AFP to revive masterplan vs NPA, terrorists
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is coming up with a new masterplan aimed at defeating the country's various threat groups, including the communist New People's Army and the terrorist groups Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah.
Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wants the operation campaign plan to be known as the 'Oplan Bantay Laya II', which is a modification of the five-year Oplan Bantay Laya.
Esperon said Oplan Bantay Laya, which is expiring on Dec. 31, has to be replicated, noting that it has resulted in the achievement of feats against the communist movement, whose strength had been reduced to around 7,000 men at present from more than 12,000 when the campaign plan was adopted in January 2002.
However, Esperon said, they are still coming up with a formal assessment of the implementation of Oplan Bantay Laya.
Officials said the results of the assessment may be made public upon Esperon's approval.
The new campaign plan would cover military operations from 2007 up to 2010 when President Arroyo's term ends.
The President wants to end the communist insurgency before she steps down from the presidency.
"What we are looking at the formulation of a new internal security operations plan from 2007 to 2010," said Esperon, hinting that President Arroyo has already agreed to the revival of the campaign plan.
"We (military leadership) are getting the approval of the President on this. But the initial name for the campaign plan is probably Bantay Laya II as the President would prefer," the AFP chief also said.
AFP public information office chief Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro said the original Oplan Bantay Laya is meant to defeat the NPA, destroy the terrorist groups Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiyah and contain other threat groups.
Esperon said the new campaign plan would be the government's holistic approach to address the threat groups and would have more developmental aspects while admitting that the present concept is more focused on addressing guerilla fronts of the communists.
"It will have more developmental component," said Esperon.
On whether the new plan would elaborate the government's all-out war against the communists, he said: We do not call it all-out war but we call it the holistic approach to the insurgency."
Oplan Bantay Laya II is being prepared by experts in Camp Aguinaldo, home of the Armed Forces in Quezon City.
"It is being conceptualized at the GHQ (general headquarters) level in coordination with the operational commands," said Bacarro.
Pressed for the military establishment's assessment of the gains under Bantay Laya, Bacarro said: "One thing that is sure is that we have had great success during the period or the timeframe of Bantay Laya."
(PNA)