Anti-insurgency plan scrapped

President Aquino has terminated a controversial anti-insurgency plan that militant groups have linked to summary killing of people identified with the communist movement.

The President has decided not to extend Oplan Bantay Laya II and will instead draw up a new battleplan that will factor in human rights issues, said Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin.

“The Armed Forces will draw up a new counter-insurgency campaign that will incorporate the issue of human rights as has been stressed by the President,” Gazmin told the Standard on Sunday.

Pending the new campaign, which is expected to be implemented in January next year, Gazmin said there will be a realignment of troops in areas where the insurgents have become active. Among the priority areas for reinforcement of troops are the Davao and Bicol regions, Compostela Valley, Samar and Negros, Gazmin said.

The second phase of the anti-insurgency campaign sought to neutralize the New Peoples’ Army, the Abu Sayyaf Group, and rogue elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Mindanao.

Armed Forces chief Lt. Gen. Ricardo David said the campaign reduced the NPA’s strength to an “inconsequential” figure of only 5,000 from a high of 20,000 in the 1980s.

The military was able to reduce the number of rebel-infested barangays from 2,395 barangays in 2002 to only 1,017 by the end of the first quarter of 2010.

Military figures showed some 18 provinces have also been declared as insurgency-free because of Oplan Bantay Laya II, including Pangasinan,Nueva Ecija,Guimaras, Siquijor, Romblon, Bohol, Apayao, Aurora, Cebu, Tarlac and Ifugao. –Joyce Pangco Pañares,Manila Standard Today