LUCENA CITY, Philippines -- Communist Party of the Philippines spokesman Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal pooh-poohed the threat of newly installed Armed Forces Chief of Staff Alexander Yano to finally wipe out the New People's Army rebels before 2010.

Rosal said Yano “will be forced to eat the same lies” as his predecessor, retired AFP chief Hermogenes Esperon, did about ending the insurgency by 2010.

In his inaugural speech on Monday, Yano vowed to “carry on the sustained momentum” of his predecessor “to put an end to the long-drawn communist insurgency in 2010.”

The CPP spokesman also scoffed at President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's statement during the transfer of command in Camp Aguinaldo that “all insurgency parameters are on the downtrend, with NPA numbers plummeting to a historic low.”

Rosal claimed that “no iota of truth exists at all in this litany of lies.”

In a statement sent to Philippine Daily Inquirer Wednesday, he cited reports from the field attesting to the brilliant series of all-sided victories by the revolutionary movement, including the NPA, “ever since Esperon had been making his empty boasts last year.”

Quoting reports from guerrilla fronts across the country, Rosal claimed that the rebel movement posted significant increases in practically all areas of revolutionary work during the previous year to date.

He also claimed that CPP membership grew “to an unprecedented level” with the NPA recruitment also significantly increased.

“Around 500 tactical offensives against enemy armed forces have been launched. Additional guerrilla fronts, zones and bases have sprung up. Membership in mass organizations has increased tremendously,” Rosal said.

He claimed that many victories were achieved in revolutionary land reform, people's socio-economic movements and other mass movements in guerrilla fronts and adjoining areas.

Rosal vowed that the revolutionary movement would achieve even more victories in 2008, the CPP’s 40th anniversary and in 2009.

He said the rebel movement aimed to make a major forward advance within the present stage of its people's war in the next few years.

President Arroyo has given security forces until the end of her term in 2010 to defeat the communist insurgency, destroy Islamic extremist groups, and contain the Moro rebellion.

At the end of 2007, the military estimated the strength of the NPA, the armed wing of the CPP, at 5,700.

Military authorities say the NPA still has 87 guerrilla fronts across the country.

The rebel group reached its peak of 27,000 fighters in the late 1980s.