AFP deputy chief-of-staff Vice Admiral Rommel Anthony Reyes yesterday told lawmakers social injustices and poverty continue to push people to join the communist insurgency.
Reyes made the statement during the budget hearing of the House committee on appropriations on the Department of National Defense’s proposed P240-billion budget.
On the questioning of Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT) who is a member of the left leaning Makabayan bloc, Reyes conceded that the government needs to address the root causes of rebellion, especially injustices and poverty in the countryside.
“Hindi naman talaga totally mawawala ang social injustices, at dapat i-address ito ng gobyerno (Social injustices cannot really be totally eradicated and the government has to address this,” he said.
The military official however stressed that the people’s grievances will only be resolved through peaceful means and never through armed struggle as espoused by the CPP-NPA.
“Hindi po bawal ipaglaban ang social injustices, poverty, o kung ano mang kulang (sa lipunan). Ang hindi po tayo pumapayag ay iyong they would use armed struggle to forward their means (It is not wrong to fight social injustices, poverty or whatever social ills we have. What we cannot allow is the use of armed struggle to forward their means),” he said.
Reyes said the military’s assessment would show that the manpower of the communist rebels “is no more than 2,000 insurgents and approximately the same number of firearms.”
Last July, the AFP announced that the number of NPA fighters has been diminished to 2,000 with active NPA guerilla fronts down to just 23 during the Duterte administration, or a reduction of almost 74 percent.
According to the AFP, there were 89 guerrilla fronts when then President Duterte assumed office in 2016 but the number was reduced to 23 as of last June 30.
“The root cause [of insurgency] is that there are groups taking advantage of the presence of social ills, social injustices such as poverty and ignorance. For so long a time, the military is just addressing the military aspect of insurgency,” Reyes said.
OMBUDSMAN BUDGET
After tackling the DND’s budget, the appropriations panel later approved without question the Office of the Ombudsman’s proposed P4.78-billion budget for 2023, the second time for the panel to do so.
Last Wednesday, panel approved the Office the Vice President’s proposed budget without entertaining questions from lawmakers as a courtesy to Vice President Sara Duterte who physically attended the hearing.
Castro asked Ombudsman Samuel Martires, who virtually attended the hearing, to submit his office’s policy on releasing Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) of the President and a report on the Ombudsman’s performance, saying she would reserve her questions for the plenary deliberations.
The Office of the Ombudsman, which acts as the State’s prosecutorial arm in fighting graft and corruption, has been allocated P51.4 million in confidential funds for 2023, an amount slightly higher than the DND’s 47 million.
The biggest portion of the Ombudsman’s budget worth P783.2 million was earmarked for its anti-corruption investigation program, which is followed by its whistleblower accounts and rewards program, which was allocated P586.2 million.
