RP military chief says militias securing private firms too

By Ronron
January 29, 2008

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. revealed Monday night that special militiamen are securing a few firms and local government units in various parts of the country that are vulnerable to attack, especially by communist rebels.

In a forum with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) at his official residence in Camp Aguinaldo, Esperon said there are now 10 special companies of Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) performing that task.

Esperon said the 10 are deployed in local government units in General Santos City, Davao City and Maguindanao; in plantations in Davao and Sultan Kudarat; and in mining firms in Zambales, Zamboanga del Norte, and Surigao.

He said the Australian Xstrata firm in Tampakan, South Cotabato, which was attacked last New Year’s Day by suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA), has a pending application to hire a similar security force.

The AFP currently has about 54,000 regular CAFGU personnel, which supports the 80,000-strong Philippine Army. Each gets a P90 daily subsistence allowance.

Esperon admitted though that the hiring of special CAFGU companies by private firms and LGU’s is no longer new, the first in fact was in the late 1980’s.

According to AFP Public Information Officer Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, each company consists of 80 CAFGU personnel. But Esperon said some companies have as high as 120 personnel.

Esperon said the members of the special CAFGU companies are trained for three months by the military and placed under the command of the military officer assigned in the area.

The military chief said that while they provide the training for the special CAFGUs and have operational control over them, it is the LGU or the private firm that pays for them.

He said the AFP also provides the special CAFGU”s uniforms and firearms.

“Instead of us physically contributing our men to the companies, it is them coming up with guards or having them get assistance form us, or training for that matter from us,” Esperon said.

Esperon said “it is a cheap way of securing businesses” in the countryside in exchange for the taxes that the private firms pay the government.

Esperon said the utilization of special CAFGU companies works well for the military because he said the entire 120,000 AFP personnel is not sufficient to cover the entire archipelago.

In fact, only 60 percent of the AFP-strength is in the field as the remaining 40 percent are utilized for support services only.

Esperon said that except for the request from Xstrata, the AFP has not received any request for special CAFGU companies in the last six months.

The military estimates the current strength of the NPA at 5,760, the lowest strength level in two decades. It hopes to further reduce it this year by targeting to dismantle 17 guerilla fronts just in the first quarter.

The NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has been waging guerilla warfare in the countryside for almost four decades already. But the government targets to make it an “inconsequential” force by 2010 when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ends her term./DMS