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LUCENA CITY – The founding president of the exiled Philippine Communist Party, Jose Maria Sison, mocked Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana's statement that the military was on track to eliminate the New People's rebels Army (NPA) by mid-2019.
"He's a big liar and he does not know how to calculate," Sison said in a statement Thursday refuting Lorenzana's figures for the so-called declining force of the NPA.
On Wednesday, Lorenzana said the recent victories of the government forces against the insurgents would lead "to the end of the communist insurgency by the second quarter of 2019."
3,443 surrendered
According to him, 3,443 rebels surrendered in September 2018, according to the records of the Office of Peace and Development of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Lorenzana also said 1,162 insurgents were arrested or killed by soldiers.
The army also reported having eliminated the influence of the NPA on 210 barangays and dismantled three guerrilla fronts.
In demystifying military figures, Sison recalled that not so long ago, Lorenzana asserted that "the NPA had only 4,000 to 5,000 members, contrary to the previous false assertion of the [Armed Forces of the Philippines] that the NPA had only 2,000 to 4,000 men. "
"Pipe dream"
"Now, he claims that 3,443 NPA fighters have already surrendered and that 1,162 of them have been arrested or killed. That's a total of 4,605 people, "said Sison.
"Instead of claiming that the AFP has already totally or almost decimated the NPA, it makes a false prediction that its goal or dream to achieve its dream will be achieved in the second quarter of 2019," he said. added.
Sison said the total number of NPA armed rebels "far exceeds 5,000 on more than 110 guerrilla fronts in 73 provinces, and is intact, alive and kicking."
He said the "roughly treacherous, tyrannical, brutal, corrupt, bankrupt, and deceitful regime of President Duterte" could not destroy the NPA that has been tempered by so many battles in 50 years.
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