MANILA, Philippines -- Government forces Sunday captured an ailing rebel leader, the second highest ranking official of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines, near a U.S. communications station, authorities said.
Juanito Rivera, 54, a founding member of the Communist Party, was captured in his mother's house in Santa Rita village near Camp O'Donnell, site of a U.S. communications transmitter.
The camp is in the hilly municipality of Capas in Tarlac province, about 70 miles north of Manila and 20 miles north of the U.S. Clark Air Base in Angeles city, where suspected communist guerrillas gunned down three Americans Oct. 28.
Rivera was recuperating from bronchopneumonia and did not resist security forces, regional military commander Brig. Gen. Bayani Favic reported to military headquarters in Manila. Officials had offered a $10,000 reward for Rivera's capture.
Officials said they seized from Rivera a AK-50 assault rifle, a 9mm pistol and two dismantled Thompson submachine guns.
Rivera is vice chairman of the Communist Party central committee and second in command of the military commission overseeing operations of the communists 23,000-member New Peoples Army.
Rivera, the oldest party leader, was a ranking member of the now dormant pro-Moscow Partido Kumunista ng Pilipinas until he helped found the Maoist CPP in December 1968.
Military authorities said Rivera's capture, following the arrest of CPP chairman and NPA commander Rodolfo Salas a year ago, dealt a major setback to the communist movement. But sources said Rivera had been ailing and had not been active.
In another development, military authorities said six soldiers, a policeman, four civilians and two guerrillas were killed Sunday in separate clashes in the northern provinces of Pangasinan and Isabela.
Also Sunday, Clark commander Maj. Gen. Donald Snyder said he was optimistic about U.S.-Filipino relations despite communist threats to attack U.S. targets and the Oct. 28 slayings of the three U.S. servicemen and a Filipino.
'I would assume that the United States and the Philippine government will have long and friendly relations,' Snyder said.
He said plans to build a second runway at Clark were proceeding on schedule, with construction set to begin next year. The project, estimated to cost between $30 million and $35 million, is expected to take two years to complete.
President Corazon Aquino, in her regular radio call-in show Sunday, told residents of Angeles 'the government will do everything to bring back peace in your city.'
Aquino said 'substantial evidence' had been gathered against five people, described as communist guerrillas, arrested by police and believed linked to the Oct. 28 slayings.
Aquino also urged Filipinos to help curb illegal activities and reiterated her policy of 'no favors, no excuses, no special treatment' for her relatives.
She said an anti-gambling task force had cleared her brother, Congressman Jose Cojuangco, following reports he was involved in illegal gambling in the northern provinces.
Aquino had earlier called for an investigation into allegations Cojuangco's wife, Margarita, received a $1 million payoff from an Australian company seeking a permit to open a gambling casino in a posh hotel in Manila.
