Saying hopes for a positive response to goodwill gestures had been met by "intransigence" and the cancellation of peace negotiations, the New People's Army ordered its forces to go on the offensive with the full termination of the rebels' unilateral ceasefire on February 10.
Ironically, after swiftly heeding President Rodrigo Duterte's orders to resume the counterinsurgency campaign, the military command in the Caraga region appealed to the rebels on Saturday not to resume the war to allow government troops to carry out uninterrupted their rescue and retrieval operations in areas struck by Friday night's magnitude 6.7 earthquake.
In a statement sent to media by the Communist Party of the Philippines’ Information Bureau, New People’s Army spokesman Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos said “all NPA commands and territorial units, as well as people’s militia and self defense units, can now take the full initiative to defend the people and advance their interests, especially in the face of the declaration of all-out war of the Duterte regime.”
At the same time Madlos reported that in the 10 days since he announced the termination of the rebels’ unilateral ceasefire, when the NPA was ordered to go on “active defense,” their units “carried out almost 30 military actions to defend the rights and welfare of the people primarily against troops occupying barangays and conducting strike operations.”
He cited the killing of three Army soldiers in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon the same day he announced the ceasefire termination. The government claimed the troops were abducted and executed but the NPA command in Bukidnon said they were killed when they chose to shoot it out with the rebel unit that stopped them.
“No longer restricted by the active defense policy, the NPA, from hereon must frustrate the all-out war of suppression of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) by launching launch tactical offensives against any legitimate military target,” including police, “paramilitary or AFP-supported armed vigilante groups, intelligence operatives, and warlord private armies.”
Despite the order, Madlos said the NPA “remains open to peace talks while fighting rages in the countryside.”
http://interaksyon.com/article/137019/as-rebel-ceasefire-fully-ends-npa-ordered-to-go-on-offensive
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