In the fight against the CPP-NPA and Islamic terrorists it sometimes seems as if everything is upside down. PNP officers execute AFP soldiers as they hunt after ISIS and NPA rebels become peace makers.
The Former Rebels (FRs) of Matuguinao, Samar are now peace builders of the said town as they participated in a round table discussion with the Samar Task Force-ELCAC.
They are now called peace builders because they participate in the discussions and formulation of plans that will ultimately usher in lasting peace to their communities, said Provincial Social Welfare and Development Officer, Ms. Alma Austero.
The discussion centered on the joint efforts of the government and the FRs in addressing the insurgency problems in Matuguinao.
LTC Jasper Pecson, Battalion Commander of 19IB, Philippine Army, assigned in the area said the ELCAC aims to create long lasting peace not just in Matuguinao but all over the country.
“No amount of money can compare to the joy of having a peaceful community, and living a normal situation where one can engage freely in the community,” Pecson said.
Austero of the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office, discussed to the FRs the benefits of their surrender under the E-CLIP Program as well as the Local Social Integration Program of the provincial government.
The Local Peace Engagement Cluster is set to have another round of discussion with the peace builders to further identify the basic services they need.
It sounds like "peace building" means that they are telling the government what kind of freebies they need to have a better life. Surely they can do better than that right?
A top official of the Philippine Army in the Caraga Region commended 12 former communist guerillas who pledged to help the government's peace and development efforts.
Brig. Gen. Maurito Licudine, commander of the Army's 402nd Infantry Brigade (402Bde), underscored the role of New People's Army (NPA) surrenderers in helping end the communist rebel movement's "influence and harassments" on several upland communities in the region.
“These FRs (former rebels) are the most credible persons to convey and encourage the remaining members of the Communist Terrorist Group (CTG) to surrender and reconcile with the government," Licudine said in a statement Friday.
He said the 12 new rebel returnees can also "effectively convince" their former comrades to lay down their arms and return to their families.
Major Francisco Garello Jr., 402Bde civil-military operations officer, said the 12 ex-NPAs who recently surrendered to the different battalions of the brigade completed their four-day "de-radicalization" training held in Camp Bancasi from July 18 to 21.
Garello said the "de-radicalization" program is part of the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (ECLIP) process and a critical component of the reintegration of the former rebels into their communities.
“The program redirects our FRs from their deceptive views and delegitimizes the Communist NPA Terrorist (CNT) rhetoric and tactics in order to complete their transformation that will lead them to leave the path of violence and false indoctrination,” Garello said.
One of the highlights of the training, he said, was the session on psycho-social moral recovery where the rebel returnees are asked to give "personal reflection" on their "past mistakes".
He said the sessions aim to "deepen their commitment" and accept the challenge to become "peace advocates".
Licudine hopes the de-radicalization" process led former rebels to "join the peace and development initiatives of the government" and aims to "transform their outlooks towards peace".
The headline
is a bit misleading. These rebels have recently surrendered and
Brig. Gen. Maurito Licudine hopes they will be peace advocates. But what do they know about peace? How long were they in the NPA that a mere 4-day de-radicalization training program is enough to make them abandon the communist cause? It's like alchemy. Take former rebels, send them to class for 4 days, and voila! a law abiding citizen who has abandoned communist ideology is born anew.
10 BIFF members recently surrendered and will surely be up for freebies from the government's E-CLIP program.
Tired of running away from government forces and wanting to be with their families, 10 members of Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) voluntarily surrendered with their firearms to the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade on Friday.
Lt. Col.Michael Maquilan, the Army's 90th Infantry Battalion commander, and Col. Donald Gumiran, 602nd Infantry Brigade deputy commander, led the surrender ceremony at the Sangguniang Bayan session hall of Pagalungan, Maguindanao.
The rebels turned in various high powered firearms that included sniper rifles, grenade launchers, explosives, and bomb-making components.
“We do not have peace of mind, we always run whenever we see government forces near our area of operation,” Alik Sanday, one of the surrenderers, told reporters in the vernacular.
The surrenderers all belonged to the group of Commander Gani Saligan of the BIFF Karialan faction.
In exchange for the rifles they turned over, the local government of Pagalungan gave financial aid to start their own livelihood project.
What
a nice story. These men just
want
to be with their
families
. So they turn in their weapons and receive money to start a "livelihood project." How much money and whether they were actually vetted the AFP does not say. Did they immediately receive money? 10 more men who will never be held accountable for their crimes against the state. Perhaps they even killed!
Meanwhile the AFP continues to fight the NPA and rout them out of their hidey-holes.
Government troops have recovered an arms cache of the communist terrorists New People’s Army (NPA) in a remote village in Zamboanga del Norte, military officials said Wednesday.
Lt. Col. Jo-ar Herrera, the Army's 53rd Infantry Battalion commander, said the arms cache containing several high-power firearms was unearthed in a follow-up operation Tuesday in Barangay Pange, Siayan, Zamboanga del Norte.
Herrera said the troops launched the follow-up operation based on information provided by a former member of the Main Regional Guerilla Unit (MRGU) of the NPA’s Western Regional Party Committee (WMRPC).
Herrera said the discovery of the firearms was proof that many are disgruntled with the "communist terrorist NPA".
“If it's not the community, it's the former rebels who disclose the locations of their firearms. This is proof that the FRs (former rebels) are tired of the NPA atrocities and also want this insurgency to end,” he said.
The troops recovered the arms cache a day after government forces clashed with a group of rebels that led to the recovery of an M-16 Armalite rifle with several rounds of ammunition, medical supplies, personal belongings, and propaganda materials.
Th location of this cache was found using information provided by a former rebel. A cache found in Negros however was found after the AFP engaged in a firefight with 20 NPA rebels.
His men found the area after engaging some 20 members of the NPA’s South West Front Platoon 2, Sentro de Grabidad in a 15-minute firefight.
They recovered from the hideout an improvised explosive device, a generator set, electrical wires, a pair of binoculars, a blood pressure apparatus, and a computer printer. Other items found included subversive documents, teach-in materials, office supplies, a map of Negros, containers of gasoline, personal items, foodstuff, and cooking utensils.
A hideout was also found in Bicol yielded explosives among other materials.
Army operations in Barangay Calpi, Bulan, Sorsogon resulted in two encounters with members of the New People’s Army (NPA) and seizure of explosives and food from the communist rebels.
Capt. John Paul Belleza, 9th Infantry Division spokesperson, in an interview on Tuesday, said the first encounter that lasted for 30 minutes occurred when Army troopers responded to a report from residents that a group of communist NPA terrorists (CNTs) was lingering in the outskirts of the village.
“Two hours later, reinforcing troops received another tip-off from the concerned citizens which triggered another encounter with the escaping CNTs,” he said.
Belleza said the terrorists were believed to be members of Larangan 2, Komiteng Probinsya 3 of the Bicol Regional Party Committee (BRPC) who, accordingly, were planning to disrupt the Community Support Program (CSP) peace initiatives in the said area.
“Troopers seized three anti-personnel mines, electrical wires, food supplies and other CNTs' belongings from the encounter sites,” he added.
Meanwhile, Joint Task Force Bicolandia (JTFB) commander Maj. Gen. Henry Robinson Jr. said the Army in Bicol will continue to enforce more stringent measures to protect the communities against the communist terrorists.
“To further prevent any terroristic acts which hamper government efforts to uplift the people’s welfare through community development, we will continue to enforce measures and preempt any unlawful activities,” he added.
Robinson added that the CSP Team is conducting immersion activities in the communities to know the needs of the residents and to bring these to the government for appropriate actions.
“But the CTG’s terrorism disrupts this operation, thereby delaying the delivery of needed services to the local populace. We will not allow this. Our intensified operations are meant to go after these terrorists, encourage them to return to the folds of the law and totally eradicate the insurgency in Bicol,” he added.
What Maj. Gen. Henry Robinson Jr. is talking about is the whole-of-nation-approach whereby more services are given to those out in the provinces to deter them from joining the CPP-NPA. Recently a team was went to Samar to assess the needs of various communities.
“Their mission is to identify the issues of the people that will be raised to the concerned government agencies and local government for them to address it accordingly. This is a way for the government to reach its services to the far-flung areas of the country and let people feel that no one is left behind,” the Philippine Army 63rd Infantry Battalion said in a statement issued on Thursday.
The Philippine Army said the task of the teams is to facilitate solutions for those identified problems through the convergence of efforts of different government agencies supervised by the local task force of ending local communist armed conflict (ELCAC).
The military initially identified 100 remote villages in the Eastern Visayas region as a priority for RCSP deployment due to threats of the NPA.
As of mid-2020, the NPA in Eastern Visayas has 384 fighters with 363 firearms, influencing 162 villages, a small fraction of the 4,390 villages in the region’s six provinces, according to a report of the regional task force ELCAC.
Where did the PNP obtain such specific information about the number of NPA fighters and firearms in the Eastern Visayas? It would seem 21 NPA rebels do not have firearms.
The new anti-terror law is now in effect but there is a catch. As of this moment there are no implementing rules and regulations (IRR). The would seem to make the law inutile. The PNP thinks so.
Philippine National Police chief Archie Gamboa on Monday maintained that the police force still cannot enforce the antiterrorism act in the absence of implementing rules and regulations (IRR).
“Many are saying there are provisions of the antiterror law that are already executory and do not require the IRR but nevertheless we still have to study this and [find out] what these [provisions] are so that this will be part of the [police] training,” the PNP chief said at an online briefing on Monday.
“We are on the stage of preparing, waiting for the IRR and then creating units for the specific task of implementing the antiterror law,” he said, adding that a specialized unit, the composition of which has not yet been specified, would be enforcing its provisions.
SolGen Calida disagrees with this assessment.
Solicitor General Jose Calida on Thursday said the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (ATA) is already in effect even if the government has yet to craft its implementing rules and regulations.
In a statement, Calida, citing precedent cases previously decided on by the Supreme Court, such as SEC v. IRC decided in 2008, said laws are not contingent on the implementing rules.
"To claim that the law is ineffective until implementing rules are promulgated creates an absurd situation where an agency can delay the effectivity of the law by delaying promulgation of its rules. To argue that a law is less than the law because it is made to depend on a future event or act is to rob Congress of its plenary power to act wisely for the public welfare," Calida said.
Even while the IRR is still underway, the ATA is already in force, Calida said.
"First, the promulgation of the IRR is not a condition precedent for the effectivity of the ATA. The pending issuance of an IRR cannot defer the law coming into force. A law is presumed to be valid when there exists an interpretation favorable to its effectivity. Unless there are clear and unmistakable showing of the law’s constitutional and statutory infirmity, the presumption of validity subsists, and the law is binding and effective," he added.
Sure the law is in force but how are the authorities
to implement the law without the IRR? This is another good reason why the Congress should fashion the IRR along with the law itself. Perhaps DILG Sec. Año had the most absurd comment on this situation.
Law enforcement agencies may wait for the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the anti-terror law if there is no terrorist threat in the country, Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año said on Wednesday.
“If there is a terrorist threat, we have to apply the law. Kung nakabingit yung buhay ng mamamayan, we have to implement it. Now kung walang malakihang terrorist threat, we will have to wait for the IRR,” Año said in a televised pre-State of the Nation Address forum when asked if police will heed the Department of Justice’s call to wait for the promulgation of the anti-terror law’s IRR.
(If there is a terrorist threat, we have to apply the law. If it is already threatening our countrymen, we have to implement it. If there is no big terrorist threat, we will have to wait for the IRR.)
The law, however, is already in effect but it still needs the IRR to prevent issues with its promulgation, the Interior and Local Government chief said.
“The only question is since there is no IRR, there are so many people who will question the law enforcers on carrying out this law on certain provisions and applications. To avoid that, wait for the IRR because it is open to questions,” Año said in mixed Filipino and English.
What does he mean, "If there is a terrorist threat?" The NPA, the BIFF, Abu Sayyaf, they all pose a terrorist threat to the nation. They are also all engaged in activities which do not need the anti-terror law to be classified as criminal.
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