NPA down to 1800 active fighters – AFP spox
Published Jul 10, 2023 07:39 am
The New People’s Army (NPA) is now a “spent force” as it only has 1,800 active fighters left from a peak of 24,000 in the 1980s, an official of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) bared Monday, July 10.
*Col. Medel Aguilar, spokesperson of Armed Forces of the Philippines
* Col. Medel Aguilar, AFP spokesperson, said the remaining active fighters are now the subject of focused military operations, including 400 individuals who were already identified and are facing criminal charges for their atrocities. Aguilar said some of those identified NPA fighters are holding key positions in the CPP-NPA-NDF, a factor that must be considered, as they are the ones holding their comrades not to surrender or "waiting to be given graceful exit." "Indeed, we have achieved strategic victory as far as countering the communist insurgency is concerned," Aguilar said in a virtual press conference hosted by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). Citing military records, Aguilar also shared that only one active NPA guerilla front remains and it operates in the northern part of Samar. This was a notable reduction from the previous five active NPA guerilla fronts as of December 2022. Since then, two formerly active guerilla fronts were dismantled while another two were “weakened,” which means that their political system has been demolished although its fighters are still capable to mount small attacks. “We are already focusing our forces there so that we are able to prevent and suppress the violence that could be coming from this remaining active guerilla front,” Aguilar said. Last week, AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Andres Centino said in a command conference at Camp Aguinaldo that the military is now shifting its focus from internal security operations (ISO) to external defense operations (EDO). But Aguilar clarified that the military will still conduct military offensives against the NPA to attain a “total victory”. “What we want to achieve is not just a strategic victory but a total victory. When you talk about total victory, meaning there will be no organized crime group like the New People’s Army that the Party [Communist Party of the Philippines] can use to advance its political objective,” he explained. "Now, this also calls for the clearing of all affected barangays or even those threatened to make sure that when this shift is focused on territorial defense operation (TDO), there will be no ISO problem to look back, and by that, we expect that with the guidance and direction given by the President, we will be shifting to TDO. All of us are united towards that purpose," he added.