The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is now laying down strategies to dismantle 19 of the 24 remaining guerrilla fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA).
AFP chief of staff Gen. Bartolome Vicente Bacarro said the 19 guerrilla fronts have already been weakened due to the aggressive military operations and other interventions made by the national government in the past few years.
"They are our priority because these guerrilla fronts have already been weakened. We should sustain that right now," said Bacarro.
Based on the 2018 assessments, there were 89 guerrilla fronts across the country with thousands fighters and mass base support.
In the past few years, hundreds of NPA fighters and supporters decided to surrender due to interventions based on the strategies implemented by the National Task Force to End Local Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) that include downloading of at least P20 million worth of projects to every barangay cleared of communist rebel presence.
The NTF-ELCAC, however, gained notoriety for red-tagging by some of its designated spokespersons.
Right now, Bacarro said there are 24 remaining guerrilla fronts with more or less 2,100 active fighters.
He said the 19 guerrilla fronts were weakened while only five remained active.
"The concentration of these remaining guerrilla fronts are in Samar and one in Cotabato," said Bacarro.
The military has vowed to end the NPA problems before the end of President Duterte's term of office but Bacarro said the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the implementation of their internal security operations and strategies.
But this time, Bacarro expressed confidence that the NPA will finally be defeated: "That was the promise made to the former president (Duterte) but the conditions were not then favorable, because of the Covid-19. But right now, this will be our priority."