Tuesday, May 13, 2008 ‘No more insurgency by 2010’
MANILA - Newly-installed Armed Forces chief of staff Lt. Gen. Alexander B. Yano on Monday vowed to carry on the sustained momentum by his predecessor to put an end to the long-drawn communist insurgency in 2010 as planned.
Yano made the statement when he assumed as the 38th chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) from Gen. Hermogenes C. Esperon Jr. at the turnover ceremony presided over by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Camp Aguinaldo.
“We shall respond with courage and ensure that the timetable for dismantling communist guerrilla fronts is preserved and followed,” Yano said.
Order
Mrs. Arroyo, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the 130,000-strong Armed Forces, has ordered the military to crush the 39-year insurgency of the New People’s Army (NPA) whose strength has dwindled from a high of 11,930 fighting force in 2001 to 5,470 at the end of the first quarter of 2008.
In his assumption speech, Yano, a veteran of many battles in his 32 years in the military, said that the AFP will “pursue with even more vigor our nation’s determined campaign against terrorism and insurgency.”
Yano, who was the commanding general of the Philippine Army before assuming his new post, also pledged that, under his watch, the AFP will focus on its mandate and mission to protect democracy to abhor and renounce military adventurism of any sort.
Commitment
He committed that the officers and men will continue to shield “the AFP organization from any and all overtures of, and involvement in partisan politics, and to uphold the rule of law and respect for human rights even in the face of the fiercest of battles in our determined bid to defeat the enemies of peace and democracy.”
Yano also said the military establishment will continue its meaningful partnership with the defense department in pushing the Philippine Defense Reform.
During the 22-month watch of Esperon, the AFP dismantled 28 NPA guerrilla fronts with 10 others downgraded and eventually dismantled as government forces continued their pressure against the insurgent group. (PNA)
