In a statement, the AFP said out of the 24 remaining guerilla fronts of the group, 19 were “weakened and inactive.”
“This leaves the Communist Party with five fronts to pursue its violent means of achieving political objectives,” it said.
“With the relentless efforts of the government security forces to subdue insurgency, the CPP found its lower politico-military organs on the run, therefore incapable of implementing party programs, the lifeblood of its existence,” it added.
The AFP continuously calls for the remaining NPA members to return to the folds of the law while it commits to sustaining an offensive against the group committing “lawless violence” in various parts of the country.
It expressed confidence that the NPA will be destroyed in no time, by the combined strength of the government security forces.
“The CPP should accept that the battle is lost, that its programs need not be imposed with violence, and that it has the moral responsibility of saving its fighters from death and destruction,” it added.
From around 20,000 members at the peak, AFP chief Lieutenant General Bartolome Bacarro said on Friday, November 4, that the group was left now with only 2,112 members while the number of their firearms diminished to around 1,800.
He said the majority of the remaining forces were in Northern Samar and South Cotabato.
In October, the Davao Regional Peace and Order Council signed a resolution declaring the region free from insurgency.
On Monday, November 7, the Department of the Interior and Local Government and National Task Force-Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) will gather around 600 local government units from insurgency-cleared areas to share their best practices in the bid to finish insurgency in the country. (SunStar Philippines)