The Armed Forces of the Philippines is asking President Rodrigo Duterte to create a national task force to end insurgency, an apparent bid to counter what it says is the communist rebels’ broad coalition to bring down the commander in chief. AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. said the primary aim of such task force was to cut off recruitment by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed component, the New People’s Army (NPA). ADVERTISEMENTPalace welcomes proposalMalacañang on Sunday welcomed the proposal, saying it agreed with the AFP that “ending the communist insurgency in the country entails a whole-of-government approach.”Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the AFP might coordinate with the Office of the President on the drafting of a directive creating the interagency task force. “The civilian agencies [are] not integrated in order to combat the CPP-NPA … because they lack awareness on the real situation,” he said. Galvez said that was the reason the AFP was asking for an executive order from Mr. Duterte, which would create a national task force to end the communist insurgency and “work in different components, line of efforts” to include information, diplomacy, political and military.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer September 23, 2018 21:56 UTC