ZAMBOANGA CITY: Communist rebels accused Manila on Tuesday of violating a Christmas truce following a series of clashes in the southern Philippines.
Jorge Madlos, a rebel spokesman, said government troops attacked New People’s Army (NPA) members in Surigao del Sur and other provinces in Mindanao, sparking clashes that coincided with the 41st anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
“These acts of violation of the Suspension of Military Operations vividly manifest the treachery of the Arroyo government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines not only toward the revolutionary movement but toward the people as well. They have resorted to this type of cowardly action because they desperately want to make the most needed score, if only to claim victory for their failed Oplan Bantay Laya 2, which is now on its final months,” Madlos said, referring to the government’s anti-insurgency campaign. He said the military violated the truce from Dec. 24 to Dec. 26 and that fighting also broke out the next day and continued sporadically until Dec. 28.
“In spite of the open violations committed by AFP against the implementation of the SOMO, the main celebration of the 41st founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines has been a great success,” Madlos said.
Alvin Luque, a leader of the leftist group called Bayan in Mindanao, also contacted journalists to say that he had sought the protection of the NPA rebels after military forces were sent to arrest him on manufactured charges.
Luque said in a statement e-mailed to journalists: “I must tell the truth: there is no way out of the brutality and impunity under this government except to fight against it. As I have said in 2007, I would not surrender myself to the whims and desires of the reactionary government, which resorts to silencing activists through political assassinations. I would have wanted, finally, to have my day in court, but I feared that, once arrested, I was vulnerable to all sorts of attack, especially from the AFP which considered me an ‘enemy of the state.’ Therefore, I have chosen not to submit myself to the processes of the law under the present reactionary government.”
