AFP: More or less 50 local terrorists neutralized in Marcos admin’s first three months

Around 50 suspected members of local terrorist groups have been neutralized in the first three months of the Marcos administration, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said Friday.

“During the first three months of the President, we have neutralized more or less 50 members of the local terrorist groups,” AFP spokesperson Colonel Medel Aguilar said at a televised public briefing.

According to Aguilar, firearms were also recovered from the neutralized rebels.

Aguilar made the statement when asked about the status of the campaign of the AFP against the Abu Sayyaf and other local terrorist groups.

Aside from addressing violence, Aguilar said the AFP is also working on preventing these groups from recruiting more people as their fighters.

In November, AFP chief Lieutenant General Bartolome Bacarro said the outlawed New People’s Army is left with only 2,112 members.

The firearms of the rebels have also been reduced to around 1,800, according to him.

From a total of 89 guerilla fronts in 2018, Bacarro said the AFP is now only going after 24 remaining groups. Of the remaining groups, 19 are already weakening and close to being dismantled, he added. — Joviland Rita/RSJ, GMA Integrated News