Philippine Rebels Offer a Cease-Fire : Communists’ Plan Includes 4 Points; Manila Studies Bid

Negotiators for the Philippine Communist rebels Saturday proposed a 100-day nationwide cease-fire as a prelude to ending the nation’s bloody 17-year civil war, but senior officials in the government of President Corazon Aquino said they would have to study and discuss the offer.

The rebel negotiators called their plan “100 Days of Peace.” If Aquino accepts the proposal, it would be the first formal cessation of hostilities since the insurgents formed their New People’s Army guerrilla force in 1969, launching an armed rebellion that has left more than 2,000 dead just since Aquino came to power last February.

Hope for Holiday Peace

The rebels’ four-point proposal represented a softening of their position on such key demands as the withdrawal of the military from the countryside and the dismantling of all paramilitary forces--focusing instead on religious fanatic groups and “notorious” units they consider death squads.

“We dare to hope that for the first time in many, many years, the guns will be stilled on both sides this Christmas and New Year,” attorneys for the rebels’ political arm, the National Democratic Front, declared in a prepared statement read to reporters at a press conference in Manila.

Government military authorities had no comment on the plan, but in the past they have voiced serious concern about several of the rebels’ remaining demands. The rebels set Dec. 10 as a possible date to begin the cease-fire because both they and government officials suspect it may take several weeks to work out the details of a final cease-fire.

Rebel negotiators Satur Ocampo and Antonio Zumel, the two former journalists who have been representing the guerrillas at on-again, off-again peace talks in Manila during the last four months, said their cease-fire offer is unrelated to Aquino’s announcement last week that she would soon set a deadline for the talks and issue “a declaration of war” if no cease-fire was forthcoming.

Arrest Had Stalled Bid

Ocampo said that the rebels were prepared to announce their cease-fire plan in mid-October but that the proposal was stalled by the arrest on Sept. 29 of Rodolfo Salas, identified by the military as the commander of the New People’s Army.

The arrest, which Aquino personally endorsed, had threatened to scuttle the peace negotiations, and in a statement Saturday afternoon, Aquino’s executive secretary, Joker Arroyo, said in responding to the proposal, “The mere fact that they have resumed talking was a welcome development.”

Arroyo added, however, that he had not received a copy of the proposal and that it would have to be studied closely by the two government negotiators, one of whom is in the United States for medical treatment.

Noting that many of the terms of the proposal are vague and must be discussed in negotiating sessions, one senior government official who asked not to be named said the significance of the rebels’ proposal is that it signals their willingness to return to the bargaining table for the first time since Salas’ arrest.

The official added that the public proposal was a “clever” move by the Communist Party apparently aimed at further alienating Aquino from her hard-line defense minister, Juan Ponce Enrile, who has used the Communist rebellion and the ongoing peace talks as a platform for his criticisms of the 53-year-old president.

“While the rebels are now offering the president peace, Enrile continues to offer her only war,” the official said.

Several analysts in Manila called the rebels’ proposal a “shrewd tactical move.” By presenting their offer at a press conference rather than during closed-door negotiations with the government at a time when Aquino continued battling with Enrile, the rebels gained a propaganda victory and showed the president that they are willing to cooperate with her moves to achieve a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Enrile, who has led several recent anti-Communist rallies throughout the country, suffered another setback today in his tough stance against a temporary cease-fire with the Communists.

Cardinal Backs Negotiation

In a pastoral letter read to worshipers at churches throughout this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country, Cardinal Jaime Sin fully endorsed the peace talks begun by Aquino soon after she took power from deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos last February.

“I cannot but praise the preference for negotiation and dialogue as a primary means of solving the insurgency problem and as being especially in conformity with the Gospel,” the cardinal declared.

There was no immediate comment on the cease-fire plan from the Philippine military, which announced Saturday that the death toll in scattered fighting with the Communists this weekend alone stood at 22, most of them rebels. But several points in the Communists’ proposal already have been labeled “unacceptable” by Enrile and by Aquino’s military chief of staff, Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, who are not represented at the peace talks.

The cease-fire proposal presented by the rebels Saturday sets Dec. 10--International Human Rights Day--as the beginning of the cease-fire. It calls for the cessation of all “military operations” by both the government and the guerrillas; the disarming and disbanding of paramilitary troops known as the Civilian Home Defense Forces; the disarming of “notorious” private armies belonging to rural anti-Communist warlords, which operate like vigilante death squads in the Philippine countryside, and non-interference by local police in Communist Party activities.

Four ‘Talking Points’

Showing flexibility in their position for the first time since the talks began, the negotiators called the four provisions “talking points” still open to compromise.

The military, however, has consistently expressed fear that the Communists would merely use such a cease-fire to strengthen and expand their influence during a period of peace. And government military strategists have warned Aquino’s negotiators against agreeing to the disarming of paramilitary forces and endorsing any agreement that would prevent the local police from monitoring organizational activity by the Communists.

Further, Gen. Ramos said in a recent interview that any cease-fire agreement should also bar the Communists from collecting taxes, food and other provisions from rural businessmen and farmers--a system the rebels call “progressive taxation” that is vital for their survival as a guerrilla army.

Filipino and foreign military analysts speculated that some strategists in the Philippine armed forces are likely to support the cease-fire proposal.

23,200 Rebel Troops

Senior Defense Ministry sources have said the government’s current armed strength is only about 70,000 combat-ready troops--against a rugged and well-trained rebel force now estimated at 23,200--and Gen. Ramos is known to need several months more to better train and equip his military before it can launch a successful offensive against the rebels.

The plan outlined by the rebels Saturday also represented their softest position yet on a longstanding demand known as “demilitarization.” Ocampo told reporters that his group is no longer asking the military to withdraw from territory now under its control. The proposal was seen by Ramos and Enrile as an unacceptable attempt to establish for the first time that the guerrilla force actually has territorial control in the countryside.

The rebels also softened their stand on the paramilitary units, offering to confine the disarmament to what they called “the more notorious units.”

Arroyo said President Aquino is not likely to comment on the proposal before Monday.