For the first time in 30 years, the government will not suspend military operations over the holidays, despite a unilateral ceasefire declared by the communist rebels Friday, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.
“We’re fooling ourselves about this ceasefire,” the Defense chief said after the Communist Party of the Philippines said it would suspend attacks on the military from Dec. 24 to Dec. 26 “in unity with the Filipino people’s observance of traditional holidays.”
They also declared a New Year ceasefire from Dec. 31 to Jan. 1.
But Lorenzana said a ceasefire would only give the rebels time to regroup in preparation for more fighting.
Ahead of their ceasefire, the New People’s Army snatched 12 militiamen and two soldiers in a dawn raid Wednesday in Agusan del Sur.
Major Gen. Ronald Villanueva, commander of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, those taken were part of a contingent of the New Tubigon Patrol Base in Sibagat town in Agusan del Sur.
He said the raid occurred at about 3 a.m. when an estimated 50 NPA rebels belonging to the Sub-Regional Sentro de Gravidad Westland under alias Momoy and Guerrilla Front 30 under alias Megan barged in and took the hostages without a fight.
Villanueva said the rebels carted away an undetermined number of firearms before escaping.
The raid came barely two days after NPA rebels launched series of attacks in the Bicol Region and Capiz leaving four people, including a civilian bystander, wounded.
Villanueva said the Army’s 3rd Special Forces Battalion was pursuing the rebels, who staged the abductions a week before the CPP’s 50th anniversary.
Under the provisions of International Humanitarian Law, the rebels are required to inform the families of the soldiers’ capture, their status and location, said Lt. Col. Rhoderick Parallag, commander of the 3rd Special Forces Battalion.
Meanwhile, a deputy chief of police of Negros Oriental was shot dead by motorcycle-riding gunmen inside a commercial establishment Wednesday at 10:25 a.m.
Chief Supt Debold Sinas, Director of Police Regional Office-7 identified the slain police officer as Sr. Insp. Porferio Gabuya Jr., deputy chief of police for operations of the Guihulngan Municipal Police Station.
One of the assassins was armed with an M-14 rifle, police said.
Gabuya was taken to Guihulngan Hospital for treatment but was pronounced dead on arrival.
Gabuya’s death brought to seven the number of people killed in a span of four months in the area.
In August, a security aide of Mayor Guido Reyes, Policarpio Bulado, 63 was shot dead by a suspected NPA terrorist.
The town of Guilhungan is considered as an NPA infested area and is the site of the deadly attack on policemen that killed the town’s chief of police Supt Ariel Arpon and five other police personnel.
The Palace said on Wednesday that President Rodrigo Duterte will never allow the resumption of peace talks as long as communist rebels violate the truce’s terms.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said Duterte is open to putting an end to more than 50-year-old armed struggle with the communist rebels. The President, however, would never allow it to happen if attacks and rebellious acts against the government continue.
“The President is always open to end the bloodshed in this country. He doesn’t want any killing among Filipinos. But for as long as they violate the terms of the peace talks, then the President will never allow it to happen,” Panelo said in his Palace press briefing Wednesday.
“Remember they said that we’re going to have a Christmas truce? Look what they’re doing,” he said, referring to the recent NPA attacks.
Duterte, in his speech in Davao City Tuesday night, said that there is no need to issue an arrest warrant against communist rebels who perform “the continuous crime of rebellion 24 hours a day.”
“Why do I need to have a warrant? The fact that you are a rebel, you are a 24-hour violator of the Revised Penal Code of rebellion,” he said. “With rebellion, your crimes do not stop even when you’re asleep.”
He vowed to wipe out the communist rebels along with illegal drugs.
“I’ll just finish you. Why? If I don’t do it, you go again around the community asking for money and killing them if they don’t give… I want to stop communist [rebellion] and the drug menace. I want it done during my term,” he added.
Asked to clarify Duterte’s pronouncement, Panelo, meanwhile, said the President only meant that his administration is “going to respond in kind” toward the communist rebels.
CPP founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison said the President has shown his disdain for the 5-day ceasefire announced by the rebels.
“He has also shown no mercy to his ordinary troops whose families remain poor despite their doubled salaries and license to kill,” Sison said in a statement Tuesday.
“Even in the Yuletide season, he deprives them of rest and relaxation with their families and wears them out with military operations that fail against the NPA and that succeed only in harming the people and damaging their livelihood and the civility of their lives,” the top communist added.
In November 2017, the President signed Proclamation 360, putting an end to peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front following a series of NPA attacks.
Last week, the President seemed he was growing impatient with the progress of peace talks and said he was “no longer ready” to talk with the communist negotiators.
He also warned Sison, who has been in self-imposed exile in the Netherlands for over three decades, not to set foot in the country as he would slap the top communist should he return to the Philippines.
The President on Wednesday vowed to protect the country’s indigenous peoples (IPs) from harassment by communist rebels and said he would put them in hamlets to keep them from being influenced or harmed by the leftists.
He announced this policy in a speech in Davao City.
“There is a certain point, but it will be this year. I have to be the one to say this first so that they won’t make up false stories. I will hamlet them. Why? Because if they remain scattered, they are really in danger,” Duterte told Lumad leaders.
The President said the hamlets would be Lumad territory that they could guard themselves.
READ: No more hope on resumption on peace talks with CPP-NDF —Palace
“Now I will hamlet them. You natives won’t be able to say that you’re being imprisoned. But I will make a secure place for you that will be your territory for the meantime. I will be the one to decide whether you’ll be given arms. No one else will be able to enter. You will be the ones who will guard it,” the President said in Bisaya.
Duterte said, however, that he would also have the Armed Forces provide security for the hamlets, ordering soldiers to shoot communist rebels who tried to enter.
“Nobody else can enter. There will be no other tribe. It’s all for you,” he said.
The President said “hamleting” would be done throughout the Philippines to protect IPs.
“Whichever tribe yours is, Matigsalog, stay there with them. I will be the one who will provide you with a living. But I will also give you a”•I’ll give you a tractor,” said Duterte.
He then told NPA rebels to leave their guns behind before visiting their lumad brothers and sisters or they would be fired upon.
“Tell them, ‘Do you have firearms? Did you bring it with you or did you leave it there?’ And then your datu, your chieftain will be the one to get it there. Don’t bring around firearms starting now because if you walk around armed, if it were up to me, shoot him. Shoot to kill,” said Duterte.
“I will no longer accept those who will surrender. I can’t afford to feed them anymore. They keep on surrendering. There are houses. I had houses made. Listen closely to me. I’ve had 54,000 houses made. The rebel returnees can choose which one they want,” he added.
In February this year, as part of his counter-insurgency plan, the President had told Lumad leaders of his idea to relocate IPs to temporary shelters, promising to release P100 million to fund his plan.
Hamleting involves the isolation of people in villages known to have been occupied or influenced by the communist rebels.
Human rights group say the practice makes communities vulnerable to abuses and harassment.
READ: Reds attack police outposts, wound four ahead of 50th year