Communists aim to hit Manila

Press, 5 September 1987, Page 10

Communists aim to hit Manila

NZPA-Reuter Manila Communist rebels say they will attack military targets in Manila as part of a new offensive to exploit major rifts in the Philippine army.

The rebels’ “sparrow unit” assassination teams would hit individual military and police officers and mount other attacks as .well as stepping up propaganda work amongst the capital’s eight million people, the respected Manila "Chronicle” newspaper quoted a rebel spokesman as saying yesterday. The "sparrow units,” named after the quickmoving little bird, have been blamed by officials for the deaths of more than 50 policemen in Manila so far this year. The spokesman said the offensive aimed to “take advantage of the split in the military," and earlier this week the communistled National Democratic Front said continuing problems in the military created “an excellent opportunity (for the insurgency) to flourish.” The pledge by the Manila brigade of the underground New People’s Army followed a series of skirmishes between the rebels and the military

this week that left 91 people dead by official counts. Leftist groups said they would go ahead with a big rally in Manila, in spite of warnings from the paramilitary Capital Regional Command (Capcom) that it would not be allowed. "We don’t want to spread our troops because of the still volatile situation,” the Capcom chief, Brigadier-General Alexander Aguirre, said in a reference to the unsettled political climate resulting from the August 28 coup attempt. “If they stage a rally we will be forced to make arrests,” he said on television. The N.P.A. said earlier it would launch a new offensive in its 18-year-old Insurgency, taking advantage of an Army still shaken and fragmented a week after a large section of the military tried to overthrow President Corazon Aquino. The rebellion, the most serious faced by Mrs Aquino, was crushed by troops who remained

loyal to her, but arrests and investigations within the 150,000-strong military have continued. In their biggest recent attack, communist guerrillas on Wednesday virtually wiped out an Army patrol in a mountainous area east of Manila. They killed 21 soldiers and wounded five of the 28man patrol, an Army spokesman said. Sixty-one guerrillas and nine soldiers were killed in six other incidents. In a related development, Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines said they would forge a “tactical alliance” with the rebel troops and urged other soldiers to turn against Mrs Aquino. "Help the freedom fighters in order to restore... justice for all,” a Moro National Liberation Front spokesman, Habib Hashim, said in a statement. There has been little recent fighting between the Muslims and Government troops in the south.