Arroyo declares Christmas truce with communists

By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 12:28pm (Mla time) 12/21/2006

(UPDATE) PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Thursday approved a four-day unilateral Christmas truce with communist rebels, the military chief said.

"Suspension of offensive military operations" against the New People's Army (NPA) will take effect December 24-25 and December 31-January 1, said Chief of Staff General Hermogenes Esperon Jr.

Esperon made the announcement after a closed-door meeting with Arroyo and the military top brass at Camp Aguinaldo.

"This is simply a Yuletide gesture," he said, adding it did not mean the government was setting the stage for a resumption of peace talks suspended since 2003.

Since the 1980s, the military and the NPA have separately called ceasefires on Christmas and New Year's holidays, but last year the NPA rebels broke with tradition and said they would not call any truce.

Esperon said the military would stick to the truce, even if the NPA did not respond with a similar gesture and stage attacks.

"That's the risk of a unilateral ceasefire," he said.

The 7,100-strong NPA is the armed wing of the underground Communist Party of the Philippines, which has been waging a Maoist rebellion against the government since 1969.

Esperon said "preparations have been set in place" for possible rebel attacks, when the CPP marks its 38th founding anniversary on December 26.

The communist guerrilla strength has dropped from 12,000 fighters in 2002 to 7,100 this year, while the number of villages influenced by the rebels went down from 12,510 in 2004 to 2,115 this year, he said.

Arroyo earlier this year ordered an intensified campaign to finish off communist insurgency in two years, or before her term ends in 2010. She backed it with the release of P1 billion (US$20.2 million) for attack helicopters and other military equipment.

The truce does not cover other insurgent groups -- such as Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist groups -- which are the targets of a massive manhunt on southern Jolo island.

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