Aquino Sees Turning Point as Raids Net Top Insurgent

The military today said the country’s top communist rebel fighter was captured in a series of raids described by President Corazon Aquino as a turning point in the battle against the insurgency.

Maj. Gen. Ramon Montano told reporters that Romulo Kintanar, commander of the communist New People’s Army, was among seven rebel leaders captured in Tuesday’s raids. He said authorities did not immediately realize who Kintanar was because he initially gave a false name.

The government-run Philippine News Agency quoted another military official as saying the chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, Benito Tiamzon, had escaped by the time raiders arrived at his hide-out in suburban Quezon City. The agency said Tiamzon must have been tipped off by radio broadcasts on the arrest of his comrades in two raids at the Manila suburb of San Juan earlier in the day.

Kintanar had long been wanted by the military. Besides being the alleged head of the 24,000-strong New People’s Army, he is widely believed to be the organizer of communist urban assassination squads called Sparrow Units because of the swiftness of their attacks.

Others Identified

Among those arrested with Kintanar were party Secretary-General Rafael Baylosis and Benjamin de Vera, the Central Committee member in charge of operations on Mindanao island.

Aquino hailed the arrests as “happy news for our country” and commended the armed forces chief of staff, Gen. Renato de Villa, and other officers and enlisted men.

“It clearly demonstrates that we have turned the tide and are winning the war against the communist insurgency,” she said in a statement. “The fact that they were arrested on the NPA’s 19th anniversary (on Tuesday) attests to the admirable performance of our Armed Forces of the Philippines. I am elated and so is our citizenry.”