The Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police have devised a new legal strategy aimed to meet the presidential deadline to finish off the country’s insurgency problem by 2010. PNP chief Director General Avelino Razon Jr. said from now on, the PNP would be called in all post-Army combat operations to defeat the insurgents not in the battlefield, but in the legal arena.
“While the actual combat is the main forte of the Army, we in the PNP consider any fighting a crime. So our policemen will be called in to preserve the crime scene or the combat zone to gather evidence for appropriate legal actions against the insurgents,” Razon said.
“We are going to fight them (NPAs) in court,” he added, saying that the PNP aside from fighting insurgency war in the courtroom, will also continue its mandated anti-insurgency duties in the field. This new anti-insurgency legal strategy was mapped out at the PNP National Headquarters following a call from Army chief, Lt. Gen. Alexander Yano to Razon on Friday.
Armed Forces of the Philippines chief, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, also described Yano’s call on Razon as part of his preparation, being an incoming AFP chief. He also expressed optimism that this new AFP-PNP legal strategy would expose the insurgents’ criminal acts against the soldiers and policemen and their innocent civilian victims.
Esperon said at the rate the overall AFP-PNP anti-insurgency is going on, he expects that the NPAs would be rendered into an insignificant force when the term of President Arroyo ends in 2010. The President had issued a marching order to the military and the police to finish the country’s insurgency problem before she steps down in 2010.
In related developments, Esperon hinted that the AFP-PNP had already dismantled all guerilla fronts in the provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga. “We have already dismantled all guerilla fronts in Bulacan and Pampanga and soon those (guerilla fronts) based in Nueva Ecija,” Esperon said.
Aside from sustained anti-insurgency combat operations, Esperon said that the military is also winning the war through its Bantay Laya II campaign. Bantay Laya II is more focused on civil-military operations like building of farm to market roads, medical missions, and holding of dialogues and seminars in known rebel infested areas.
Additionally, Esperon has confirmed the dismantling of three Communist guerilla fronts in Central Luzon during the first quarter of this year, overshooting the military’s target of two for the said period. He said these strongholds of the New People’s Army are previously located in Pampanga, Bulacan and Nueva Ecija.
The AFP chief said the dismantling of the guerilla fronts was due to the dwindling support of the civilians in the countryside, and the intensified combat and non-combat operations in these areas. Lt. Gen. Rodrigo Maclang, chief of the military’s Northern Luzon Command, said that during the first quarter, they have also dismantled the NPA front in Cagayan Valley-Apayao area, but this has yet to be validated for the second quarter of the year.
He said for the rest of the year, NOLCOM is targeting the guerilla fronts in Tarlac, Zambales and Ilocos Sur-Mountain Province area. Earlier, Esperon said the AFP could fall short of its target of dismantling 17 NPA rebel fronts all over the country for the first quarter of this year, but said they are on track in so far as the campaign against the Maoist group is concerned.
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