The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) dismissed National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict’s (NTF-ELCAC) most recent claim of strategic victory over the New People’s Army (NPA), calling the task force’s boast “a sign of panic.”
NDFP secretary general Elias Dipasupil said that instead of impending victory, NTF-ELCAC is in panic over its continuing failure to defeat the revolutionary forces.
Dipasupil said that national security adviser and NTF-ELCAC vice chairperson Eduardo Año’s latest threat to unleash more attacks against civilians is prompted by government’s failure to deliver on its boast of totally eliminating the NPA.
The repression in urban areas in the ongoing elections is part of the attacks, the NDFP said.
In a May 4 post on NTF-ELCAC’s Facebook page, Año declared: “One of our biggest challenges now is dismantling the network of recruitment, support, and finance that allowed the insurgency to survive for decades.”
Año in effect is threatening legal democratic forces in urban centers, schools, and cyberspace, the NDFP warned.
The retired general and the NTF-ELCAC are seeing the specter of local communism everywhere, putting at risk government critics, the youth, legal organizations, charitable programs, the religious, foreign funding agencies, even those within government itself, Dipasupil pointed out.
“He (Año) is in panic,” Dipasupil said.
The NDFP leader added, it is not true that the government’s military campaigns have defeated the NPA nor it has successfully dissolved the guerilla army’s revolutionary mass bases.
The military operations in civilian communities only resulted in deeper hatred of government troopers and greater support to the revolutionary soldiers, the NDFP said.
The Front added that in response to the use of new military assets such as drones and new attack aircraft, the NPA has refined their tactics to continue frustrating the Armed Forces of the Philippines on the field.
Rehashed, failed counter insurgency blueprint
The NDFP said that Marcos’ Memorandum Circular 83 mandating the NTF-ELCAC to “monitor and evaluate the implementation” of its anti-insurgency plan for 2025 to 2028 is a rehash of an already failed program.
READ: Marcos’ action plan for peace ‘fascist non-solution to armed conflict’
“The NTF-ELCAC keeps proving that it cannot defeat the national democratic revolution by military might and superficial Barangay Development Projects,” the NDFP.
The Front said that the government should instead address the roots of the armed conflict seriously if it hopes to end the 56-year civil war in the country.
“[O]nly by smashing the evils of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism to establish the People’s Democratic Government can the people achieve real democracy, peace, justice and progress, the aspirations that the revolution upholds,” it said.
The NDFP said it is warning civilian populations nationwide to prepare for even worse human rights violations under the new circular.
“These times call for increased vigilance, militance, courage and united action, for broadening and strengthening the people’s democratic movement,” it said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
