1.
GV INT Group of Communists standing before President Marcos and army generals
0.05

2.
SV Victor Corpuz stands in line with others
0.18

3.
CU Nilia Sancho standing in line
0.27

4.
SV Communist detainees standing in line
0.35

5.
SV ZOOM OUT TO GV President Marcos addressing detainees
0.58


One NAP suspect, named as Commander Varonia, had to be helped into the line-up before President Marcos, because of wounds he had received when he was captured. President Marcos said the active strength of the NPA had been cut to fewer than half the 1,800 men it was once believed to have at large.




Initials BB/2005



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The Philippines Government claimed to have achieved a major breakthrough last Thursday (26 August) in its campaign against the banned Communist party, with the dawn capture of 20 alleged dissidents.

SYNOPSIS: The majority of the dissidents had been rounded up by government troops shortly after they had arrested Bernabe Buscayno, the 32 year-old founder of the underground New People's Army. Former police officer, Victor Corpuz, was among the dissidents lined up before President Marcos for the benefit of film cameras. He and Nilia Sancho, a former beauty queen, had already spent some time under arrest. The NPA is affiliated to the banned Philippines Communist Party.

Buscayno is known as "Commander Dante" and the authorities claim they had been searching for him for 16 years. He had been captured, together with his wife and child, in a dawn raid on a hut in a village north of Manila. Nineteen of his alleged followers were arrested in the vicinity.