Arroyo demands to know why military says they have links to communist party
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has directed the military to explain why its spy arm has tagged journalists' groups and the Catholic Church officialdom as enemies of the state.
The internationally recognised Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), which helped topple ex-leader Joseph Estrada with a series of exposes, was identified as having links with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its rebel armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA).
The military considers the 8,000-strong NPA as the biggest security threat.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, the church governing body, was similarly identified and linked, along with 24 other organisations, in a presentation entitled 'Knowing Your Enemy', prepared by the military intelligence service for its operatives and informants in the countryside.
Armed Forces chief General Efren Abu denied any knowledge of the briefing paper. The military's civil relations chief, Brigadier-General Jose Honrado, admitted it existed in the form of a computer disk but said 'it does not brand anybody an enemy of the state'.
'It says these groups are being influenced by the CPP-NPA so we have to be aware of them,' he said.
