Wearing his trademark Mao cap and neck scarf, Gregorio Rosal appeared in a Communist-rebel jungle camp with his weapons -- an M-16 rifle, a laptop computer, a pocket radio blaring out the news, mobile phones and a harmonica.
For more than a decade, the frail Philippine rebel spokesman has built a legend of himself as an awesome public relations machine, providing a congenial face to Marxist guerrillas disdained by the military as murderous brigands and blacklisted by Washington as terrorists.
PHOTO: AP
Early this week, Rosal's folksy charm was at work again.
Surprising a throng of journalists weary from a tiring trek across pine-clad mountains for a clandestine news conference by the underground New People's Army (NPA), Rosal pulled out a harmonica and blew a lilting tune about the travails of poor slash-and-burn farmers.
Photographers moved to capture the moment. Then he joked, "I'll provide the caption for you -- `the singing terrorist,'" drawing bursts of laughter.
Rosal combines a relaxed demeanor, small-town gentleness and an uncanny ability to connect to the press through mobile phones and secret briefings without being caught to deliver the messages of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the 9,300-strong NPA. The rebels have been waging a Marxist rebellion for 35 years, one of Asia's longest.
The guerrillas have gone through stormy periods -- the loss of support from North Korea, China and Eastern Europe, battle setbacks, factionalism and surrenders -- but still remain the Philippines' most potent security threat.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the US, the guerrillas became a target of the US-led global war on terror when Washington placed them on its list of terrorist organizations and urged nations to help wipe them out by denying them refuge and money.
But Rosal says the homegrown guerrillas were hardly affected because they survive on local contributions, attack government troops for weapons or buy guns from corrupt officers, and get "the best sons and daughters" as recruits from families suffering from widespread poverty, landlessness, injustice and government neglect.
"The government is the No. 1 recruiter of the New People's Army," Rosal said.
For May 10 national elections, the guerrillas are demanding that candidates pay for rebel permits to campaign in NPA-influenced villages. The government has condemned the practice as extortion and ordered the military to stop it.
Like the raging insurgency that he represents, the 57-year-old Rosal reflects the guerrillas' resilience.
Since he took up arms in the early 1970s, he has been wounded once in a clash, was nearly shot by a comrade in a mistaken encounter, and was sidelined by a mild stroke for three years. After falling ill, he assumed a false name and was treated in government hospitals in Manila.
Even among guerrillas, Rosal is a celebrity. In the jungle camp, young guerrillas waited to get their pictures taken with him.
"He's so popular and he's an inspiration," said a 27-year-old rebel who gave her name as Aya.
"Despite his age, he's still here. It means the revolution is right," said Aya, M-16 ammunition packs slung on her body as she prepared a lunch of steamed rice, fish and vegetables.
At a news conference that opened with young guerrillas singing the Internationale, the socialist revolutionary anthem, in a shed decorated with M-16s and red flags, Rosal threatened more attacks and warned US troops joining counterterrorism exercises to stay away from rebel zones.
"The joke going around the NPA is that the Americans are an easier target" because they have larger bodies, Rosal said.
Rosal has claimed responsibility in radio interviews for several deadly rebel attacks. He's also been accused of a deadly purge of comrades suspected of being military spies in the 1980s -- a charge he denies.
Ironically, Rosal, one of the country's most wanted insurgents, said he once dreamed of becoming a soldier.
A son of poor peasants, he began working early to help support his family by selling mosquito nets and bamboo sleeping mats. He once worked as a bet collector for a popular but illegal numbers game called jueteng and thought of becoming a soldier, but dropped the plan after finding out he was too short.
In the political turmoil of the early 1970s, Rosal became a trade union organizer and was jailed when late dictator Ferdinand Marcos placed the Philippines under martial law. He learned to play the harmonica in prison but found a way to escape and went underground.
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