Controversial task force seeks billions more for anti-insurgency drive

Inquirer file photo

MANILA, Philippines — National Security Adviser Eduardo Año again said on Saturday that the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) would “completely crush” the New People’s Army (NPA) within the term of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

In a statement, Año said the NTF-Elcac, which has been getting an average of more than P10 billion every year since 2019, continues to achieve significant and laudable milestones.

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“Under the Marcos administration, we will carry on with these achievements and we will make sure that during this administration, we will be able to completely crush these peace-spoilers,” he said.

Año, a former military chief, serves as the co-vice chair of the NTF-Elcac, which is still headed by Vice President Sara Duterte until July 19. Duterte resigned from the Marcos Cabinet as concurrent education secretary and NTF-Elcac chair on June 18.

READ: ‘Game changer’: NTF-Elcac seeks P10M per NPA-free barangay

In June this year, the government’s anticommunist task force asked Congress to restore the P8.7-billion fund for its Support to Barangay Development Program that would grant P10 million to each barangay liberated from the presence or influence of communist rebels.

According to Año, the Armed Forces of the Philippines has been able to destroy the “politico-military component” of all 89 active NPA fronts since 2018 due to the government’s implementation of multi-pronged political and socio-economic programs.

7 guerrilla fronts

“We are also on the verge of completely dismantling the remaining seven weakened guerrilla fronts (GFs). We expect that the remaining GFs will be dismantled within the year or the next,” he said.

Col. Francel Margareth Padilla, spokesperson for the AFP, said Marcos in February this year has ordered the AFP to end the local armed insurgency in the country within the year as the government transitions to external defense.

Padilla said there were 11 remaining weakened guerrilla fronts across the country with about 1,500 fighters.

In November last year, the government and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) agreed to resume peace talks, hoping to end the longest-running insurgency in Asia.

It’s been 56 years since the CPP was founded on Dec. 26, 1968, while its armed wing, the New People’s Army, was founded on March 29, 1969.

Marcos said both parties have agreed to a principled and peaceful resolution of the armed conflict.

“We have taken a bold, meaningful, and optimistic step toward the fulfillment of this aspiration for all Filipinos,” he said.