AFP shrugs off WikiLeaks item on US envoy’s cable on NPA

MANILA, Philippines—The Armed Forces of the Philippines dismissed as “inaccurate, unverified and a mere personal opinion” a supposed assessment made by former United States ambassador Kristie Kenney in 2006—leaked recently by the WikiLeaks online whistleblower—doubting the military’s capability to defeat the communist insurgency.

“The AFP does not glorify reports from Wikileaks. We do not comment on information which are unconfirmed and unverified,” said Colonel Arnulfo Burgos Jr., the AFP public affairs chief.

The AFP said it is confident it can reduce the communist New People’s Army to insignificance with its new counter-insurgency plan, Bayanihan.

Military officials pointed out that the NPA’s strength has gone down to about 4,300 fighters since Kenney made the supposed assessment five years ago.

“The information gathered by WikiLeaks are inaccurate. The figures (cited were as of) 2006. The strength of the NPA now is down to 4,300. How do we explain the exodus of surrenderees if we are not effectively executing our campaign?” said Army spokesperson Colonel Antonio Parlade Jr.

He said that since the change in counter-insurgency strategy at the start 2011, many governors and local government executives have involved themselves in the multisectoral approach to ending the insurgency.

“Soon development will come in just like what happened in Bohol, Cebu and elsewhere. Remnants of the NPA are now merely engaging in banditry,” Parlade said.

“At the rate we are going, we are optimistic this insurgency will soon be reduced to insignificance,” he added.

Brigadier General Eduardo del Rosario, AFP Civil Relations Service chief, said if the leaked cables were true, they merely reflected Kenney’s personal opinion.

Among the cache of classified cables released by WikiLeaks were two sent by Kenney to the US State Department in mid-2006 reporting that the government’s campaign against communist rebels was “apt to remain deadly and long,” and that “total victory over the insurgents in the foreseeable future remains unlikely.”

Kenny reported that a new strategy approved by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to defeat the NPA in two years had “no clearer prospect for success than earlier campaigns.”

At the start of the year, the AFP unrolled a new counterinsurgency plan, Bayanihan, that replaced the Arroyo administration’s nine-year-old Oplan Bantay Laya that had been linked to allegations of summary executions and human rights abuses.

It said the previous strategy had “placed a premium on a military solution and was inadequate in effectively addressing armed security threats.”

Under the new plan, military operations would be “people-centered,” recognizing that “the greatest hindrance to stronger civilian-military cooperation is the continued perception of human rights violations allegedly committed by military personnel.”

The new strategy demands that soldiers respect human rights and international rules of warfare and recognizes that peace talks with communist and Muslim rebels was the only way to end the twin insurgencies.

But while the AFP continues to support peace efforts, “combat operations will continue to be applied to NPA rebels who threaten the safety and security of our people,” said Burgos.

He said the number of NPA fighters has gone down from a peak of about 24,500 in 1996 to about 4,300 in the latest assessment last year as rebels either surrendered or were captured or killed in combat.