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Southeast Asia

Soldier killed by NPA militants in Mindanao

2015-06-21

[Sun Star] Reports indicate that a soldier was killed while two others were injured when Philippine troops were fired upon by a band of New Peoples Army militants in Davao del Sur. Pursuit operations were launched, as the injured soldiers were brought to the hospital and deemed in stable condition. Local residents reported that four injured NPA militants were carried by their comrades during their escape. Eastern Mindanao Command Commander Lt. Gen. Aurelio B. Baladad called on injured NPA rebels to get medical treatment. He said, "We are all awaiting for your return to the fold of the law. We will facilitate your safe return to your respective families and become productive citizens in your respective communities."

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Southeast Asia

NPA guerrillas attack Japanese business in Mindanao

2013-08-15

Guerrillas from the communist New Peoples Army attacked a Japanese business site in Mindanao. The Sumitumo facility in Bangbang, a village in North Cotabato province, has been targeted repeatedly. Local officials believe the attack could have been instigated by the company's refusal to pay the NPA's "revolutionary" tax, taken from businesses and politicians as the price for doing business.

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Europe

Dutch arrest Philippine communist leader/exile

2007-08-30

Dutch police arrested Philippine Communist rebel leader Jose Maria Sison on Tuesday on suspicion of ordering the murder of two former allies in the Philippines, prosecutors said. Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New Peoples Army, was arrested in Utrecht, the central Dutch city where he has lived in exile for 20 years, they said. He was due to appear in a Hague court on Friday. ''The Communist leader is suspected of ordering from the Netherlands the murders of his former allies Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara in the Philippines,'' said a statement from the Public Prosecutor's Office. Wretchard can fill in some details on the importance of this arrest, with a nice tribute to some of Sison's victims. Spokesman Wim de Bruin said Sison, 68, will be put on trial in the Netherlands, not the Philippines. ''There is no extradition request,'' De Bruin said. ''These are crimes that were committed in the Netherlands. Ordering murders is a crime according to Dutch law.'' Kintanar was gunned down in a Japanese restaurant in the Philippines on 23 January 2003. Tabara and his son-in-law Stephen Ong were shot dead in a parking lot as they got out of their car on 26 September 2004, the statement said. The Philippines Communist Party's armed wing claimed responsibility for the slayings. In Utrecht, teams of police raided the Sison's office, seizing computers, CDs, documents and books, said Aldo Gonzalez, who said he was questioned during the six-hour police operation at the office. Prosecutors said at least seven other addresses in Utrecht and the nearby town of Abcoude were searched as part of the investigation. Sison now calls himself a political consultant for the Dutch-based National Democratic Front of the Philippines, which has been involved in off-and-on peace negotiations for many years with Manila. Gonzalez, who said he was a staff member of the Front's negotiating team, dismissed the well-known allegations against Sison for the murders. ''They are all fabricated charges,'' he said. "Nope. Nope. Never happened." The European Union added Sison to its terror list in October 2002. He was placed on the list both as an individual and as a member of the New People's Army. Philippine military spokesman Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro called Sison's arrest ''a triumph of justice.'' ''Ironic as it is, he is assured of his day in court - a right denied to the thousands of innocent victims of Communist kangaroo courts,'' Bacarro added. A prominent left-wing group in the Philippines, The New Patriotic Alliance or Bayan, condemned the arrest of Sison and raids on his group's offices as attacks on civil liberties. ''This bodes ill for the peace process,'' the group said. ''The arrest was most probably undertaken with the knowledge and prodding of the (Gloria Macapagal) Arroyo government which is out to sabotage all hopes for peace talks.''

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Southeast Asia

Peace Talks Between Manila and Reds Dim Following Executions

2005-05-06

Dead people always dim my enthusiasm, too... Prospects grew dim on the resumption of the stalled peace talks between the government and the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF) after rebels admitted executing a captured government soldier and three of his companions in the southern province of Sultan Kudarat, officials said yesterday. "Narciso, I think we'd better put the tourism campaign for Sultan Kudarat on hold for another month or two..." The CPP's armed wing, the New Peoples Army (NPA), said it executed Marine Sgt. Jeremias Rosete along with three alleged civilian intelligence agents Herminia Sorongon, Pepito Simbulan and Wilfredo Maldecir, who were captured by the Valentin Palamine Command on Sept. 4, 2001 in the village of Datal Blao in Columbio town. Their remains were only recovered on April 4 after informants led police to a shallow grave in the village. "The killing of Sgt. Rosete and his companions sets back the confidence building process that both the GRP and the NDF consider so vital in bringing the peace process forward," a government statement said. The rebels had earlier demanded a halt to military offensives in exchange for the release of Rosete and his companions. "When the government refused to accede to the NPA's demand for the declaration of a five-province-wide Suspension of Offensive Military Operations (SOMO) to facilitate the release of the captives, Rosete and the others were tried and executed as "spies," however, the NDF continued to use them as a bargaining chip to gain more concessions from the government," it said. It said the four were believed killed as early as September 2002 after the rebels accused them of espionage. "We deplore the CPP's disregard for life and its utter lack of humanity in withholding information from the relatives of Sgt. Rosete and the other and the GRP about what they had done to their captives," the government statement said. The government said Rosete and his companions were in Sultan Kudarat to negotiate the surrender of a senior NPA member, but a previous military statement said the soldier was dismissed after he allegedly defected to the NPA. It said Rosete, who was assigned at the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), abandoned his unit and joined the rebels. Rosete was also reported training NPA rebels in intelligence gathering, but this was denied by his family. Rosete was believed working as a deep penetration agent and had recruited three rebels to spy on NPA activities in the province. The rebels blamed the government for the execution of the four, saying, it ignored demands for a cease-fire in the southern Philippines to pave way for the release of the hostages. It said the military instead launched a large-scale rescue operation.

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Southeast Asia

Rebels Threaten to Attack US Troops in Mindanao

2005-01-27

Communist rebels yesterday warned it would target US forces secretly operating in the southern Philippines if it do not pull out from the strife-torn region, where Filipino troops are battling Maoist guerillas and terrorist groups tied to the Al-Qaeda network. A rebel spokesman Gregorio Rosal accused President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of collaborating with the United States when she allowed US military advisers and combat troops to clandestinely operate in areas in the south where the New People's Army (NPA) is actively operating. Aside from the NPA rebels, the Abu Sayyaf group and Jemaah Islamiya militants, listed by the US as a foreign terrorist organizations, the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and other kidnap gangs are also active in the southern Philippines. "US military advisers who participate directly in the AFP's war efforts will be regarded as members of an armed adversarial force. The New People's Army is likewise ready to face interventionist US military advisers and troops in the battlefield. We will hold the Bush and Arroyo regimes responsible for the consequences," Rosal said in a statement. Occasionally, even when you're paying attention, you can forget what a cesspool much of the world is.

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Europe

Dutch ban terror groups on EU blacklist

2004-12-07

The Netherlands plans to ban all terrorist groups listed on the European Union's blacklist. Active involvement with such groups will be a criminal offence, the Dutch government said on Tuesday. The groups on the blacklist include the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party, now called Kongra-Gel), the Palestinian group Hamas, the Islamicist organisation Al-Takfir, the Muslim Al-Aqsa Nederland foundation, and the Marxist New Peoples Army (NPA) of the Philippines. Other foreign groups can also be declared by a court to be operating in breach of public order, the government said. The new measures are part of a legislative proposal unveiled by Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner and Interior Minister Johan Remkes. The proposals will be submitted to the Dutch Parliament for consideration, the website regering.nl said. Under present regulations, the Dutch government can only freeze the bank accounts of organisations named on the EU list or recognised terrorist groups. In future, these groups will no longer be allowed to operate in the Netherlands and will not be able to recruit members or appoint leaders. The Cabinet's proposal states that inclusion on the EU's list is sufficient reason to ban an organisation in the Netherlands. Organisations are only placed on the EU list if all 25-member states agree. The EU is advised by the United Nations over which groups to place on the terror list. Some of these groups have links with the terror network al-Qaeda and the Taleban in Afghanistan, news agency Novum reported. A ban does not necessarily mean the group will be disbanded, but continued work in the name of the organisation will become a criminal offence. Conviction will carry a sentence of 12 months jail. Members have nothing to fear if they are not active in the group. The legislative proposal would allow give Dutch authorities the power to take action against foreign groups that are not listed on the EU terror list, but who carry out illegal activities in the Netherlands. Before the activities of these groups can be ended, public prosecutor (OM) will have to apply to a civil court judge for a ruling that the organisation has operated in breach of public order. Once such an order is granted, people who continue to work on behalf of the organisation will face 12 months in jail.

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Southeast Asia

80 Muslim converts trained under Janjalani

2004-08-12

THE al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group has deployed 80 Muslim converts all over the country, most of them in key cities in Metro Manila, to bomb civilian and government targets. Citing reports from the intelligence community, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said the Abu Sayyaf chieftain, Khadaffy Janjalani, trained these converts, who were former Christians, early last year in the jungles of Basilan. In a roundtable discussion with The Manila Times editors and reporters, Gonzales named the Abu Sayyaf as the "most dangerous" of all rebel groups in the country, despite its membership of less than 300. "Compared with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the New Peoples Army, the Abu Sayyaf is the most dangerous because these terrorists even volunteer to conduct attacks to win the recognition of international terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda," Gonzales said. Targets for possible terrorist attacks are bus terminals, passenger ships and other crowded areas. Gonzales said the Muslim converts, known in the intelligence community as the Balik-Islam Group, are scattered nationwide, but are concentrated in Metro Manila and the Visayas. The military arrested four of these converts early this year in Metro Manila. "Now we have 76 more to worry about and we hope we can catch them before they inflict harm on civilians," Gonzales said. Since they are former Christians, Gonzales said the Abu Sayyaf doesn't hesitate to send them on high-risk bombing missions. "They don't care whether these converts succeed or not, because of their former religion. They just want them to do the job for the Abu Sayyaf," he said.

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Southeast Asia

Abu Sayyaf down to 400

2004-04-05

Lieutenant Col. Daniel Lucero, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman, said Monday that the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) has weakened due to continuous arrests of its leaders. Lucero, in an interview with the ABS-CBN News Channel, said the group has whittled down to 400 troops from 1,200. "Some Abu Sayyaf men were captured because of tips from some ASG members who betrayed their leaders maybe because of the bounty being offered by the government," he said. He denied reports that the ASG is training new members to become suicide bombers, saying that the group is only out to raise money through kidnap-for-ransom activities. He added that the ASG's link to the militant group Jema'ah Islamiyah has yet to be proven. He added that the communist New People's Army is still the country's biggest security threat and that the group is actively campaigning for some candidates and party-list groups.

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Southeast Asia

Six NPA rebels, one CVO die in Phillipines shootout

2004-03-31

Six New People’s Army (NPA) rebels and a member of the Civilian Volunteer Organization (CVO) were killed and many other rebels were allegedly seriously wounded when a two-hour fierce gun battle erupted yesterday morning between government troops and communist dissidents in Awao, Monkayo town, Compostela Valley (ComVal), a regional Army spokesman said. The bad week for bad guys continues. Lt. Col. Felicisimo C. Budiongan, spokesman of the Army’s Fourth Infantry (Diamond) Division, said that two attack helicopters of the Philippine Air Force’s (PAF) Composite Air Support Force (CASF) provided air support for the ground troops during the heavy exchange of fire. The gunfight broke out at 6:45 yesterday morning. "We attack at dawn!" The rebels, numbering at least 50, were believed to be members of the combined regional and provincial forces of the CPP-NPA Southern Mindanao Regional Revolutionary Committee (SMRC). The SMRC combined forces were supposed to attack an 11-man CAFGU detachment headed by Private First Class Berja in Monkayo town. However, elements of 72nd Infantry Battallion did not wait for the attack and instead brought the fight to the reported staging area of the rebels, Colonel Budiongan said. Outstanding! Hit them before they hit you. In the first one hour of heavy fire, CVO Roberto Morato was fatally hit. But in the next hour of gunfire exchange, government troops inflicted heavy casualty on the enemy forces. This came as a result of the air support extended by the attack helicopters and reinforcing combat troops, the Army spokesman said. Troops of the 60th Infantry Battalion immediately reinforced the soldiers of the 72nd Infantry Battalion at the battle front, forcing the rebels to withdraw, dragging along with them their casualties, Budiongan said. The identities of the slain and wounded rebels could not be established by the Army as of yesterday afternoon. Hard to identify where hamburger comes from. Nice work, guys. Keep it up.

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5 dead, 2 kidnapped in Philippines festivities

2004-03-03

Three policemen, a soldier and a civilian were killed while two civilians were abducted in scattered guerrilla attacks in the central and southern Philippines, official reports said Tuesday. New People’s Army (NPA) gunmen waylaid three traffic policemen on the outskirts of the southern city of Butuan late Monday as the officers responded to a call for help from residents being harassed by armed men. All three officers were shot dead as they approached the neighborhood. An army corporal was shot dead and six pro-government militia members were wounded in a firefight with another NPA unit near the central town of Tinambac in the Bicol region, it said. Meanwhile, Abu Sayyaf guerrillas killed a man and abducted his wife and son in the village of Buan in the Tawi-tawi island group in the extreme southern Philippines on Sunday.

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Southeast Asia

Philipine Communist Party Leader Killed in Clash

2004-02-13

Four communist guerrillas, including a ranking party leader, were killed in fierce clashes in the southern Philippines, a military report said yesterday. Among those reported killed were Jose Adora, front secretary of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which is currently holding peace talks with the Arroyo government. Well, he’s peaceful now. Adora was killed along with three other rebels in a weekend gunbattle in the village of Cecilia in San Luis town, Agusan del Sur province, the military’s Southern Command in Zamboanga City said. The report said the rebels retreated to the hinterlands, dragging the bodies of their dead, but they left Adora’s behind as soldiers pursued them. "He’s too heavy, and he ain’t my brother" Manila yesterday resumed peace talks with the CPP and its political wing the National Democratic Front (NDF) in Oslo, Norway. The talks hit a snag, however, after rebel leaders demanded a resolution from Manila to pressure the United States and the Council of the European Union into removing the CPP-NDF and their military arm, the New People’s Army (NPA) from their list of foreign terrorist organizations. The United States and the European Union tagged the CPP-NDF and the NPA as foreign terrorists and froze its assets abroad on Manila’s recommendation. The rebel’s peace panel chief, Luis Jalandoni, said the tag and the subsequent freezing of CPP founder Jose Maria Sison’s assets and violated the provisions of the 1992 Hague Joint Declaration. "Tell them to quit calling us terrorists or we’ll blow stuff up!" Both the United States and the European Union blacklisted the local communist groups on Manila’s recommendation after NPA rebels executed two lawmakers despite a the peace negotiations and an existing cease-fire agreement in 2001.

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Southeast Asia

NPA sez US better stay out of their turf

2004-02-12

Communist guerrillas threatened Wednesday to attack American troops participating in annual war exercises in the Philippines later this month if they stray into rebel zones. About 2,500 U.S. Marines and 2,300 Filipino soldiers will take part in major combat and live-fire maneuvers from Feb. 23 to March 4. The exercises, involving 46 American assault and transport aircraft, will bring U.S. troops near security hotspots, including Dinglayan Bay off Aurora, a mountainous province 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of Manila, where New People’s Army guerrillas are active. The Philippine exercise director, Brig. Gen. Rafael Romero, said there is a plan for a beach landing exercise in Dingalan Bay. The area has been adequately secured, he said. The annual exercises, launched under a 1951 defense treaty to prepare the longtime military allies for joint combat, are aimed at dealing with external threats but would also involve antiterrorism scenarios, Romero said. Military officials said the exercises are not part of any counter-insurgency operation and will not include a specific imaginary target. However, communist rebel spokesman Gregorio Rosal said the exercise in Aurora, where the guerrillas maintain a major front, could be a cover for a clandestine surveillance or anti-insurgency operation. He said the rebels will attack American or Filipino soldiers if they stray into their lairs or provoke them. "We will try to avoid trouble but we will be prepared,’’ Rosal said. "Anybody who would make provocative acts would be a target of tactical offensives.’’ A leftist group, the New Nationalist Alliance, said holding the exercises near an NPA stronghold was an act of government insincerity and a blow to peace talks that opened Tuesday between government and rebel negotiators in Norway. The group accused Washington of projecting its power in Asia by deploying U.S. troops in the Philippines, which has become "America’s doormat in the region.’’ The alliance said another venue of the exercises, western Palawan province, is crucial to U.S. interests because it is near the Spratlys, a South China Sea region contested by China, the Philippines and four other Asian nations. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a staunch U.S. ally, said the exercises had nothing to do with the dispute over the Spratly islands, and stressed that military alliance with Washington "is not aimed at any nation or foe.’’

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