Philippine communist guerrillas threatened to step up attacks on government targets including military supply lines and fuel depots to mark the 36th founding anniversary of the rebel group today. The 8,000-member New People's Army (NPA) has been waging an insurgency since the late 1960s, which has killed more than 40,000 people, deterred investment and slowed rural development in one of Southeast Asia's poorest countries. "We must seize the initiative," said the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), in a statement released to news organisations yesterday, urging its armed wing to expand its influence to at least a quarter of the country's 42,000 villages. "We can raise the level of fighting tactics and technique by gaining further experience through fighting and seizing weapons from the enemy," the statement added. It also vowed to attack US troops involved in training Filipino soldiers in anti-terror tactics, an activity described by the rebels as "acts of military intervention"."We have repeatedly told the US imperialists to respect the national sovereignty and territory of the Filipino people, to withdraw their troops from the Philippines and to stop their acts of military intervention," said the rebel statement. Despite threats, the Maoist-led forces failed to carry out attacks on hundreds of US soldiers who took part in a two-week health and engineering mission in disaster-affected areas of the main island of Luzon last month. Lieutenant-Colonel Buenaventura Pascual, a spokesman for the Philippine military, dismissed the rebels' statement as "mere propaganda" to rally a demoralised ragtag guerrilla force. "The military is ready to face whatever armed attacks the CPP-NPA may undertake resulting from the rebels' latest agitation against the government," Pascual said. "The threat as far as Holy Week has passed, but we must not let up on strict law enforcement and public vigilance," Ignacio Bunye, a spokesman for President Gloria Arroyo, said in a statement. "We must not let our guard down."
Meanwhile, four members of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist group were killed and a Marine was wounded in a clash in the southern Philippine island of Jolo, the military said yesterday. Fighting broke out on Friday when the Marines encountered about 20 Abu Sayyaf members who were believed attempting to disrupt Good Friday Christian ceremonies in the island's capital town, the military said in its report. The gunbattle lasted 15 minutes before the Abu Sayyaf withdrew dragging four of their dead, the military's southern command said.The arrest of a Muslim convert and the seizure of his explosives cache prevented a car bombing in the Philippine capital, a military spokesman said yesterday. "Their plans are a car bombing... but this was aborted because of the arrest and the capture of their explosives," said Captain Ramon Zagala, referring to the arrest last week of Tyrone David Santos, who goes by the Muslim name Daud Santos. The bombing was scheduled for the just-concluded Christian Lent season but Santos's arrest prevented this, said Zagala, spokesman for the military forces in Manila. About 10 sacks of explosives were seized from Santos in a raid in a suburb of Manila on March 22. The military said the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf intended to use it in bombings in the capital.
Zagala said the military believed the extremists were planning a car bombing due to information gathered from computer files, documents, a videotape and the interrogation of Santos. He would not elaborate. Following the arrest of Santos and the seizure of the explosives, the military had downgraded its alert over possible terror attacks in Manila, Zagala said. Zagala said Santos was still being interrogated and they hoped to get more details from him on the possible involvement of the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network in the alleged plot.