Surrender of a Communist

The Philippine Republic's Public Enemy No. 1 left his jungle hideout and "came down" to Manila last week. After eight years of guerrilla warfare, in which he ordered the murder of thousands and terrorized the young republic in the name of Karl Marx, smirking Luis Taruc came slouching out of the forest and gave himself up. In their mountain fastnesses, his hard-pressed Huk followers were in a bad way.

From exultant Manila newspapers, the wire services picked up the headline: TARUC SURRENDERS TO PRESIDENT MAGSAYSAY, but at the Philippine army's Camp Murphy the situation looked somewhat different. Taruc was installed in quarters usually reserved for VIPs. A Cabinet officer lent him a flowered shirt, photographers had a field day, soldiers brought in fans to keep him cool. Watching the lean Communist leaning easily on a windowsill, first-naming an Under Secretary, and running his delicate hands through the black curls of his 18-year-old son Romeo, an officer snapped: "You would think he was the head of state waiting to talk to another head of state."

Dead or Alive. Taruc's surrender had been arranged, with President Magsaysay's approval, through a Manila newspaper columnist named Benigno Aquino. Early one morning last week, troops of the Philippine first military area thought they had Taruc cornered north of Manila. Under Colonel Manuel Cabal, the troops were closing in on Barrio San Pablo, a hamlet near the foot of Mount Arayat (3,378 ft.), where Taruc was known to be hiding. Colonel Cabal was convinced that the rebel leader would soon be captured, dead or alive, but as the leading troops reached the village, a lieutenant intervened. He distracted the men away from a house where Taruc was hiding, and the terrorist escaped, disguised in women's clothes.

"I Accept." Cabal was fighting mad, but there was nothing he could do. The lieutenant was carrying out orders originating with President Magsaysay himself. Columnist Aqulno; "It seemed, had promised to meet Taruc without fail next morning, and the army was not supposed to interfere with his plans.

Taruc kept the appointment in the very barrio from which he had escaped. "From a distance, I spotted his lanky figure," reported Aquino afterwards. "He was standing alone, silhouetted against the morning sky . . . He met me, smiling." The two men shook hands, and Aquino said: "Do you unconditionally accept the President's terms?"

Said Taruc:"I accept."

As Taruc left San Pablo, the villagers wept. They are fanatically loyal to him, said Colonel Cabal. Taruc was driven to Camp Murphy, and the government took over. He was the biggest prize taken in the eight-year-old war against the Huk guerrillas. Looking relaxed and confident, Taruc announced that he had"come down" because of"a deep conviction of the sincerity of the President . . . to work out a program which will give peace and prosperity." Magsaysay's terms, he said,"laid the basis of negotiations," and he was now "joining the forces of law and order."

Upper Hand. He was scarcely a welcome addition. Philippine armymen bluntly recommended that Bandit Taruc be brought to trial (for murder, treason and arson) and quickly sentenced to death. They well remembered Taruc's last"surrender"--in 1948, when he accepted an amnesty, returned to his seat in the Philippine Congress (to which he was elected in the liberation days of 1946), collected his back pay, and skedaddled back to the Luzon hills. This time, snapped General Jesus Vargas, the army's chief of staff, no deal had been made; Magsaysay owed Taruc nothing."We have the upper hand. Why should we grant conditions?"

Despite the peculiar circumstances of his surrender, there could be no doubt that Taruc's guerrilla army is in despair. In the Philippines at least, the Communists are now on the run. After interviewing Taruc, General Vargas gave his own estimate that Huk strength in the field has fallen from a high of 10,000 in 1948 to less than 1,500. Huk"sympathizers," some of them starved into despair by the government's ruthless pursuit, others attracted by the government's offer of more land and security, have probably been reduced from around a million to about 30,000.

As an old and faithful Communist, Taruc may have concluded that he could best serve his waning cause by giving up.

"There is no further reason," Taruc volunteered helpfully during his interrogation, "why more blood should be spilled."

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