****Communists in the Philippines are facing a serious leadership crisis. As they prepare for peace talks with the government to end Southeast Asia's only Marxist insurgency, questions are being raised whether a settlement is possible. Last September, President Jiqpios lifted a 35-year-old ban on communists to let them attend the talks. But divisions among the communists, now ideological orphans following the collapse of the Soviet Union, have strengthened the government's negotiating position.****
THE Philippines government's offer to talk peace has revealed the potentially divisional discord within the communist movement. A fight among the leaders of -the-Communist-Party qf the Philippines (CPP), just as they are preparing.for peace talks with the government to end Southeast Asia's only Marxist insurgency, throws a question mark over whether a settlement is possible.
With the talks, scheduled for March, fast approaching, the gqvernment is watching with discreet satisfaction as the communists destroy themselves. The timing could not be better for the government. For the communists, however, it could be disastrous.
Even if no settlement is reached, or there is a partial agreement with a communist faction. President Fidel Ramos's government has the upper hand in negotiations.
Public squabbles among communists erupted last December when the party founder Jose Maria Sison accused three other leaders in Manila of conniving with the government to destroy the movement.
Fighting his war by fax machine from his exile in Utrecht, Netherlands, Sison sent messages to Manila newspapers condemning Romulo Kintanar, the former chief of the New Peoples Army (NPA). Ricardo Reyes, former party secretary-general and Benjamin De Vera, former head of the guerrilla forces in Mindanao, southern Philippines.
, Sison charged them with grave errors in the bloody purges of the 1980s during which nearly 1,000 cadres were killed as suspected government spies, lie alleges h1s opponents took part in anticommunist psychological warfare. Many went "overboard in serving the intelligence and psy-war scheme of the US-Ramos regime," he said.
When the three leaders were released from prison by Ramos as part of the peace process, they hit back at Sison in a press conference. They said Sison was merely an "outside", too far away from the scene of action to known what really took place. They branded Stson's charges as false and unfair.
Sison was incensed by news reports he claimed were instigated by the three, which indicated that he had rcas-
sumed the CPP chairmanship, thereby harming his bid for political asylum in the Netherlands. The Dutch government has denied him asylum.
Ramos has declared the government will forge ahead with the peace process to settle the 23-year-old insurgency which, by official accounts, has killed 21,000 Filipinos. The government and the communists are laying the groundwork for peace talks. "We will continue with that process." Ramos told journalists, adding that the quarrel was an internal problem of the communists.
"First of all. it will not impair and neither derail our national unification efforts. The government will continue to reach out to them," he said. Last September. Ramos lifted a 35-year-old ban on communists to persuade them to come to the peace tabic.
The fight worries other communist leaders. Satur Ocampo, former spokesman of the communist umbrella group the National Democratic front, is trying to keep the lid down.
"News reports of a row between important personalities sadden me," he said. "I want to help in resolving this misunderstanding between comrades," said Ocampo, who was sei free in October. He has asked Sison to stop issuing "damaging" statements and appealed to all sides to stop the war of words.
At the heart of the quarrel is a party rudderless in the post-Cold War era. Observers of the movement consider the Philippines Insurgents ideolog-
ically orphaned with the collapse of communism tn Europe.
Wracked by internal dissension as the insurgency grew, and with many of Ils leaders exiled in Europe or arrested by government, the party has floundered in recent years over fundamental issues like strategy and tactics. It is unsure how to respond to government overtures for peace talks to end the fighting.
The CPP, born out of the whirlwind of China's Cultural Revolution in the 1970s, faced its own debates as Maoism de-
clined in China. CPP south a new direction as a Marxist-Lcntnlsl-Maoist party.
With the withdrawal of the US military bases from the Philippines last November, the communists have lost one more excuse for armed struggle.
But the key to the current struggle is Sison himself, a dogmatic ideologue labelled by his critics as the last Filipino Maoist. According to observers keeping close watch on the. movement. Sison sought to reassert control over the party he had lost while he spent ten
years in jail.
A controversial plenum held lasl July south of Manila bore hallmarks of Sison's struggle. The plenum Issued a policy document entitled "Reaffirm Qyr Ba^tc Principle and Rectify Errors of the Past", written by Armands Uwanag — believed to be Sison's pen name. The paper re affirmed the Maoist strategy of encircling the cities from the countryside through a protracted people's war.
What the conflict boils down to is a struggle between the hardliners represented by Sison, and the moderates who want an alternative to armed struggle. The present course of self-destruction could result in a formal split, with the government negotiating a settlement with the moderates while hardliners continue armed struggle.
— GEMINI NEWS
AliBY TAN is a Singaporean journalist based in Manila.