MILF given one week to surrender ambushers (tags)
---THE Armed Forces on Wednesday gave the Moro Islamic Liberation Front seven days to surrender its fighters that took part in a bloody battle with Marines in Basilan last week. Another Marine battalion will be deployed to the island province, which is also a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf. The Armed Forces Public Information chief, Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, said the additional battalion will beef up troops going after Moro rebels who ambushed a group of Marines in Tipo-Tipo town.
PHILIPPINES : Election death toll climbs past 100 (tags)
With just days before May 14, the number of lives lost in election-related violence has breached 100. Camp Crame, the Philippine National Police headquarters, reported that 102 people have been killed and 105 wounded since the election period began on January 14. Camp Crame also said a total of 147 election related violent incidents or ERVIs have been reported.
AFP gets P10-billion hardware shop list (tags)
THE Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will be embarking on a spending spree with President Arroyo approving on Friday a P10-billion shopping list for military hardware. The President and concurrent defense secretary gave AFP brass the green light to bid out 14 contracts. Mrs. Arroyo also on Friday vowed to defeat communist and secessionist rebels in Mindanao before her term of office ends in 2010.
Tight security ring thrown around six detained colonels (tags)
-The military threw a tight security ring around the six Marine colonels involved in the failed February coup attempt following reports of sympathizers planning to free them. The six colonels—Ariel Querubin, Orlando de Leon, Januario Caringal, Armando Banez, Custodio Parcon and Achilles Segumalian—were currently being detained at a Marine base in Manila. They are among 13 Marine officers and 25 Army officers, including a brigadier general, detained for their alleged involvement in a plot with communist insurgents and opposition figures to bring down the government in February.
Firms lose P43 million in damage from NPA attacks (tags)
PROPERTY destroyed by the New People’s Army (NPA) amounted to P43 million in the first quarter of the year. According to a study conducted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), NPA rebels inflicted the damage on business firms that refused to pay the underground movement the so-called revolutionary tax.
Esperon says no quarter for NPA (tags)
Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, the new Armed Forces chief of staff, on Friday vowed to crush the communist rebellion during his term. Esperon, former Army chief, became the AFP’s 35th chief of staff. He replaced Gen. Generoso Senga, who retired Friday. He said he would lead efforts to foil attempts to vilify the AFP as an institution. The government has a two-year plan to defeat the communist New People’s Army.
Philippine Army Lt.San Juan turns back on Magdaló comrades (tags)
“I reaffirm my allegiance to the Constitution and the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” San Juan said. Rumors had surfaced in past weeks that San Juan, who belongs to the elite Light Reaction Company (LRC), had broken off from the Magdaló.