AFP winning war vs. NPA and ASG – Esperon

By Ronron
October 14, 2007

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. is claiming victory in the government’s drive against communist insurgency and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).

In a chance interview last Friday, Esperon said the military has already reduced the strength of the New People’s Army from 7,300 in December 2006 to 6,200 in June of this year.

The military has also neutralized 72 ASG personalities in the first semester of 2007, bringing down to 380 the estimated strength of the terrorist group, which is based in Sulu and Basilan, he said.

“We are indeed winning. We are on track… and we will continue to win,” Esperon said.

He expressed confidence that the AFP will be able to comply with the directive of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to crush the insurgency movement by 2010 when she ends her term.

Translated into figures, Esperon said this means reducing the NPA strength to just about 3,500 by then.

“Once they hit 3,500, they will no longer be able to launch tactical offensives and they will become a police problem, peace and order problem,” he said.

Esperon boasted that the neutralization of 966 NPA personalities from January to June of this year was actually higher than the 500-per-semester target of the AFP.

He said that if they continue to meet their target on a yearly basis, then they will realize their goal of just having a 3,500-strong NPA by 2010. “We want to reduce them by 3,500 or half (of their strength in December 2006), or approximately 1,000 per year. If you go 1,000 in 2007; 1,000 in 2008; another thousand in 2009, and 500 by the middle of 2010, we will be hitting the target by decreasing them by one half or 3,500.”

Arroyo gave the order to make the NPA and other threat groups insignificant by 2010 in June last year. She followed it with the provision of P1 billion both for the AFP and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to boost their respective capabilities, and the consent for the PNP to actively engage the NPA.

The NPA has waging guerilla warfare in the countryside for almost four decades now./DMS