A total of 29 out of the country’s 81 provinces have been “normalised” or rendered free from the influence of the communist New People’s Army (NPA), according to a spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zabala explained that normalisation meant the military would transfer to local government official and civilian agencies the lead role in maintaining peace and security in their areas.
These include, Zabala said, the provinces of Cavite, La Union, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Quirino, Aurora, Nueva Vizcaya and Benguet in Luzon; Cebu, Guimaras,bohol, Leyte, Aklan and Antique in the Visayas in Central Philippines; and Misamis Oriental, South Cotabato, Davao Oriental, Sarangani and Camiguin in Mindanao.
Campaign
Zabala attributed the normalisation to the military campaign codenamed “Bayanihan” which sought to end insurgency by removing its root causes particularly poverty and lack of access to basic services.
The NPA is the armed component of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which has been waging a Maoist-style insurgency against the government for about 44 years, considered the longest in Asia and the Pacific.
But Zagala emphasised that normalisation could be achieved only with the co-operation of local government units and ordinary citizens as he pointed out: “The root causes of insurgency should be solved not by the military alone but also by everyone.”
He disclosed that in the final three years of the Bayanihan starting in 2014, the military would concentrate on handing over internal peace and security to local government units and civilian agencies so that it could focus on territorial defence.
In 2011, President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino initiated the resumption of peace talks with the Maoist rebels through their political arm the National Democratic Front (NDF) in Oslo, Norway, which has been retained as the third party facilitator.
But negotiations again broke down due to what the government said were the “unreasonable demands” of the NDF like the release of 30 of its “consultants” arrested on orders by the lower courts where they were facing non-bailable criminal charges such as murder, kidnapping and serious illegal detention.
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