News
AFP backs PRRD desire to end insurgency threat
FILE: READY FOR POLLS. Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Spokesperson, Marine Brig.
Gen. Edgard Arevalo, says the military is ready to secure the May 13 mid-term polls, during the press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on Monday (May 6, 2019). Millions of Filipinos are expected to troop to polling precincts on Monday to vote for senators, congressmen and local officials. (PNA photo by Joey O. Razon)
MANILA — The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Friday said it is one with President Rodrigo R. Duterte in his desire to end local communist armed conflict now.
Being at the forefront of the anti-insurgency campaign, AFP spokesperson Marine Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, said the military is devoted to attaining that ardent desire of the President and Commander-in-Chief.
“We have articulated that to him in the past, and his recent pronouncement only underscores his firm resolve to stop the menace the CPP-NPA brings,” he said in a message forwarded to reporters.
The AFP, he said, has already evaluated the gains made by the government and how to use it to its advantage, Arevalo added.
“We have assessed the remaining challenges we need to address to attain our overarching objective of setting the conditions towards secured communities that will usher peace and development especially in the countryside,” he said.
He added that the AFP will also use all means available—lethal and non-lethal— to hit the enemy and hit them hard.
“We will employ the different lines of efforts with other agencies of government address or help alleviate the identified social issues that the NPA capitalizes,” Arevalo said.
With the number of NPA regular member and their supporters like the Milisya ng Bayan continuously declining, along with surrenders, armed encounters, and arrest, the AFP merely has to maintain the initiative to sustain the gains being made the government in the past months.
“They die during armed encounters, surrender, or arrested. The latest among the high profile personalities arrested was Esterlita Suaybaguio a member of the Central Committee and Secretary of the Metro Manila Regional Party Committee,” he added.
But to really eliminate the threats posed by the NPA and its allies, recruitment in schools and in other parts of the country by the communist rebels must be halted.
“Together, in a whole of nation/whole of government passion, we are confident we will decisively defeat the terrorist CPP-NPA during the term of President Rodrigo Duterte.
We have the upper hand we just have to maintain the initiative and sustain the gains,” Arevalo said.
The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United Kingdom, European Union, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
