It's that time again. Time for a new AFP Chief. Let's listen in on his plans for defending the nation.
The new head of the Armed Forces of the Philippines has said he does not expect a “shooting war” to occur in the South China Sea, despite Manila’s diplomatic protests against China's intrusions into its territorial waters.
“I don’t think it’s going to the point that there is going to be an actual conflict, meaning a shooting war. I think there are enough mechanisms in place to prevent this from happening,” Lieutenant General Noel Clement said in a briefing with foreign correspondents on Thursday.
The new chief of staff also denied that the military was against purchasing weapons from China, amid tensions between the two nations over the contested South China Sea. “We have not determined what type of equipment we actually want to buy from them,” he told This Week in Asia.
“So, it’s not a matter of us preventing the procurement from China but rather … what our technical working group would recommend to be part of our modernisation programme.”
In contrast, the Philippines – which has a defence treaty with the US – recently signed a deal with Washington for a new Gulfstream G280 jet, estimated by some quarters to cost 2 billion pesos (US$38 million), to serve as the official presidential plane. Delivery is expected by next year.
However, as Clement will turn 56 in January – which is the retirement age for military chiefs – he could end up having only a four-month tour of duty unless Duterte extends his term of service.
The idea of a war between the Philippines and China is completely ridiculous and the only reason it keeps getting brought up is to scare people into accepting Duterte's turn to China. At this stage any possible war between China and the Philippines, let alone the USA, is remote and thus irrelevant. It is the war against the communists and the Muslims which is more important.
"One of the marching orders of the President is to continue the government’s goal to end the local communist armed conflict...," Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a statement.
Duterte had sought to end the country’s insurgency problem via peace talks shortly after he assumed office in 2016. But the talks with National Democratic Front negotiators were called off for various reasons such as continuing armed attacks by the New People's Army.
To address the insurgency problem, Clement said he is looking at Eastern Mindanao and Samar as "areas of concern."
"We are looking at Eastern Mindanao and Samar area as areas of concern, yung Negros, we plan to end it by this year," he said.
"I am not here to change the way AFP does its programs, rather to improve it," he said.
"The Palace is confident that with General Clement at the helm of the AFP, he will continue to uphold the high degree of professionalism, the dedication and the integrity our soldiers have displayed to the flag and country," Panelo said.
The Palace is confident with Gen. Clement at the head of the AFP and Clement is confident they can end the insurgency in Eastern Mindanao and Samar by the end of the year. But there is a problem. Gen. Clement will have to retire in January which means he won't have a lot of time to do much of anything except to stay the course.
The changing of the guard takes place often in the AFP and PNP. Next month a new PNP Chief will have to be appointed. Here is a list of AFP Chiefs since 2002.
I am indebted to analyst Zachary Abuza for this list which he posted on Twitter. If you remember two weeks ago
I wrote an analysis of an article he wrote and an interview he gave. Two tweets from the discussion where Zack posted this chart are very interesting.
The law referred to is the law mandating the retirement of AFP members at the age of 56. There is a bill
seeking to raise that age to 60 but it seems no action has been taken on it. As it stand now all AFP personnel must retire at 56 which means Gen. Clement will only be eligible to serve for 4 months. Four months to end the insurgency? Doubtful. More like four months to continue the same policies that have allowed the insurgency to remain active.
Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity, cited on Wednesday the need to stop rebellion for the country to achieve long-lasting peace.
Brilliant! The rebellion must be stopped in order to achieve peace. Who'd have thought!? But since the new AFP Chief has embraced the whole-of-nation approach that means less fighting and more social programs.
Incoming Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief-of-Staff, Lt. Gen. Noel Clement, on Friday vowed to use the whole-of-nation approach so that the security threats posed by the communist insurgency can be defeated once and for all.
"I think the most critical factor now is how to bring in everybody on board against this fight because it is not possible if the Armed Forces (of the Philippines) does it alone or if the local government units are the ones battling this problem. It has to be the whole country, the whole nation. This is a national problem so we have to address this as a people, collectively, so that our country would achieve lasting peace," he told reporters when asked how he planned to expedite the defeat of the Communist Party of the Philippines - New People's Army (CPP-NPA).
Clement also vowed to create a bigger dent on the CPP-NPA's ranks and its capability to create terror and atrocities with the whole-of-nation approach.
"We have to address this as a people, collectively" says Gen. Clement. That means firstly the government doing what it can to alleviate poverty like opening up training centres so poor people can learn marketable skills.
Keen to address poverty incidence in Bukidnon, Director General of Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Secretary Isidro S. Lapeña and Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri led the turn-over of Skills Training Centers to the Local Government Units of Impasugong, Cabanglasan, Maramag and Lantapan, October 7.
In 2015, the poverty incidence in Bukidnon is recorded to be 53.6 percent the country's fourth-highest, but 2018 showed a huge cut and declined to 32.1 percent. The optimistic result is attributed to the rise in income particularly in the poorest Bukidnon area. Thus, the newly constructed training centers will not only develop the skills of local constituents but more so to capacitate and improve the livelihood of indigenous people who frequently suffer the clutches of poverty in the province, Sen. Zubiri said.
Likewise, Lapeña, chairman on Livelihood Cluster of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC), who has been compassionate in ending the communist insurgency, said the newly constructed training centers and other incoming programs of the agency will focus on education and skills development of priority sectors, improvement of the livelihood of indigenous people and also capacitating the former rebels as they go back to the mainstream society.
Secondly that means the youth.
“The support of the youth sector is very important to counter the recruitments being done by the CPP-NPA and the manipulation they spread to communities,” Garello said in a phone interview with the Philippine News Agency on Monday (October 7).
Garello said the Army, in coordination with the local government units (LGUs) in the region, has forged various partnerships to empower the youth sector in the area.
“We have started some major activity on this partnership such as the holding of Leadership Development Training (LDT) for our Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) leaders,” the Army official said.
He said the first LDT training was held Friday last week in Jamboree Site, Barangay Alubihid, Buenavista, Agusan del Norte that was participated by SK presidents from different barangays of Butuan City.
In an earlier statement sent to the media, Garello said the training aims “to empower the youth, enhance the leadership and community organizing skills, and instill awareness on the nature of the CPP-NPA-NDF and its deceptive infiltration strategy to the youth sector.”
That all sounds good to someone
. The dreamers
working for the OPAPP perhaps? They swear it's working. Bribing surrendering rebels with money, housing, training, we are told, is working at bringing about the end of the insurgency and the beginning of lasting peace. Meanwhile politicians continue to pay big money to the NPA to ensure their election.
Thirty-two elected local officials in Western Visayas enjoyed the support of the New People’s Army (NPA) in the May midterm elections, according to the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6). Are these officials now paying the rebels back with support, too?
The rebels campaigned for them, said PRO-6 spokesperson Police Lieutenant Joem Malong, citing intelligence reports.
Of these 32 officials, 11 were elected mayor and six were elected vice mayor, she added.
In Iloilo province, the rebels supported five mayors, two vice mayors and nine municipal councilors while in Capiz, they campaigned for four mayors, two vice mayors and three town councilors, said Malong.
“We are monitoring them,” she said.
In Negros Occidental, two elected mayors, two vice mayors, two municipal councilors, and a provincial board member enjoyed the backing of the NPA, said Malong.
“We have identified them,” according to the PRO-6 spokesperson but she declined to name them.
Malong acknowledged it would be difficult to prove that these local officials are now paying the insurgents back with monetary or logistical support unless witnesses surface.
“We need physical evidence to pin them down,” said Malong.
Local officials proven to be supportive of rebels face criminal and administrative charges.
“We are warning these local officials to stop supporting rebels,” said Malong.
The figures of the PRO-6 were not far from those of the Philippine Army.
The 61st Infantry Battalion (61IB) monitored 37 candidates who financially supported the NPA, according to Lieutenant Colonel Joel Benedict Batara, battalion commander.
So they know who these politicians are, they are monitoring them, BUT they have no evidence! That is the ridiculous PNP we all love and know so much. Notice that the figures of the AFP and PNP are close but do not match. A difference of five!
As long as there are rebels there will be politicians who covertly support them in order to keep their hold on power. Better to stop with the social programs and kill all the rebels.
The government's fight against terrorism in the Philippines will be strengthened after the recent groundbreaking of the first-ever counter-terrorism training center in Southeast Asia here.
The PHP350 million, state-of-the-art Regional Counter-Terrorism Training Center (RCTTC) that would rise at Camp General Mariano A. Castañeda will be jointly operated by the United States (US) and Philippine governments.
The RCTTC, which forms part of the PHP520-million US investment, aims to train Filipino law enforcement personnel on counter-terrorism operations and further strengthen the regional security relationship and cooperation between the Philippines and East Asia Pacific partners nations-- Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia.
The project, built on decades of US' close counter-terrorism cooperation with the Philippine National Police, "is a major step in the deepening of our counter-terrorism partnership," said US Ambassador Sung Kim, who led on Friday the groundbreaking rite along with PNP chief, Gen. Oscar Albayalde.
"This reflects the enduring US commitment to support the Philippines' counter-terrorism efforts and to work together to address threats to peace and security in the whole region," Kim added.
Meanwhile, Albayalde said as terrorism continues to pose a serious threat to the Philippines and across Asia, the RCTTC will empower the Philippine law enforcement personnel in the pursuance of their mission.
"With the RCTTC in place, we hope to be able to keep in step with the latest training methods and technology in fighting terrorism," he said.
The PNP led the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the US government, through the support of the US Department of State Anti-Terrorism Assistance (ATA) Program for the construction and operation of a multi-purpose RCTTC last Aug. 15 this year.
The RCTTC will provide a venue for the ATA counter-terrorism training for PNP units, particularly the Special Action Force (SAF), EOD/K-9 Group, Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG), Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG), Aviation Security Group (ASG), Intelligence Group (IG), and Police Security and Protection Group (PSPG).
Other Philippine law enforcement group that will also benefit from the project are the National Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Immigration, Office for Transport Security, among others.
The first counter-terrorism training centre in the country and in SEA? That is an amazing fact. It's not that the USA has not been training the AFP in counter-terrorism but rather strange this centre was not built years ago. Hopefully the instruction given will assist the AFP in destroying the NPA. Maybe with new training the AFP really can meet the new deadline of ending the insurgency by 2022.
The government’s goal is to make the communist insurgency irrelevant by 2022, just before President Rodrigo Duterte bows out of office, the country’s top security official said.
“We are tempted to set a self-imposed deadline to us, which would be naturally 2022 because that’s the end of the term of the President,” National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon told reporters.
In three years time, the communist rebels would have suffered massive military losses that they would no longer be able to launch attacks and cause trouble to the country, Esperon said.
“There may be a few stragglers left but by that time, they would just be doing banditry and the Philippines would have been able to fly economically,” Esperon added.
How convenient that the AFP is aiming to end the insurgency by the end of Duterte's term in office. This is nothing new. Same old plan. End the insurgency by the end of the current president's term. I have
previously documented this phenomena. This is also not the first time 2022 has been floated around as the end date for the insurgency. In fact every year has been the year the insurgency is supposed to end. What a joke.
There are only two and a half months left in the year which means the decision to extend martial law or not will be coming up soon. It seems the idea to lift martial law in some areas and keep it in place in others is ganging traction.
Martial law extension in Mindanao should be enforced but only in known trouble spots, the Western Mindanao military chief, Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, said on Sunday.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines Western Mindanao Command chief cited Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Dipolog and Tacurong cities as well as Sultan Kudarat as among the localities that no longer need to be placed under martial law, describing these areas as “relatively peaceful.”
A possible extended martial law period, Sobejana pointed out, would only be limited to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), “but everything is dependent on our assessment of our effort.”
“Selective [coverage]. I don’t recommend [martial law extension] in the whole of Mindanao. [Only] in those areas where we still see problems in terms of security, delivery of services,” he said.
He said the BARMM still had problems in security, particularly from threats posed by the Abu Sayyaf group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and remnants of the Maute group.
How crazy is this guy Lt. Gen. Cirlito Sobjeana? Sultan Kudarat "relatively peaceful?" The city where several bombings have happened in the past year? Funny that he also says martial law should be limited to the BARMM. The BARMM is supposed to be a region where peace will now reign. Maybe it just needs more time?
But this time some people in Mindanao are pushing back. Martial law, they argue, keeps the island safer. But it may also keep business away.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said in July he would consider extending martial law into 2020 if local officials want it, domestic media outlet Philstar.com reported. He said the island and outlying seas were still at risk.
“Ideally, it is obviously good to see Mindanao freed from security challenges by the end of 2019 and therefore martial law may not be expected to be implemented anymore,” said Henelito Sevilla, assistant international relations professor at University of the Philippines.
“However, Mindanao is Mindanao, and the region should not be compared to other parts of the Philippines where security challenges are less diverse in terms of nature, area and extent as compared to Mindanao islands,” Sevilla said. “The islands of Mindanao are very diverse in terms of tribal affinity, political cleavages and even armed groupings.”
Martial law lets troops and police work together without normal legal checks and balances. Authorities can also enforce curfews and randomly search vehicles.
But in much of Mindanao, martial law is hardly noticeable. Around the port city Cagayan de Oro, for example, cars stop only between the domestic airport and downtown for routine checks. Police do not enforce curfews in the downtown mega-malls, upscale restaurants and major high-rise hotel.
Road checkpoints turn up more often on highways around the Bangsamoro region, home to some 3.8 million mostly Muslim Filipinos.
In Davao, the Philippine archipelago’s second largest city after Manila, people broadly support the extension of martial law, said a scholar who just visited. Davao is on Mindanao’s east coast, removed from most rebel attacks.
“I asked people, they like the army because they feel considerably safe, and it’s actually not hindering the daily life of the people,” said the visitor Enrico Cau, Southeast Asia-specialized associate researcher at the Taiwan Strategy Research Association.
“Just the idea that martial law hinders investment, deters people from going, stops tourists -- even not so much,” he said. “Because when I got to Davao on August 17 and when I left in September, for example, hotels didn’t have one single room.”
Davao’s mayor and city council expressed formal opposition to continued martial law after ambassadors visited the city in mid-2019 and said the law raises costs of doing business, domestic media say. Much of Mindanao’s 25 million population lives in poverty, largely for lack of investment.
Protest from the mayor may roll back martial law next year to cover only parts of Mindanao where rebels are likely to strike, Cau said. The mayor is also Duterte’s daughter.
Yes Davao's Mayor, Presidential Daughter Sara Dutere is behind the call for a limited marital law which exempts Davao.
Mayor Sara Duterte plans to seek the help of the House of Representatives to exempt Davao City from martial law in Mindanao.
According to Duterte, she sent a letter to the Office of the President last August 7 and attached documents to support her request.
She added she will also be sending copies of the documents to the House of Representatives and the Department of National Defense.
Martial law should ideally be an all or nothing matter. All of Mindanao and not just part. If martial law is not being enforced stringently across the island then what is the point of having martial law? The AFP knows where the commies and ISIS are hanging out. Perhaps instead of renewing martial law they simply get in there and get the job done by blasting them away.
