After President Marcos inked a deal with the USA to allow more EDCA sites there was been outrage from several quarters. His sister, Senator Imee Marcos, brought up her father's old self-reliant program.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1195080 |
Senator Imee Marcos suggested on Monday to revive the Self-Reliant Defense Posture (SRDP) Program initiated in 1974 by her father, the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
Senator Marcos made the statement after a consultation over the weekend with the Western Mindanao Command about the idea of reviving the SRDP which she said enabled the country’s self-reliance in national defense.
This, after the announcement of the Department of National Defense and the United States' Department of Defense of establishing four new Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites and another agreement for stronger defense cooperation with Japan.
“Scale down our dependence on foreign goodwill in the sticky web of geopolitics,” Marcos said in her statement.
“Thailand now customizes rifles that are slimmer and lighter for its soldiers, while Vietnam can now manufacture anti-surface warfare missiles. How far have we gone?” she added.
During its time, Marcos recalled the country's SRDP was already producing M-16 rifles under license, steel helmets, hand grenades and other ammunition, handheld radios, and Jiffy jeeps.
"It also created jobs and minimized foreign spending. There’s no question about Filipino capability, but we must revive the SRDP now,” the senator said.
This proposal sounds patriotic and obvious but just goes to show how bereft of sense and naive Imee Marcos really is. Like it or not the Philippines is a firm part of the world order so there is no getting out of "the sticky web of geopolitics." That means military alliances with neighboring nations are necessary especially when China has been courting war for the past decade.
Let's face it, the Philippine military is not the best it can be. After all there is a 53 year communist insurgency taking place.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1195167 |
The 94th Infantry Battalion (94IB) of the Philippine Army is keeping a close watch on at least four towns in Negros Oriental that are still affected by communist insurgency with relentless operations underway, a military official said on Tuesday.
Lt. Col. Van Donald Almonte, commanding officer of the 94IB, told the Philippine News Agency that the four municipalities are Tayasan, Ayungon, Bindoy and Manjuyod.
“Bindoy and Manjuyod have the strongest supporters of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) that is why we have to sustain our operations there without let-up,” he said in mixed English and Cebuano.
Almonte said some of their activities include visiting former rebels and former supporters to ensure that they will not be influenced and recruited back into the underground movement.
The Army commander also noted that one of the three rebels who died in the Feb. 4 and 5 encounters with NPAs in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental province was from Barangay Tanglad, Tayasan town.
Barangay Tanglad is known to have some residents still active in the NPA, he noted.
He said this is an indication that there are still members of the NPA’s guerrilla front operating in central Negros that come from the Oriental side of the island.
Three barangays in Ayungon, one in Bindoy, and one in Manjuyod are listed as priority areas under the Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (TF-ELCAC) under the government’s whole-of-nation approach.
Meanwhile, Almonte said NPA forces in his area of jurisdiction are “dwindling”, meaning, “their strength is negligible and their firepower suffered successive setbacks” following encounters with government troops since last year.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1195509 |
The timely information provided by concerned citizens from the municipality of Dumalag in Capiz has prevented the alleged extortion activities of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in the mountainous barangay of Duran on Friday.
Lt. Gen. Benedict Arevalo, commander of the Philippine Army’s Visayas Command, said the vigilance exercised by residents in providing information was very helpful in their anti-insurgency efforts.
“Their fervent desire for a CPP-NPA-free community drives us to employ legitimate military force against these communist-terrorists to stop them from threatening our people's safety and well-being," he said in a statement released by the 3rd Division Public Affairs Office of the 3rd Infantry Division.
The Division Public Affairs Office, in the same statement, showed the 12th Infantry Battalion has received information about the presence of the armed group in the area prompting them to conduct a security patrol together with the Philippine National Police.
“Upon reaching the area, the troops encountered more or less five fully-armed members of the CPP-NPA terrorist believed to be members of Central Front,” it said.
A five-minute firefight ensued before the rebels fled toward the southeast. No one was hurt in the brief gun battle among the government troopers but bloodstains were found along the NPAs' withdrawal route.
A homemade 12-gauge shotgun, one .45-caliber pistol, two anti-personnel mines with detonator switches, one hand grenade, five magazines for M16 rifle, two magazines for .45 caliber, assorted live ammunition, personal belongings, assorted medicine and subversive documents were recovered in the encounter site after the estimated five-minute exchange of fire.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1195349 |
A soldier died while three others were wounded on Wednesday when the New People's Army (NPA) detonated anti-personnel mines in Barangay Ramay in Oas, Albay.
Capt. Frank Roldan, 9th Infantry Division Public Affairs Office (DPAO) chief, said the incident occurred around 9 a.m. after the 49th Infantry Battalion received a report regarding an extortion activity.
"The report said the terrorist group was conducting extortion in a construction project. Upon reaching the area, there was a blast of anti-personnel mine (APM) from the communist terrorist group (CTG) that caused the immediate demise of 2Lt. Nico Malcampo and injured three other soldiers," Roldan said in a message to the Philippine News Agency on Thursday.
He said after the explosion, a 30-minute firefight ensued between the government troops and the rebels, resulting in the killing of a CTG member and the recovery of three high-powered firearms.
"As to the three injured soldiers, one of them is in stable condition while the two soldiers need to go for medical operations," Roldan added.
The AFP says the NPA's continued use of landmines justifies them being tagged as terrorists.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1195443 |
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said the New People's Army’s (NPA) continued use of anti-personnel mines (APMs), which recently killed a young soldier and wounded three others in Albay, justifies their tagging as a terrorist organization.
"The CTG’s (communist terrorist group) persistent use of APM that is banned under the International Humanitarian Law cements their status as a terrorist organization," AFP spokesperson Col. Medel Aguilar said in a statement late Thursday.
The NPA’s continued use of APMs poses a huge security threat to everyone as it could cause crippling injuries or even death, Aguilar said.
"The CTG use of APM poses a threat to the limbs and lives of people. With this incident, the AFP, in partnership with other government agencies through the NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict), will not stop until we have eliminated this threat," he added.
Eliminating the threat of the NPA includes arresting them. 62 were arrested during the past 3 months in Caraga.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1195140 |
Sixty-two New People’s Army (NPA) rebels and 1,118 wanted persons—206 of whom are classified as most wanted—were arrested during intensified police operations from Nov. 2, 2022 to Feb. 13 this year.
Data provided by the Police Regional Office in the Caraga Region (PRO-13) on Tuesday indicated that aside from the arrest of 62 NPA insurgents, 148 other guerrillas also surrendered to the different police field units in the region.
“The period also marked the first 100 days in the office of PRO-13 Director Brig. Gen. Pablo Labra II who assumed his post last Nov. 2,” said Maj. Jennifer Ometer,“ PRO-13 information office chief, in an interview.
In the same period, 319 firearms were also surrendered to the police while 34 others were confiscated in the intensified campaign against loose firearms.
Fighting the insurgency also means providing basic government services in insurgency affected areas.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1195493 |
The Negros Oriental Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NOTF-ELCAC) will resume holding the "Dagyawan Sa Barangay: Talakayan sa Mamamayan" and Caravan on Basic Services (Serbisyo Caravan) in seven villages in Negros Oriental tagged as still affected by the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Provincial Director Farah Diba Gentuya said in an interview with the Philippine News Agency that the Dagyawan/Serbisyo Caravan will bring together all government agencies in a whole-of-nation approach to listen to and address the needs of these barangays.
“This is part of government’s efforts to sustain programs and projects to alleviate the plight of villagers who are still confronted with the communist insurgency problem and this year, we will be going to the barangays instead of the usual town hall meetings,” Gentuya said.
The Philippine Army has cleared these new barangays for inclusion in the RCSP, one of the government’s mechanisms in the national TF-ELCAC program implementation in conflict-affected areas.
Negros Oriental now has a total of 46 barangays listed under the ELCAC program.
If providing basic government services will end the insurgency then it's a safe bet to assume that if those services had been provided before the insurgency began then it could have been prevented.
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