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Friday, June 30, 2006
Military chief says Armed Forces ‘winning’ v. Reds
ARMED Forces Chief Generoso Senga on Thursday said the military is winning the war against the communist New People’s Army (NPA) despite figures showing that more soldiers than rebels have died during skirmishes since last January.
“It (figures) doesn’t mean that we are losing. In fact, based on our Order of Battle, the insurgency movement is not gaining strength,” Senga told reporters at the headquarters of the military’s National Capital Region Command (NCRcom).
Based on military estimates, the NPA's membership stands at "a little over" 7,000 as of end June. The military said the current rebel strength declined but did not give figures on the rebel strength as of March.
A briefing presented to top military officials on Wednesday showed that the military suffered a total of 104 deaths in the first half of the year. On the other hand, only 87 rebels died in the clashes.
Senga reiterated that the military suffered more casualties than the rebels because the rebels were attacking government forces, who he said, are on humanitarian or non-combat missions in the countryside.
“Many of the victims (soldiers) were attacked while conducting CMO (civil military operations), conducting non-combat operations. They are less secured because they are on CMO, not on combat,” Senga said.
Senga also said the rebel casualties do not include those whose bodies were not recovered. “Those (figures) are based on body counts. In firefights, we recover all our casualties while on the other side, we are no able to recover all of them,” he said.
But Senga implied that the rebels have stepped up their activities targeting civilians. “Maybe they are gaining in their terrorist acts because they have been terrorizing our people,” the military chief said.
Armed Forces public information office chief Tristan Kison also reported that there are lesser armed engagements against the rebels during the second quarter of the year compared to the previous quarter.
Senga explained that there are “less enemy contact because the enemy runs when they know when they are on the losing end. It is in their basic tactic, in their 16-character formula that they are following.”
“If they know that they are on the losing end, they are going to run and hide,” said Senga, adding that it can be addressed by intensifying intelligence operations “because that (NPA strategy) is actually basic guerilla tactics.”
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had ordered the Department of Budget Management (DBM) to release P1 billion in additional funds to the military and to the police to boost their capability in fighting the 37-year-old insurgency so that the rebel problem can be resolved in two years. (VR/Sunnex)
(June 30, 2006 issue)
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