DAVAO CITY, Philippines — “Amid the relentless taunting of the military and the launching of heightening attacks against the New People’s Army, the Communist Party of the Philippines asserted that the Duterte regimes counterinsurgency program “Oplan Kapayapaan” is doomed to fail.”
This was the assessment raised by the CPP in a statement made by its Information Bureau on Saturday, June 30.
The communist party said that the Armed Forces of the Philippines is rushing the recruitment of 15,000 additional troops and has,since the start of the year, launched all-out offensives and total war against civilians and laying siege on civilian communities, in a bid to crush the NPA before the end of 2018.
The group also took note of the massive military deployment made by Duterte’s regime, the number now increased to one hundred battalions of combat troops across the country.
Of the total deployment, 75 percent of the military now covers the entire Mindanao with around 50 percent of which deployed against the NPA forces while 25 percent of AFP battalions cover the rest of the guerrilla zones in Luzon and Visayas, the CPP added.
“Yet, Duterte’s Oplan Kapayapaan is set to fail. Politically, he is antagonizing the broad masses of peasants and minority peoples as a result of unmitigated killings, illegal arrests, and detention, conscription, forcing people to ‘surrender’ and rampant military abuses,” the group stressed.
Duterte, the CPP added is alienating himself from the rural masses by seeking to convert thousands of hectares of land to commercial plantations and mining sites.
“Militarily, Duterte is overstretching his forces, with at least 15-20 troops in every barrio conducting so-called peace and development” operations, in a futile plan to lay siege on thousands of barrios across the country all at the same time,” the CPP said.
Despite the massive deployment of forces,the CPP asserted that the AFP can only cover less than half the total number of barrios within the NPA’s area of operations, and even with its all-out offensives, substantial rooms continue to remain available for NPA units to maneuver, mount tactical offensives,carry out mass work, build the organs of political power, recruit and train more Red fighters and carry out overall strengthening.
The regime of Duterte will also need to spend at least P20-30 billion of public funds to sustain its self-defeating military build-up and offensives in the countryside, the group said.
The estimate is based by the CPP on the report made by the AFP that it spent around P3 billion in its five-month military operations against the Maute group in Marawi.
With the huge amount of money required, the Duterte government has no other resort but to rely on the US for military financing, the group added.
“The Filipino people clamor for an end to the military occupation of rural communities and total war policy of targeting civilians. The local and international community demand respect for human rights and international humanitarian law which the AFP and PNP are trampling on with impunity under Duterte’s orders,” the CPP said.
The communist party said that after half a year of all-out offensives and more than a year of martial law in Mindanao, the state forces have failed to cause significant damage to the NPA, adding that the CPPs armed wing has quickly adapted to the swarm tactics and other tactics of the AFP,applying guerilla tactics of dispersal, shifting and concentration, quick movements and counter-encirclement to keep the enemy blind and deaf and causing it to waste energy and resources in prolonged operations.
“The Partys central leadership and NPA National Operations Command have already issued orders and directives to the NPA to frustrate Oplan Kapayapaan. Despite setbacks earlier and in some areas, the NPA can expect to continue its steady national growth this year,” the statement concluded. (davaotoday.com)
