Recently a record breaking 100 Abu Sayyaf fighters surrendered to the government. If estimates are to be believed that is practically half of their current membership.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1180210 |
Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. on Saturday welcomed some 100 Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) surrenderers in Sulu.
The surrender of the 100 ASG members was facilitated by the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) headed by Maj. Gen. Patrick Villacorte.
Villacorte presented the 100 ASG surrenderers to Abalos in a ceremony at Sumadja Hall, Capitol Site, Patikul, Sulu.
Abalos was happy to note that the 100 ASG members decided to surrender to live peaceful lives noting the hardships they experienced in the mountains and continuously being pursued by government troops.
“From the bottom of our hearts, welcome to the government and we’ll make sure that our children will have a better and brighter tomorrow,” Abalos said during the ceremony.
This is indeed a victory and could signal the end of the ASG. The PNP, AFP, and even the NTF-ELCAC are to be thanked for this happening. The DILG expects even more surrenders to occur.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1180698 |
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) expressed hope that more members of the New People's Army (NPA) and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) will leave the armed struggle and lead new lives as peace-loving and productive citizens.
Interior Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. made the remark as he reported the recent surrender of 100 ASG members and supporters in Sulu and 50 former NPA and Militia ng Bayan members.
“(It seems this will continue). I have been receiving a lot of invitations. This week, (I will go to another place again and there will be another batch of surrenderers and I hope this will continue so that we can attain genuine peace),” Abalos said in a Palace press briefing.
He added that this development will pave the way for real progress and development in the province of Sulu, which is a known stronghold of the ASG.
"(Sulu is very beautiful). They got one of the country’s pristine beaches. (The land is fertile), ready for agriculture. So, (it seems this is being prepared) economic progress," he added.
Asked on the exact number of ASG fighters in Sulu, Abalos said he cannot give a figure but the group's force is now limited to a "very small number".
Abalos also called on the remaining NPA and ASG members to return to the fold of the law.
This did not occur overnight or even within the past month. This is a long time coming. However one Tweeter had a different take on the matter.
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100 Abu Sayyaf members recently surrendered under the "Balik Loob" program of Sulu Province. A victory in our anti-terror campaign, and a testament to PBBM's commitment to end insurgency in the country. #BBMFirst100Days
The fact is Bongo Marcos has nothing to do with this victory. It just happened to happen at the beginning of his term. This serves to underscore the fact that at the beginning of each presidency the clock to stop the insurgency restarts. The clock has a six year time limit.
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| https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/07/09/news/national/marcos-govt-seeks-end-to-insurgency/1850288 |
DEPUTY National Security Adviser Rommel Banlaoi said they are targeting to end the decades-old insurgency before the end of the six-year term of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.
Banlaoi, a respected political scientist and security expert, said they will assist the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) in hitting the target via a whole-of-nation approach.
"We hope hindi na ito aabutin ng six years (We hope this will not reach six years)," Banlaoi said.
He said that the sooner the insurgency ends, the "better and faster we can focus on the economic development of every part or village of the country."
Banlaoi said there are just some 2,000 communist rebels in the country, and they are hoping that they would simply surrender to the government than risk their lives over senseless encounters.
There are only 2,000 NPA left? Let's keep that number in the back of our heads and see where we are in six years time. This number does not include the "300,000 to 400,000 who are allies of different CPP-NPA-NDF front organizations" which the NICA claims has infiltrated the government. If all the NPA are wiped out and the other groups remain will the government call it a victory? Every administration has made this promise and the only thing to do is wait and see.
That same Tweeter who thanked Marcos for the surrender of 100 ASG also made the surprising claim that Sara Duterte has shown more resolve in fighting the CPP-NPA-NDF than anyone else in the past 53 years.
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| https://twitter.com/AlfredoGenom/status/1553590948831309824 |
In just one month, VP Sara Duterte has already shown more resolve and passion in fighting the terrorist group CPP-NPA-NDF than what her predecessors did in years.
What a way to negate the efforts of so many including soldiers who gave their lives fighting against the insurgents. This claim stems from the recent word war between Sara and the Makabayan bloc.
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| https://mb.com.ph/2022/07/31/vp-sara-makabayan-bloc-trade-barbs-over-sona-garb/ |
An irked Vice President Sara Duterte did not mince words when she slammed former Bayan Muna Rep. Eufamia Cullamat over her remarks about her traditional Bagobo Tagabawa dress attire during the State of the Nation Address (SONA), alleging the Makabayan bloc of Congress, of which she is a member, to have ties with communist rebels.
The Makabayan bloc, for its part, called out Duterte’s “red-tagging and terror-tagging,” liking her to former president Rodrigo Duterte who “has dodged pressing concerns of the Filipino people.”In a statement, the Vice President hit the Makabayan bloc for “desperately spinning things around as they scramble to make sense in a world that has already rendered them inconsequential.”“Makabayan Bloc, with member partylist groups suffering the tragedy of losing during in the election last May — and this is something that speaks volumes of their relevance today and could, even more, speak volumes of their contribution to nation building, or the apparent lack of it — now attempts to make the Filipino public believe that their intentions are noble when they curiously started this tit-for-tat with a criticism of that Bagobo Tagabawa dress I wore to the SONA,” she said.“But make no mistake. Makabayan Bloc cannot be trusted. And no self-respecting Filipino should fall for its drama,” Duterte added.This came after Cullamat criticized Duterte for wearing the traditional garb of the Lumad when she red-tagged the students and teachers of Lumad schools.But Duterte hit back by saying that the Lumad schools were shut down in 2019 because the Department of Education (DepEd) found that the schools failed to fill in the education gap for learners “except maybe for subjects dedicated to the indoctrination of the children by the volunteer teachers whose real assignments were to groom the children and prepare them to join the armed terrorism of the NPA.”
But the Save Our Schools (SOS) Network condemned the closure of the schools and rejected the validity of the DepEd findings since the investigation was only based on the “false narratives” of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and its paramilitary troops.Meanwhile, the Makabayan bloc condemned Duterte’s statement against Cullamat, saying that the Vice President should apologize to the Lumad community and Cullamat “for enabling the massacre and corporate plunder of Lumad communities and for ordering closure of 11 Salugpongan schools in Davao City.”“We cannot let VP Duterte’s dangerous and callous tirades against Cullamat pass, nor condone her unconscionable demand for Cullamat to apologize to her fellow IPs and her daughter who was slain by the military,” the statement read.
What a lot of needless drama all sparked because Sara, who is a half-Jew and in no way an IP, cosplayed as an indigenous person at Marcos' SONA. She says she did this to bring attention to the plight of the IPs who are being victimized by the CPP but it's rather obvious she did it to steal the spotlight. Not only did this incident spark a war of words between Duterte and the Makabayan Bloc but even the NTF-ELCAC stepped in to comment.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1180384 |
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC) vowed to stand united with Vice President Sara Duterte in fighting communist terrorist groups and their allied front organizations.
Flosemer Chris Gonzales, NTF-ELCAC spokesperson for Legal Affairs, said Duterte immortalized their core message and advocacy when she said communist groups must be exposed.
“We find courage in your words, Madame Vice President. These are words that we know you will translate into action. Trust that we will be one with you in transforming your words into reality for the Filipino people,” Gonzales said in a statement Monday night.
In a previous statement, Duterte condemned the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) for deceiving the youth into joining the armed struggle and waging a war they will never win because it is a war against their fellow Filipinos.
Gonzales said Duterte strengthened NTF-ELCAC’s resolve to work for a just and lasting peace.
He said the NTF-ELCAC would systematically tear down the layers of lies and deception that the CPP-NPA-NDF has built around their so-called front organizations, responsible for the recruitment and meaningless deaths of a number of young people in the guise of a revolution.
“The CPP-NPA-NDF’s lost and dying cause has totally lost all sense and meaning and has been reduced to a mere criminal and terrorist rabble that resorts to lawless violence and desperate acts of extortion that aggravate the sad plight of our masses in the few remaining conflict-stricken areas in the country,” Gonzales said.
Where exactly is the courage in her words? Lorraine Badoy has being saying the same kind of things for years. There is literally nothing new here and Sara was rightly called out for cosplaying as an Indigenous Person and overshadowing Marcos. But it's not only the NTF-ELCAC who is holding up VP Duterte as someone who must be followed in the fight against the CPP-NPA-NDF.
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| https://twitter.com/GiboTeodoroJr/status/1554648506853658624 |
Even the military is kissing up to her. Hasn't the AFP been "exposing their real agenda" for years now? Doesn't that mean Sara should be following them? She is a Johnny-come-lately when it comes to fighting the insurgency.
If you want to celebrate women fighting the insurgency then there are better candidates besides Sara Duterte and Lorraine Badoy.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1180526 |
Task Group Bangis (TGB), the newly formed peacekeeping unit of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division (ID), has fielded female soldiers in the forefront of their peace missions in Central Mindanao.Lt. Col. Michael Angelo Candole, the TGB commander, said the female soldiers will regularly accompany the Army in their humanitarian endeavors in the far-flung areas.“These female soldiers are to provide support to the local government and other agencies, not limited to our outreach programs and medical missions,” Candole said in a statement Wednesday.A platoon of women TGB soldiers participated Tuesday in a medical and outreach program conducted in Barangay Kablacan in Maasim, Sarangani province.They participated in the medical consultation, operation “tuli” (circumcision), delivery of medicines and vitamins, hygiene awareness for teenagers, kids’ recreational activities, feeding program, operation “gupit” (haircut), minor operations, and relief goods distribution.At least 100 beneficiaries, mostly indigents, benefited from the program carried out by joint Army, police, and local government unit (LGU) personnel.“Deploying our female troops in these efforts is not only the right thing to do but also a smart move to win the hearts and minds of our local people, especially those at the grassroots level,” said Lt. Colonel Anhouvic Atilano, the Army's 38th Infantry Battalion commander who organized the outreach.
But because these women are working hard behind the scenes they will not get the credit they deserve.
United States troops continue to train the AFP in counterinsurgency techniques.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1180617 |
Lt. Gen. Alfredo Rosario Jr., Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) chief, led the donning of the rank on the newly-promoted commander of the American troops based here.In a statement Thursday, Westmincom said the rank insignia was pinned on Lt. Col. Paul Bailey of the United States Marine Corp, the head of the US Special Operations Task Force 511.2 (SOTF-511.2) based in Camp Navarro.The donning of the rank was held closed-door Wednesday inside the camp, which is the Westmincom headquarters, with selected Philippine and US military officials in attendance.Rosario also awarded the Military Civic Action Medal to Bailey and the SOTF 511.2 members for meritorious achievement during their almost eight months of deployment as Westmincom-Foreign Liaison Elements.Other awardees were Majors James Salka and Daniel Grant, Captains Michael Nerdahl and Edward Robinson, and 1st Sgt. Robert Turek, all of the U.S. Marine Corps.The U.S. Armed Forces had been providing training and technical assistance to Filipino troops in combating terrorism in Mindanao.
In his message, Rosario thanked the SOTF 511.2 for the knowledge and expertise they shared that supported Westmincom's mission.
Meanwhile, Bailey thanked Westmincom for providing them with a haven during their deployment.
He assured that their successors will sustain the strong interoperability of the US and Philippine troops.
That the US offers real assistance to the AFP is a story that remains in the background with not many reporting on it. That's all good and well as surely the US Marines do not want attention drawn to themselves. Better to let Boxing Sara steal the scene by cosplaying as not only an Indigenous Person but as the most resolved against the insurgency in the past 53 years.
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