Rift between Red leaders worsens over fund use issue

The reported rift between top-ranking leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) has turned for the worse due to their conflicting priorities in the utilization of organizational funds, a ranking official of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said yesterday.

Brig. Gen. Francisco Cruz Jr., AFP-Civil Relations Service chief, said reports that the military has gathered bared that the matter of the disbursement of party funds has become another issue among the leaders of the communist organization.

Cruz said currently, the division of the CPP-NPA funds thus stands: 10 to 20 percent goes to the rebel group’s guerrilla fighters, while 80 to 90 percent goes to the movement’s National Finance Committee to be used to support the insurgent group’s leaders abroad.

“Sison’s luxurious and elitist lifestyle abroad is resented by the (leaders of the) NPA, who bear harsh conditions and endure on meager supplies; and his detachment from the real situation on the ground dissociates him further from the organization,” Cruz said, referring to exiled CPP founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison and his group who are based in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

“What we know is that there used to be a subsidy for NPA local fighters – at least P5,000- P8,000 a month. But based on interviews with former rebels, this has been reduced to P3,000, or at most instances, none at all,” Cruz further said.

Earlier, the military claimed that the communist movement has undergone a change in leadership owing to a conflict that arose between Sison and the group of Benito Tiamzon and his wife Wilma, who have allegedly taken over supervision of the ground operations of the Maoist rebel group.

Cruz had said that Sison is pushing for parliamentary means of grabbing power from the State such as through the holding of peace negotiations with the government and the electoral processes, while the Tiamzons want the current armed struggle to be pursued.

Sison is reportedly drawing example from Nepal in espousing the parliamentary method in pursuing the rebel group’s political goals.

The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist is at present the dominant party in that country and got its leader elected as Prime Minister after it decided to participate in democratic national elections.

“Sison, with his above ground loyalists, wants to imitate this set-up here in the country, and very much intends to course the party funds to go there,” Cruz said.

The AFP official, however, said Sison is fast loosing supporters within the CPP-NPA to Tiamzon.

“The polarization inside the CPP-NPA-NDF (National Democratic Front) has worsened. Most of the NPA leaders, for example, have come to distrust Sison and view him as an outsider, one who assumes leadership but evades command responsibility,” Cruz said.

“Through the years, Sison has repeatedly denied his operational control over the CPP-NPA-NDF for the purpose of evading command responsibility over NPA atrocities. This, despite the numerous directives, memorandum and policies personally issued by Sison to CPP-NPA-NDF members. Now, this loss of control is fast becoming a reality for Sison as he has been outnumbered by pro-Tiamzons. His grip and influence over the CPP-NPA-NDF has waned,” he moreover alleged.

Earlier, Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales said the government is now reviewing its position in the long-stalled peace negotiations with the CPP/NPA-NDF amid reports of a dwindling of its members’ support for Sison and his Utrecht-based group’s leadership.

The military said the rift between the top-level leaders of the communist organization has also began to reflect on the NPA’s strength, with its members’ number going down from a peak of 25,200 in 1987 to just 4,702 in 2009.

The number of firearms in the possession of the rebel group has also been significantly reduced from 15,500 in 1987 to a meager 4,895 in 2009.

At present, only 1,077 barangays (villages) nationwide are classified as NPA-infested areas, which is but a mere 2.5 percent of the 42,000 total barangays nationwide, according to the AFP. –Mario J. Mallari, Daily Tribune