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Gen Esperon (above) said on Monday that the ceasefire, which took effect at midnight on Saturday, still allowed the military to respond to attacks by insurgents or lawless elements. -- PHOTO: AFP
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MANILA -COMMUNIST guerrillas on Monday rejected the Philippines military's three-year ceasefire proposal and vowed to mount more attacks as government forces observed a unilateral three-week Christmas truce.
Three Marines were slain by New People's Army (NPA) rebels on the western island of Palawan on Sunday, within hours of the military's 'suspension of offensive military operations'.
The actions followed a proposal by armed forces chief of staff General Hermogenes Esperon last week for a three-year nationwide truce to enable the two sides to return to the negotiating table and try to bring a political solution to the 38-year Maoist rebellion.
'General Esperon's proposal for a three-year ceasefire is totally ridiculous and downright dubious,' said Gregorio Rosal, spokesman for the Communist Party of the Philippines that directs the 6,000-member NPA.
'The Palawan ambush shatters the peace pretensions of the (President Gloria) Arroyo regime and its armed forces,' Mr Rosal said in a statement to news agencies here.
'Carrying out more frequent and widespread tactical offensives against weak enemy armed forces is a most effective way of defeating the continuing campaigns of suppression of the (armed forces),' he added.
Gen Esperon said on Monday that the ceasefire, which took effect at midnight on Saturday, still allowed the military to respond to attacks by insurgents or lawless elements.
'We will go on with the suspension of offensive military operations,' Gen Esperon told reporters, but stressed that did not mean troops would stop patrolling rebel-influenced areas. -- AFP
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