”
Arroyo on June 16, 2006 told the joint Cabinet and Regional Development Council meeting in Cauayan City, Isabaela, that she was instructing the Budget Secretary to “release P1 billion to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to finance their operations against the communist New People’s Army (NPA).”
“This is a fiscal investment that will yield peace dividends to the economy,” she said.
A portion of the P1 billion allocation would be used to refurbish Huey helicopters and other attack aircraft of the military, the President said.
Four years and four days short of the Arroyo deadline to crush the communist insurgency, Holganza said, “We cannot really eliminate insurgency if the root causes are still there.”
Holganza heads the division that is fighting the country’s largest concentration of New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas.
Compostela Valley has overtaken Bicol as the number one area in terms of communist insurgency.
Holganza assumed the post of Division chief in November last year but a few years earlier, he was assigned here as chief of the 10th Infantry Brigade.
He acknowledged the communist insurgency here has not been crushed but “we have brought it down to a level that is no longer a national threat.||| |||buy albenza online with |||
“They are a threat to our development, they can impede development but not take over government,” he added.
Holganza also said the military solution “is a small part” of the entire fight to end insurgency.
He said the recent wave of offensives of the NPA against the military is “tactical, not strategic.||| |||buy zithromax online with |||