At the same time, the President rejected the call of communist party leader Jose Ma. Sison to resume peace talks.

Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the government would no longer tolerate the atrocities being committed by the communist party’s military arm.

“The terror wrought by the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army can no longer be ignored," Bunye said. “The government will go hammer and thongs against the terrorist’s armed core while getting the people to our side by winning their hearts and minds through good governance and social justice."

Interviewed by television station ABS-CBN over the weekend, Sison said the government would not succeed in achieving peace through the use of  force, hinting that the NPA was still open to the resumption of peace talks in Norway.

The President also ordered the Department of Budget and Management to find resources to buy surplus Huey helicopters and attack planes that could be used against the rebels.

“This is an offensive on all fronts -military action, law enforcement and, more importantly, social development through jobs, enterprise building, infrastructure and social services," Bunye said.

But Sison said that all they were waiting for was for President Arroyo to “wake up, become more open-minded, and hire more acceptable people” for the peace talks to resume.

The communist party shelved peace negotiations with the Arroyo administration in 2004 after accusing the government of providing information to the United States that led to the labeling of the organization as a terrorist.

Sison, a graduate of and a former teacher at the University of the Philippines, has been on self-exile in Utrecht in The Netherlands since 1987.

In a related development, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said it would take the military and the police about four to five years to crush the communist insurgency.

“The earlier the insurgency is ended, the better for the country and the people. I share the President's dream of seeing the Philippines free from this threat that has festered for far too long," he said.

“But it will take more years to totally eliminate the insurgency. Like her [President Arroyo], I want the bloodshed to stop so that the country's march to progress would be unencumbered by flashes of insurrection or rebellion," said Gonzales, the founder of the Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas.

He said the government was gaining the upper hand in the fight with communist rebels who continued to terrorize the  people.