AFP supportive of peace overtures being made by CPP-NPA-NDF

From the Philippine News Agency (May 4): AFP supportive of peace overtures being made by CPP-NPA-NDF

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief-of-staff Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang on Monday said that the entire military is supportive of the peace overtures being made by the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).

This is despite the fact that the AFP's "Bayanihan" strategy is working well against the rebels as attested by the increasing number of NPA surrenderees in the past few months.

The latter strategy seeks to defeat NPA influence by bringing in development to the countryside.

"We are supporting the continuance of the peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF," Catapang said.

In fact, the AFP is willing to talk peace provided that the rebels don't make any demands.

"There are a lot of surrenderees, we are declaring one after another almost all the provinces of the country as peaceful and ready for further development, I think the country is now claiming the peace, so hopefully the CPP-NDF-NPA will join hands in claiming the peace for our country," the AFP chief pointed out.

At present, there are less than 20 provinces with known NPA presence.

These are mostly in the Visayas and Mindanao, Catapang said.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=758539