Being that it is a new year it is only right to look back and give a summation of 2023's fight against the insurgency and look forward to the goals for 2024. First a look back at the gains of 2023.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1216160 |
In 2023, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) was most proud of the eight New People's Army guerilla fronts it dismantled, aside from weakening 14 others.
The achievements reaffirmed the military's commitment to national security and regional peace.
"As of December, there are no more active CTG guerilla fronts," AFP public affairs office chief Col. Xerxes Trinidad said in a news release Sunday.
Continued focused military operations by the AFP also resulted in the neutralization of 67 high-value communist targets and 1,399 members of communist and local terrorist groups.
Among the top leaders neutralized were Dionisio Macabalo (alias Muling/Kardo), secretary of the North Central Mindanao Regional Committee; and Farahudin Pumbaya Pangalian (alias Abu Zacharia), amir of Daulah Islamiyah-Philippines and overall amir of Islamic State-East Asia, Trinidad said.
Additionally, the AFP seized 1,751 firearms through capture, confiscation, recovery, or surrender, reducing the capability of terrorist groups to carry out violent attacks against government security forces and local communities.
"At the beginning of a new year, new challenges and opportunities arise, demanding the collective efforts and expertise of the AFP. However, I am confident that we will rise to the occasion and overcome whatever obstacles come our way. Therefore, let us embrace the coming year with a reinforced commitment to our mission and shared values," AFP chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said in a separate statement.
The AFP also took on non-traditional roles, such as supporting humanitarian and disaster response operations within and outside the country.
Because the AFP has claimed there are no more active fronts they have declared a strategic victory.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1883388/nsc-npa-now-weakened-strategically-defeated |
The New People’s Army (NPA) is “at its weakest in its 55-year-history” and has been “strategically defeated” after the security forces of the country announced that the rebel group no longer has active guerrilla fronts nationwide, National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said on Wednesday.
“With its active guerrilla fronts now weakened, the NPA has been strategically defeated,” Malaya revealed in a press conference on the report of National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) executive director Usec. Ernesto Torres Jr. stated that the country only has 14 weakened guerrilla units left for dismantling.
“In fact, the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) admitted itself last month in its announcement of the rectification movement that there have been ‘substantial losses suffered by the NPA in the revolutionary movement as a result of internal errors,'” he added.
However, Malaya disclosed that they are “extremely disappointed and perplexed” with the CPP Central Committee’s anniversary statement released on December 26 last year, calling out its cadres and committees to carry out a third rectification movement to advance its revolutionary armed struggle further.
“Instead, the CPP/NPA/NDF (New People’s Army/National Democratic Front) has reaffirmed its undying allegiance to Joma Sison’s Marxism-Leninism-Maoism application to Philippine conditions and called on the NPA ‘to stir up and spread flames of people’s war,'” he lamented.
Although NSC and NTF-Elcac “remain optimistic” with the recent declaration, Malaya said they could not disregard CPP’s anniversary statement.
“While we support the exploratory talks, its success will entirely depend on the sincerity, truthfulness, and commitment of CPP/NPA/NDF towards achieving a peace settlement and ending armed hostilities,” he said.
The AFP already declared a strategic victory back in October 2022.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1184813 |
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said Wednesday it has attained strategic victory over the threats posed by the communist movement and other local terrorist groups (LTGs) operating in the country.
Department of National Defense (DND) officer-in-charge Undersecretary Jose Faustino Jr. made this statement after the AFP reported more than 75 percent of the communist fronts in the country have been dismantled nationwide.
"Out of 89 in July 2016, there are only five active guerilla fronts remaining,” he said in a statement.
Funny that this victory was declared when there were still five active fronts. Why has the criteria for a strategic victory changed?
Despite being weakened the CPP has declared they are not backing down. On the 55th founding anniversary of the CPP they called for a 3rd Rectification Movement.
The aim of the rectification movement is to further strengthen the Party by raising the theoretical knowledge and revolutionary practice of Party cadres; strengthening their grasp of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in order to critically sum-up past experiences and draw lessons and further enrich the theory of people’s war in the Philippines; repudiating subjectivism and erroneous policies and practices; engaging in self-criticism to raise the determination of Party cadres and revolutionaries to fight and make sacrifices for the revolutionary cause.
There is widespread complacency in the study and application of revolutionary theory to serve as guide to practice, and timidity as well in drawing theory from practice. Without firmly grasping Marxist-Leninist-Maoist theory to guide our practice, and without drawing theory from practice, revolutionary practice will not advance to a higher stage, and will start to stagnate or revert to previous levels. The latter situation is made worse by pettybourgeois contentment with previous knowledge, methods, practices and plans, or laziness to study and sum-up practice. This leads to failure to develop theory and to adopt new methods and plans that correspond with changed conditions, and to an overall failure to raise practice to a higher level.
The rectification movement is mainly a movement to study and reaffirm our adherence to Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and to the basic principles, line, constitution and program of the Party, in order to sum-up past experiences and to carry out criticism and self-criticism. The principal aim is to raise our understanding and strengthen our grasp of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and the principles and line of the Party by relating these with our revolutionary practice over the past several years and self-critically evaluating our work and our cadres, to qualitatively raise and sharpen our militant style of work.
The rectification movement will have the following components:
a) A study campaign to thoroughly study and review the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism using the Primer on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism by Ka Joma and review of classic writings of great communist leaders through collective discussions and individual reading.
b) A study campaign to thoroughly review the Party’s Constitution and the Program for a People’s Democratic Revolution.
c) A study campaign to review the documents of the First and Second Great Rectification Movement, Our Urgent Tasks and Specific Characteristics of Our People’s War, and documents of the Party’s history.
d) A campaign to sum-up experiences and review previous summings-up to identify the Right and “Left” opportunist tendencies and errors which have caused grave damage to the Party and armed revolutionary movement. These summings-up will be in written form and submitted to the Central Committee. Select articles will be published in Ang Rebolusyon, the Party’s theoretical journal.
e. A social investigation and class analysis (SICA) campaign at all levels to deepen our grasp of the concrete conditions of the masses under the worsening crisis of the semicolonial and semifeudal system, with the aim of improving our plans and methods of arousing, organizing and mobilizing the masses.
f) A campaign of criticism and self-criticism must be carried out at all levels to unite the Party, all revolutionary forces and the masses.
g) A campaign to evaluate the performances of all Party cadres to identify strengths and weaknesses, and form resolutions to further strengthen their proletarian discipline, revolutionary standpoint and commitment.
h) A continuing campaign to ensure full implementation of the Three Level Party Course to ensure that backlogs are eliminated.
To help push forward the rectification study movement, all references should be made available in print or digital form, including classic Marxist-Leninist-Maoist writings, all basic documents of the Party, books and key articles by Ka Joma, and others. Popularization should be ensured through translations and other means.
The rectification movement will be an ideological crucible. In the next year or two, it should be carried out thoroughly and completed at all levels from the Central Committee of the Party to all Party branches. We are confident that the vast majority of the Party’s membership will welcome the rectification movement and are ready to boldly advance, like the big strides of the revolutionary movement after the First and Second rectifaction movements.
It seems as if the party wants everyone to hit the books and brush up on Marxist-Leninist-Maoist doctrines. The CPP claims the weaknesses they have are ideological, organizational, and political. There is nothing in the statement about abandoning the armed struggle or about peace talks. But the NDF sees peace talks as a part of the legal struggle to advance the armed struggle.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1216324 |
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) is urging all Filipinos to closely scrutinize the motives of the communist insurgents and consider the group's history of insincerity since 1987.
The task force's announcement came after the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) demanded for the resumption of peace talks, even as it launched a “3rd Rectification Movement” calling for the NPA to intensify the “protracted people’s war” against the government during its 55th anniversary on Dec. 26.
“The history of failed negotiations, the continuing perpetration of violence, and inconsistent statements all contribute to a narrative that challenges the authenticity of the CPP-NPA-NDF’s commitment to a peaceful resolution. It is essential that we approach future discussions with a discerning eye,” National Security Council (NSC) Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya said in a statement Wednesday night.
The NSC official also urged the public to be wary of the insurgents' motives, by quoting NDF negotiator Luis Jalandoni’s own words that “peace talks are another form of legal struggle which is possible to be used by the revolutionary forces in order to advance the revolutionary armed struggle and the revolutionary mass movement.”
Malaya also emphasized that part of the Nov. 23, 2023 Oslo joint communique agreement was for the CPP-NPA-NDF to abandon the armed struggle, transform into a political movement and become a government partner for peace and development.
If the NTF-ELCAC knows the CPP is insincere then why are they supporting anything other than total annihilation of the insurgency? Why support peace talks? In September, 2023 National Security Adviser Año admitted they will never be able to eliminate the insurgency.
Año admitted insurgency cannot be totally eliminated, but he believes the issue may be brought down to a negligible point.
“While we may not be able to attain this zero insurgents, but at least reduced to an irrelevant number that will not cause concern for peace and order,” he said.
“They will become isolated and just become bandits, because of lost ideology and non-support from the people,” he projected.
https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2023/09/insurgency-communist-insurgency-to-end.html
If the CPP is deceptive when it comes to peace talks it seems the government is just as deceptive when it comes to ending the insurgency.
Now let's look ahead to the goals for 2024.
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| https://mb.com.ph/2023/12/31/dnd-eyes-stable-secure-solid-philippines-in-2024 |
The Department of National Defense (DND) called on the public to support the security sector to help make the Philippines "stable, secure, and solid" in 2024.
DND Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. made the appeal in his New Year's Day message.
"The Department of National Defense joins our people in welcoming the New Year. We thank our President, our stakeholders, and our people for the trust and confidence in our institution," Teodoro said.
"We call upon the same outpouring of support in the coming year so that we can help build a stable, secure, and solid Philippines," he added.
Is the Philippines really not "stable, secure, and solid?" What does he mean by those words? It is a very broad statement that offers no glimpse of what lies ahead for the year. Surely at some point the insurgency will be declared to be over by year's end. But that statement comes every single year.
A more immediate goal is to remove the Philippine from the global money laundering gray list.
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| https://business.inquirer.net/439302/philippines-hopeful-of-exiting-global-money-laundering-grey-list |
The Philippines is hopeful of being taken off the money laundering ‘grey list’ of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of this year, the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Council said on Tuesday.
The FATF, an intergovernmental organization combating money laundering and terrorism financing, added the Philippines to the list in June 2021 for several reasons, including risk of money laundering from casino junkets and lack of prosecution for terrorism funding cases.
The Philippines has yet to address several issues flagged by the FATF, executive director of the Anti-Money Laundering Council, Matthew David, told a presidential palace press conference.
“The most challenging action item is terrorism financing prosecution. We need to file more terrorism financing cases,” he said.
The anti-terrorism law has been in effect since 2020 and the AMLC says they are having trouble filing terrorism financing cases. He does not say why. It is highly doubtful there will be a flurry of such cases in the near future. Maybe they should be targeting casinos first.
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