The Philippine military will observe a traditional truce with Maoist-led rebels over the Christmas and New Year period, unilaterally suspending army offensives for four days, an official said today.
Executive secretary Eduardo Ermita said government forces would not launch operations against the rebels on December 24th and 25th, December 31st and January 1st.
The truce is shorter than the three-week suspension of military operations in 2007, and will cover only the communist New People's Army (NPA) rebels, and not Islamist fighters.
"There will be no let up in our law enforcement operations against rogue Muslim rebels and Islamic militants in the south," Mr Ermita told reporters.
Three rogue commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim rebel group, have been fighting Philippine troops since August, despite a formal truce with the government.
Nearly 300 people have died in four months of conflict that has displaced about 750,000 people in six Muslim provinces on the restive southern island of Mindanao.
Officials said the existing truce with the MILF will remain in force.
Since 1986, the government has observed a holiday ceasefire with communist rebels as the mainly Roman Catholic state celebrates one of the world's longest Christmas seasons.
Christmas holidays in the Philippines begin with dawn masses from December 16th and end on the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th.
There was no immediate reaction from the 5,000-member Maoist rebel group, which has been waging a protracted guerrilla war since the late 1960s. The conflict has killed about 40,000 people and stunted economic growth in the country.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the military to wipe out the communist insurgency before she steps down in 2010.
Reuters