Philippine Reds Quit Peace Talks

Communist insurgents today pulled out of suspended peace talks with the embattled government of President Corazon Aquino, declaring that they are prepared to resume their “just war” when a temporary cease-fire ends next Saturday.

The National Democratic Front, which has negotiated with the government on behalf of the Communist Party and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, said in a statement announcing its decision that the killing of 19 unarmed peasant protesters by government soldiers on Jan. 22 “reveals the dark and ugly side of the Aquino government, hiding behind the flutter of yellow ribbons and the mask of democratic liberalism.”

But one New People’s Army commander, interviewed in Manila this afternoon, said the decision to call off further talks was made after this week’s mutiny within the armed forces convinced the left’s political leaders that “President Aquino obviously is not in charge of her military.”

‘Logical Phenomenon’

The front’s statement said, “The recent aborted coup attempt by an ultrareactionary faction . . . is but a logical phenomenon in a society rife with intensifying people’s struggles for social emancipation.”

(The military chief of staff today ordered a general and three other fugitive officers arrested as ringleaders of the failed coup, which ended Thursday.

(Gen. Fidel V. Ramos said warrants were issued against Brig. Gen. Jose Zumel, Col. Rolando Abadilla, Lt. Col. Reynaldo Cabauatan and Maj. Antonio Baquiran in Tuesday’s attempt to capture military and media centers around the capital.)

Leftist street marchers blanketed Manila’s downtown district with copies of the NDF announcement during a defiant but violence-free march marking the burial of the protesters, who were killed when they tried to march to the presidential palace to protest the government’s inaction on land reform.

Suspended Role in Talks

On the day of the killings, the front had suspended indefinitely its participation in the talks, which began Jan. 6 in an effort to find a political solution to the 18-year insurgency that has cost the lives of more than 2,000 Filipinos since Aquino took office last February.

“Our flickering hopes to find a common ground for immediate peace with this government died when military men mercilessly killed the . . . peasants, workers, youth and students at Mendiola Bridge,” the front said in its statement, referring to the bridge near the palace where the peasants were gunned down.

The front said the insurgents will continue to observe the 60-day cease-fire until it expires Feb. 8, “but we will assert the right to defend ourselves, and the revolutionary forces and the people we represent, against any further armed operations of the military.”

The statement by the left took the Aquino government by surprise. The president, campaigning in Davao on the southern island of Mindanao for adoption of a new constitution in a referendum Monday, told a large crowd that her government will seek to resume the peace talks.

No Negotiating Room

But the National Democratic Front statement appeared to leave no room for negotiation.