Bacarro called for increased ‘operational tempo’ vs. communist rebels — AFP spox

Armed Forces chief Lieutenant General Bartolome Vicente Bacarro has ordered troops to increase “operational tempo” to defeat the communist insurgency, the AFP said on Wednesday.

In a media interview, AFP acting spokesperson Colonel Medel Aguilar said Bacarro made the directive during a command conference.

“Ang kanyang instruction is to increase yung operational tempo so that we can defeat the armed group, so kung puwede nga sana tapusin ito kaagad-agad,” Aguilar said.

(Bacarro’s instruction is to increase operational tempo so that we can defeat the armed group.)

“We have just to maximize the available forces that we have so that we can increase the operational tempo,” he added.

According to him, there are only around 2,000 members of the New People’s Army (NPA). Aguilar said the troops can defeat the NPA with a sustained momentum from the previous operations.

Aguilar said Bacarro also talked about unity, professionalism, modernization, resources, territorial defense, integrity, internal peace, humanitarian assistance, disaster response operations during the conference. — Joviland Rita/RSJ, GMA News