Peace Corps Workers Seek Safety in Manila

The U.S. Embassy has ordered American Peace Corps workers in the Philippines to leave their job sites immediately and stay in Manila because of threatened attacks by Communist rebels.

The embassy said Tuesday that it has received information that the volunteers might be targeted by the Communist New People’s Army, and it said a decision will be made soon on the future of the volunteer program in the Philippines.

There are 261 Peace Corps volunteers assigned to the country, working in agriculture, nutrition, education and other development projects. Most of them work unprotected in remote, isolated rural areas.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler told reporters: “We have reason to believe that Peace Corps volunteers may be among those targeted by the Philippine Communist Party and its armed wing, the New People’s Army.”

“We do not know at this point how long they will remain in Manila,” she added.

A senior U.S. official, who asked not to be identified, said the future of the program in the Philippines is under discussion and that one option is suspension.

The nearly 30-year-old program, one of the oldest U.S. Peace Corps projects in the world, has become a virtual American institution in the Philippine countryside.

Communist rebels fighting a 21-year-old insurgency have killed 10 Americans since 1987 and have vowed to step up attacks on U.S. targets in their bloody campaign to drive U.S. military bases from the Philippines.

Manila and Washington are expected to resume talks in August on the future of Clark Air Base, Subic Bay Naval Base and four smaller facilities in the Philippines.

The embassy refused to disclose details of the threats to the volunteers, but it issued the recall orders 26 days after NPA guerrillas kidnaped a Japanese aid worker on Negros Island in the central Philippines. The Japanese man, Fumio Mizuno, has not been released.