NATIONAL Security Adviser Eduardo Año yesterday said an insurgency-free Philippines is on the horizon but several “big challenges” will have to be confronted first.
“The campaign to end local communist armed conflict in the Philippines is nearing a historic turning point of no longer being abstract. It is, by all indications, within reach,” Año said in a statement.
Among the biggest challenges is dismantling the communist group‘s financial support.
Año is also vice chairman of the National Task Force to End Local Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), a body headed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr that was established in 2018 to finally end the country’s more than five decades of insurgency problem.
Noting that 89 guerrilla fronts of the New People’s Army (NPA) have been dismantled since 2018 and only one guerilla front is remaining (in Bicol), Año said “we are poised to close a violent chapter in our nation’s history.”
A guerrilla front is deemed dismantled if it is no longer capable of launching attacks, and its political and military structures have collapsed, among others, the task force earlier said.
The task force has been saying the NPA’s guerrilla front is down to just one as early as last year. Latest estimates placed the NPA strength at around 1,000 men, from a peak of around 25,000 in the late 1980s.
“But dismantling an armed movement is only part of the equation. The harder task lies ahead, that is of sustaining the peace we have painstakingly won,” said Año, adding peace mechanisms at the local level should be institutionalized.
He said local peace councils, barangay task forces, and grassroots monitoring units “must become permanent features of governance.”
CHALLENGES
Año said one “one of the biggest challenges” that the government is facing now is “dismantling the network of recruitment, support, and finance that allowed the insurgency to survive for decades.”
“Though the armed component has been degraded, the ideological and logistical lifelines continue to attempt its regeneration,” Año also said.
Año also noted the communist movement’s “long-standing tactics of deception, particularly among the youth,” remain active in the urban schools, schools and cyberspace.
He said efforts of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) to “radicalize and groom students into the armed rebellion” continue to be “relentless.”
“These young minds, filled with passion and idealism, are too often exploited by narratives that glorify armed struggle,” said Año.
He said the government must not respond with “panic or persecution” but with “programs that build youth resilience and empower them to be critical thinkers who champion peace by constructive activism, not violent extremism.”
Año said the task force is taking efforts to protect the youth from “recruitment and ideological exploitation,” adding however that universities “are not the enemy.”
“Institutions such as UP (University of the Philippines), PUP (Polytechnic University of the Philippines), La Salle, and many others have been deliberately targeted by the CPP-NPA-NDF — not because these institutions are weak, but because they are strongholds of academic freedom, critical thought, and youthful idealism, the very qualities that the insurgency covets,” said Año.
Año said the goal of the task force is not to antagonize these schools but to corroborate with them to address the concern.
Año described 2025 as a “critical year,” not because “we are nearing the end of the CPP-NPA-NDF, but because we are approaching a fork in the road.”
One of the paths, he said, “leads us backward – to complacency, and the rebranding and resurgence of insurgency in electoral disguise.”
“The other path moves us forward — toward vigilance, unity, and sustained peace,” he added.
“We are closer than ever to an insurgency-free Philippines,” said he said but added that to “cross that final threshold,” Filipinos “must take part in exposing the lies, protecting the truth, uplifting the poor, and safeguarding peace.”
“Let us not let decades of progress slip through our fingers. Let’s keep building a country where violence no longer hides behind ideology, and where peace is not just the absence of war but the presence of justice, dignity, and shared hope,” he said.
FUNDING
Año said the government is working to end funding to the communists, noting that such funding “keeps the armed insurgency ideologies afloat.”
He said the NTF-ELCAC is coordinating with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of Justice to help in vetting foreign grants intended for local non-government organizations.
“This vetting process ensures that international assistance goes to legitimate development partners, and not front organizations with ties to armed rebellion,” he said.
“We urge our legislators to consider a legal framework that mandates due diligence for all foreign-funded NGO operations in the country,” he added.
Año implied that the Barangay Development Program (BDP), a NTF-ELCAC project which focuses on the implementation of socio-economic programs, should continue.
Since 2021, more than 4,800 barangays have received P36 billion worth of infrastructure, health, livelihood and education support through the program, he said.
“These are the very same barangays where the CPP-NPA used to build their guerrilla bases and mass organizations,” said Año.
He said communist front organizations are opposed to the BDP and are calling for the abolition of NTF-ELCAC because “they are cut from the same cloth and are the mouthpieces of the CPP-NPA-NDF in the urban centers.”
“Moving forward, we must secure multi-year funding for the BDP, shielded from political interference. We recommend developing a public-facing impact dashboard to ensure transparency, and building local capacities for project implementation to reduce dependency on central government,” he said.
