PNP wants dialogue with CPP’s ‘legal fronts’ to address insurgency 

PNP chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde. INQUIRER file photo / JAM STA. ROSA

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde said Thursday the PNP wants to engage in a dialogue members of the “legal fronts” of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) embedded in different sectors to address the government’s problems on insurgency.

This after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the military to crush the communist insurgency in the country “now.”

“We will engage them in all their fronts doon sa agriculture [sector], labor, even the health, even doon sa academe which we started already and also even in the religious sector. I-e-engage natin ‘yan [We will engage them] in all their legal fronts,” Albayalde said in a chance interview at Camp Crame, Quezon City.

READ: Duterte to military: We can’t afford to pass insurgency woes to next generation

In a text message to INQUIRER.net, Albayalde said that the PNP wants to conduct this engagement through dialogues with select groups.

He pointed out that the CPP-NPA has many legal fronts in different sectors, even in politics.

He said the political groups secretly supporting the communist insurgency will be engaged by appropriate representatives from the government and not the PNP since the police force belongs to the armed sector.

“That’s the very reason why we have the national task force. This is a whole-[of]-nation approach, not only a whole-[of]-government approach, but it’s a whole-[of]-nation approach,” said Albayalde.

On Tuesday, the PNP initiated the first installment of a series of dialogues with school authorities to address security concerns inside campuses, including alleged recruitment of students to join the fold of the NPA, the armed wing of the CPP.

Those present in the dialogue were officials of the University of the Philippines, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, and De La Salle University, and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año and Commission on Higher Education Chair Prospero De Vera. /jpv

READ: PNP, top university execs hold dialogue vs drugs, communist rebellion