Philippine Army Launches Anti-Rebel Drive; 2 Guerrillas Killed in Manila

The army said Tuesday that it has launched a massive offensive against Communist rebels in the northern Philippines, and Manila police reported two more urban guerrillas killed in the capital.

Col. Honesto Isleta, army spokesman, also told reporters that military investigators Tuesday detained a former aide to deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos in connection with a bomb blast that killed four people at the Philippine Military Academy in March.

Isleta said that almost 2,000 troops began a series of large-scale air and ground assaults on rebel bases in the jungle-clad mountains of Kalinga-Apayao province on Sunday to flush out New People’s Army guerrillas.

He said the troops, backed by helicopter gunships, were sent to trap Communist rebel leaders who were reported to be having a clandestine summit meeting. Air force F-5 fighters carried out rocket attacks, but no casualties have been reported, he said.

The military offensive is the biggest mounted by the army since just after the end of a 60-day cease-fire Feb. 8. It follows a series of rebel successes in relatively minor skirmishes around the countryside and the assassinations of 12 policemen in Manila that have been blamed on underground death squads.

In Manila, police said special squads killed two more members of the urban guerrilla hit squads early Tuesday, bringing to seven the number of rebel gunmen reported killed in the capital in the past week.

Isleta said investigators are questioning the former Marcos aide, navy Capt. Vicente Cejoco, about the academy bombing but that he has not yet been charged.