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Raissa Robles

The government has declared an all-out war against communist rebels, prompting its leaders to threaten retaliation by blowing up vital installations.

Philippine military chief General Roy Cimatu yesterday said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had ordered him 'to destroy the armed components' of the local communist movement. The military believes the rebels have terrorised, 'influenced' or 'infiltrated' 2,262 villages - about five per cent of the country's total.

General Cimatu said that to be effective, he would need between 20,000 to 80,000 additional soldiers and 15,000 more militia men.

He said the communist New People's Army (NPA) had exploited the fact that the military had concentrated 40 per cent of its 113,000-strong force in the fight against Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippine island of Basilan. Most of the 30,000 militias are also concentrated in the south.

While the NPA's 11,000 guerillas are hardly a force that threatens to topple the government, General Cimatu said the communist rebellion was 'like cancer that kept popping up from one area to another'.

'It's cheaper to pour everything now in order to finish the problem, than to wait 10 to 15 years,' he said. 'We have to stop the expansion.'

The statement marked another reversal in military policy which, years earlier, had been redirected towards fighting foreign aggression. When the number of NPA-infiltrated villages had dwindled to 445 in 1995, the government downgraded the operation and reduced the size of the army.

There are now just over 11,000 communist guerillas, down from almost 12,000 last year. However, this is still nearly double the 6,000 guerillas of eight years ago.

The rebels have problems of their own, suffering, from a division within their ranks, with about 10,000 fighters continuing to take orders from exiled communist leader Jose Maria Sison. The rest have dissociated themselves from Sison and formed their own group.

From the Netherlands where he has been on a self-imposed exile for over a decade, Sison

issued a statement yesterday threatening to blow up infrastructure such as electrical towers and transmission lines.

Sison also warned the group would be forced to abandon peace talks altogether, a threat Mrs Arroyo belittled yesterday.

The government suspended formal peace talks last year after NPA commandos gunned down an army colonel-turned-lawmaker for alleged human rights abuses.

Defence Secretary Angelo Reyes also justified the policy shift, saying the series of NPA attacks was affecting economic recovery.

The NPA, along with the Abu Sayyaf, is recognised by the US as a terrorist group, and has remained the top national security threat in the Philippines.

General Cimatu would not say whether the government would seek US help in fighting the NPA. But he hinted that elite troops trained by the US could well be used in the new fight.

He acknowledged that the NPA differed from the Abu Sayyaf in that it was fighting to implement political ideology, which the military planned to counter with psychological warfare.

National Security Adviser Roilo Golez clarified that the 'all-out war' against armed communist rebels would not be confined to military offensives. Anti-poverty programmes to win back villagers would be a vital component, he said.

Officials would not be drawn on funding sources for the operation. Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin yesterday announced more belt-tightening measures to rein in a staggering deficit. She said soldiers would not be getting pay rises this year, and possibly next year either.



Arroyo orders army to crush communists