AFTER issuing a proclamation terminating talks with the communist rebellion, President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Wednesday, Nov. 29, said he is preparing an executive order declaring the New People’s Army as terrorists.

“I am preparing now. They are preparing the executive order declaring them to be terrorists and they will be afforded the treatment of being criminals,” Mr. Duterte said in a speech during a send-off for five Vietnamese fishermen in Pangasinan.

“At (And) there will be no filing of cases under the public security like rebellion because rebellion is considered sometimes a noble undertaking, it’s only because you want your country to do better,” he added.

Just last week, Mr. Duterte issued Proclamation No. 360, following reported attacks by the NPA. The proclamation canceled government’s talks with the National Democratic Front, the mother organization of the communist movement here which includes the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Although it has an armed component,the NPA, the CPP has been deemed a legal organization since the administration of then president Fidel V. Ramos in the early 1990s.

“There will never be a time that I’ll talk to terrorists. Ang NPAs, pinutol ko na (I cut it off) because I think that they are not really serious. Just biding their time. They do not have the second echelons to carry the fight and they just want to be comfortable,” Mr. Duterte said.

Meanwhile, the military reported on Wednesday that 15 suspected communist guerrillas including six women had been killed in a gun battle.

Late¬ Tuesday¬ residents reported seeing armed men boarding a van and a truck in the town of Nasugbu in Batangas province, 65 km south of Manila, prompting authorities to send troops, said local military spokesman Colonel Teody Toribio.

When soldiers tried to flag down the vehicles on a highway, a gun battle broke out that left the suspected guerrillas dead, including a female university student, while five soldiers were wounded, added Mr. Toribio.¬

One suspect was captured while an undetermined number escaped. Thirteen firearms were recovered, he said.

In an interview with ABS-CBN on Wednesday, CPP founder Jose Maria Sison said in response: “There are many cases now of killings. There are quick accusations that the victims are NPA rebels when in fact they are civilians.”

Apart from the encounter in Nasugbu, government troops of the Northern Luzon Command (NOLCOM) reportedly clashed with NPA rebels in Barangay Ud-udiao, Sallapadan, Abra last Monday, leaving one soldier wounded.

In a statement, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said there was an “undetermined number of casualties on the NPA side” following the firefight that erupted when soldiers on security patrol encountered members of various factions of the armed communist group.

The AFP said NOLCOM forces “continuously conducts focused military operations in selected areas frequently visited by the remnants of the NPA criminal group.” — Rosemarie A. Zamora and reports by AFP

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