Guerrillas Try to Capitalize on Crisis in Manila

MANILA — Communist rebels killed 21 soldiers and wounded five others Wednesday in one of a series of attacks aimed at capitalizing on the crisis in the government’s armed forces after last Friday’s aborted coup, military authorities in Manila said Thursday.

In an attack that the government called the worst this year, about 200 heavily armed guerrillas of the Communist New People’s Army blew up a troop truck with a land mine and then opened fire on soldiers who were apparently searching for renegade coup leaders in the province of Quezon, south of Manila.

Also on Wednesday, the government said that 17 guerrillas and two soldiers were killed in a clash in Davao City, on the southernmost island of Mindanao. The military said that about 150 rebels were preparing to attack a nearby Philippine army detachment when scouts intercepted them.

Stepping Up Presure

The Philippine Communist Party, whose military wing has been waging an 18-year armed rebellion against the government, said this week that its forces would intensify armed attacks to take advantage of the deep divisions in the government’s armed forces after last week’s coup attempt, which polarized the military’s ranks.

In the northern province of Cagayan, for example, where the military said that at least 19 soldiers and civilians had been killed in four attacks on police stations and military detachments in the past five days, there was a graphic illustration of how the coup attempt has affected the government’s counterinsurgency effort.

In the town of Gonzaga, 60 armed Communist rebels took over the municipal building on Wednesday, killing six soldiers and holding off government forces for nearly 12 hours. It was not until Col. Rodolfo Aguinaldo arrived with reinforcements that the rebels were driven off.

Just 24 hours earlier, Aguinaldo had been relieved of his command as provincial commander because the idealistic, highly decorated colonel had openly declared his support for the coup leaders.