Duterte is at it again assigning the AFP a date by which to finish off the insurgency.
“I have always called it as an article of faith, but no progress or development in any nation — wherever it is — cannot really hope to grow if there is trouble. Itong atin dito, what ails us is many, the insurgency of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), then you have the terrorists,” he said during the annual general assembly of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines in Pasay.
“I have two years. Frankly, I have asked the military and the police, kung kaya niyong tapusin, tapusin na ninyo ngayon (if you can finish it now, finish it now),” Duterte said. “Kung hindi ko ito matapos (If I won’t be able to stop it), then I have to pass this problem to the next generation.”
Like his predecessors Duterte makes the ending of the insurgency all about himself. Cory Aquino, Gloria Arroyo, Ramos, Benigno Aquino, each of them were confident the insurgency could be ended before their terms expired.
They were all wrong. The only thing Duterte is right about is that if not soon stopped this problem will be passed on to the next generation. In fact the problem has lasted for two generations if we consider 25 years a generation.
So what is the AFP to do? Keep on at it. The war against the insurgency is a war of attrition and deadlines mean nothing. Take them down Johnny Cash style
One Piece at a Time.
Government forces found more war materials and bomb-making components in former lairs of the Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in the peripheries of the province following the military's week-long air and ground assaults.
Aside from war materials, the military also recovered a black flag of the terror Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and personal belongings of BIFF radicals who fled the heavy bombardments the past several days.
“Fourteen BIFF and four soldiers died during the week-long gun battles in the mountains of Maguindanao,” Alburo said.
He said a total of 18 improvised explosive devices, bomb components, and war materials were recovered in the clash sites.
The AFP continues to engage in firefights with the BIFF and finding their weapons caches as a result. NPA leaders are being taken out one at a time too. Some are arrested.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) conducted a joint operation that led to the arrest of an alleged top-ranking official of the New People’s Army (NPA) in her hideout in Lala town, this province on Sunday.
Police and Army operatives arrested Teresita Lapuz Naul, alias Tessie or Bessy, secretary of the NPA’s "Regional White Area Committee (RWAC)” under the North Central Mindanao Regional Committee (NCMRC).
She was arrested by virtue of warrants of arrest for her crimes of destructive arson, including two counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention. All cases were filed with no fixed bail issued by the Regional Trial Court, Branch 7, in Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur.
Some are killed.
Philippine Army (PA) chief Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay lauded military and police personnel for the successful operation in Baguio City which led to the neutralization of a ranking Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) leader and two of his companions.
"With Giron's death, justice is served. But we must not cease. We must not stop in uniting against such tyranny, which for many years, have deprived the Filipino people the peaceful lives they deserve," Gapay said in a statement late Friday.
Government forces raided a house at Lourdes Subdivision Extension, Barangay Queen of Peace, Baguio City around 3:30 a.m. Friday.
Killed were CPP chair and CPP-NPA Executive Community member Julius Soriano Giron, Lourdes Tan Torres, and a still unidentified male believed to a member of the rebels' National Military Commission.
Security troops were supposed to serve Giron various warrants for murder, frustrated murder, arson and rebellion when the NPA leader and his companions opened fire, triggering a firefight which led to their deaths.
NPA weapons caches also continue to be found by the AFP.
Recovered were two M16 rifles, M1 Garand rifle, and M203 grenade launcher.
Camarines Sur is a stronghold of the NPA. Last year the AFP found a weapons cache in the same region.
"The firefight lasted for five minutes before the enemies scurried to different directions. No one was harmed in the government side," he said.
Aguilar confirmed that two M16 rifles and other war materials and subversive documents were recovered in the encounter site.
“Ang pagtulong nila para makarating sa atin ang impormasyon sa ginagawang pangingikil at paghahanap ng panibagong miyembro ng mga teroristang NPA sa kanilang barangay ang naging susi ng encounter na ito (This encounter is a result of the residents’ willingness to report the extortions and recruitment being made by the NPA terrorists in their barangay)," he added.
While the war against the insurgency is a war of attrition
with the AFP it's more like trying to empty the water out of a sinking boat. It's a losing proposition. More needs to be done. We already know that the AFP has been lax in the war against the NPA by declaring an area insurgent free and then abandoning it to the LGUs to take care of the security. I have written about that at length
here.
One crucial component in defeating the NPA is intelligence gathered from the rebels themselves.
Law enforcers and military forces in Negros Oriental remain more vigilant and prepared to foil any attack of the New People’s Army.
This after three suspected NPA members were arrested in Sta. Catalina town on March 12 and provided information that boosted the veracity of the intelligence reports about the rebel group’s alleged simultaneous attack plans.
Police Colonel Julian Entoma, Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office chief, said that these three alleged members of the Southeast Front, New People’s Army (SEF-NPA) provided information about the planned attacks.
These attacks were planned because of the upcoming anniversary of the NPA on March 29, 2020.
(They also provided information that the group met somewhere in the boundary area. So we validated the information about the plan to attack and planned atrocities to be done against the government forces. It seemed that they planned to implemen these attacks this month.)
He said that the suspects’ information confirmed intelligence reports gathered by security forces regarding simultaneous attacks by the NPA against vulnerable detachments, patrol bases and police stations.
(We have an offensive operation against them because we have received several information about the NPAs plans to harass police station and their plans to regroup. That is the reason that their target is the province’s southeast. That will include Sta. Catalina town, Siaton and Zamboanguita.)
Will
attacks happen nationwide on March 29th? Probably not. The NPA makes a lot of noise about their
anniversaries
but nothing ever seems to happen.
More than actual battle between the AFP and the communists and Islamists the one project that the Philippine government is banking on to end the insurgency is the whole-of-nation approach as laid out in EO 70.
In an effort to address the root cause of local armed conflict, the government through EO 70 orders the institutionalization of the whole-of-nation approach as a government policy for the attainment of inclusive and sustainable peace.
DILG OIC Provincial Director Danilo Laguitan said the program is the government’s resolve to end the local communist rebellion by bringing the government services closer to the people with the end-in-view of ushering inclusive development to attain peace during the Kapihan sa PIA on March 3.
The officer-in-charge explained that the local government units shall champion the implementation of the Retooled Community Support Program (RCSP) and spearhead initiatives by engaging the community to collaborate and co-create with their local government developments and solutions to local issues.
Laguitan pointed out that RCSP is a convergence mechanism for LGUs particularly in the barangay for the identification of issues and needed government interventions.
He then explained that the program is anchored on the empowerment framework geared to provide needed government services to the community, open and access available platform for democratic participation where everyone is involved.
That's a lot
of big words just to say that the government
is giving
NPA and Islamic terrorists who surrender cash, housing and training for jobs. For the MILF though there is something greater than simple bribery and that is the BARMM.
The implementation of Republic Act 11054 or the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) and the ongoing transition of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) remains on track amidst the challenges being faced by the national and Bangsamoro governments.
“The mandate of the new Bangsamoro government is that we shall always be cooperative and collaborative with all endeavors to pursue good governance and ultimately development,” said lawyer Ali Pangalian Balindong, speaker of the BARMM Parliament during Tuesday's hearing called for by the Senate Committee on Local Government.
“We are assisting in the baby steps but we would want to ensure that these would be translated into successful adult strides because the success of BARMM is the success of the Philippines,” he said.
The success of he BARMM is the success of the Philippines. Why didn't they take that approach with the ARMM? Part of the success of the BARMM is the Philippine government's fulfilling of their promises to the MILF who govern the MILF.
Senator Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa wants to hasten the integration of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Moro National Liberation Front personnel to the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to boost the government’s efforts to attain lasting peace and development across the country, especially in the BARMM area.
During the hearing of the Senate Committee on Local Government to discuss the updates of the implementation of the Bangsamoro Organic Law, Dela Rosa urged Office of the Presidential Adviser for Peace Process Secretary Carlito Galvez to speed up the provision of guidelines [thru NaPolCom] and the integration process of the MILF and MNLF to the PNP and AFP.
He said he believes that the competence of MILF and MNLF forces could help the country’s soldiers and policemen in maintaining peace and order in the land.
The former national police chief validated with Secretary Galvez, former AFP Chief of Staff and currently the OPAPP secretary, the reports that the latter got from the ground during his stint as PNP Chief that the MILF and MNLF are snappy and very qualified to be members of the PNP and AFP.
“Sir I personally saw their [MILF / MNLF] behavior and you are really correct sir, some of those or many of those are really qualified to become members of the Armed Forces and the PNP,” Galvez said.
Galvez added that some of the MILF and MNLF combatants had already undergone training under the Joint Peace and Security Teams of the Annex of Normalization included in the BOL.
“I understand it would take time, mahaba pa ang proseso at magkakaroon pa ng training…the more that we should be motivated to receive them into the Armed Forces, sabi nga magagaling na sila, mas disiplinado pa yung iba kaya bilisan natin sir and I hope expedite na natin yan,” Dela Rosa said.
“Sir actually may mga re-positioned na kami with the Armed Forces. Actually, Sir ang pinaka priority for the possible integration to the Armed Forces and the PNP are those who were trained at the JPST because we saw that they are very much qualified that is why we are hurrying up for the listing so the integration of the MILF will be taken from the JPST,” Galvez explained.
What makes MILF and MNLF terrorists qualified to be members of the PNP and AFP? How will integrating them lead to peace? Why pay them to surrender their weapons and then enlist them in the PNP and AFP? If the government is that hard up for men it would be better to instate the draft than enlist terrorists.
