NPA guerilla fronts should be down to 25 in 2010 – AFP

By Ronron
January 8, 2008

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has set specific targets in bringing down the strength of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) until 2010.

In a news conference Tuesday afternoon after their two-day command conference at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, AFP chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. said that the current 87 guerilla fronts of the communist movement nationwide should be reduced to 25 by 2010 through their intensified operations.

The existing 87 guerilla fronts consist of 5,760 fighters. A guerilla front is the localized unit of the CPP-NPA, which is made up of both a political organization and armed fighters.

Based on their timeline, Esperon said 17 of the 87 guerilla fronts should be dismantled by the first quarter of this year, bringing down to 70 the remaining guerilla fronts.

Another 20 guerilla fronts should be dismantled by the end of the year, leaving 50 guerilla fronts, he said.

“By 2009, we expect to dismantle about 25. So that leaves you with 25 for 2010… That would be much, much less than the 107 maximum guerilla fronts that they have reached in 2005,” Esperon said.

If this is achieved, Esperon said the CPP-NPA will become an “inconsequential organization”.

Esperon could not immediately translate, however, the strength of said guerilla fronts into actual number of fighter because each guerilla front varies in the number of their members.

He said the strength of the front will only be learned upon its dismantling.

AFP Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Antonio Romero told Manila Shimbun in a phone interview that the reduction of the guerilla fronts is expected to be achieved through three approaches: 1) intensified combat operation; 2) development programs in insurgency-affected areas; and, 3) offer for amnesty for those who want to surrender.

He said if the government revives the funding for the Balik-Baril Program, then more rebels are expected to return to the folds of the law. “This will surely reduce the number of the NPA fighters if they get paid for their firearms,” Romero said.

Romero said that with all those activities, they expect also that no more new guerilla fronts will emerge.

Romero said most of the 87 guerilla fronts are spread in Regions II, V and XIII (Caraga), while the remaining few are scattered elsewhere in the country.

As to Region IV-A (Calabarzon), which hosts a lot of industrial parks, Romero said there are just a few guerilla fronts now because many were already dismantled over the last few years.

“It’s just minimal there because we hit their guerilla fronts there precisely so we could protect the business community there,” Romero said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has directed both the AFP and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to crush the insurgency movement by 2010 when she ends her term, saying that it has hindered economic development for the country.

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