Ready to Discuss a Truce, Philippine Communists Say

The Philippine Communist Party declared Monday that it is prepared to discuss a cease-fire in the nation’s guerrilla war.

A statement issued by the National Democratic Front, the outlawed party’s underground political organization, said, however, that the insurgents will not comply with President Corazon Aquino’s call to surrender their weapons. Nor did it hold out any immediate promise of a political settlement.

“The objective conditions at the present time do not permit the surrender of the people’s right to bear arms in defense of their revolutionary gains in the past 17 years,” the statement said.

Aquino is expected to soon outline a proposal for a truce and an amnesty, but so far she has issued only a general plea for the guerrillas to give up their fight, specifically addressing the majority who she believes are not committed Communists.

There were other developments in the Philippines on Monday:

--A strike by Filipino workers continued to affect life at two big U.S. bases. Military operations were reported normal at the Subic Bay Navy Base and at Clark Air Base, but recreation and other activities for base personnel and their dependents were cut back. Traffic in and out of the bases crossed picket lines without incident.

--President Aquino scheduled a press briefing today, when she is expected to outline the initial form of her new government--the subject of intense political speculation here. Her advisers have been divided between declaring a revolutionary regime, which would allow the replacement of holdovers from the era of President Ferdinand E. Marcos, or one based on Marcos’ 1973 constitution.

--The president of Eastern Telecommunications Philippines, Inc., a largely British-owned telecommunications company here, confirmed that Marcos controlled 24% of the shares of the company. No value was placed on Marcos’ holdings.

--Government authorities announced that three more dialysis machines have been found in a basement room of the Malacanang presidential palace. A fourth machine was found earlier. The equipment appears to refute Marcos’ denials that he suffers from a severe kidney ailment.

‘Brothers in the Hills’

The statement from the Philippine Communists, obtained by Manila reporters and American news agencies, was attributed to Antonio Zumel, who heads the party’s political front. Philippine reporters said they recently met with Zumel at an undisclosed location.

The statement was dated last Friday, a day before Aquino issued her latest appeal for “our brothers and sisters in the hills” to give up the fight.

“I wish to persuade those insurgents who went to the hills because of despair, rather than ideology, to return because now there is hope,” she told a graduation ceremony at the Philippine military academy.

In January and February, during her election campaign against Marcos, Aquino called on the Communist-led guerrillas, who are grouped as the New People’s Army, to surrender their arms “and return to the fold of the law.”

In her address at the military academy, however, she said that those who continue the guerrilla campaign will face “a reformed and reinvigorated fighting force.”

The Zumel statement said in part: “In the wake of the Filipino people’s ouster of the dictator Marcos, and in support of their legitimate aspiration for democratic peace, the National Democratic Front and its member organizations declare their readiness to dialogue with the government of Corazon Aquino on the subject of an eventual cease-fire between the New People’s Army and the armed forces of the Philippines. . . .

Curbs, Corruption, Rebellion

“But while the ouster of Marcos is a major victory, so much remains to be done. The main roots of the the people’s sufferings and impoverishment still have to be removed. The struggle, therefore, must go on. . . .”

The guerrilla war began in 1969. Three years later, Marcos declared martial law, which gave way to widespread abuse and corruption among the military, and the Communist-led insurgency mushroomed. The insurgents, who began with a force of a few hundred, now number 15,000 or more.

A statement accompanying the one issued by Zumel and signed by the military commission of the Communist Party and the general staff of the New People’s Army said: “Much of the fascist structures remain. . . . Reactionaries in and out of the government are even now scheming not only to block the president’s initiatives at democratic reform but to reverse these. We are aware that U.S. imperialism and the reactionaries in the Ministry of National Defense and the armed forces of the Philippines are prodding her to revert to the rabid counterinsurgency campaigns of the discredited and overthrown regime.”

But it added: “More than just a cease-fire can be pursued afterward, as more substantial changes are made in the economic, political and military spheres favorable to the broad masses of the Filipino people.”

‘Stop Shooting’

The second statement, which was dated March 18, appeared to be a thinly veiled attack on Aquino’s defense minister, Juan Ponce Enrile, and her armed forces chief of staff, Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, who staged the military uprising that helped topple Marcos and bring her to power.

Asked about the statements, Rene Saguisag, Aquino’s press secretary, said, “It would help if they would stop shooting in the meantime.”

Aquino came to power with the flight into exile of Marcos a month ago today. Insurgent attacks, which diminished during the election campaign, have since increased. According to military authorities, 293 people have been killed in 173 encounters since Feb. 25, a rate nearly as high as 1985’s.

Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Rodrigo Ordoyo, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, which was recently sent to the island of Negros, an area racked by rebellion, said that nearly 1,000 New People’s Army cadremen there have surrendered to military authorities. They were identified as recruiters and supporters of the guerrilla cause, not armed insurgents.