Philippines recommends criminal charges against 11 communist insurgents
While in Thai Deep South, nine activists respond to secession complaint.
MANILA: The Philippines recommended criminal charges against 11 alleged communist insurgents last week while nine activists in the Thai Deep South appeared at a local police station to respond to a complaint citing involvement in clandestine activities and the alleged display of insurgent flags at their recent gatherings.
The Philippine Department of Justice (DOJ) recommended the filing of charges for violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act against the 11 New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in connection with the ambush of Army soldiers in Occidental Mindoro province last year.
The suspects were identified as Jovito Marquez, Antonio Baculo, Sonny Rogelio, Veginia Terrobias, Lena Gumpad, Job Abednego David, Jessie Almoguera, Reina Grace, Bethro Erardo Zapra Jr., Daisylyn Castillo Malucon and Yvaan Zuniga.
The DOJ said the government troops were waylaid in Malisbong village in Sablayan town on May 30, PhilStar reported.
The rebels were believed to be members of a guerrilla unit of the NPA’s Southern Tagalog committee.
“This attack, which resulted in no casualties among the Army personnel, has been characterised by investigating prosecutors as an act of terrorism,” the DOJ said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the nine Thai activists appeared at a police station in Pattani province on Jan. 9 after more than 30 NGOs in the southern border region cited the case in an open letter to the United Nations where they alleged that Thai authorities have been harassing civil society groups for holding public meetings.
The groups called on the U.N. in their letter to probe an alleged free-speech violation by Thai security officials against the nine individuals, BenarNews reported.
“This type of prosecution shows the intention of the authorities to stop activities. It will make people in the area feel pressured. They will not be able to express themselves,” Muhammadladee Dengni, one of the nine named in the complaint, reportedly said.
The accusations stemmed from participation in the 2021 Eidul Fitri celebration – a two-day nationwide Muslim holiday to celebrate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan – and were filed under Article 116 of the Criminal Code.
The Deep South, a predominantly Muslim Malay and heavily militarised region along the Thai-Malaysia border, has seen decades of separatist insurgency.
“The summonses were issued in response to activities on May 4 and 10, 2022, that included covert activities and the display of BRN flags. The activities also included the reading of a poem that was interpreted as a call to action for young people to sacrifice their lives for the Melayu nation, with the ultimate goal of secession, which is in violation of the Thai Constitution,” Col. Kiattisak Neewong, a spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), told BenarNews.
Barisan Nasional Revolusi (BRN), the largest and most powerful of the insurgent groups and factions in the region, has been participating in Malaysia-brokered peace talks with the Thai government in recent years but there have been no breakthroughs.
Also last week, a Singapore-based anti-piracy and high sea robbery monitoring group recommended the downgrading of the threat of kidnapping by Abu Sayyaf Group bandits in the waters at the border of Malaysia and the Philippines.
The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery (ReCAAP) said the threat of kidnapping in the Sulu-Celebes Seas should be downgraded from “moderate” to “moderate low.”
The group said there was no report of kidnapping in the area in 2023, citing the security measures being implemented by the Philippines and Malaysia in addressing cross-border and high seas kidnapping.
At a briefing, ReCAAP executive director Krishnaswamy Natarajan noted the concerted efforts of Philippine and Malaysian authorities in thwarting kidnapping and piracy by Abu Sayyaf bandits.
“Which implies that incidents are unlikely to occur due to the perpetrators’ perceived lack of capability to orchestrate an attack,” the ReCAAP said in its weekly reassessment.
However, the monitoring group issued an advisory to ships to exercise vigilance and adopt necessary preventive measures while transiting in the area.
It said incidents should be immediately reported to the operation centres of the Philippines and Eastern Sabah Security Command of Malaysia.
The Sulu-Celebes Seas were a hotbed of kidnapping for ransom where mostly Indonesian fishermen were grabbed by the Abu Sayyaf Group or their “contractors” before they were whisked away to the southern Philippines and ransom demands were made.
The last kidnapping incident occurred in eastern Sabah’s waters in January 2020.
Also last week, Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to reconfigure its strategies when dealing with the different threats faced by the country, according to the AFP chief, Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr.
"For his guidance, the President said that we needed to reconfigure our approaches [in] dealing with different threat groups. We need to deal with the communist terrorist groups, the local terrorist groups, the threats that we are facing in the West Philippine Sea and natural disasters," PhilStar reported Brawner as saying to reporters.
"All of these threats are a challenge to the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The president mentioned that we have to think of new ways of dealing with them, innovative ways," he added.
The AFP is shifting its focus from internal security operations -- or battling the NPA, Abu Sayyaf Group, Dawlah Islamiyah - Maute Group and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters among others -- to external defense amid the heightened tension in the West Philippine Sea.
Brawner said Marcos did not say what was wrong with the current approach of the AFP, but the president noted that the organisation shall be "more effective" in addressing the threats.
Over the weekend, Marcos said that the NPA no longer has an "active" guerilla fronts.
However, Brawner later clarified that there remain 11 "weakened" guerilla fronts of the NPA or those units that still have members but already lost the mass base support on the ground. These guerilla fronts have more or less 1,500 fighters, according to Brawner.
Communist insurgency in the Philippines is among the longest in the world.