Defense execs say PH troops ready for Red attacks in absence of holiday truce

MANILA, Philippines—The military and police are ready for attacks by communist guerrillas during the Christmas season in the absence of a holiday ceasefire, according to National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. on Wednesday (Dec. 16).

Esperon, former armed forces chief of staff, made the remark after the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) ordered its armed wing, New People’s Army (NPA) to carry out attacks on government forces “particularly those who have perpetrated massacres and extrajudicial killings and who are notorious for grave abuses and violations of human rights.”

CPP also instructed NPA to hold meetings in secret to mark the guerrilla force’s 52nd anniversary on Dec. 26.

Esperon said the CPP orders were not new. “If there’s a threat from CPP-NPA, what’s new? They’ve been there ever since with guns,” he said in Filipino.

“We should be prepared for that. If they’re planning trouble, our troops are ready,” he said.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said he was not surprised at the CPP orders.

“It’s okay for us because we did not declare a ceasefire. Two sides have to be in agreement to declare a ceasefire,” Lorenzana said in Filipino.

Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson, said the CPP orders were “immaterial.”

“They have been consistently and treacherously violating that after all,” Arevalo said.

“It’s better a barefaced pronouncement such as that than again trust their declaration of a truce hoping that they will honor their word this time,” he added.

President Rodrigo Duterte had declared there won’t be a truce with communist guerrillas this holiday season and for the rest of his term, which ends in 2022.

TSB