NSA’s Año vows to end NPA during President Marcos term

MANILA, Philippines — Again setting a self-imposed deadline, National Security Adviser Eduardo Año has renewed his vow to end the country’s insurgency problem, this time within the next four years of the current administration.

In a statement yesterday, he said that with the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), the government will totally crush the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed component of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), within the term of President Marcos.

“The NTF-ELCAC continues to achieve significant and laudable milestones from the very beginning. Under the Marcos administration, we will carry on with these achievements and we will make sure that during his administration, we will be able to completely crush these peace-spoilers,” Año, also concurrent NTF-ELCAC co-vice chair, said during the first semester presentation of accomplishment report from the agency’s different clusters and regional task forces.

The NTF-ELCAC, created by Executive Order (EO) 70 in 2018, is chaired by the President, with the Vice President, Sara Duterte, as co-vice chair. Duterte recently resigned her NTF-ELCAC position after she tendered her resignation as education secretary.

After more than five years of aggressive implementation of its multi-pronged political and socio-economic programs and strategies, Año said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has been successful in destroying the politico-military component of all the 89 active NPA guerrilla fronts since 2018.

“Notably, in the last two quarters, four CTG (communist terrorist group) units have been dismantled. We’re also on the verge of completely dismantling the remaining seven weakened guerilla fronts. We expect that the remaining guerilla fronts will be dismantled within the year or the next,” Año said.

He emphasized that sustained operations under the “whole-of-government” approach, meaning the close collaboration of different government agencies, local government units (LGUs) and the security sector, led to the surrender of 44,528 NPA personalities. 

Año explained, however, that the number doesn’t mean all are NPA rebels, with the majority of them being either