While the war against the Islamic and communist insurgency continues the AFP admits COVID-19 has affected their drive to end it.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has affected the ability of the Armed Forces of the Philippines' (AFP) to implement the "whole-of-the- nation-approach" in ending local armed conflicts in the countryside.
Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay, AFP chief-of-staff, disclosed Tuesday here, pointing out that “10 to 15 percent of our budget” was realigned to support the national government’s response in addressing the pandemic.
Gapay led the installation of Maj. Gen. Corleto Vinluan, Sr., as the new commander of Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom).
Vinluan, who is the 12th Westmincom chief, replaced Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, who was appointed as the 62nd commander of the Philippine Army.
Gapay said the realigned budget would have been for the socio-economic programs of the AFP in addressing local armed conflicts brought by the communist insurgency.
Instead, he said the allocation is being used to buy personnel protective types of equipment, relief goods, and the social amelioration program (SAP) for poor families affected by the health crisis.
Gapay does not specify which programs the realigned funds would have gone to but its probably roads and water sanitation. Surrenderees are still getting their cash.
Some 15 former Yunit Militia members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in Negros Occidental received a total of PHP225,000 or PHP15,000 each in immediate assistance from the government’s Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP).
The recipients included 14 who surrendered to the Philippine Army’s 79th Infantry Battalion based in northern Negros and one with the 62IB in central Negros.
In South Cotobato a new halfway-house for former rebels was opened.
The provincial government of South Cotabato unveiled Tuesday a PHP5 million halfway house for returning New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.
Rudy Jimenea, head executive assistant of South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr., said Wednesday the facility is now fully operational and ready to accept rebel surrenderers.
Jimenea said the halfway house, which was built through a grant from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), will mainly serve as processing center for former rebels as part of the local government’s initiative under the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP).
A provincial government briefer said the two-story halfway house, which is situated within the provincial Animal Production and Processing Center compound in Barangay Tinongcop, Tantangan town, has dormitory rooms, training room, office and several other amenities.
Despite the realigned budget E-CLIP is still providing benefits to NPA surrenderees. And despite COVID-19 the AFP says military ops will continue against the insurgency.
The military's Southern Luzon Command (SolCom) chief, Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, Jr., on Monday said military operations against communist terrorists and their allies in his area-of-jurisdiction will continue until all of them are forced to surrender.
"We will continue to dislocate the NPA Regional Operations Command and its maneuver elements until all of them are forced to surrender, as many havdone already," he said in a statement forwarded to the Philippine News Agency.
The AFP will continue to fight the NPA "until all of them are forced to surrender??" How about until they are all dead!? Or until they are all neutralized? Whatever happened to "The only good communist is a dead communist?"
While the local government was handing out cash to NPA surrenderees the AFP was taking the cache of active NPA members.
Civilian tip-offs led to the discovery of a hideout of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) here, resulting in the recovery of high-powered firearms, ammunition, and food supplies.
In a statement Wednesday, the Army's 23rd Infantry Battalion said that information provided by villagers led to the discovery of the NPA hideout in a forested area of Sitio Lamusig, Barangay Tungao here on Tuesday.
1Lt. Roel T. Maglalang, 23IB civil-military operations officer, said a combined police and military team scoured the area and discovered the 50-square meter hideout that can accommodate around 10 persons where ammunition and food supplies were stored.
“The operation was in response to reports by concerned civilians in the area on the activities of the Communist NPA Terrorists (CNTs) and the location of a hideout,” Maglalang said.
Recovered at the hideout were an AK47 magazine, an M16 magazine, 22 rounds of AK47 7.62mm ammunition, 71 rounds of M16 5.56mm ammunition, four empty cartons of AK47 ammunition, a four-meter electrical wire, and food supplies.
In Eastern Samar concerned locals alerted the AFP to the NPA's landmine planting activities.
“Local residents reported to us that they have been disturbed by NPA’s (New People's Army) plan to plant IEDs since there had been many incidents in the province wherein innocent civilians were killed just like what happened in Borongan City," Alvior said.
Several IEDs planted by the NPA targeting front-liners during the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis were also recovered by government troops in Samar Island, according to Alvior.
On Sunday, troops of the Army’s 78th Infantry Battalion had a five-minute clash with about 20 armed rebels planting an IED in Cagtabon village, Dolores town.
The encounter resulted in the death of NPA fighter Dino Dabila, 25, a resident of Cagtabon village.
Joint police and army troops recovered his body at the encounter site. Two soldiers were wounded in the clash.
In a statement, Brig. Gen. Camilo Ligayo, commander of the 801st Infantry Brigade has expressed sympathy to the family of the slain NPA member as they hold the terror group accountable for his death.
"The death of another Filipino is a waste of life. We condemn the NPA for luring people into their fake revolution and planting bombs that indiscriminately kill or injure even civilians," Ligayo said.
Fake revolution? These people are serious. That's why they plant landmines and kill people. Since the man was a part of the group why wouldn't they condemn him too? All groups are made up of individuals. Is the NPA rebel who killed the cop the NPA abducted to blame or is the NPA to blame?
Various quarters have condemned the killing of Police Staff Sgt. Restie Dandan, a member of Sison Municipal Police Station in Surigao del Norte.
The body of Dandan was found around 7 a.m. Tuesday (Aug. 18) in Sitio Napo, Barangay Matin-ao in Mainit, Surigao del Norte.
Dandan was kidnapped by armed men believed to be members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) last July 31 in Barangay San Isidro, Sison town.
“We condemn the senseless killing of PSSgt. Dandan. We believe that this was done by the communist NPAs,” Sison Mayor Karissa Fetalvero-Paronia told the Philippine News Agency on Tuesday.
Paronia said she fetched Dandan’s wife Elenita Tuesday morning and brought her to the area where the policeman's body was dumped.
“She cried upon seeing the lifeless body of her husband. She could not understand why the abductors need to kill him. The NPAs did not regard that Dandan is also a family man, with three children whose future now turns uncertain with his death,” Paronia said.
“The family of SSgt. Dandan suffered for more than two weeks after his abduction. Now, their sufferings will linger as his abductors mercilessly killed him,” Paronia said.
If the man who killed this cop was killed in battle with the AFP would Brig. Gen. Camilo Ligayo or any other top AFP brass expresses condolences to his family and say, "The death of another Filipino is a waste of life," while holding the "terror group accountable for his death?"
The death of one NPA member might not amount to much as the group presses on with their "fake revolution." In the meantime NPA members continue to surrender which the AFP attributes to their near disintegration in Bukidnon.
The chief of the Army's 88th Infantry Battalion (88IB) said Tuesday the communist New People’s Army (NPA) in Bukidnon province is on the verge of "disintegrating", given the sustained number of guerilla surrenderers in the past few years.
Lt. Col. Franklin Fabic issued the prediction after he welcomed 12 NPA surrenderers at the 88IB headquarters here last August 14.
“For those who choose to remain as threats (to) our peaceful communities, we will not hesitate to exhaust all our capabilities to hunt and destroy you with all our might for the protection of peace-loving citizens of Southern Bukidnon,” Fabic said in a statement Tuesday.
He said the 12 surrenderers were under the NPA's Guerilla Front-Malayag operating in Cabanglasan town that was involved in several skirmishes with government forces early this month.
The unit, Fabic said, suffered "losses and debacles" in recent months, forcing its members to abandon the rebel movement.
One of the surrenderers, identified only as Rolen, said they were compelled to yield after experiencing "hunger and misery."
"We were also scared when our comrade died in an encounter and we might have the same fate. I don’t want to die, I want to do better things together with my child and my family," Rolen said in the vernacular.
Hungry, miserable, and afraid to die. That is certainly no way to live and now they can avail of the E-CLIP program's many benefits.
Meanwhile a new infantry chief was installed in Sulu.
The Philippine Army (PA) on Tuesday announced the appointment of Brig. Gen. William Gonzales as the new commander of the Sulu-based 11th Infantry Division, replacing Maj. Gen. Corleto Vinluan who has been appointed as head of the Western Mindanao Command.
Col. Ramon Zagala, the PA spokesperson, said the change-of-command ceremonies for Gonzales took place at Camp General Navarro, Zamboanga City.
Army commander Lt. Gen. Cirilito E. Sobejana presided over the ceremonies and urged all officers, enlisted personnel, and civilian employees of the 11th Infantry Division to support their new commander and continue to fulfill their duties.
"Sa ating pagtugon na tapusin ang terorismo sa lalong madaling panahon, mas paigtingin pa ninyo ang kakayahang hanapin, ipitin, at ubusin ang kalaban, at ipagpatuloy ang panalo (In our goal to end terrorism at the quickest possible time, please exert more efforts in locating, cornering and eliminating the enemy for the win)," Sobejana said.
"Eliminating the enemy for the win." That is much better than fighting them until "all of them are forced to surrender." After all the enemy is bent on eliminating the AFP.
Major General Corleto Vinluan Jr., commander of Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom), said the first explosion occurred at 11:54 a.m. inside Paradise Food Shop beside the Syntax computer shop on Serrantes St., Barangay Walled City in Jolo, where a military truck was parked.
An hour later, at 12:57 p.m., another powerful explosion occurred at the Goteckleng Building, only a hundred meters away from the site of the first blast.
“(We) lost four soldiers, 17 others (are) wounded,” Vinluan said. “There are civilians but we don’t have the data yet because our men are still assessing the area,” he told the Inquirer.
Vinluan said his ground commanders recovered a burned motorcycle in the area. “Only one can make this kind of attack, Mundi Sawadjaan, the bomber of the Abu Sayyaf,” he said.
He has directed his men to hunt Sawadjaan and to cordon the place and secure the places where the blasts took place, he said.
“Right now, all we can say is, (what caused the explosion is) an improvised explosive device. We will have details later,” Vinluan said.
Mundi Sawadjaan is the man four AFP intel operatives were hunting when they were viciously
gunned down by PNP officers in Jolo back in June. But perhaps that was all a part of the plan. Perhaps those PNP officers were working under orders from Sawadjaan or someone else in the ASG.
That investigation remains ongoing.
