The military will form a unit to counter New People’s Army hit squads this month, made up mostly of intelligence officers from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and its different branches, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Tuesday.
“The core of this unit will be from the Intelligence Service of the AFP. The Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines have their own intel unit, so they could form the core of this anti-SPARU unit,” Lorenzana said, referring to the NPA Special Partisan Unit.
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He said he supports the formation of the special unit to protect military personnel from attack by NPA hit squads.
“I support the anti-SPARU unit that will protect our soldiers but I said let us be very careful in organizing these people. Some quarters are saying we’ll get civilians to do it. I think no, this will be very difficult for civilians to do this [as] they might think they have blanket authority to just kill anybody they suspect of being NPA. I want soldiers to be our anti-SPARU unit members and this should be supervised by officers,” he added.
President Rodrigo Duterte proposed the creation of a “Duterte Death Squad” after reports said 136 people, most of them military, police and rebel returnees, were assassinated by the communist rebels in the last three years.
The Communist Party of the Philippines blamed the President for the repeated termination of peace talks.
CCP founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison said communist rebels have wanted to peacefully end the five-decade-old armed conflict with the government, but the Duterte administration has failed by setting up conditions and terminating the peace talks.
“Duterte and his armed minions have only themselves to blame for the repeated terminations of peace negotiations that Duterte declared and for making preconditions,” said Sison from his base in Utrecht, The Netherlands on Wednesday.
The top communist official said the government’s conditions such as the surrender of the New People’s Army, the laying aside of the people’s demand for social, economic and political reforms, and the self-destruction of the revolutionary movement have blocked the path to peace and hindered the establishment of a just and lasting ceasefire between the government and communist rebels.
Sison said the National Democratic Front of the Philippines was expecting that the comprehensive agreements would have been made before the end of the year.
He said Duterte should have fulfilled his promise to [grant] amnesty and release all political prisoners.
“He would have gotten a ceasefire longer than the nearly six months from August 2016 to January 2017. And the peace negotiations would have advanced fast and smoothly,” Sison said.
“But whenever the comprehensive agreement on social and economic reforms moved forward, Duterte always came up with a surprise declaration of termination.”
Meanwhile, the AFP has formed a division-size group of infantry men to be deployed in the volatile province of Sulu to defeat the lingering security threat posed by various terrorist groups, particularly the Abu Sayyaf Group.
AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said the division-sized unit will be permanently stationed in Sulu Archipelago to containe and decimate terrorists elements that continue to sow havoc.
“The Armed Forces of the Philippines, in support to national leadership, is determined to engage squarely and defeat decisively all threat to national security that are harboring in Sulu,” Arevalo said.
The insertion of the 11th Infantry Division with a complement of about a thousand troops in Sulu came after President Duterte expressed concern that, despite the AFP garnering major victories in Sulu, security forces continue to incur casualties.
“The 11th ID is envisioned to effectively and efficiently engage and decisively defeat the lingering threat in Sulu in the soonest time possible,” Arevalo said.
Arevalo said ground troops were able to kill 72 bandits and capture 32 fighters in various armed engagements from January to November. Some 180 have surrendered.
Arevalo also highlighted the seizure of 214 firearms, 13 Improvised Explosive Devices and 11 encampments.
Duterte on Wednesday said he was not ready to talk to Sison.
“I am no longer ready talk to you. You insult me, I insult you. We’re like kids. Just don’t return here, I promise you, I will slap you,” Duterte said in his speech during the awarding ceremonies for the 2017 Presidential Award for Child-Friendly Municipalities and Cities on Wednesday evening.
The President said Sison should just stay in his base in Utrecht, The Netherlands because once the latter sets foot in the Philippines, Duterte will slap him in the face.
“If you try [to come back] at the airport, I will make you eat your dentures… You are so full of yourself when you talk,” the President added, belittling Sison’s intellectual capacity.
Duterte made his remarks after Sison called Duterte a “dopehead” for failing to file diplomatic protests and to sue China in the courts for violating Philippine sovereign rights.
Sison said China has violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling in favor of the Philippines for illegally making artificial islands in the resource-filled waters of the West Philippine Sea.
“Only Duterte and his cronies can make some limited and narrow sense out of his treason and stupidity by admitting the obvious fact that they stand to benefit from contract shares and finders’ fees,” he said.
“The logic of their greed betrays the sovereign rights and interests of the Philippines and the Filipino people,” Sison added.
