Only 1,500 members of the New People’s Army (NPA), the military arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), are left according to Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Romeo Brawner, Jr.

“In terms of manpower, in our presentation, we estimate that it is now just a little over 1,500 members. This is from a high in the late 80s up to the early 90s when they reached around 25,000 members. This 2024, they are down to 1,500,” he told reporters.

For his part, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda, Jr said they would discuss with the AFP strategies for countering the NPA.

“We are discussing strategies with the AFP. The AFP will be focusing on the external while we in the PNP will focus on the internal. The PNP is focusing on how we really sustain this and we are doing our best really to reach out,” Acorda said in another briefing.

President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. said over the weekend that there is no active NPA guerrilla front in the country as of December last year due to the government’s anti-communist insurgency campaign.

Marcos said that in 2023, the government was able to neutralize 1,399 members of communist and local terrorist groups and took away 1,751 firearms through capture, confiscation, recovery, and the surrender of the members. Jaspearl Tan/DMS