Philippine Rebel Group Agrees to a Cease-Fire

Communist rebels have agreed to a cease-fire in an area where some of the Philippines’ bloodiest fighting has taken place, and the military tentatively has halted its operations, a top official said Saturday.

The governor of Misamis Oriental province on Mindanao Island, Vicente Emano, said the Communist Party and its New People’s Army agreed to the cease-fire in talks with civilian officials Thursday and Friday.

Emano said the rebels threatened to renew hostilities if the military does not accept the cease-fire within a week. Emano said regional military commanders agreed to halt operations while he talked with the guerrillas but told him they still had to consult their superiors in Manila on whether to accept the cease-fire.

Troops Stopping Operations

The Philippine News Agency reported Saturday that Brig. Gen. Mariano Adalem responded to the cease-fire offer by ordering his troops to stop operations at once against the rebels in the entire six-province region under his command.

Emano said in a telephone interview from the provincial capital of Cagayan de Oro that Adalem told him he was flying to Manila today to discuss the proposed cease-fire with the nation’s armed forces chief, Gen. Fidel V. Ramos.

Emano said his party included the vice governor, the mayors of 10 towns and six Roman Catholic priests. He said they persuaded regional officials of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its New People’s Army over two days of talks Thursday and Friday to agree to a cease-fire.

“The rebels will not launch any kind of operations,” Emano said. “As far as they are concerned, the cease-fire we talked about goes, but if we cannot announce over the radio within a week’s time that the military agrees, then they will start their own operations.”

Move ‘Can Help a Lot’

Emano said rebel willingness in his province to accept a cease-fire “can help a lot” in efforts by President Corazon Aquino’s government and the rebels to negotiate a peaceful solution to the 17-year insurgency on a national level.

Emano said he is hopeful that Ramos will approve the cease-fire.

The first time the governor tried to negotiate a cease-fire in April, the rebels demanded that the military withdraw to its barracks and dismantle government-organized militias, but Emano said the rebels imposed no such conditions this time.

He said his party traveled on pickup trucks for three hours on bad roads to a mountain village where they met about 10 guerrilla leaders led by George Madlos, head of the rebel’s North Central Mindanao Commission.

Agriculture Minister Ramon Mitra said Tuesday he had held an exploratory meeting with two top rebel negotiators. Mitra is one of two officials appointed by Aquino to negotiate with the insurgents.

Mitra said he and rebel negotiators Satur Ocampo and Antonio Zumel agreed to meet again within two weeks.

The insurgency grew dramatically during the rule of ousted President Ferdinand E. Marcos and was a factor in his downfall. An average 14 people died each day in rebel fighting during Marcos’ later years, compared to nine a day since Aquino took power, recently released military figures show.

Mitra said Ocampo and Zumel questioned whether the military would honor a peace agreement negotiated by civilian representatives of Aquino. Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, an outspoken anti-communist, told reporters Wednesday, however, that “when the president enters into any agreement with the other side, we will implement her orders all the way to the last man in the field.”