General Jose Faustino Jr., Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines | via Pegeen Maisie Sararana CDN Digital Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The threat posed by the Communist Party of the Philippines – New Peoples Army rebels has greatly reduced in the face of the intensified operations by government troops, a top military official said.
General Jose Faustino Jr., Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), said the threats posed by insurgents here can be solved through the whole of the nation approach. Faustino is referring to the government’s National Task Force to End Local Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
NTF-ELCAC is the Whole-of-Nation Approach in defeating the local communist terrorist group and obtaining sustainable and inclusive peace throughout the Philippines.
With this said, the AFP and the Philippine National Police are not the only ones tasked to solve the insurgency problem in the country but other government agencies as well from the national to the barangay level.
Faustino said that although they can’t put a definite date yet on when the country’s insurgency problem can be totally eliminated, he said the gradual decimation of the latter’s forces is a step in the right direction.
Faustino also lauded the country’s internal security operations.
The top AFP official did not provide figures to prove his point but said that their intensified operations and awareness campaign over the existence of NPAs here continues to reap dividends.
“The realization narin sa atin sa gobyerno, the whole of the nation, that this problem, the insurgency can be solved. With the whole of nation approach, with all the government instrumentalities, the private sector contributing and of course, government agencies and the local government units, with everybody cooperatnig, we have seen it, we have done it, we have reduced the threat of the CPP NPA…If we can’t reduce it totally, at least we could render it na talagang insignificant, na ordinary criminal group,” Faustino said. /rcg
READ:
Suspected NPA rebel slain, 2 others held in Negros Occidental clash
AFP to conduct joint exercises designed to enhance interoperability