Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Rey Leonardo Guerrero yesterday said they intend to reduce the number of New People’s Army (NPA) rebels by half in 2018.
Guerrero made the assurance during an interview shortly after the traditional New Year’s Call by the Department of National Defense (DND) and AFP held at the Tejeros Hall of the AFP Commissioned Officers’ Club at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.
Guerrero vowed to sustain in 2018 the momentum of all its operations against all threats, especially the NPA that was recently declared by the Duterte administration as a terror group.
“At present, the total strength of the CPP-NPA is 3,700. We intend to reduce that number by half for 2018,” Guerrero told reporters.
“As to the number of barangays (to be cleared), let’s leave it for later because we will still have the command conference to thresh out the details of our targets,” he added.
Guerrero said in 2016 and 2017, the AFP has been successful in the campaign of significantly reducing their strength, including their firearms.
“With regards to manpower, we reduce it by 40 percent. The firearms about that number,” he said. (Francis T. Wakefield)
