Palace: AFP ready for NPA retaliation

MANILA, Philippines - With the arrest of leaders of the New People’s Army (NPA) over the weekend, the government is preparing for possible retaliatory attacks from communist rebels, Malacañang said yesterday.

“We are always aware, fully aware of the possibility of retaliation, and our AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) is always ready to defend the population,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

Maj. Gen. Eduardo Año, chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), said they are expecting retaliatory attacks from the NPA following the arrest of Benito Tiamzon and his wife Wilma.

Benito is the head of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the NPA, while Wilma heads the CPP’s national finance committee.

The couple was arrested by police and military forces on Saturday in Aloguinsan, Cebu.

“We expect that they (NPA) will seek revenge. The chairman (Benito) himself has been arrested so no one is safe. But for us, that is actually pressuring them to go back to the negotiating table,” Año said.

Lacierda insisted the arrest cannot be illegal since they were the subjects of an arrest warrant and are not covered by JASIG.

JASIG stands for Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantee or safety passes for communist rebels on the run while both panels are at the negotiating table in the hope of achieving peace.

Lacierda added the couple’s arrest was a big blow to the communist movement.

“Well, it certainly is… we’ve captured their leadership, and the top leadership at the very least, the Tiamzon couple, who are heading the CPP-NPA here in the Philippines,” he said.

The government though is still open to talking peace with the communist rebels, Lacierda said, quoting Secretary Teresita Deles of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.

“The arrest of Benito and Wilma Tiamzon does not change our basic stance that peace negotiations with the CPP/NPA can only proceed with a clear and time-bound agenda that provides some possibility of bringing us closer to a final peace agreement,” Lacierda said.

“We continue to hope that the leadership of CPP/NPA will come to the same conclusion sooner rather than later,” he said, quoting Deles. Lacierda insisted the government is not to blame as only the CPP/NPA keeps on putting stumbling blocks to peace talks.

“We are not the problem. The government is always ready to talk peace but then they (CPP-NPA) are imposing some preconditions that makes it difficult to pursue the peace talks,” he said.

Leadership vacuum

The military said the arrest of the Tiamzon couple is expected to cause a leadership vacuum in the communist rebellion.

Año said communist leaders have to meet to choose their new leader following the arrest of the Tiamzons.

“It will take a plenum before they (Tiamzons) can be replaced,” Año said.

“It (arrest) would create leadership vacuum and as I said you could not just replace (them). It has to be voted upon by all the members of the central committee. They have to summon all the members of the central committee,” he added.

The arrest happened on the same day as the Army’s 117th anniversary and exactly a week before the 45th anniversary of the NPA. It also came two days after Benito’s 63rd birthday. –Alexis Romero, Paolo Romero, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Ben Serrano