AFP readies new oplan vs security threats

The Armed Forces of the Philippines will replace its counterinsurgency drive, “Oplan Bayanihan,” and implement next year a new campaign plan to maintain peace in the countryside and deter national security threats.

“We will be implementing the new campaign plan starting January 2017. But there will be no formal launching. The chief of staff is expected to announce it in his anniversary speech,” AFP public affairs office chief Marine Col. Edgard Arevalo said on Sunday.

The military official declined to give details of the new campaign. He said a technical working group was earlier formed to conduct a study of Oplan Bayanihan and give assessments.

“In a nutshell, we can say the new AFP campaign plan is about the military’s possible role in nation-building and defeating the enemies of the state or threats to national security,” Arevalo said.

The name of the new campaign plan would be announced by chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eduardo  Año during the AFP Foundation Day on Wednesday, he added.

Oplan Bayanihan was the code name of the military-led “internal peace and security program” launched in Dec. 22, 2010 under then President Benigno Aquino III.

However, Oplan Bayanihan, together with its predecessor “Oplan Bantay Laya,” have been criticized by human rights groups for alleged extrajudicial killings, abductions, tortures and mass displacements committed by the military and its agents  in the countryside.