General: ‘War freak’ AFP may miss 2010 deadline vs rebels
By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 16:32:00 05/16/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- The military could miss President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's 2010 deadline to defeat the communist insurgency unless it gets over its "utak pulbura" (war freak) attitude and pours more resources into humanitarian and propaganda work, a general said Friday.
Major General Jaime Buenaflor, chief of the National Development Council (NDC), acknowledged that one of the reasons the military's combat-heavy approach has failed to end the nearly four-decades-long insurgency is because the rebels spend between 80 to 90 percent of their resources on "ideological, political, and organizational" or IPO work.
"We need to step up civil-military operations. We have been waging this war for [over] 30 years, utak pulbura ka pa hanggang ngayon [and you remain a war freak]. Iba na ang labanan ngayon [The nature of the war has changed]," Buenaflor said.
Asked if the chances of the military meeting the 2010 deadline would be set back if it does not focus on civil military operations (CMO), he said: "Not even 2010, beyond 2010, unless we intensify CMO."
"We have to intensify our propaganda activities. Our propaganda is development, construction of some infrastructure, that's what we're doing," he said.
The NDC was activated in August 2007 as the military shifted to the second phase of its internal security battle plan, "Bantay Laya" (Defend Freedom), which called for an increased CMO component.
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