By Priam Nepomuceno/PNA
MANILA — The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) remains committed to winning the peace and defeating the threat posed by the communist rebels.
This was disclosed by AFP chief-of-staff Lt. Gen. Benjamin Madrigal during an interview with reporters Wednesday.
“(The focus for 2019) is (achieving) peace, (defeat the) CPP-NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army), of course to support (the) National Task Force, meron na tayong (we already have the) National Task Force to end local communist armed conflict. In fact, tuloy-tuloy yung mga meetings natin (our meetings are ongoing), (kung) paano magkaroon ng (on how to have a) mechanism, ma-operationalize yung task force,” he added.
The NPA, the CPP’s armed wing, is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
Madrigal, however, clarified that in order to fully defeat the insurgency threat the local and national governments must cooperate fully.
“But yung sinabing (as for) ending insurgency, yung tinatawag nating (to achieve what we call) complete victory, ang kailangan diyan, (what is needed is) to create our communities conflict-resilient and in this, kailangan natin lahat ng (we need all) agencies, kailangan natin ng(we need the) local government, national government and communities para mapagtulung-tulungan natin ito (to work together in this endeavor),” he stressed.
