MANILA, Philippines — Following the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) declaration that the New People’s Army (NPA) no longer has “active” guerrilla fronts in the country, the anti-communist task force said on Wednesday that it will still dismantle 14 weakened units nationwide.
“We have no more active guerrilla fronts in any region in our country. The armed components of the Communist Terrorist Group (CTG) are on their last leg, but this does not mean that we can rest easy in our efforts to clear barangays of the CTG’s influence,” National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) executive director Usec. Ernesto Torres Jr. said in a press conference on Wednesday.
READ: ‘There are no more active guerilla fronts,’ declares AFP
“We still have 14 weakened guerrilla fronts that we have to contend against, and ensuring their total dismantling will be our prerequisite for us to initiate our next steps in ensuring peace,” he added.
READ: NPA only has one active guerrilla front, says AFP chief
Although a weakened guerrilla unit can no longer implement programs such as recruitment and generating resources for the armed struggle, Torres said AFP troops are still in areas where the presence of armed groups was detected.