DND: Offensive limited to insurgent hotbeds - Malaya 06/20/2006

PRESIDENT Arroyo’s directive for the Armed Forces and the PNP to wipe out the 37-year communist insurgency in two years does not cover the whole country, only critical areas, Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz said yesterday.

He identified these as Central and Southern Luzon and Sorsogon.

"These critical areas have been in the drawing board of AFP. These are the near term (objective), that is where the AFP will focus to cleanse the terrorists," he said at Camp Aguinaldo.

"That is the desire of the President. She said she wants dramatic results in the critical areas in two years…The statement is very clear, her desire is on the critical areas, the near term (objective)," said Cruz.

Last Friday, President Arroyo ordered the budget department to release P1 billion in additional funds to the military and the police to bolster their capability in fighting the communists.

Following Arroyo’s directive, presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor said Arroyo wants the communist insurgency to be crippled in two years’ time.

Cruz said the renewed campaign against the insurgents is not an all-out war but a "total government approach" that would involve the construction of infrastructure and provision of social services.

Cruz said the military and the police would be submitting their program of expenditures to the budget department on the use of the additional P1 billion fund.

Cruz said the government wants to show that "it is better to find a job rather than use arms against government."

"Do you want to get a job or fight an invigorated military? That is why you have to make stronger the military but you also have to provide alternatives so people can get jobs. This cannot be solved by the military alone but the military should not be weak," said Cruz.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye gave the assurance that the campaign against the CPP-NPA will continue to adhere to rules of engagement and with due regard to constitutional rights.

"This is not a prelude to authoritarian rule, which is a bogey raised by irresponsible quarters…
The targets of the campaign are the armed rebels who continue to employ force and terror to achieve their political aims," he said.

He said the campaign is not aimed or connected to the killing of leftist leaders that he said the government condemns in the strongest terms.

Bunye said those who persist in engaging in terrorist activities would be met with counterforce while those who opted to surrender peacefully would be treated with justice, and if qualified, reintegrated into the social mainstream.

Bunye shrugged off threat from senators that they would audit the P1 billion fund, saying "the Commission on Audit is on top of this situation."

Arroyo, at the presentation of new PNP equipment at the Presidential Security Group Park, said the police can purchase additional equipment with their P300 million share of the P1 billion fund.

She said P400 million would go to the AFP and the remaining P300 million "would go to left hand approach which is the community development of areas that are being already freed of insurgency."

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said the government is holding back-channel talks with the European Union to convince the Dutch government to revoke the asylum status of National Democratic Front founder Jose Ma. Sison so he can face trial in the Philippines for various criminal charges.

Gonzalez said the US and the European Union have already categorized Sison’s group and its military arm, the New People’s Army, as a terror group.

"The US and the EU have declared the CPP as a terrorist group, they are considered ‘undesirables.’ Sison is a criminal and they (the Dutch) should not harbor criminals like him," he said.

He said some CPP officials have even taken up Dutch citizenship like Luis Jalandoni, head of the CPP-NPA-NDF panel in the suspended peace talks with the Arroyo government.

Gonzalez said the government had cancelled the passport of Sison a long time ago.

He said efforts of the government to bring back Sison have been hampered because the Philippine government has no access to the legal system of the Netherlands and other countries in Europe.

Although Gonzalez confirmed that the government is also holding back channeling talks with the Netherlands, he said the Philippine government will have to respect the Dutch legal system.

"What is punishable here may not be punishable in there. That is also the situation on extradition law," Gonzalez said.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson welcomed the P1 billion additional fund for the AFP and PNP, saying it is "high time the government showed its iron fist against communist rebels."

He, however, said that there must be safeguards against possible corruption by the military in procuring equipment and other logistics. "One billion pesos is still a very big amount," he said.

Lacson scored Justice Secretary Gonzalez for his statements that the loss of civilian lives in the all-out war may be "unavoidable."

"Coming from a secretary of justice, that statement gives the military the wrong signal that they will not be liable for the loss of civilian lives because that will be ‘collateral damage,"’ he said.

Lacson said Gonzalez should have cautioned security forces to be careful against violating human rights instead of sending a signal that such abuses are authorized.

He said the police and military should limit their combat operations in areas heavily infested with insurgents.

Rep. Imee Marcos (KBL, Ilocos Norte) said it is impossible for the government to end the insurgency problem since it is a "milking cow" of some military officials.

"War is a high-stakes military industry and a multi-billion peso business enterprise where corruption becomes legal. A billion pesos is more than enough to make military and police generals easy multi-millionaires," she said.

Marcos said the AFP’s so-called "end-game" strategy will fail because the generals do not want the war against the NPA, the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front or the Abu Sayyaf to end.

"The bigger and stronger the enemies of the state become, the larger budget they get," she said.

Rep. Roilo Golez (Ind., Parañaque) said the P1 billion should be put to "good and honest use."
He urged the President to "launch an all-out ‘left hand’ offensive and selective ‘right hand’ offensive in NPA affected areas."

"Left hand meaning pouring socio-economic projects in NPA affected areas and right hand meaning military operations," he said.

The militant group Gabriela said the additional fund should be used in addressing poverty instead on the war against insurgency.

"Mrs. Arroyo not only misses the lesson of history that military solution never works in resolving poverty," Emmi de Jesus, Gabriela secretary general, said. – Victor Reyes, Evangeline de Vera, Jocelyn Montemayor, Dennis Gadil and Wendell Vigilia