NTF-ELCAC: AFP focus on external defense timely as NPA threat wanes

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 17, 2024): NTF-ELCAC: AFP focus on external defense timely as NPA threat wanes (By Priam Nepomuceno)

MANILA – The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) on Wednesday backed the Armed Forces of the Philippines' (AFP) shift of its focus to territorial or external defense amid the waning threat of communist insurgency.

"Indeed, the NTF-ELCAC is fully supporting the defense sector to transition from internal security operations to external defense," the task force said in a social media post.

During its first command conference on Jan. 15, the military said the NPA has only 11 weakened guerrilla fronts and "a little over 1,500 fighters nationwide.

"What’s left now of the NPA are just small teams engaging in pure banditry. We commend the active participation of local government units in eliminating communist terrorist groups in their communities," the NTF-ELCAC added.

This figure, according to the AFP, is significantly lower compared to the 25,000 NPA fighters recorded during the late 1980s up to the early 1990s.

"So we gave a new set of targets to our commanders for them in order for us to totally defeat the communist terrorist group, by doing that we will be able to shift now to territorial defense," AFP chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. noted, adding that he cannot make this public for security reasons.

Brawner also said the AFP will try to defeat the remaining NPA forces within the year.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1217076