The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) said on Wednesday, January 3, that there are no more active guerilla fronts in the NPA (New People’s Army) which he said are “on their last leg.”
There are no more guerrilla active fronts in the ranks of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels, according to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
NTF-ELCAC executive director Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr. said that there are only 14 “weakened” guerilla fronts left in the communist armed struggle.
“Ensuring their total dismantling will be our prerequisite for us to initiate our next steps in ensuring peace,” Torres said.
According to the NTF-ELCAC chief, six more guerilla fronts were totally dismantled recently.
Torres said the total dismantling of the insurgency fronts will help in the continuation of the task force’s localized peace engagements.
Meanwhile, the National Security Council (NSC) on Wednesday slammed the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) following the rebel group’s statement on its 55th anniversary.
“The Party outlines tasks to strengthen the NPA and the revolutionary armed struggle, and carry forward the revolutionary mass movement, and the people’s struggles against the US-Marcos regime,” the CPP said.
NSC Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya brushed aside the CPP statement in light of on-going exploratory peace negotiations between the two sides.
Malaya said instead of calling for cessation of their armed struggle in its anniversary statement, the CPP doubled down on its commitment in pushing their insurgency movement.
“To make matters worse, the CPP in the same anniversary statement called the forthcoming ‘exploratory talks’ resulting from the Oslo Communique as ‘an additional battlefield to advance the national democratic cause’,” Malaya said.
“The use of the word ‘battlefield’ is telling. This only means that the CPP has not abandoned its original position,” he added.