Reds won’t allow ex-comrade to campaign

ITOGON, Benguet – Communist guerillas in Abra will not allow their former comrade – Bucloc town mayor Mailed Molina – to campaign in supposed rebel-controlled areas.

Diego Wadagan, spokesman of the New People’s Army’s Abra-based Agustin Begnalen Command, said Molina, who is running for congressman, "is not qualified to be issued (a campaign) permit."

This, despite the claims of Molina and his wife, Dang, also a former NPA guerrilla, that their former comrades have thrown their support behind his candidacy.

Wadagan belied this, saying that while Molina’s camp has claimed it has been aggressively seeking an audience with the rebels, "he (has been) maintaining his linkage and loyalty with the military and intelligence agencies."

"The Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA did not, and will never negotiate with (Molina)," Wadagan said.

Wadagan insisted that Molina was one of the ringleaders of the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) that split the CPP-NPA in 1986.

Molina, together with rebel-priest Conrado Balweg and a company of Tingguian and Kankanaey guerrillas, broke ties with the CPP-NPA in 1986 and formed the CPLA, a paramilitary group, and fought the NPA alongside the military.

Some 300 former CPLA members were also integrated into the military, while others became members of Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Units (CAFGUs).

Balweg, an SVD priest, was slain in December 1999 by communist guerrillas because of alleged "crimes against the people." Balweg’s brother Jovencio reportedly leads the Agustin Begnalen Command.