AFP chief Gapay says number of Reds ‘on the decline’

Armed Forces chief Lieutenant General Gilbert Gapay on Wednesday said he believes the number of members of the Communist Party of the Philippines - New People's Army (CPP-NPA) in the country is already declining.

At a joint press briefing with the Philippine National Police, Gapay said this is because a lot of communist rebels have already surrendered to government forces.

"All figures are on the decline and in fact napakarami na nag-surrender. For this year alone, more than 1,000 nag-surrender with almost 800 firearms from the CPP-NPA side and marami pang surrender feelers," Gapay said.

"So 'yung kanilang armed component being significantly degraded by our security forces," he added.

According to Gapay, the military is also addressing the other issues related to the communist insurgency problem of the country, such as poverty as well as injustice.

"Ang binibigyan namin ng focus ngayon are the other dimension of the insurgency problem which are non-military. For example, bakit nandiyan pa ba sila," Gapay said.

"Dahil sa kahirapan may nare-recruit pa rin mga NPA lalo na sa IP sector natin and 'yung marginalized communities natin then nandiyan pa rin 'yung mga propaganda, biktima of injustice and 'yung gobyerno napabayaan sila," he added.

The police and the military strengthened its partnership in eradicating communist insurgency and terrorism in the country by signing the Joint Letter Directive No. 03 series of 2020 or "Guidelines in Evaluating the Effectiveness of Internal Security Operations in Support to the National Thrust to End Local Communist Armed Conflict."

Aside from security forces, Gapay said other agencies and even the public have a vital role in ending insurgency in the country.

"It involves everyone, all other government agencies, sectors of society and the people or citizenry as a whole kaya itong campaign plan namin is being updated," Gapay said.

"It also integrates roles ng different government agencies, other sectors of society to address not only the armed component but most especially the root causes of insurgency," he added. — RSJ, GMA News