1st Violation of Philippine Cease-Fire Confirmed

In the first confirmed breach of a 17-day-old cease-fire agreement, a national monitoring committee announced Saturday that Communist rebels violated the truce when they brandished their weapons during a peace celebration earlier this month.

But officials said no sanctions would be handed down because of the “euphoria accompanying” the historic cease-fire in the 17-year Communist insurgency and because “no untoward incidents happened.”

In a 4 to 1 decision, the committee upheld a complaint of armed forces chief Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, who had called the Dec. 11 incident on the historic Bataan peninsula “provocative” and warned it could lead to a “violent confrontation.”

National Cease-Fire Monitoring Committee Chairman Antonio Fortich, a popular cigar-chomping bishop from the central island of Negros, told reporters the truce between the government and the Communist rebels was holding despite the breach.

Of 11 other military complaints of rebel violations, only one has been dismissed.

“Because of the cease-fire, that was the most peaceful Christmas we ever had,” Fortich said. “We hope this will carry on through the New Year.”

“We should cooperate with this woman,” he said of President Corazon Aquino. “We thank her for having initiated the cease-fire.”

The cease-fire was negotiated to allow talks to proceed on a peaceful solution to the 17-year war. The negotiations begin early next month, but Aquino’s government already has rejected several key rebel demands, including the removal of U.S. bases in the country and power-sharing.

The violation stemmed from a cease-fire celebration in the town of Samal, 40 miles northwest of Manila, a day after the truce went into effect Dec. 10. About 80 New People’s Army rebels brandished their weapons in the town square during the rally.

The committee called the incident “detrimental” to the truce.