One thing I enjoy about writing this weekly article is exploring and sharing the many ways the AFP has concocted to fight the insurgency. Here's another:
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1185245 |
The city police office and a youth group here have tapped music as a tool to raise awareness against the deceptive recruitment of the New People’s Army (NPA).
At least 10 bands competed in the first "Battle of the Bands Musika Laban sa Insurhensiya (Music Against Insurgency)" held Monday night by the city police office here and the Kabataan Kontra Droga at Terorismo (KKDAT) - Tacloban Chapter.
Col. Michael Palermo, acting city police director, said in an interview Tuesday that coming up with this kind of competition was a way of achieving the goal of having a peaceful community.
“This is also our way to express our solidarity with other counterpart(s) of public service to prove to the general public our sincere thrust and our commitment to deliver to them safe, unified, and innovative initiatives that will truly win the heart and mind of the people, most especially our youth,” Palermo added.
KKDAT-Tacloban president Peter Julian Barrantes noted that “music is a magic that connects people” and the battle of bands is not just intended to entertain.
“This is a meaningful action to awaken the consciousness of youth who are blinded by the communist insurgent’s doctrine,” Barrantes told reporters.
The regional office of the Philippine National Police (PNP) here has urged other police offices in the region to emulate and conduct the same activity in their respective areas.
Brig. Gen. Joel Limson, Police Regional Office 8 (Eastern Visayas) deputy director for administration, called on all police offices in the region and the regional organization of KKDAT to make the event in the city a template and conduct the same event in other cities and towns.
"We need the success of this activity to be shared in other unit(s) and for the KKDAT to sustain this program. The police regional office is always here to support you, so let us start planning on how to cascade this to their units of the PNP,” Limson added.
The competition was held at the Leyte Normal University campus in this city.
Participating bands sang a cover song and an original composition, with the core of the lyrics on the anti-insurgency campaign of the government and how the youth should avoid being victims of communist recruitment.
Winners of the competition received cash prizes – PHP15,000 for first place, PHP10,000 for second place, and PHP8,000 for third place.
It's like Rage Against the Machine in reverse. Rage FOR the machine! And the PNP wants this to happen nationwide! A nationwide battle of the bands to quash the insurgency. Is quashing the insurgency really what the musicians and audience are thinking about as they are playing? Will the NPA give up the struggle because someone wrote a song? The competition was held at a university campus which brings us to our next new way to fight the insurgency, through the DepEd!
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1675174/depeds-intel-fund-bigger-than-that-of-intel-agency |
The Department of Education (DepEd) is seeking “intelligence funds” P9 million more than the P141 million sought by the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (Nica) itself.
At a hearing on Tuesday by the Senate finance committee on the proposed budgets for the Nica and the National Security Council, Sen. Risa Hontiveros made the comparison as she added her voice to those questioning the P150-million additional funding requested by DepEd, which is now also headed by Vice President Sara Duterte.
Such funds are normally used for surveillance activities conducted by the military and the police.
Duterte earlier defended her department’s request for intelligence funds, saying it needed the money for the surveillance of criminals targeting schoolchildren.
Hontiveros said that while she would support any program by DepEd to protect students, it would be best for the department to just coordinate with the police.
Otherwise, DepEd would just be duplicating the “existing [functions on] national security, national defense, law enforcement, even [the protection of] women and children [in various] governmental bodies and programs,” the senator said.
“National security is not the mandate of DepEd,” Hontiveros said, adding that the department has “no capability or infrastructure to conduct surveillance activities and crime busts.”
She cited other areas under DepEd’s mandate where funding is more urgent, such as ensuring the health and safety of teachers and students amid the COVID-19 pandemic, strengthening its education program for the indigenous peoples and improving overall literacy in the country.
“Let us put funds that would benefit the students. We should empower DepEd to focus on its core mandate of helping teachers and students,” Hontiveros said.
Silly Risa Hontiveros, the department of education is DEEPLY tied to national security.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1664154/sara-duterte-defends-depeds-confidential-funds-basic-education-has-direct-link-to-natl-security |
The Department of Education (DepEd) on Wednesday defended the confidential fund under its proposed P710 billion budget for 2023, pointing out a “direct link” between basic education and national security.
Vice President Sara Duterte, concurrently at the helm of the DepEd, said this at the House appropriations committee budget briefing of the department after Gabriela Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas questioned DepEd’s P150 million and Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) P500 million confidential funds.
Responding to this, Duterte asserted that both agencies’ confidential funds must be treated independently.
“The OVP and the DepEd are two separate entities. They are two separate departments of the government. And they have separate mandates as well,” she said.
Duterte further argued: “The success of a project, activity or program really depends on very good intelligence and surveillance because you want to target specific issues and challenges.”
She then cited sexual grooming of learners, youth recruitment to terrorism, and drug use of DepEd workers among the issues faced by the department, which “are not laid out for [their] regular personnel to see.”
“That is why we need the help of the security cluster and the security sector to address these issues and challenges to basic education. And as I said, basic education has a direct link to our country’s national security,” Duterte added.
If Sara elaborated on just how basic education has a direct link to national security it is not stated in this article. Surely she would be attempting to stop the brain drain that is the OFW program and making sure that teachers received a living wage so they did not have to take out loans and pawn their ATM cards if that were the case.
There is really only one way to fight the insurgency and that is with bullets and blood.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1676708/2-govt-soldiers-slain-3-wounded-in-clash-with-npa-in-eastern-samar |
Two soldiers were killed, while three others were wounded in an attack about 1:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 7, by suspected New People’s Army (NPA) members in Jipapad town, Eastern Samar.
The fatalities were Staff Sergeant John Claire Flores, the troop leader; and Private First Class Edupancho Siscar, according to a report from the 52nd Infantry Battalion.
Wounded were Sergeant Allan Talania, Private First Class Loumark Mengote, and a 10-year-old girl. It was not clear yet why the girl was in the area.
Initial information showed that the soldiers were in Barangay Dorillo when attacked by an undetermined number of rebels who were reportedly part of the guerrilla unit of the Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee.
The soldiers belong to the mobile community support sustainment team of the 52nd Infantry Battalion in Oras town, also in Eastern Samar.
Battle of the bands? NO! This is reality. The AFP are out there fighting these people while on the sidelines there is the NTF-ELCAC calling for their surrender so they can be given benefits. Just imagine the rebels who killed those soldiers can avail of government benefits if they simply surrender.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1185393 |
At least 199 former New People’s Army (NPA) rebels pledged allegiance to the government and received financial assistance in a ceremony at the provincial capitol here Wednesday.Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. led the distribution of assistance to the former NPA rebels, together with the region's provincial governors and local officials.Of the 199 NPA surrenderers who received assistance under the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP), 169 came from Agusan del Sur; Surigao del Norte, 24; Agusan del Norte, four; Butuan City, two.Each former rebel received PHP15,000 in immediate assistance, PHP50,000 as livelihood aid, and PHP21,000 for their integration into their families and communities.
That is a lot of money that law abiding citizens will never see. Meanwhile the AFP says they have dismantled 6 NPA fronts in the third quarter of this year.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1185491 |
Government forces dismantled six communist New People’s Army (NPA) units from July to September this year in Southern Mindanao, the Army’s 10th Infantry Division (10ID) said Thursday.
In a statement, the 10ID said among those dismantled by the Army-led Joint Task Force Agila (JTFA) were the NPA Sub-Regional Committee (SRC) 1, SRC 2, SRC 4, SRC 5, Guerilla Front (GF) 18, and the Regional Sentro De Grabidad (RSDG) of the Regional Operations Command (ROC), all under the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee (SMRC).
The report was based on the JTFA campaign progress review and assessment meeting for the third quarter of 2022 at Datu Balunto Hall, Camp General Manuel T Yan Senior in Mawab, Davao De Oro on Wednesday.
Maj. Gen. Nolasco Mempin, Army’s 10ID commander, said the JTFA also recorded seven encounters during the July-September period that resulted in the neutralization of 59 NPA rebels, seven of whom were killed. Two were captured and 50 surrendered, he said.
A total of 47 firearms were also recovered by the government forces.
Mempin also cited the JTFA’s role in attaining the insurgency-free status for the five provinces and one highly urbanized city in the Davao Region.
"Always remember that everything we have done is for the safety of the people and the betterment of the communities within our area of responsibility,” he said.
This is only in Southern Mindanao but let us not forget that last week the DND announced a "strategic victory" against the NPA. That is to say they declared victory without actually having won the battle. Two dead and three wounded soldiers can testify that it is still ongoing.
Here is a good story about the AFP overtaking a BIFF bomb making lair.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1185231 |
Government forces have overrun a shanty in the middle of the marshland where extremist Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) are manufacturing improvised bombs, the Army here said Tuesday.
Col. Oriel Pangcog, the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade chief, said terrorist materials and documents were found Monday inside a shack with bloodstains in Barangay Inaladan, Shariff Saydona Mustapha, Maguindanao.
Pangcog said the bloodstain was an indication that BIFF groups operating in the area sustained injuries in the clearing operation that started Friday last week.
“The prolonged operation also led to the recovery of improvised bombs and components in bomb-making,” he added.
Soldiers also found documents indicating that the terrorist organization is bent on sabotaging the peace process.
Government forces were pursuing the groups of Ysa Ganoy, Abdulkarim Hashim, Ben Harrsi, and Emarudin Kulay, all BIFF field commanders, during the operation.
Earlier, residents in Datu Saydona Mustapha town complained of money being taken from them by the BIFF.
Pangcog said farmers and fisherfolk have also complained that the group had prevented them from tending their farms or fishing in the marshland.
He said the government remains open to BIFF militants who wish to surrender.
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