AFP: Local terrorist groups diminished by left-right hand approach

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said on Sunday that local terrorist groups were "greatly diminished" this year after the left-and-right-hand approach was used against them.

In a SuperRadyo dzBB interview, AFP spokesperson Army Col. Ramon Zagala said that these dimished groups were the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), Daulah Islamiya (DI), Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), and Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).

“Greatly diminished na ‘to. In fact ‘yung kanilang Amir si Salahudin Hasan, napatay ito nung October 29 this year dito sa Talayan, Maguindanao. Recently, last December 2, si Asim Karinda o Abu Azim, napatay ito sa Mamasapano by the group 6th Infantry Battalion, ito ‘yung parang bagong Amir,” he said.

(These are greatly diminished. In fact, their Amir, Salahudin Hasan, was killed this October 29 in Talayan, Maguindanao. Last December 2, the new Amir, Asim Karinda, also known as Abu Azim, was also killed in Mamasapano by the 6th Infantry Battalion.)

Zagala noted that a maintenance mechanism must be implemented in these terrorist-cleared areas as armed groups usually take advantage of discontentment and chaos to recruit more people. He said that it was important to help these communities so they would not be vulnerable to terrorism anew through the help of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

“‘Again, left and right hand approach din ito, hindi lang puro military operations pati services to the areas kung saan sila nago-operate. Ang ginagawa natin ngayon ay gumagawa tayo ng bagong programa na preventing countering kagaya ng extremism and radicalization para ma-mainain natin ‘yung peace sa mga lugar na ito,” he said.

(Again, we had a left-and-right-hand approach, not just purely military operations but services to the areas where they operate. Right now, we are making programs countering extremism and radicalization so we can maintain peace in these areas.)

He added that the attacks of these local terrorist groups and the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) on development projects and infrastructure had also lessened due to the protection planning program of the AFP and the Philippine National Police (PNP).

“Malaking tulong sa atin talaga ang pag-participate ng whole nation approach ng NTF-ELCAC. In fact, we can honestly say na ‘yung left-hand approach natin na gamit ng NTF-ELCAC is one of the key successes natin kasi napre-prevent natin ‘yung pagdami nila, ‘yung core competencies nila, ‘yung pag-recruit, pag-collect,” he said.

(NTF-ELCAC’s whole nation approach greatly helped. Honestly, we could say that their left-hand approach is one of our key successes because they help prevent the group’s increase in members, their core competencies, their recruitment, and collection.)

The Senate version of the 2022 national budget allocated the NTF-ELCAC P10.8 billion, an increase from the initial budget that had been slashed down to P4 billion, to help fund the country’s COVID-19 response. The anti-insurgency task force proposed a P28-billion budget for next year.

Senate Finance Committee chairperson Sonny Angara earlier said that this budget slash was also because NTF-ELCAC was only able to complete 26 out of the 2,318 projects under its barangay development fund.

CPP-NPA’s illegal fund collection

Further, Zagala said that they would continue the dialogue with the public and certain corporations to help cut the money and material support to the CPP-NPA-National Democratic Front (NDF), especially now during the election season.

The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) earlier warned the public against this material support to the terrorist group, saying they could be penalized with life imprisonment for doing so.

“Ang importante samin is protect stability mechanism which is to prevent them from collecting by talking to our own people na kinukuhanan nila. ‘Yun ang importante—constant dialogues—lalo na sa corporations na dati nilang kinukuhanan,” he added.

(What is important to us is the stability mechanism to prevent the CPP-NPA-NDF from collecting money by talking to our people whom they get money from. That’s what’s important--constant dialogue--even with
corporations they previously get collections from.)

— DVM, GMA News