Irony abounds in the Philippine's fight against terrorism. Despite it's pretensions the MILF is terrorist organization. Founded in 1977 after a split from the MNLF the MILF made fast connections among various Islamic groups including al-Qaeda though they continue deny those links. ISIS was formed out of al-Qaeda and eventually spread to the Philippines. Now the MILF runs the BARMM and are assisting the AFP in preventing attacks by ISIS.
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| https://www.philstar.com/nation/2020/12/30/2067164/milf-thwarts-dawlah-islamiya-attack-army-detachment-maguindanao |
Members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front killed seven Dawlah Islamiya gunmen who tried to attack an Army detachment in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao Tuesday.
The slain terrorists were among more than 30 gunmen on light trucks and motorcycles headed to to Barangay Tuka, Mamasapano where a detachment of the Army's 33rd Infantry Battalion is located.
Maj. Gen. Juvymax Uy of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division said Wednesday that MILF members led by Samad Simpal had promptly blocked the convoy at the border of Shariff Aguak and Shariff Saidona Mustapha towns, killing seven terrorists in an ensuing gunfight.
The Dawlah Islamiya has a strong presence in Shariff Saidona Mustapha town in the second district of Maguindanao.
The Dawlah Islamiya, also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, operates in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and has been trying to derail the peace process between Malacañang and the MILF.
Army intelligence sources said the Dawlah Islamiya planned to surround the Army detachment and fire assault rifles at troops.
"The terror plot was foiled immediately by our friends in the MILF," Uy told reporters by online messenger.
30 gunmen on light truck and motorcycles sounds like a rather well planned and massive attack. Army intelligence sources seem to have known about it but was it another case of not ignoring or "not appreciating" the intel? Is something brew in the jungles of Mindanao waiting to be released soon? A group of men allegedly linked to the MNLF were caught engaged in military training while wearing uniforms.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1125861 |
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Monday said joint elements of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) arrested some 35 suspects who identified themselves as members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in Rizal and were caught illegally discharging firearms and engaged in illegal paramilitary training.
DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año, in a news release, said based on reports from officials of Barangay Guinayang, San Mateo, Rizal, the suspects who are not residents of the area, set up a camp in the upper portion of the barangay, and were seen indiscriminately discharging firearms and in a formation in what appeared to be a paramilitary training.
He said this prompted combined elements of the Rizal Provincial Police Office (PPO) and the 80th Infantry Battalion (IB) to conduct a joint operation which led to the arrest of the group led by a certain Lydia Panuelo.
Año said police and Army operatives caught most of the group members illegally wearing military uniforms while in formation and violating Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) guidelines on minimum health protocols (i.e. not wearing face masks and face shields and disregarding physical distancing).
“Wearing of AFP and PNP uniforms by civilians is already a violation of the law. We will make sure that these people will be penalized. Pinababaklas ko na rin sa mga barangay officials at sa LGU ang mga illegal structures na tinayo nila sa lugar (I also ordered barangay officials and the LGU to dismantle the illegal structures that they set up in the area)," he said.
Meanwhile, PNP Calabarzon director, Brig. Gen. Felipe Natividad, said that a certain Deogenes Rodriguez reportedly talked to the group and promised to give PHP300,000 to each of the member after their training "prior to deployment to Mindanao".
Natividad said unlike the real members of the MNLF, they did not speak any Arabic nor Mindanao language but are mostly fluent in Tagalog. Both the PNP and AFP are now validating their alleged affiliation with the MNLF.
A group of 35 men were wearing AFP uniforms and training at a camp they set up in a barangay. Though they claimed to be part of the MNLF the neath spoke Arabic nor any Mindanao language but were fluent in Tagalog. These men were also promised P300,000 each upon deployment to Mindanao. Just who were these men?
The MNLF denies any involvement with this group.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1378091/mnlf-disowns-training-camp-in-rizal |
In fact, the MNLF Central Committee had informed the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp) as early as Nov. 10 of the existence of the paramilitary hubs as “not recognized” by the group based in Mindanao, according to Rizal police.
The MNLF, in a letter signed by Nur-Ainee Lim of the MNLF Secretariat and addressed to Opapp Director for MNLF Concerns Jana Jill Gallardo, also asked those “persons not to proceed with their activities.”
The content of the MNLF letter was disclosed by Col. Joseph Arguelles, Rizal police director, who pointed out that those people were “recruited” not to become Moro fighters but as members of private armies of land-grabbers.
Arguelles declined to show the Inquirer the entire MNLF document, saying what he had was just a photocopy, although he said the information had been “coordinated” as well to former Philippine National Police chief Camilo Cascolan, who retired on Nov. 10.
“The [recruits] were offered P300,000 by a certain Deogenes Rodriguez for supposed deployment to Mindanao [as MNLF fighters],” he said.
Land-grabbing and illegal settlement are what Arguelles described as “peculiar” issues in Rizal, a province on the outskirts of Metro Manila yet largely undeveloped and upland.
In November, Rizal policemen raided a similar camp in Taytay town and arrested 52 people.
“It’s a scam. Where would you find an army where a [new recruit] is given a rank of brigadier general?” Arguelles said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
The police filed charges against those arrested for illegal possession of firearms, as well as for violating pandemic protocols on mass gathering.
Many of them are residents of Rodriguez, Rizal, and Taguig City in Metro Manila, while one is from Basilan province, Arguelles said.
It's a scam? What exactly is the scam? That you think you are fighting for the MNLF but are actually fighting in some warlord's private army? How exactly were these people recruited anyway? This seems like a rather large problem since a similar camp in November was busted and 52 were arrested. One thing's for sure and that's the Philippines does not lack for people who want to fight.
A new year brings new problems.
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| https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/01/01/2067527/npa-forming-urban-hit-squads-cpp-confirms |
The New People's Army is forming urban hit squads, Communist Party of the Philippines Central Committee information officer Marco Valbuena confirmed just before the New Year.
This, after the communist rebels hinted of reviving teams that targeted police officers, soldiers, government agents and even politicians over "blood debts".
Valbuena said that "there is a standing order for the NPA to form partisan teams to mete out punishment against enemy units and officers who have committed bloody crimes against the people."
He cited as an example the recent "punishment by partisan teams of the NPA some notorious fascist criminals, including Jumar Bucales, who heads a local paramilitary vigilante group responsible for the 2015 Lianga (Surigao del Sur) massacre."
He said that "in due time, the NPA will be able to form more partisan teams who can carry out punitive actions in the cities or close to the cities," adding regional NPA commands have been instructed to form Special Operations Groups for those operations.
CPP founder Jose Maria Sison, in self-exile in The Netherlands, responding to a supposed "popular demand" for the return of the armed city partisans to fight back at "assassinations and impunity by the Duterte regime" claimed during the 52nd founding anniversary of the CPP that there is basis "to conduct armed partisan operations in the cities to mete out revolutionary justice against Duterte's terrorist forces based in the urban areas."
It sounds like the NPA, whom we have been told time and again are dwindling and irrelevant, are gearing up for war this year. Will we see more ambushes on the PNP and AFP? More dead cops and soldiers? DND Secretary Lorenzana says, "Bring it on!"
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1378928/lorenzana-to-communist-rebels-bring-on-your-terror-threats |
“We dare Mr. Sison to bring on his terror threats. Unlike in the 80s, the AFP is more prepared to defeat his terrorist liquidation squads. The Filipino people will be on our side in this fight,” Lorenzana said in a statement, reacting to CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena’s remark that the partisan units will be revived.
Remember way back in December 2016 when Duterte dared the Maute group to attack Marawi? That did not turn out do well did it?
Thank goodness the DOJ is on the case to stop the NPA.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1126047 |
"For 2021, we shall base our plans upon the assumption that the department could go full speed by the middle of the year when restrictions on physical movements and interactions might gradually be lifted upon the arrival of the much-awaited vaccines," Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told reporters.
He added that in particular, the DOJ will "intensify its role in the campaign against terrorism, corruption in government, and illegal drugs, as well as in the protection of human rights."
The DOJ has been tasked by President Rodrigo Duterte to spearhead the government's anti-corruption campaign and has since identified threshold transactions in a number of government agencies on top of its investigation.
It is also a key implementing agency of the Anti Terrorism Act passed by Congress as a response to the threat of transnational terrorist groups.
This month, bank deposits and other assets of the terrorist Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, New People's Army (NPA), have been put on freeze by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) after the organization was formally designated a terrorist organization by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC).
The freeze order covers the related accounts (RA) of said organization referring to accounts opened and maintained for the benefit of said organization and was issued pursuant to Section 25 of Republic Act 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020 in relation to Republic Act 10168 or the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act.
Is the DOJ actually being hampered in its mission because of social distancing protocols? That's ridiculous but it seems to be true. How exactly the DOJ will intensify their role in the campaign against terrorism they do not say. But with social distancing protocols keeping them from doing their job it sounds like not much should be expected of them. Will freezing bank accounts stop the NPA from waging war? Likely not. The only way to really stop them is to kill them or wait for them to surrender which seems to be the what the military and LGUs prefer.
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| https://www.philstar.com/nation/2021/01/02/2067716/local-execs-urge-surrender-npas-central-mindanao |
Officials again appealed on Saturday to members of the New People’s Army to return to the fold of law while there is time yet.
Local executives in central Mindanao placed at no fewer than 40 the number of NPAs killed in clashes with units of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division (6th ID) in Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato, North Cotabato and Sarangani provinces from between July to December 2019.
North Cotabato Gov. Nancy Catamco told reporters Saturday her administration is ready to help facilitate the return to mainstream society of reforming former NPAs.
"The provincial capitol is open to you or your emissaries. Send us surrender feelers now and we shall do our best to hasten your return to the fold of law," Catamco, chairperson of the North Cotabato provincial peace and order council, said.
“We have two approaches, one focused on securing their surrender and the other the use of force against recalcitrant NPAs to ensure the safety of helpless people they compel to pay `revolutionary taxes' and feed them at gunpoint,” Uy said.
If NPA members do not surrender and avail of all the freebies offered at taxpayers expense and are killed in battle then maybe the AFP will give them a decent burial.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1126043 |
The Army's 29th Infantry Battalion (29IB) and the local government units (LGUs) of Jabonga and Cabadbaran City in Agusan del Norte accorded decent burial to the two New People’s Army (NPA) combatants killed in an encounter on Dec. 27 in Barangay Baleguian, Jabonga town.“The dead NPA rebels were already claimed by family members last Dec. 28 and 30,” 1Lt. Edmar C. Colagong, the civil-military operation (CMO) officer of 29IB, said in a press statement Thursday.The slain rebels were identified as Reggie May Ochavillo, 20, a resident of Cabadbaran City, and Marife Mercansel Montero, 23, of Tago, Surigao del Sur“Ochavillo’s body was claimed by his grandparents on December 28 while Montero’s cadaver was turned over to her sister last December 30,” Colagong said.Lt. Col. Aristotle F. Antonio, 29IB commander, expressed sadness over the fate of the two rebel combatants."I am saddened to see the terrible situation that our youths fall into after being deceived by the NPA,” Antonio said in the same statement.He said the parents and family members of NPA combatants are not aware of the harsh realities inside the communist rebel movement.“We plead with you once more to help us make them see the light and find their way back. And, if you think that lying about them and hiding their true nature from us would protect them, think about it again, for doing so will just put them in great danger,” Antonio said.
All those who surrender also turn over their weapons. Last year a family of NPA fighters handed over weapons marked "government arsenal."
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1057303 |
A family of three, who are members of the New People's Army (NPA), have surrendered to the Davao police and handed over firearms and ammunitions marked “Government Arsenal” issued to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
The surrenderers -- identified only as Olegario, 52, his wife Lucena, 49, and son Jesriel, 27, all of Sitio Banarao, Barangay Talandang, Tugbok District, this city -- were presented in a press conference at the Police Regional Office 11 (Davao region), Camp Sgt. Quintin Merecido in Buhangin here Friday. Their full names were withheld for security reasons.
The surrendered firearms and ammunitions consisted of a homemade Ingram Sub Machine Gun with more or less 50 rounds of live ammo; a 9-mm. pistol with live ammo; eight pieces of M203 live ammo; and two fragmentation grenades.
The ammunitions, which bear government markings and lot number, will now be the subject of an investigation by a task force, which Morales said he would create to trace the ammo’s source and how they landed in the hands of the NPA.
He said he would invite a military judge advocate so that the investigation would be fair.
A fair investigation? What were the results of the investigation into the Maute group using government owned weapons during the Marawi siege? And what about the investigation into government issued weapons found in the BARMM in 2019, the so-called weapons leak? Just exactly how do government owned weapons continue to find their way into the hands of communist and Muslim terrorists?
The AFP claims the 7,165 CPP-NPA affiliated rebels surrendered in 2020.
“Information collected from military units on the ground also report that 7,615 fighters, militias, propagandists, and underground organization members and supporters have returned to the fold of law.”
How many more thousands will surrender this year?
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