In this PIA-NCR file photo in 2022, at least 10 reported members of the CPP-NPA voluntarily surrender and lay down their high powered firearms to authorities in an event in Barangay Payatas, Quezon City.
MANILA, (PIA) — The government’s anti-insurgency campaign has significantly reduced communist guerrilla fronts nationwide, with only three weakened fronts remaining from the previous 87, according to National Intelligence Coordinating Agency-NCR Regional Director Dennis Godfrey Gammad.
Speaking at Tuesday’s Kapihan sa Bagong Pilipinas media forum hosted by the Philippine Information Agency-NCR, Gammad highlighted the continued whole-of-government, whole-of-nation approach in combating insurgency.
“The strategy hasn’t changed from the previous administration to our current President,” Gammad said. “The beauty of it is that multiple agencies are involved — not just DepEd, but also NICA educating people, the police, and PDEA, as these are all part of the clusters in our line of efforts.”
Gammad, who chairs the Situational Awareness and Knowledge Management (SAKM) cluster, emphasized their focus on educating students about what he called “duplicitous tactics” of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
“They follow a process of ‘Arouse, Organize, and Mobilize,’” Gammad explained. “They arouse students to protest, organize them into groups, and mobilize them to join the movement in the mountains where they take oaths as full members.”
The intelligence official contrasted this with the government’s approach: “We simply encourage students to study well and graduate so they can contribute to our economic, cultural and social life.”
In the National Capital Region, Gammad said there are no armed groups present, though he noted the existence of what he called “progressive groups” engaged in a “battle of narratives.”
“I can say there’s no recruitment happening, or if there is, we can easily offset it because we’re visiting schools,” Gammad said. “Universities and colleges are now open to dialogue with us.”
The SAKM cluster coordinates with various agencies including the Department of Education, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and the Department of Science and Technology, among others, to provide students with future opportunities.
However, Gammad noted that the approach needs to be tailored to today’s youth, whom he described as the most intelligent generation yet. “Kids today are always holding gadgets, so our approach must align with their mindset,” he said. (JCO/PIA-NCR)
