Manila declares holiday truce with Maoist rebels

Reuters |

.The Philippine military will observe a traditional truce with Maoist-led rebels over the Christmas and New Year period, unilaterally suspending Army offensives for four days, an official said on Tuesday.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said government forces would not launch operations against the rebels on December 24-25, December 31 and January 1.

The truce is shorter than the three-week suspension of military operations in 2007, and will cover only the communist New People's Army (NPA) rebels, and not Islamist fighters.

"There will be no let up in our law enforcement operations against rogue Muslim rebels and Islamic militants in the south," Ermita told reporters.

Three rogue commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim rebel group, have been fighting Philippine troops since August, despite a formal truce with the government.

Nearly 300 people have died in four months of conflict that has displaced about 750,000 people in six Muslim provinces on the restive southern island of Mindanao.

Officials said the existing truce with the MILF will remain in force.

Since 1986, the government has observed a holiday ceasefire with communist rebels as the mainly Roman Catholic state celebrates one of the world's longest Christmas seasons.

Christmas holidays in the Philippines begin with dawn masses from December 16 and end on the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6.

There was no immediate reaction from the 5,000-member Maoist rebel group, which has been waging a protracted guerrilla war since the late 1960s. The conflict has killed about 40,000 people and stunted economic growth in the country.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the military to wipe out the communist insurgency before she steps down in 2010. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/12/16/08/manila-declares-holiday-truce-maoist-rebels

SANGLEY POINT, Cavite City – Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Alexander Yano said yesterday criminal groups other than the notorious Abu Sayyaf may also be behind the recent spate of kidnappings in the island provinces of Sulu and Basilan.

“The trouble here is, some of the kidnappings may no longer be perpetrated by the Abu Sayyaf group. We are not discounting the possibility that some criminal groups may have also undertaken such acts for money-making purposes,” he said.

Yano, however, said they have not positively identified any group, adding that they are still validating field reports.

“Although some are attributed to the Abu Sayyaf, there is a possibility that in other cases, it’s becoming a syndicated crime,” he said.

Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, AFP public affairs office chief, said the military would double its efforts to get the Abu Sayyaf bandits believed to be mainly responsible for the abductions.

“This is a dangerous development because the Abu Sayyaf is already targeting low-key personalities. We would double our efforts, especially our coordination with local government officials and religious leaders,” he said.

“The abduction of common people is not intended to raise funds for the bandit group but to have people (it) could use as human shields, especially with our intensified operations,” he said.

But despite the situation, he said there is still no need to deploy additional troops.

President Arroyo, alarmed by the kidnappings, has ordered the military to step up its operations against the Abu Sayyaf and other criminal elements in Basilan and Sulu.      – With Jaime Laudehttp://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=424492&publicationSubCategoryId=67