What’s the strength of the NPA these days?

President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III is slated to sign that final peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on March 27 and he insists that this accord would bring peace to Mindanao. But as we all know, peace and justice is still elusive in this country 28 years after the EDSA Revolt… and in the absence of zero reforms, we cannot hope that there will be justice or peace under the Aquino Presidency.

Like what I already wrote before, even if the MILF and the MNLF get together for this peace accord, then put in the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the Abu Sayyaf into this mix, we can never have peace in Mindanao. It is because the Aquino regime somehow failed to consider that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its vicious terror arm, the New People’s Army (NPA).

Last week Capt. Alberto Caber of the AFP Eastern Mindanao Command reported that some 100 New People’s Army (NPA) rebels arrived in two Elf trucks and raided the Police Station in Matan-ao, Davao del Sur spraying the police station with machine gun fire, killing two policemen and wounding three other PNP officers. That raid resulted in the capture by the NPA rebels of seven M-16 high-powered rifles and two 9mm pistols.

This happened even as the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) issued a high-alert order because of intelligence reports of rebel activities in the area. In hot pursuit operations by the Philippine Army, at least seven soldiers were killed and eight soldiers wounded when their Army vehicle struck a landmine near Barangay Saboy also in Matan-ao, Davao del Sur. Two NPA rebels were also killed in the hot pursuit operations.

Col. Norman Flores, Army 1002 Brigade Commander said that the NPA rebels have been using landmines in direct violation of international laws, while the Philippine military adhere to the ban on the use of landmines. Of course what can we expect from the NPAs who are nothing but a bunch of terrorists? Honestly I haven’t been counting, but there have been so many incidents with the NPAs killing our soldiers when their trucks hit a landmine and yet, we still have to hear an outcry from Malacañang.

Last year, the NPAs also raided the police headquarters in the town of Kibawe, Bukidnon Province where five police officers were killed and wounded and they carted off a huge number of high-powered weapons. As the AFP spokesman pointed out, there were no official pronouncements from the NPA about these latest attacks. Last December, the NPA also stormed the police headquarters in the town of Don Victoriano Chiongbian in Province of Southern Misaims Occidental where they also seized a huge cache of weapons and escaped towards Zamboanga del Sur.

We’ve already written our warnings in this corner, when I learned that the Intelligence budget for the AFP and the PNP were cut down, because those responsible for approving those budgets told the AFP and the PNP that the NPA were already a spent force. These NPA raids, including the raid at the Del Monte Plantation last year done by some 200 rebels has not elicited any violent reaction neither condemnation from Malacañang, nor even from P-Noy himself.

In my book, the Aquino Presidency has been too soft against the NPA and it is due to the fact that many Leftists are already insiders in Malacañang. Remember those days when the Marcos Dictatorship told the people that then Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. was a Communist? Of course we didn’t believe it. But right after the EDSA revolt, President Cory Aquino released CPP chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison without any deals that would have ensured a kind of peace in the country. Ezz puzzlement!

Incidentally, the social media network has come up with the resignation letter of then Vice-President Salvador “Doy” Laurel to then Pres. Cory Aquino who quit as Foreign Secretary on Sept. 8, 1987 after 18 months. In that lengthy letter, Laurel exposed one of the problems plaguing the Aquino Presidency and because we didn’t learn from history, we are repeating them here.

Here’s an excerpt of the Laurel letter that has become viral in social media: “We promised to ‘break the back’ of the insurgency. But what is the record? From 16,500 NPA regulars when Marcos fell, the Communists now claim an armed strength of 25,200, of which 2,500 are in Metro Manila. They have infiltrated not only the trade unions, the schools, the churches and the media but your government.”

So what is the current strength of the NPA today? Surely the AFP Intelligence has some information on this or has this become a State secret under the P-Noy Presidency? But what we know is that NPA attacks in Mindanao are done with Company strength, which never happened in the past. For sure, NPA strength increases under an Aquino Presidency.

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