Philippine National Police Director General Avelino Razon, Jr. said that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) remains the biggest threat to national security.
BY LYN V. RAMO
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
BAGUIO CITY (246 kmsd. North of Manila) — Just as the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) observed its 40th anniversary, the National Peace and Order Council met here, Dec. 26 and declared the communist insurgency as the biggest threat to national security.
Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo reportedly received with cordiality the peace and order situation report.
No media coverage was allowed but as soon as the meeting at the Mansion on December 26 wrapped up, Philippine National Police Director Gen. Avelino Razon, Jr. told the media at the Philippine Information Agency grounds near the mansion that “the communist insurgency is the biggest single item” on the peace and order and security agenda that day.
“We continue to address the internal security program and hope to end the communist insurgency by 2010,” Razon said, appearing optimistic that the Arroyo government would realize its goal of ending the insurgency problem.
Asked if there are other armed groups that took the attention of the government security program, Razon said the CPP, with its armed wing the New People’s Army (NPA), is the only threat to national security.
“There is a serious problem in the CPP-NPA. The local leaders are no longer listening to Joma and there is in-fighting and purging in the ranks of the national leadership itself,” Razon claimed.
He said there are 87 guerrilla fronts left of the more than 100 and the government is bent on crashing 40 of these this year. There are only 5,700 CPP-NPA members nationwide, he added, and this would be reduced to 5,200 by yearend.
When asked about CPP-NPA activities in the Cordillera, he did not divulge any information where the CPP-NPA is operating, neither did he reveal the number of guerrilla fronts and the rebel strength in the region.
The country’s Marxist-Leninist-Maoist communist party was re-established on December 26, 1968, breaking away from the Lavas’ old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas due to ideological differences.
In its anniversary statement, the CPP’s Central Committee said the NPA has been the ‘largest revolutionary army ever built in the Philippines.’
Contrary to military’s claims, the CPP statement said the NPA is stronger now than in the 1980s, in both political and military terms. The CPP said that it has 120 to 130 guerrilla fronts operating in 70 provinces, more than 800 municipalities and more than 10,000 barangays. It also urged its members to increase the number of guerilla fronts to 168.
The Central Committee called on its forces to ‘bring the new democratic revolution to a new and higher level of development.’ (With reports from Bulatlat)
