Troops hunt down partisans

I ordered the PNP to intensify intelligence collection to identify the Sparu members and locate their safehouses.

Government authorities are hot on the trail of members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) Special Partisan Units (Sparu) to preempt their terror plots.

This, as Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año confirmed a Daily Tribune report about the rising number of hits by the NPA-Sparu or Sparrow during the past months.

Daily Tribune reported in its 12 November issue that 81 liquidations were blamed by the military to the NPA-Sparu in the past 11 months — targeting mostly members of the uniformed services.

“Yes, that’s right,” Año told Daily Tribune when sought for his confirmation.

“I ordered the PNP (Philippine National Police) to intensify intelligence collection to identify the Sparu members and locate their safehouses. The PNP will conduct law enforcement operations to negate their plans,” the DILG chief indicated.

He said the unleashing of Sparu by the CPP-NPA leadership was part of communist terror tactics to silence those who are against their ultimate goal of overthrowing the government.

“In addition, NPA Sparu operations are part of terror tactics to intimidate the community, that the NPA is ready to kill anyone who stands in their way including active or former members of the CPP-NPA without regard,” Año said.

The DILG chief cited the cases of Felimon Lagman, Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara who were allegedly liquidated by their former comrades.

Lagman, popularly known as “Ka Popoy.” who served as CPP-NPA’s Manila-Rizal Regional Party Committee, was assassinated right inside University of the Philippines-Diliman campus in 2001.

In 2003, Kintanar was killed at a restaurant in Quezon City after being considered by the NPA as a legitimate military target as he was tagged as an alleged government spy.

Tabara, who was among the founding leaders of the Revolutionary Proletariat Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade, was gunned down in September 2004 after being labeled by the NPA as having gone “rogue.”

He stressed such killings only proved the CPP-NPA’s disregard for human rights in pursuing its sinister goals.

“(They committed) this blatant violation of human rights just to achieve their objectives to overthrow the government,” Año said.

Earlier, Maj. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) deputy chief of staff for civil military operations and spokesman of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), bared that exiled CPP founding chairman Jose Ma. “Joma” Sison issued orders to the NPA Sparu to conduct atrocities.

In fact, Parlade said the joint military and police operatives conducted simultaneous raids on underground safehouses in the cities of Bacolod and Escalante in Negros to thwart the supposed NPA plot.

The operations resulted in the arrest of 57 suspected rebels. Parlade said the arrested NPA personalities were just awaiting orders regarding their targets and specific missions.

Data obtained by Daily Tribune showed that among those targeted previously by Sparu were active and retired soldiers and policemen; members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit, barangay officials, civilians and even former NPA rebels.

Meanwhile, government security forces in Eastern Samar have been placed on high alert following the encounter between the military and NPA rebels earlier this week that left six soldiers dead and 20 others wounded.

PNP spokesman PBrig. Gen. Bernard Banac said local police units will exert all efforts to capture the perpetrators and make them pay for the dastardly act.

“The PNP and military in the region are now on heightened alert while manhunt operations are ongoing for the suspects,” Banac said.

The official added that PNP officer-in-charge PLt. Gen. Archie Gamboa has directed PBrig. Gen. Ferdinand Divina, acting Region 8 police chief, to amplify his command’s security measures and police operations to net those behind the attack.