Insurgency: CPP-NPA Threat Dwindling

Looks like victory over the insurgency is just a shot away. It's so close the PNP can taste it.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1156984

The government continues to win the hearts and minds of Filipinos and is close to attaining "decisive victory" against communist insurgency through good governance and better services, an official of the Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Monday.

“(Decisive victory is almost within our reach. Many people now believe in the effectiveness of our government's projects. This is why many communist terrorist group members have surrendered). After five decades, this is the only administration that is able to provide a holistic solution to insurgency problem," PNP director for operations, Maj. Gen. Rhodel Sermonia, said in a virtual press briefing of the National Task Force To End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC).

Sermonia said these programs include the ongoing Barangay Development Program (BDP), the Duterte Legacy Barangay Caravan, and the revitalized "Pulis sa Barangay" where government services are being delivered and sustained even in the farthest barangays that were largely ignored during the past administrations.

Sermonia, who previously served as the PNP's director for police community relations, said the creation of the Global Coalition of Lingkod Bayan Advocacy Support Groups and Force Multipliers also contributed to promoting government programs for different sectors, especially those vulnerable to recruitment by communist front organizations.

"We debunk their narratives through good governance and better government services. Their ideology and violence now seem disruptive. We unmask their cadres and tactics through the mobilization of a coalition against their front organizations," he added.

On one hand it's great. The PNP and AFP are winning hearts and mind by supplying "good governance and better government services." On the other hand, why wasn't the government doing this in the first place? Why are there villages without electricity or roads or running water? It is really a testimony to how lame and ineffective the Philippine government has been. There is absolutely no reason this country should not be on par with Japan or South Korea or Singapore seeing as it has received just as much if not more western investment and intervention since Wold War 2. But here we are in 2021 and the Philippines is still the supplier of maids and handymen throughout the world.

Duterte has been hyped as the reason the government is finally building infrastructure in far flung areas and he says to hurry it up.

https://www.cnn.ph/news/2019/8/27/filipino-households-electricity-national-electrification-administration.html

President Rodrigo Duterte remains steadfast in his commitment to speed up the development in communities still infested with the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

As part of his efforts to counter insurgency, Duterte will visit Lucena, Quezon on Thursday to emphasize his administration’s peace and development initiatives in Calabarzon, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said in a press statement issued Wednesday.

“President Rodrigo Duterte, who is also Chairman of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), shall resume his visits to the different regions to fast-track the development of conflict-affected and geographically-isolated barangays,” Esperon, who concurrently serves as NTF-ELCAC vice chairperson, said.

The NTF-ELCAC has identified a total of 822 villages that have already been cleared of NPA influence.

The 822 NPA-cleared villages are expected to receive PHP20 million each to fund their anti-insurgency projects.

You know, maybe, just MAYBE, the problem with the insurgency is that every President has made it a PERSONAL endeavor to see it eradicated by the end of their term. There is nothing especially wrong with that but it is ultimately very short sighted. Every administration has AFP officials claiming they will defeat the NPA by the end of the current President's term. Thus we have the AFP making bold and baseless assertions like the NPA is irrelevant or that it is about to be defeated. And here we are 52 years later and the insurgency is still going strong. 

In fact, some people think insurgents are sitting members of Congress.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1157138

Multi-sectoral organizations on Tuesday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to bar from next year's elections some party-list groups that have links to the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).

Members of Liga Independencia Pilipinas (LIPI), League of Parents of the Philippines (LPP), Sulong Maralita, and Yakap ng Magulang, along with mothers of students who were recruited by militant organizations, picketed in front of the Comelec main office in Intramuros, Manila to call for the disqualification of party-lists belonging to the Makabayan bloc.

The groups said Bayan Muna, Kabataan, Anakpawis, ACT Teachers, and Gabriela Women's Party have been active in the CPP-NPA's underground revolutionary tactics to push for a communist system.

In an interview, LPP chair Remy Rosadio said the Makabayan members are being used to lure more Filipinos into joining the CPP’s armed struggle.

Rosadio cited evidence presented by former CPP-NPA rebels and high-ranking cadres, pointing out the involvement of the Makabayan bloc in the disappearances of students and indigenous peoples.

Apparently Joma Sison himself has said the groups associated with the Makabyan Bloc are all legal fronts of the CPP. But despite that the Comelec has allowed them to run and the AFP has not been able to shut them down. Why is this? Aside from that the NICA claims that 300,000-400,000 CPP-NPA-NDFP supporters have infiltrated the government. What's to be done with those people? Building roads won't defeat them or the Makabyan Bloc. Maybe the AFP needs a different strategy to deal with alleged legal fronts. If they have one they aren't talking about it.

With the existence of these front groups as well as the hundreds of thousands of CPP-NPA-NDFP members who have allegedly infiltrated the government one owed think the AFP and PNP would be worried about the threat they pose. But they seem to not have that under consideration.

https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/407483/afp-chief-of-staff-says-threat-of-cpp-npa-dwindling

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. 

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.

Just exactly where does the Makabyan Bloc fit in here? While the NTF-ELCAC can persuade NPA rebels to surrender and avail of the extensive benefits program what is being done to combat the party-lists? What is the nature of the threat the pose to the nation? National Security Advisor Esperon says they are not doing anything illegal in Congress.

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/11/06/2054943/makabayan-bloc-not-doing-anything-illegal-congress-esperon

National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon has conceded that the Makabayan bloc is not doing anything unlawful in Congress despite the continuous word war between state forces and leftist groups over alleged red-tagging.

He said these groups tread the thin line between being an organization that supports worthy advocacies versus that which provides support to the communist armed rebellion.

“They are not doing anything illegal in Congress. They are not. But there are underground organizations that they, whether wittingly or unwittingly, support, that are connected with Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army (NPA) and the underground National Democratic Front,” he said yesterday in an interview on CNN.

Esperon said they have been conducting “manual surveillance” on elected members of the Makabayan bloc, noting that the defense sector can do this even without a court order as they have already deemed these individuals to be a security threat or contributory to groups who are threats to security.

“Manual surveillance is our operatives doing light surveillance of the target. We can do that. Deployment of troops or personnel to conduct surveillance on specific persons,” he added.

The Makabayan Bloc is not doing anything illegal yet they are under "manual surveillance" because they have been deemed to pose a threat. It's this kind of double-mindedness which will prolong the insurgency. If these people are security threats then they should absolutely be removed from Congress.