By Priam Nepomuceno/PNA
MANILA — Many victories in achieving peace have been won by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in 2018.
This was stressed by AFP chief-of-staff, Lt. Gen. Benjamin Madrigal during his New Year’s Call speech which was held at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City Tuesday.
“Our victories were aplenty, it was a year full of challenges and meaningful lessons. Nonetheless, the collective efforts of our soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines, our civilian personnel and reservists have enabled us to perform our mandate in the best manner we can. And for that we deserve a big round of applause,” Madrigal said.
“As we start another year, let me remind everyone that our end state for 2019 is to achieve the President’s desire to ultimately win the peace, and finally put an end to local communist armed conflict. We intend to attain this by unifying our efforts at various levels of government with the end view of developing conflict resilient communities,” he added.
The AFP also intends to uphold the primacy of the peace process and continue to sustain its gains by ensuring the successful implementation of the Bangsamoro Organic Law to establish stability and progress in the area.
“We will fully support the conduct of the plebiscite this month and we will assure that our people will be able to exercise their right to vote,” Madrigal said.
Madrigal also stressed the need to eradicate the existence of terrorist cells through initiatives on preventing and countering violent extremism with the support of concerned agencies and the Muslim community.
“All these we seem as daunting tasks but let us bear in mind that we are not alone in this battle. we have an entire nation that emboldens us, supports our fight and inspires us to do what is right and noble, let us therefore harness therefore their support, unify our efforts and together we can confront and overcome any obstacle or challenges head-on,” the AFP chief said.
