AFP: 300 rebels killed, arrested since suspension of peace talks

Nearly 300 New People’s Army (NPA) members have either been killed or arrested by government forces since the Duterte administration suspended peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the Armed Forces of the Philippines said on Sunday.

The NDFP is the political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), while the NPA is the CPP’s armed wing.

The military called on communist rebels to lay down their arms or be killed.

“While we are hopeful that more NPAs will surrender in the coming days, our troops on the ground will continue with our relentless operations against those who remain active in their violent and destructive criminal activities,” the AFP Public Affairs chief, Col. Edgard Arevalo, said in a statement.

The military’s counterinsurgency operations have been going on since Feb. 4, when peace negotiations with the NDFP stalled, according to Arevalo.

He said that since February, 264 NPA rebels had either been killed or arrested, while 573 had voluntarily surrendered. A total of 622 firearms were recovered from the NPA rebels.

Stepped-up fighting

Fighting, however, has escalated soon after President Duterte unilaterally ended peace talks with the NDFP last month through Presidential Proclamation No. 360.

Major Gen. Ronald Villanueva, 4th ID commander, said the military believed that “important CPP-NPA-NDFP personalities are being withdrawn to safer areas.”

Villanueva added that the government expected the communist rebels and their sympathizers to use evacuees to divert the public’s attention from the conflict.

“Again, the CPP-NPA-NDFP will attract local and foreign organizations to shield their leadership from being captured by security forces,” Villanueva said.

‘Soft targets’

Arevalo said the military was expecting more NPA attacks on “soft targets … to make up for their tactical defeats.”

In November alone, the military counted 21 rebels dead, 29 arrested and 69 who surrendered. A total of 62 high-powered and low-powered firearms were seized.

Lawyer Edre Olalia, a legal consultant to the NDFP negotiating panel, insisted that the government should continue to adhere to “universally accepted rules of armed conflict,” as embodied in the Geneva Conventions upholding international humanitarian law.

The Philippines is a signatory to the Geneva Conventions in which “both combatants and especially civilians have rights to be protected in the context of war,” Olalia said. —Nikko Dizon