AFP new anti-insurgency strategy lures more NPAs

THE government’s new anti-insurgency strategy, the Internal Peace and Security Plan (IPSP) Bayanihan, is turning out to be the best antidote into ending the 40-year communist insurgency problem as more members of the New People’s Army (NPA) return to the fold of the law, according to the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Armed Forces spokesman, Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta, Jr., said Friday that barely a month since IPSP has been officially implemented on January 1, more and more communist rebels have been sending feelers of their desire to leave the underground movement and return to mainstream society.

Mabanta disclosed that the NPA membership has further dwindled to less than 4,600 as of the latest count from 4,700 as of end December 2010.

“The latest count per J2, I would like to inform everyone, is 4,600. It’s a little bit better than 4,700 I’ve been stating few years back,” he said.

J2 is the office of the deputy chief of staff for intelligence.

According to Mabanta, bulk of the 4,600 NPAs is in Davao, Caraga, Bicol and Southern Tagalog.

The latest to surrender were Ceto Manlipana Manlagunta and his son, Carlito Sigahan Manlagunta, of Barangay Kinabaybay in Esperanza, Agusan del Sur. The two were members of the NPA Guerrilla Front 88, North Central Mindanao Regional Command. Theyalso surrenred twho high-powered firearms, a cal. 30 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) and an M-16 assault rifle loaded with ammunitions.

Maj. Gen. Victor Felix, commander of the Fourth Infantry Division, said that more rebels in Regions X, XI and Caraga region have expressed their desire to surrender.

Maj. Eegenio Julio Osias 4th, commanding officer of Fourth Civil Military Operations (Masaligan) Battalion of the Fourth Infantry Division, said that during debriefing, the two rebels acknowledge that they were forced and duped into joining the rebel movement.

“The two who just recently surrendered last week gave us the names of the NPA supporters who brought them into the rebel movement. They are also open to the idea of promoting and help convince their friends and comrade to put down their arms and come to the folds of the government and have a far better life than that of hiding in the mountains. Let us wait for more rebels to come in this first quarter of 2011”, Osias said.

The new anti-insurgency strategy was set into motion January 1 and would be implemented until the end of the Aquino administration.

IPSP Bayanihan was anchored on the President’s national security strategy, which emerges from the realization of lasting peace and stability, development and social progress, through a multistakeholder approach focus on the protection of the citizens’ rights and civil liberties.

It puts equal emphasis to the combat and noncombat dimension of the anti-insurgency campaign such that efforts are not only focused on combat operations but also on the peaceful settlement of conflicts.

The new IPSP also advocates “people-centered approach,” characterized with a strict adherence to the International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law. –WILLIAM B. DEPASUPIL, Manila Times