ARMED Forces chief Lt. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro yesterday said the number of New People’s Army (NPA) guerrilla fronts throughout the country is now down to just 24, from 89 four years ago.
In a press briefing after a meeting of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), Bacarro said 19 of these 24 guerrilla fronts have been weakened and will be soon declared dismantled.
“We started with about 89 guerrilla fronts, targeting 89 guerrilla fronts and we are happy to report that right now, out of the 89 (guerrilla fronts), we’re confronting just 24 guerrilla fronts,” said Bacarro.
The 89 NPA guerrilla fronts were recorded in 2018 when NTF-ELCAC was created by then President Duterte. The task force was formed a year after Duterte issued a proclamation, terminating peace talks with the communists.
The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Bacarro said five “active” active guerrilla fronts are based in the Samar provinces and South Cotabato and are affecting 154 barangays.
“We are focusing on those active guerrilla fronts. That is the challenge that we have right now. It’s not actually a challenge but those are the things that we need to address right now,” said Bacarro.
“In terms of their manpower, we have reduced them to 2,112,” said Bacarro, adding that the number of NPA firearms is also down to about 1,800. He did not give the 2018 count.
Recently, authorities declared the Davao region as insurgency-free, becoming the third region to reach that status. The two others are the Ilocos and Zamboanga Peninsula regions.
As to the areas due to be declared as insurgency-free, Bacarro named the provinces of Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato.
In a later interview, Bacarro said the 19 weakened guerrilla fronts are also a “priority” for dismantling of the Armed Forces.
“Based on the clearing parameters, we have to reduce (their strength) to the smallest level. There are certain conditions that we have to meet,” he said.
Bacarro said the leaders of these weakened guerrilla fronts should be also be neutralized before the fronts can be declared as dismantled.
Bacarro said the military targeted to dismantle all the NPA guerrilla during the time of President Duterte but this was not achieved. Duterte finished his six-year term on June 30 this year.
“The conditions then were not favorable, we had COVID-19 (problem) so that is our priority now,” said Bacarro on the dismantling of all the NPA guerrilla fronts.
Asked if the military can dismantle the guerrilla fronts or end the insurgency problem within the term of President Marcos Jr, Bacarro said, “If the conditions (are favorable), that’s very doable.”
NTF-ELCAC vice chairman and National Security Adviser Clarita Carlos said they discussed during yesterday’s meeting the need to work together to end the insurgency problem.
“What we have done in this four-hour long meeting of the NTF-ELCAC would really be to reiterate the philosophical and operational basis of the NTF-ELCAC which is whole-of-nation and whole-of-government work,” she said.
“Which means everybody has to row together in the same direction to obliterate all the obstacles to our national development and this would be in the case of the enemies of the state to make sure that all our 42,000 barangays would really have a chance to be part of our economic growth,” she added.
Carlos the task force is facing some “challenges” but said these are mostly bureaucracy-related, noting the transition from the previous administration to the current one.
“But these are things which can easily be remedied in time,” said Carlos, without elaborating on the challenges they are confronting.
