Arrest of CPP-NPA leadership a big blow, but...

A week ago, Pres. Benigno "PNoy" Aquino III smarting from the arrest of celebrity fugitive Delfin Lee (that caught a firestorm) issued a statement that another celebrity fugitive was going to fall very soon. Of course, it sent many pundits second guessing who that celebrity fugitive would be? Here in these parts of the country, we have Dinagat Island Benevolent Supreme Master Ruben Ecleo who jumped bail on his parricide case.

Then the communists always wanted the Aquino regime always to have retired Gen. Jovito Palparan arrested calling him a butcher. But in truth, Gen. Palparan was an excellent sniffer of New People's Army (NPA) terrorists and had them killed.  So the communists used their links inside the Aquino regime to haul Gen. Palparan to court, which is why he turned fugitive. Lest you have already forgotten that on Dec.10, 2010, Pres. PNoy Aquino ordered the dropping of charges against the so-called "Morong 43." Yet subsequent arrests of members of the NPA revealed that some of them belonged to the Morong 43.

But to our surprise, last Saturday, Benito Tiamzon, Chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its terrorist wing, the New People's Army (NPA) and his equally high ranking wife, Wilma Tiamzon the Secretary General of the CPP-NPA were arrested somewhere in Barangay Zaragosa, Aloguinsan in southern Cebu while on board a Starex van and a Toyota Innova vehicle. They were immediately brought to Camp Lapu-Lapu for debriefing and flown to Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon city.

Once again, the top leadership of the CPP-NPA has fallen, but how long will they stay in custody is something that we are not sure of. The last time the biggest fish from the CPP-NPA was caught, it was no less than its chairman, Jose Maria "Joma" Sison, who was charged with the Plaza Miranda bombing. Unfortunately, right after the EDSA Revolution, then Pres. Cory Aquino freed Joma after nine years in the Marcos jail without any promises to sue for peace in the land.

Today, communist propaganda insists that Joma is no longer involved in the day-to-day operations with the CPP-NPA and is merely an adviser to the communists. But then we know too well that Joma is very much involved with the communists. In fact early in the presidency of Pres. PNoy Aquino, rumors were so strong that Joma secretly returned to the Philippines via Clark Airport because he was supposed to be part and parcel of a "power sharing" with the Aquino regime. Of course, that was only a rumor. But in this country, we believe in that old dictum, "When there is smoke, there must be a fire somewhere."

Naturally, Malacañang was elated with the news of the arrest of the Tiamzon couple. But as of this writing, we only heard the voice of Malacañang spokesman Edwin Lacierda, who also warned of a possible NPA retaliation against the government. As expected, Mr. Lacierda said that they were ready for any untoward events in case the NPA made some attacks against government facilities. On the other hand, it reminded me of the NPA attack in a Police Station in Matan-ao, Davao del Sur where some 100 NPAs overrun the police station despite the alert level status given to the police. Worse was the fate of some eight unsuspecting soldiers who were on hot pursuit operations against the NPAs when their vehicle struck an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and eight soldiers died in that attack.

Last week we tasked the Aquino regime and asked the poignant question what is the current strength of the NPA these days? I asked that question because of a letter that the late Vice-President Salvador "Doy" Laurel sent to Tita Cory when he quit her government, wherein he complained that the strength of the NPA went up from 16,000 regulars to 26,000 regulars after the EDSA revolt. Clearly under her government, the NPA's increased in strength. After all, she freed CPP-NPA Chairman Joma Sison. Can Pres. PNoy Aquino also keep the Tiamzons in jail or will they be released soon?

Today, I am still waiting for a reply from the Office of the President or the Armed Forces of the Philippines as to the strength of the NPA. But there is no doubt that the capture of the Tiamzon couple is a big blow to the four decades old communist insurgency. So the next question is: "Have we dealt a major blow to the Communist insurgency or is this just a minor setback?"

In my book, this is a minor setback because the Aquino regime has not declared any all out war against the communist insurgency. This reminds me again of what the late Pres. Ramon Magsaysay once quipped when fighting the Communist insurgency, using his famous four "Fs" - Find 'em, Fool 'em, then fight 'em and offer them the hand of peace." We never ever followed through with the Magsaysay doctrine which is why we had the communist insurgency for four decades in this country.

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