AFP commits to finish communist insurgency
Published Aug 31, 2019 03:53 pm
By Martin SadongdongÂ
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will "exhaust all means available" to end the country's five decades-long problem on communist insurgency as soon as possible, its spokesperson has assured, after President Duterte declared that the government cannot afford to fight the war for another fifty years.
Philippine Armed Forces Spokesperson Brig.Gen. Edgard Arevalo
(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez / MANILA BULLETIN) Brigadier General Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesperson, said they have already articulated their commitment to end communist insurgency to the President before and the latter's recent remarks only underscored his "firm resolve to stop the menace" that the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) brings. "The AFP, being in the forefront in the campaign to end local communist armed conflict, is devoted to attaining that ardent desire of the President and Commander-in-Chief," he said. "We will exhaust all means available, lethal and non-lethal, to hit the enemy and hit them hard. We will employ the different lines of efforts with other agencies of government address or help alleviate the identified social issues that the NPA capitalizes ," he added. Earlier this week, Duterte had asked the military to finish the country's problem on communist insurgency. "I do not think that we can afford to wage a war another 53 years so I am telling the military, can we end it now? We cannot afford to pass it on to the next generation," the President was quoted as saying during an event in Quezon City on Tuesday. In response, Arevalo said the military have already assessed the remaining challenges that they need to address to attain the "overarching" objective of keeping the communities safe from the influence and harassment of communist rebels. "We have to stop NPA recruitment in schools, in IP communities, and elsewhere in the country," he said. The military official stated that the number of NPA regulars and its armed group, Milisyang Bayan (MB), continue to decline after scores of them have either surrendered to authorities, got arrested or died in armed encounters. The official has yet to provide data to back this claim. However, the latest incident where a ranking NPA leader got arrested happened just this week. Esterlita Suaybaguio, who the military said is a member of the Central Committee and secretary of the Metro Manila Regional Party Committee of the communist group, was arrested by joint police and military forces on August 26 in Quezon City. She allegedly yielded a gun, an explosive and some subversive documents when authorities conducted a search on her house by virtue of a warrant. The CPP, on the other hand, condemned Suaybaguio's arrest, saying she was a consultant for Mindanao concerns of the group's political arm, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). Meanwhile, Arevalo sought the help of other concerned government agencies and local government units to work together to bring an end to communist insurgency. "We have the upper hand. We just have to maintain the initiative and sustain the gains," Arevalo said. The Philippines has one of the longest running communist insurgency problems in Asia. The CPP, a revolutionary organization, was founded in 1968 by Jose Maria Sison, which eventually saw the birth of an on-going conflict between the coalition of the CPP-NPA-NDFP and the government. Under the present administration, there have been legal moves to declare the group as a terrorist organization, but it was met with resistance from their supporters. With the termination of peace talks between the CPP-NPA-NDFP and the current government, Duterte had signed Executive Order No. 70 in December 2018. The order institutionalized the "whole-of-nation" approach in attaining an inclusive and sustainable peace in the country by creating the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and mandated the creation of a National Peace Framework. Localized peace talk within the communities was also pursued by the government as an alternative to the bogged down peace talks at the national level.
Philippine Armed Forces Spokesperson Brig.Gen. Edgard Arevalo(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez / MANILA BULLETIN) Brigadier General Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesperson, said they have already articulated their commitment to end communist insurgency to the President before and the latter's recent remarks only underscored his "firm resolve to stop the menace" that the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) brings. "The AFP, being in the forefront in the campaign to end local communist armed conflict, is devoted to attaining that ardent desire of the President and Commander-in-Chief," he said. "We will exhaust all means available, lethal and non-lethal, to hit the enemy and hit them hard. We will employ the different lines of efforts with other agencies of government address or help alleviate the identified social issues that the NPA capitalizes ," he added. Earlier this week, Duterte had asked the military to finish the country's problem on communist insurgency. "I do not think that we can afford to wage a war another 53 years so I am telling the military, can we end it now? We cannot afford to pass it on to the next generation," the President was quoted as saying during an event in Quezon City on Tuesday. In response, Arevalo said the military have already assessed the remaining challenges that they need to address to attain the "overarching" objective of keeping the communities safe from the influence and harassment of communist rebels. "We have to stop NPA recruitment in schools, in IP communities, and elsewhere in the country," he said. The military official stated that the number of NPA regulars and its armed group, Milisyang Bayan (MB), continue to decline after scores of them have either surrendered to authorities, got arrested or died in armed encounters. The official has yet to provide data to back this claim. However, the latest incident where a ranking NPA leader got arrested happened just this week. Esterlita Suaybaguio, who the military said is a member of the Central Committee and secretary of the Metro Manila Regional Party Committee of the communist group, was arrested by joint police and military forces on August 26 in Quezon City. She allegedly yielded a gun, an explosive and some subversive documents when authorities conducted a search on her house by virtue of a warrant. The CPP, on the other hand, condemned Suaybaguio's arrest, saying she was a consultant for Mindanao concerns of the group's political arm, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). Meanwhile, Arevalo sought the help of other concerned government agencies and local government units to work together to bring an end to communist insurgency. "We have the upper hand. We just have to maintain the initiative and sustain the gains," Arevalo said. The Philippines has one of the longest running communist insurgency problems in Asia. The CPP, a revolutionary organization, was founded in 1968 by Jose Maria Sison, which eventually saw the birth of an on-going conflict between the coalition of the CPP-NPA-NDFP and the government. Under the present administration, there have been legal moves to declare the group as a terrorist organization, but it was met with resistance from their supporters. With the termination of peace talks between the CPP-NPA-NDFP and the current government, Duterte had signed Executive Order No. 70 in December 2018. The order institutionalized the "whole-of-nation" approach in attaining an inclusive and sustainable peace in the country by creating the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and mandated the creation of a National Peace Framework. Localized peace talk within the communities was also pursued by the government as an alternative to the bogged down peace talks at the national level.