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The newly appointed chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) ordered the military commanders to increase ''operational tempo'' against the communist group in his first command conference on Wednesday

Acting AFP spokesman Col. Medel Aguilar said this was among the guidelines that was laid out by Lt. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro during his first command conference in Camp Aguinaldo.

Despite the military's failure to meet the deadline provided by former President Rodrigo Duterte to end the communist insurgency by June 30, 2022, Aguilar said Bacarro did not give any deadline but he stressed the urgency on accomplishing their objectives to end the New People's Army.

"We don't have a timeline but the urgency of completing the task is there, that is why his instruction is to increase the operational tempo so that we can defeat the armed group, to finish our objective as soon as possible, but we also understand that insurgency is multi-faceted," he said.

"We have just to maximize the available forces that we have so that we can increase the operational tempo... to increase operational tempo so that we can establish peace the soonest time possible," he added.

However, Aguilar expressed optimism that the military will be able to finish the insurgency problem in the country within the term of the 58th AFP chief of staff.

"I think if we can only sustain the momentum established during the past operations we can do it but what is important in eliminating insurgency is to stop the recruitment... Although for us we are just, we are also actively providing other government agencies on the nature of the threat, how they exist, how they recruit so that government agencies can take appropriate actions," he said.

Aguilar said the New People's Army (NPA) which is the armed wing of the communist group currently has a strength of around 2000 forces.

He said Bacarro also discussed during the command conference were general principles including unity, professionalism, modernization, territorial defense, integrity, internal peace, humanitarian assistance and disaster response operations resources, and yearning, tenacity, to sustain yung operational gains.

"It’s the president’s declaration that we will not yield a single square inch of our territory," he said. Robina Asido/DMS