metro Manila to map out a plan of action to sabotage the President’s SONA.

Regarding the suspect’s initial statement, Cabuay said Cardinal confirmed intelligence reports that the CPP-NPA would take advantage of the current political instability in the country to advance their cause.

"The capture of Cardinal, a top CPP/NPA personality in Bicol, underscores another significant accomplishment of Solcom against the CPP/NPA," Cabuay said.

Rosal meanwhile chided the reported wiretapping of an alleged conversation between him and an NPA operative.

"To lend credence to their NPA-infiltration fairy-tale, the PNP has resorted to releasing a so-called wiretapped conversation supposedly between me and a supposed member of the NPA. They have twisted their story so much in order to come up with a supposed NPA assassination plot," Rosal said.

According to the rebel spokesman, the "minimum objective" of the PNP and AFP in weaving the rally-infiltration tale is to justify police and military measures to stop the public from getting involved in demonstrations.

He cited the July 13 protest action staged by the opposition in Makati City wherein the AFP and PNP forces supposedly used the NPA-infiltration bogey "to restrict and control the free movement of people in and outside Metro Manila in order to prevent them from joining anti-Arroyo rallies."

The 7,800-strong NPA has been waging a rebellion for more than three decades. Mrs. Arroyo suspended peace talks with it two years ago after the US government placed the Maoist group on its list of terrorist organizations.

National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales has said the NPA is actively assisting in efforts to topple the Arroyo government.

The political opposition gained wider support for Mrs. Arroyo’s ouster in recent weeks after releasing an audiotape that they said proved the President cheated to win the May 2004 national election. — With AFP, Artemio Dumlao