Commies Accuse US, Arroyo Of Exploiting Kidnap Crisis In Zamboanga

Communist rebel leader Gregorio Rosal. Rebels have accused the United States and the Philippines of exploiting kidnap crisis in Mindanao.

ZAMBOANGA SIBUGAY (Mindanao Examiner / 13 Jun) – Communist rebels on Wednesday accused the United States and President Gloria Arroyo of exploiting the kidnapping of an Italian missioner to allow U.S. forces to freely operate in Mindanao.

Rogue Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels kidnapped Fr. Giancarlo Bossi on June 10 after celebrating mass in the coastal village of Bulawan in Zamboanga Sibugay’s Payao town.

Manila sought U.S. deployment of an EP3 reconnaissance plane in Mindanao to help soldiers track down the kidnappers and their hostage.

“The U.S. and Arroyo governments are taking advantage of the abduction of Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi to allow the U.S. military free range in its intelligence operations in Mindanao, including flying spy planes around the island purportedly to assist in the rescue operations,” CPP spokesman Gregorio Rosal said in a statement.

Marine Maj. Gen. Mohammad Dolorfino said the kidnappers on Tuesday tried, but failed to escape Zamboanga Sibugay and hand over their hostage to the Abu Sayyaf group tied to al-Qaeda terror network because of blockade in the province.

Rosal scoffed at the government's gratitude for U.S. participation in the search, saying, it violate the Filipino people's sovereignty. “In reality, U.S. intelligence operations in the country cannot be belittled as these are used by the U.S. military to control and direct troop deployment and ground operations."

"They also want to show in this way that U.S. military assistance, including intelligence operations, has become indispensable even at the expense of making the local military and police looking stupid and incapable," Rosal said.

"In fact, the hidden principal agenda of U.S. intelligence operations in the Philippines has always been the monitoring of revolutionary and anti-U.S. imperialist forces, such as the New People's Army and the Moro revolutionary forces," he said.

The New People's Army is the military wing of the CPP, which is fighting to topple the democratic government and install a Maoist state in the Philippines.

While the Moro revolutionary forces refer to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), also fighting for separate homeland in Mindanao, but is currently negotiating peace with the Philippine government. (Mindanao Examiner)

Rebels Condemn Philippines-Australia Defense Pact

Gregorio Rosal, Communist Party of the Philippines spokesman. Rosal has condemned the signing of a new defense pact between Manila nd Canberra that will allow Australian troops to train Filipino forces in Philippine soil.

DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 03 Jun) – Filipino communist rebels have criticized President Gloria Arroyo for signing a security pact with Australia that would allow troops from both countries to hold joint anti-terrorism warfare training in the Philippines.

The defense cooperation accord called the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) is aimed at enhancing military capabilities of both countries in fighting terrorism and transnational crimes.

The agreement contains key elements such as the basis of visits, entry and departure conditions, how training and exercises are to be conducted, carriage of arms, security and criminal jurisdiction, provisions, importation and exportation regulations and environmental protection.

Rebel leader Gregorio Rosal said the agreement only furthers foreign military intervention in the Philippines, which is a violation of the national sovereignty of the Filipino people.

"With the Philippine-Australia SOFA, we can expect closer and more sinister coordination between U.S. and Australian military troops in the Philippines in carrying out combat, reconnaissance, espionage and other military activities in violation of Philippine sovereignty," Rosal said.

He said the SOFA is similar to the Visiting Forces Agreement between the United States and the Philippine governments.

“Through the VFA, the American military has been able to permanently deploy a significant number of combat troops, reconnaissance forces, intelligence operatives and other open and covert interventionist forces in Philippine territory.”

“U.S. forces in the Philippines have also maintained a practically permanent base of operations in Zamboanga City,” Rosal said.

He also cited Australia's all-out support for the so-called U.S. interventionist wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

With the signing of the SOFA, Defense Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor said the Philippines is to receive 28 patrol crafts worth some four million dollars from Australia.

The boats would be used to patrol Mindanao’s huge marshlands, used by rebels and terrorists as a springboard to launch terror attacks. Aside from patrol crafts, Australia would also spend four million dollars annually to train Filipino troops in anti-terrorism warfare.

Arroyo the SOFA will help to professionalize the Philippine military through training and advanced education along with the vital contribution of special sea crafts to help us fight terrorists lurking in the swamps and shadows of remote southern islands.

“Like the Philippines, Australia has felt the lash of terrorism on its citizens. By working together on a regional basis, we hope to make our country and the entire region safer and more secure for our God-fearing people,” she said.

Communist rebels have previously threatened to attack U.S. targets in the Philippines.
Zamboanga City is host to a huge number of American soldiers and communications bases, but the local mayor Rodrigo Duterte has flatly rejected a government proposal to hold a joint RP-US anti-terror training in Davao City.

The Philippines is also working for a similar military cooperation with Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia. Manila is currently holding joint anti-terrorism training with the United States off the Sulu Archipelago. (Mindanao Examiner)

Balikatan 2007 Justifies U.S. Military Presence In Philippines, Says Reds

Picture shows the back of a Muslim woman was hit by shrapnel from an M203 rifle grenade during U.S.-Philippine military exercises in Tagbak village in Indanan town on Jolo island Sept. 4, 2006. Incidents such as this have prompted progressive organizations to denounce the Balikatan exercises being held this month in Sulu. “There may be more similar incidents that have not been documented yet,” said Carol Araullo, the chairperson of the leftist Bagong Alyansang Makabayan. (Photo courtesy of the Imagination for International Solidarity/Davao Today)

DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 21 Feb) Communist rebels on Wednesday accused the United States of using the Balikatan 2007 to justify the presence of American troops in the Philippines.

Balikatan 2007 is the codename of an annual joint RP-US anti-terror drill in the Philippines.

Thousands of US and Filipino soldiers have begun three-week training in the southern island of Jolo in the Sulu Archipelago, where local security forces are battling Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya militants.

A similar training would be held in Tawi-Tawi island near the Sabah border and in the main island of Mindanao.

"This is nothing, but US military interventionism's standard doublespeak. As they have done in the past, the US is using the 'joint military exercises' to justify its military presence and induce conditions for higher levels of intervention and eventual outright military aggression.”

“They intentionally let its troops become targets of hostile fire and once hit, they unleash all their forces and superior weaponry on the pretext of self-defense and launch all-out aggression from then on,” said rebel spokesman, Gregorio Rosal.

Philippine military officials said the US troops would not be involved in actual combat operation against terrorists in the troubled region. They said the Constitution prohibits foreign troops from participating in combat, but are allowed to defend themselves from armed attacks.

Rosal also criticized Maj. Gen. Stephen Douglas Tom, head of the US contingent in the Balikatan 2007, for saying that American soldiers participating in the joint training can use firepower to defend themselves from attacks.

"In the first place, the US military has no business being in a theater of domestic conflict like the Philippines. The bandit operations of the Abu Sayyaf are a localized domestic concern in a corner of Mindanao.”

“Even the ongoing nationwide revolutionary people's war in the Philippines -- that the US is principally obsessed to get increasingly involved in -- is an internal matter to the Filipino people. The US has no business intervening in these internal affairs of a supposedly sovereign nation,” Rosal said.

Jolo governor Benjamin Loong said the joint training will bring peace and development to many poor villages on the island. “We welcome them; the Americans and our people are supporting this Balikatan,” he told the Mindanao Examiner.

He said US troops were active in humanitarian activities in Jolo. “Now, we have new schools, water wells, roads and health centers. My people can now avail of free medical services and many more. Balikatan will bring us peace and development,” Loong said.

US troops last week unloaded tons of cargoes, including at least 32 trucks and equipment for road infrastructure projects in Jolo.

The Balikatan demonstrates Washington's resolve to continue the commitment to train, advice and assist the Philippine military to build capacity to counter terrorism, said US Air Force Maj. John Redfield, spokesman of the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines.

The Balikatan includes support for comprehensive defense reform; security assistance modules for counter-terrorism training; operations intelligence fusion; and aspects in education programs, logistics, and engineering, equipment, and maintenance and helicopter programs.

It will also enhance the skills and capabilities of Filipino and American forces in combating terrorism and other internal and external security threats. And improve inter-operability between RP and US forces through the exchange of training skills and techniques.

The training is part of Washington security assistance to the Philippines, a key US ally in Southeast Asia in the so-called global war on terrorism. (Mindanao Examiner)

RP Troops Hunt Rebels Who Raid Gold Mine Site

Gregorio Rosal, spokesman for the Communist Party of the Philippines, denounces military-imposed food blockade in southern Philippine province of Surigao near where New People's Army rebels raided a gold mining site in Mount Diwalwal. (CPP-NPA Photo/Caption Mindanao Examiner)

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 30 Jan) – Security forces mounted a fresh operation to capture a band of communist insurgents who raided a gold mining site in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Officials said some 40 members of the New People’s Army stormed the site on Mount Diwalwal, a gold rush area near Monkayo town in Compostela Valley province.

The weekend attack left a chilling warning that despite an all-out government offensive against the NPA, rebel forces continue its own campaign.

The raiders destroyed a bulldozer and carted away several weapons owned by security guards. There were no reports of casualties, officials said.

Troops have been deployed in the town to pursue the rebels.

Last week, security forces sealed off the southern Philippine town of Tagbina near Surigao del Sur province where it said had a senior NPA leader, Jorge Madlos, trapped.

Troops also imposed a food blockade on the village of Santa Juana to flush out Madlos and his group, said Gregorio Rosal, spokesman of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines.

“The AFP even has the gall to openly boast of its imposition of a 'food restriction as it euphemiscally calls its food blockade," Rosal said.

He said Army Col. Jose Viscarra, commander of the 401st Infantry Brigade, prevented villagers from gathering and carrying with them any food as these might be given to Madlos.

Rosal said denounced the food blockade as "a cruel imposition on the local population and a blatant violation of international humanitarian laws which give premium to the welfare and protection of civilians amid war."

"Emboldened by Gloria Arroyo's all-out war, the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) tramples on the people's human rights with impunity and arrogance in complete disregard of the people's welfare and total contempt of international humanitarian law," Rosal said.

The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which is fighting the past three decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country.

The United States listed the CPP and NPA, including its political wing, the National Democratic Front as foreign terrorist organizations, on Manila’s prodding. (Mindanao Examiner)