Vacillation fuels sedition

For the longest time, there were so many (NPA) captured or surrendered or killed in combat.

For 51 years, the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) thrived primarily because of the indecisiveness of previous governments in dealing with the rebel group.

Maj. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) deputy chief of staff for civil military operations and one of the spokesmen of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), cited the strong political will of President Rodrigo Duterte as a game changer.

While Mr. Duterte gave a huge chance to the CPP-NPA to rejoin mainstream society by appointing personalities identified with the Left to his Cabinet and initially entertained peace negotiations, Parlade said the Commander-in-Chief did not hesitate to halt negotiations and get rid of leftist officials when he felt the insincerity.

“For the longest time, for 51 years, they (CPP-NPA) existed… Even the government does not know how to handle them,” Parlade said during a recent episode of the online forum “Straight Talk with Daily Tribune.”

“Until President Duterte came in. He allowed peace talks and appointed six members of the CPP in good faith… but they bungled the opportunity… because they are not really for peace,” he added.

Parlade said after the CPP-NPA ignored Mr. Duterte’s simple request of stopping attacks against government troops during the peace negotiations, the Commander-in-Chief decisively halted all negotiations — formal and even back channels.

Last March, Mr. Duterte announced the permanent termination of the peace negotiations with the CPP-NPA-National Democratic Front (NDF).

“He declared that once and for all, let’s stop this stupidity. For 32 years, we tried (through peace negotiations), but nothing happened,” Parlade pointed out. “We even released so-called political prisoners,” he lamented.

He maintained that the CPP-NPA only used previous peace talks to gain lost ground and intensify recruitment.

“For the longest time, there were so many (NPA) captured or surrendered or killed in combat. But, at the end of the day, they still have 3,700 fighters. Why? Because of continuing recruitment — this we need to stop,” said Parlade.

“We need to plug the faucet of their logistics, human resources which is the youth. This is not the problem of the AFP alone. We need the Department of Education, the DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government), the Department of Finance and the Department of Justice to stop the funding and recruitment and training,” Parlade said.

He acknowledged the issuance of Executive Order 70, which created the NTF-ELCAC, for the whole-of-nation approach against insurgency that has clearly defined the government’s efforts to defeat the problem and provided the specific role of various agencies down to the barangay level.

“So now, the AFP knows the direction. No prevarication. There is no dilly-dallying. We don’t receive calls to direct us to stop operation all this time,” Parlade said.

The directive of the President is clear — defeat insurgency within his term,” he added.