Truce incidents anger military

Press, 13 December 1986, Page 12

Truce incidents anger military

NZPA-Reuter Manila Military anger rose yesterday as Philippines authorities reported the first death of a soldier since the 60-day truce with communist guerrillas went into effect two days ago.

Officials said that a member of the part-time paramilitary Civilian Home Defence Force was shot dead yesterday at Santa Cruz, in the southern province of Davao del Sur, by rebels seeking his weapons.

The death was the second reported since the ceasefire came into effect. The first to die was a 38-year-old banana plantation worker taking part in a communist peace march in the city of Davao, on the southern island of Mindanao. The Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff, General Fidel Ramos, blasted rebel leaders yesterday for addressing a rally in the small Bataan town of Samal that was also attended by 80 members of the communist New Peoples Army, who proudlybrandished their

rifles and unfurled their officially forbidden flags.

General Ramos called the display a “provocative incident;” and the area’s regional commander, Eugenio Ocampo, said it was a violation of the ceasefire.

The military maintains that rebels cannot bring their weapons into populated areas. The communists say no such agreement exists and that no-one has defined what constitutes a populated area.

General Ramos, using some the toughest language heard since the ceasefire came into effect, said yesterday that the truce was part of a communist plot to take over the Government. “We have seen countries in our region... that have been over-run because of this pattern of revolutionary warfare which consists of fight, talk, fight, talk,” General Ramos said.

He added that any peace that was achieved must not be at the expense of turning the Philippines into another Vietnam or Kampuchea.