Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

NEW PEOPLE’S ARMY • 493virtually no attacks on Americans until 28 October 1987, when twoU.S. servicemen, one retired U.S. serviceman, and a Filipino retiredfrom the U.S. Armed Forces were gunned down by Sparrow Squads.On 15 April 1987 the NPA had announced that it would deploy theSparrow Squads to kill U.S. military personnel or diplomats involvedin the Philippines counterinsurgency program, but none of thosekilled on 28 October fit that description. On 21 April 1989 Sparrowsshot dead U.S. Army Colonel James Rowe while he was driving towork in Manila. On 26 September 1989 the NPA murdered two U.S.Defense Department civilian workers outside Clark Air Force Base.On 6 March 1990 an American rancher was murdered for refusing topay the NPA extortion money. On 13 May 1990 two U.S. Air Forceairmen were shot dead by NPA gunmen near Clark Air Force Base.During 1991, the Philippine government captured more than 80ranking members of the CPP-ML and the NPA, including RomuloKintanar, head of the NPA General Command. These arrests and thesuccessful convictions of the murderers of Colonel Rowe set back theterrorist operations of the NPA for most of that year. The killing ofKintanar in 2003 was believed to have been ordered by Sison, who isnow facing charges for this and two other murders of NPA members.Following the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Philippines in1991–1992, there was a hiatus in NPA activities and its political arm,the CPP, conducted intermittent peace talks with the government. In1997 the NPA broke off talks with the government and began severalsmall-scale attacks on police and army troops. In May 1997 NPAguerrillas ambushed a vehicle and killed two Filipino employees of aU.S. firm. Throughout 1998 the NPA conducted a series of attacks onrural police posts across the Philippines. In June 1999 the NPA againbroke off recently resumed peace talks with the government in protestagainst the government concluding a Visiting Forces Agreement withthe United States that allowed joint U.S.-Filipino military trainingexercises. Although the NPA claimed it would attack only Americanforces, on many occasions it attacked government security forces.Despite the setbacks of the early 1990s, the NPA has shown itselfto be one of the few leftist insurgencies that is still active and holdingground, despite the demise of Communism throughout the rest ofthe world, and through its urban terrorism it continues to pose a significantthreat to the stability of the current democratic governmentin the Philippines. On 17 March 2007 an NPA member elected to the