ILOILO CITY — The Philippine Army 3rd Infantry Division (3ID) will remain on full alert status despite the suspension of offensive military operations.
“We are on what we call on active defense, we see to it we continue with our heightened security operations,” said 3ID commanding officer Major General Jon Aying in an interview Friday afternoon.
The move is in preparation for the 49th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines on December 26.
“We do not intend to attack any threat forces that are far away from becoming imminent or clear and present danger to people, to facilitate and to vital installations and also to government forces,” he said.
“We do not intend to attack. But in case that we sense that there are movements of state enemy formations then we will not hesitate to attack for purposes of active defense wherein we still have to stick in our dictum that the best defense is still offense,” Aying added.
In a recent interview with Chief Superintendent Cesar Hawthorne Binag, regional director of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6), he also assured they were prepared to secure the public for the incoming founding anniversary of the communist group.
President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered a unilateral suspension of combat operations against the communist rebels from December 24 to January 2, 2018.
The declaration of ceasefire came a month after cancelling peace talks with the CPP and its armed terrorist organization, the New People’s Army. (Cindy Ferrer/PNA)
