A ‘WHOLE-of-government-approach’ to end the five-decades long communist insurgency in the country is working with the stepped up effort by the Philippine National Police (PNP) to improve its partnership with the community now considered a very vital factor in addressing the communist threat, PNP chief, General Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar told the Journal Group yesterday.

The top cop said their effort to further deepen their police-community relations programs is fully working with different stakeholders, non-governmental organizations, advocacy groups and other members of the community partnering with them to help educate the public about the insurgency problem.

The PNP Directorate for Police-Community Relations headed by Major Gen. Rhodel O. Sermonia is spearheading the campaign.

“We are promoting cooperation and coordination between the PNP and the community to improve our services and work hand in hand with members of the community for our anti-drug and anti-criminality efforts, as well as protecting the community, especially the youth from falling prey to syndicates and being recruited by communist fronts,” the PNP chief said as he maintained that everything being done by the PNP in relation to funds given to it by the government is above board.

He issued the statement to debunk charges made by Senator Panfilo ‘Ping’ M. Lacson that police are using part of their P800 million funding from the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) to prepare for the 2022 presidential and national elections.

“The Philippine National Police categorically and vehemently deny the allegation of Senator Panfilo Lacson that we have misused the NTF-ELCAC funds by using it to conduct census in the different barangays nationwide.The PNP is not conducting nor instructing our chiefs of police to ask 30% of barangay residents to give their names, contact numbers and addresses for census. We have no use for any census,” the PNP chief said.

At the same time, he welcomed any investigation that may be conducted on the matter.

PNP Director for Operations, Major Gen. Alfred S. Corpus said that during the 2nd period of 2021 alone, the PNP scored major accomplishments as far as the ELCAC is concerned. They include the arrest of 12 NPA members, the surrender of 834 and the killing of 106 armed rebels in gunbattles with the security troops.

“This means to say na yung ginagawa ng DPCR ay nagkakaroon ng resulta. Tayo ay naniniwala na hindi lahat ng laban sa insurgency ay armed confrontation, siguro itong surrendereees can be attributed to sa mga ginagawa ng DPCR,” he said.

Maj. Gen. Corpus said that those efforts also led in the dismantling of eight NPA guerrilla fronts across the country during the previous year.

Gen. Eleazar said that records will show that their humble distribution to the NTF-ELCAC since last year are the following: the arrest of 355 NPA members, the surrender of 2,790 others and the recovery of 945 rebel firearms.

The PNP last year sought to have a ‘more active role’ to end the decades-long New People’s Army threat in the country. In 2020, a total of 165 armed NPA rebels were killed as a result of police-initiated counter-insurgency operations across the country.

The PNP leadership requested the Armed Forces and the NTF-ELCAC to allow it to play a more active role in the anti-insurgency campaign. Since it was created in 1991, the PNP only acts as a ‘support unit’ to the AFP in fighting armed NPA insurgents.

This also prompted the move to give the different police regional and provincial mobile forces more ‘move, shoot and communicate’ capabilities which they need in tracking down the guerrillas in the mountains while at the same time addressing squarely the CPP/NPA’s legal fronts in different sectors in many parts of the country.

The PNP is part of the NTF-ELCAC formed by President Duterte through Executive Order No. 70 in December 2018. The EO institutionalized a ‘whole-of-nation’ approach in attaining inclusive and sustainable peace nationwide

According to Maj. Gen. Corpus, the PNP accomplishments against ‘Communist Terrorist Groups’ (CTGs) in 2020 were much higher compared to the 2019 figures in which 15 NPA guerrillas died, 28 were arrested and 405 yielded as a result of PNP-initiated operations.

A total of 897 assorted firearms were also confiscated from killed, captured or surrendered NPA members last year compared to the 1,699 accounted for by the PNP in 2019, Corpus said.

In a press briefing, the 2-star general said there was a big decline in NPA-initiated atrocities in 2020 due to waning mass support and the intensified campaign against them launched by the government thru the NTF-ELCAC.

“However, we expect that the CTGs will use extensive propaganda exploitation against the government’s campaign this year just like what they have done in the past years,” Corpus said.

Gen. Eleazar has ordered the entire police force to fully support the major gains of the NTF-ELCAC and continue their offensive against the NPA in the countryside in coordination with the Armed Forces.

According to the top cop, the PNP in support of Executive Order No. 70 and the whole of the nation approach implemented the Intensified Cleanliness Policy – Cleanliness in the office, cleanliness in the ranks and cleanliness in the community.

Gen. Eleazar said that at present, all their police units down to the lowest police stations are conducting humanitarian assistance and related disaster relief operations through their Barangayanihan Food and Help Bank which is their grassroots engagements to address the devastating social and economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic, as well as natural and man-made disasters.

All of these programs are in accordance with Napolcom Resolution 2015-342 or “Resolution to Empower the PNP to Perform its Role as a Community and Service Oriented Agency Through the Adoption of the Community and Service Oriented Policing System Involving the Local Chief Executives, the PNP and the Community as mandated under Section 2 of RA 6975, as amended by RA 8551,” he said.

Gen. Eleazar said they need the program to counter threats posed by the CPP/NDF and its armed wing, the NPA.

“Community mobilization has been done by the CPP-NPA-NDF and had helped in growing its mass based, and no one questioned them, and in fact ignored them. Now that it is the PNP conducting community mobilization to foster our relations, improve cooperation and coordination so we can better serve the people, promote anti-drugs and anti-criminality programs, engage force multipliers to protect the communities, the ill-meaning individuals and groups are making it an issue,” he said.

“The PNP is not disheartened by such unfounded statements, we know that they are by people who would not want us to succeed, especially the fronts of CPP-NPA-NDF, for our success will make people know and realize that they have been deceiving people all along to advance their interest. For the only way they are relevant is when they make it appear that the government is inept and indifferent to the needs of the people,” he said.

Gen. Eleazar said that it appears that government critics have been noticing the success of the program, thus their effort to malign the PNP by spreading false information.

“Napapansin ng mga kontra-gobyerno ang ating ginagawa at marahil sila ang nagpapalabas ng mga rumors na ito para subukan na pigilan ang ating community mobilization at cleansing program. Mabuti na lang at si Senator Lacson ay nag-open up about this rumors that came to him,” Gen. Eleazar said.

“So we will use this opportunity to finally bring out and let the people see the projects of the PNP that directly impacts the community,” he said.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Alfred P. Dalizon