Commies Blame Arroyo, U.S. For Renewed Hostilities In Southern Philippines

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / September 6, 2008) – Philippine communist rebels on Saturday blamed President Gloria Arroyo for the continued skirmishes and humanitarian crisis in Mindanao.

Frank Fernandez, a rebel spokesman, also accused the United States of interfering in the country’s internal affairs by aiding the Philippine military in battling communist and Muslim rebels.

“The problem can be rooted to the US-dictated two pronged militarist policy of the regime which is the all-out war against the revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party of the Philippines while neutralizing the Moro secessionist movement of the MILF thru a deceptive and bogus peace process to finish the revolutionary movement in 2010,” he said.

“United States is also responsible for the deaths and destruction not only against the people in Mindanao but on the entire people of the country victimized by Oplan Bantay Laya. The policy implemented by the Arroyo regime in confronting the NPA and the MILF is based on the terrorist policy of Washington in launching a war against the revolutionary and anti-imperialist movements of the people. US imperialism has a long history of intervention in the internal affairs of the country pertaining to economic, political and military matters to protect its interests in a country rich in oil, mineral and other natural resources,” he said.

Oplan Bantay Laya was the codename of the government’s anti-insurgency campaign launched last year in Mindanao.

Fernandez said Arroyo’s decision to scrap the territorial deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the disbandment of the government panel negotiating peace with the Muslim rebel group sparked renewed hostilities in the country’s restive southern region.

“The militarist clique in the Arroyo regime never expected that the Memorandum of Agreement on the Ancestral Domain will ignite the chaos and war in Mindanao. This secret and hasty deal resulted to violent reaction and opposition from the pro and anti-Arroyo reactionary camp and the fake president will even face impeachment because of violations of the Constitution,” Fernandez said.

He accused Arroyo of using the peace talks and the ancestral domain deal to tinker with the Constitution. The deal sparked massive protests from residents and politicians opposed to the inclusion of their villages to the territorial agreement that would have grant Muslims their own homeland in more than 700 villages across Mindanao.

“Her ulterior motive of using the MOA-AD as a stepping stone for charter change to remain in Malacanang was also exposed. The MILF’s disgust and anger have basis when it was proven that the Arroyo regime is not sincere in the peace talks and on the agreement on ancestral domain and instead used these as a trap to demobilize and surrender of MILF,” Fernandez said.

“Through the help of the loyalists AFP generals of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States, they manipulate the incidents and the chaos in Mindanao for propaganda offensive to isolate the MILF. Even the damages inflicted by the AFP against the people thru indiscriminate bombings, brutal killings and burning of houses of suspected MILF rebels and sympathizers were blamed on the MILF themselves to create public opinion to label the MILF as a "terrorist organization" and serve as the basis for the AFP’s all-out war offensives,” he added.

Communist rebels have earlier threatened to launch attacks against Philippine military and government targets in Mindanao to sympathize with the MILF, which forged an alliance with the New People’s Army to defend each other against military offensives.

Security forces were pursuing MILF leaders Ameril Kato and Abdurahman Macapaar, who led a series of deadly attacks in Mindanao.

Colonel Daniel Lucero, commander of the Philippine Army's Civil-Military Operations, said the MILF and the NPA have forged a formal alliance as early as in 1999.

He said the alliance between the MILF and the NPA covers, among others, the exchange of information, sharing of training, manufacture of arms and ammunition - particularly rocket-propelled grenades.

Lucero said this explains why the Mindanao-based NPA rebels were reported to have used anti-tank rockets, loaned by the MILF, in battling government soldiers. He said there were many occasions that MILF forces had disrupted military operations against the NPA in the past.

The NPA is the armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF), which is fighting the past decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the Philippines.

“The pronouncement (of the NPA to launch sympathy attacks) has just confirmed the view that both the CPP-NPA-NDF and the lawless MILF share a common identity - as a terrorist group, a common interest - to coerce the government to do what they want thru the use of violence, and a common approach – to attack and slaughter unarmed and hapless civilians and pillage their properties to compel the government in support of their political aims. The CPP-NPA-NDF press statement only confirms the communists’ recognition they are a mirror image of the terrorist lawless MILF,” Lucero said.

Lucero said the hunt for Kato and Macapaar will not stop until they are captured.

“The directive of the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Army commanders who are leading troops to bring Kato and Macapaar - leaders of the lawless MILF groups - to the bar of justice, have made the necessary adjustments to their operations to deny the communist terrorists from taking advantage of the army’s considerable focus on the operations against the lawless MILF,” he said.

The MILF has repeatedly rejected government demands to surrender the two rogue rebel commanders, saying, it is already investigating the duo for their involvements in the attacks that left dozens of innocent civilians dead.

The Moro Resistance and Liberation Organization (MRLO) on Friday urged other Muslim rebels to continue their armed struggle for independence after Manila recently scrapped a territorial deal and launched a massive offensive during Ramadan.

The MRLO, which is also fighting for independence in the troubled South, accused the Philippine government of insincerity in negotiating peace with the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front), the country’s largest Muslim rebel group.

Omar Mukhtar, the leader of the liberation organization, strongly criticized President Gloria Arroyo for continued government offensive against the MILF rebels in Mindanao despite the Muslims’ observance of Ramadan, Islam’s holiest month.

“The MRLO is urging the MILF to continue with its armed struggle together with other revolutionary forces,” he said in a statement.

Peace talks were stalled because of the attacks, but Malaysia, which is brokering the negotiations, pledged to continue helping the Philippines obtain peace in the troubled South.

Malaysian Ambassador to the Philippines Ahmad Rasidi Hazizi said his country has always remained supportive in attaining peace and stability in Mindanao and has extended the term of its peace keepers in the Philippines for another three months.

As many as half a million people have been affected by hostilities in Mindanao, according to independent and government statistics.

The human rights group called Kawagib said it documented several cases of military abuses against civilians and refugees in North Cotabato province. Bai Ali Indayla, Kawagib spokesperson, said human rights advocates were also being harassed by government soldiers, but security officials strongly denied the accusations. (Mindanao Examiner)