Naogsan hallucinating says Nolcom chief on NPA’s strength claim

BY GEORGE TRILLO

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – The chief of the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command said the New People’s Army in regions north of Metro Manila have “broken down” their diminished guerrilla forces into “skeletal fronts” to make it appear that its strength has increased.

“Simon Naogsan, the self-confessed spokesman of the Cordillera People’s Democratic Front is either hallucinating or living in fantasy land when he claimed that the number of guerrilla fronts increased from 100 to 230,” Lt. Gen. Rodrigo Maclang said.

Naogsan earlier released a statement making such a claim, alleging that the NPA’s increased strength has made them capable of mounting attacks to defeat the Armed Forces’ timetable of crushing the communist insurgency by 2010.

“The truth of the matter is that the enemy has broken down their remaining guerrilla fronts into skeletal forces to make it appear that their number is increasing. There are even some instances when they merged units to be able to withstand the superior forces of the government,” Maclang said.

Maclang said government forces, which clash with the insurgents, “painstakingly undertake a clearing process to make sure that the communities previously affected or threatened by the rebels are free from their (NPA’s) influence and evil schemes.”

“If there is one that is capable of lying, it is no other than Naogsan himself. There is no way that the people can verify his claims, whereas Nolcom, just like any other unit of the Armed Forces, follows a stringent process of validating the troops’ accomplishments, especially when it involves the clearing of Communist Party of the Philippines NPA guerrilla fronts,” he said.

“It is not solely the Armed Forces which determines if an area is cleared since the local chief executives and other stakeholders are directly involved in the validation process,” he said. He accused communist rebels of “resorting to cheap and vicious propaganda because they have no way of vindicating themselves in the eyes of the public considering their weakened armed capability and dying popular support.

They want to project a strong fighting force.” Maclang said “self-confessed spokesmen” of CPP-NPA units were “quick in fabricating combat statistics, especially in the Ilocos and Cordillera regions, hoping that the public will blindly accept their self-serving declarations.” He said government troops “will continue to seize the momentum and will not allow any opportunity for the enemy to recover their losses.”

Maclang said this year, the military is eyeing the dismantling of five more NPA guerrilla fronts through better intelligence and combat capability. “This will be equally complemented by sustained civil-military operations which will focus on projects and activities that will help alleviate the plight of our people, especially in the depressed areas, in coordination with local government units and agencies,” he said.