THE National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) said the number of “weakened” guerrilla fronts of the New People’s Army is now down to just four, or one less from August.
Three of the four remaining weakened fronts are under review as to whether they have been dismantled, NTF-ELCAC executive director Ernesto Torres Jr said in a recent press briefing.
There were 89 “active” NPA guerrilla fronts when the NTF-ELCAC was established on Dec. 4, 2008. Six years after, Torres said, there are no more active NPA guerrilla fronts.
“During the last conference that I attended, it was reported that we have zero active guerrilla fronts already, only four weakened guerrilla fronts,” said Torres.
“The last time I checked, of the four remaining guerrilla fronts, three are about to be declared for dismantling already. This is already at the national level for validation,” said Torres.
A guerrilla front is deemed dismantled if it is no longer capable of launching attacks, its political and military structures have collapsed, and its fund-generation activities and flow of logistics support have been disrupted, among others.
Torres said the goal of the task force is the dismantling of all NPA guerrilla fronts before the end of the year.
“We’ve been very successful. Just imagine, from 89 guerrilla fronts when NTF-ELCAC was established in Dec. 4, 2018. Right now, after six years, there is zero guerrilla fronts and only, in effect, one guerrilla front remaining,” said Torres.
As of last month, Torres said, the NPA membership was at around 1,100 men.
“A little lower than that is the number of their firearms,” he also said.
“The NTF-ELCAC is the worst nightmare of the CPP-NPA-NDF (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front),” said Torres.
“That is why at every opportunity, they would like to have it abolished,” he also said, referring to members of the communist movement and their supporters.
Torres said President Marcos Jr., the NTF-ELCAC chairman, has said the task force will continue to exist “because it provides genuine service to the Filipino people, particularly those who are most vulnerable to the deception of the CPP-NPA-NDF.”
“For six years now, it (NTF-ELCAC) was able to bring in the needed infrastructure in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas. It was able to provide facilities for the education of these barangays,” he said.
“And likewise, it was able to provide the needed opportunity for our fellow Filipinos in far-flung areas that were, for so many decades, somehow neglected. So it (NTF-ELCAC) will continue on,” he added.
