PNP beefs up security amid absence of ceasefire

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) has beefed up its security after the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) declared it will not observe a ceasefire for the holiday season.

Col. Jean Fajardo, spokesperson for the PNP, said the troopers from the Special Action Force (SAF) and other elite units in police stations and detachments in areas where there were previous records of atrocities and harassment by NPA rebels have increased security.

“We beefed up our security measures and increased the personnel coming from the mobile forces, including the SAF,” she told reporters in an interview.

The PNP is also working together with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in reinforcing stations that are vulnerable to attacks.

Police units were also instructed to maintain their defensive posture in anticipation of attacks from communist insurgents.

Despite the death of its founding chairman, Jose Ma. Sison, the CPP-NPA maintained it would not suspend hostilities against the government.

In response, Fajardo said the CPP-NPA is known for staging attacks on government forces even during a ceasefire.

“History will tell us that even the ceasefires before participated in by security forces of the national government, they didn’t follow,” she said.

The Central Committee of the CPP earlier signaled all NPA units to mount attacks against “soft” governments targets. It ordered the mounting of tactical offensives against “isolated, weak and tired units” of the AFP and the PNP as a punishment for their supposed “crimes against the people.”

The CPP blamed government forces’ “relentless attacks against civilians and intense combat operations.”

The NPA, through its National Operational Command (NOC) and Regional and Subregional Operational Commands (ROCs and SROCs), were ordered “to actively fight and frustrate the AFP’s campaign of armed suppression,” said Marco Valbuena, CPP chief information officer.

Amid the no holiday ceasefire declaration by the CPP, “it is the duty of the NPA to come to the people’s armed defense, even during these holidays, and even as we mourn the recent passing of our beloved Ka Jose Ma. Sison,” it said.

In response, the AFP slammed the CPP yesterday for ordering NPA to attack while they sit in comfort away from battle. “They just want to endanger those they armed to fight the government while they are away and in comfortable places,” AFP spokesman Col. Medel Aguilar said.

He, however, reassured that the military “have not monitored any threat to cause unnecessary fear and anxiety among our people, only the irresponsible and reckless statement of the CPP which is so insensitive to the aspiration of our peaceful communities.”

“What is worse is that they can’t even pause for a moment to pray for the demise of their ‘teacher and guiding light’,” Aguilar said.

Aguilar earlier said that the AFP is also not bent of declaring a holiday truce with the CPP-NPA and believes that with the death of Sison, the CPP-NPA will continue to weaken and eventually collapse.

Surrender

Ten communist rebels in Central Luzon voluntarily surrendered to authorities over the weekend, according to reports reaching Central Luzon regional police director Brig. Gen. Cesar Pasiwen.

Pasiwen said three of the surrenderees were from Bataan; one in Bulacan, three in Tarlac; two in Olongapo City and one in Zambales.

The Bataan surrenderees turned over a Colt .45 calilber pistol and cal.38 revolver, both without serial numbers, while a .38 caliber revolver and an MK2 hand grenade was yielded in Bulacan. A home-made shotgun, .38caliber revolver and two rifle propelled grenades were recovered in Tarlac, while a home-made caliber .38 revolver and assorted bullets were retrieved in Olongapo City.

The military is expecting the surrender of no fewer than a hundred more NPA guerillas from across central Mindanao in 2023, the Army’s 6th Infantry Division said on Tuesday.

Army brigade and battalion commanders said they have been receiving surrender feelers since last week from NPAs in South Cotabato, North Cotabato, Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat provinces, an indication that more from the group are set to return to the fold of the law soon.

Units of 6th ID had secured the surrender of 154 NPAs from January to Dec. 15, 2022. The latest to bolt from the NPA in central Mindanao were 36 members from the adjoining Maitum, Maasim and Kiamba towns in Sarangani.

They pledged allegiance to the government before 6th ID’s commander, Major Gen. Roy Galido, and Gov. Ruel Pacquiao during simple rites last Dec. 15 at the headquarters of the Army’s 38th Infantry Battalion in Maasim.

Galido said more than 30 of the 154 NPAs who surrendered to units of 6th ID in the past 11 months were well-versed in fabrication of IEDs using easy to obtain components and either ammonium nitrate or potassium chlorate as blasting powders.

Meanwhile, 10 former rebels received an early Christmas gift from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in the form of individual Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) that were given during a turnover ceremony at Barangay Enage in Calubian, Leyte.

Municipal agrarian reform program officer Maximo Castaneda Jr. said the CLOAs cover 39.9 hectares distributed to the 31 agrarian reform beneficiaries.

The DAR said it is the agency’s contribution to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) under Executive Order (EO) no. 70, series of 2018.

“Providing lands to the landless gives these former rebels the support they need as they start a new life,” Castañeda said.

The awarded lots are part of the 58-hectare hacienda owned by Caridad Enage covered under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). – Artemio Dumlao, Michael Punongbayan, Ramon Efren Lazaro, John Unson, Jose Rodel Clapano