December 19, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. has rejected the idea of implementing another holiday truce with the New People’s Army (NPA) during the holiday season.
According to him, such an agreement will only allow what the military and the government now consider a communist terrorist group the chance to appear relevant.
“Any ceasefire with the CPP-NPA-NDF is a ceasefire against terrorists and criminals,” Teodoro said in a statement posted on the Facebook page of the Presidential Communications Office, referring to the Communist Party of the Philippines and National Democratic Front.
“It is a last-ditch measure of a Jurassic group to find relevance in the national political ecosystem,” the defense chief declared.
Earlier this week, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said the NPA is so weak that it is “no longer capable of conducting large-scale operations” even in time for the CPP’s 56th founding anniversary on Dec. 26.
“As they have been already weakened, they are no longer capable of staging major operations and they also have a leadership vacuum. They are not capable of recruiting any more additional personnel into their ranks,” she said.
“Our commanders on the ground, we trust (that they) know the situation and they will be preparing accordingly,” she added, noting that the AFP will still be keeping a tight watch.
The military has claimed strategic victory against the NPA, which the AFP says has been significantly weakened by the whole-of-government approach that has been carried out in the continuing effort to end the decades-old insurgency problem in the country.
“From the start of the year, we started with seven weakened guerrilla fronts. Now, we’re down to one and we’re well within targets,” Padilla said.
Meanwhile, the 2025 General Appropriations Bill passed by Congress includes an allocation of P17 billion to cover the P10,500 monthly subsistence allowance for soldiers, House of Representatives Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan said yesterday.
“Both the House and the Senate, largely through the efforts of Speaker Martin Romualdez, have agreed to provide a 133 percent increase in the daily subsistence allowance for our soldiers – from P150 to P350 – to further improve their welfare. The allowance is now equal to P10,500 monthly,” he confirmed in a statement..—Miriam Desacada
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