AFP to Reds: You can run, but you can't hide | ABS-CBN

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AFP to Reds: You can run, but you can't hide

AFP to Reds: You can run, but you can't hide

Arianne Merez,

ABS-CBN News

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MANILA- If there’s anyone who wants peace in the country, it would be the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

This is the message of AFP Public Affairs chief Col. Edgar Arevalo to communist rebels.

“They can’t say AFP are hawks and doesn’t want peace. If there’s someone, an organization who wants long lasting peace that’s us... If we have peace, AFP can focus on other things like territorial disputes, humanitarian assistance etc.,” Arevalo said in an interview on Mornings@ANC.

Arevalo said communist rebels should stop hiding and surrender since they are no longer entitled to temporary freedom following the breakdown of peace talks.

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“Since the beginning they knew for a fact that they were just outside because of magnanimity of the President and the peace talks. Since there are no more peace talks, then surrender. If they don’t do that we don’t have any recourse but to arrest them,” he said.

Members of the rebel New People's Army stand in formation during the anniversary celebrations of the Communist Party of the Philippines inside a remote camp in Davao. AFP/File

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Tuesday said the military will wage an "all-out war" against the New People’s Army (NPA), after President Rodrigo Duterte ended the peace talks with the Reds over the weekend.

Arevalo said they received reports that communist leaders don’t have control over their people on the ground.

“While the NDF leadership and panel talks about continuing with peace, they’re doing different things downstairs. It is so because they don’t want to lose their source of income which is extortion,” he said.

Arevalo said the military is launching offensives against the NPA under the orders of the President.

“Our commander-in-chief has given us orders and our response is to implement that order so we are carrying out combat operations…Until the President declares we will continue once more with peace talks, then we will have to comply with his instructions,” he said.

Asked how soon the military will begin arresting communist rebels, Arevalo said they do not want to talk about deadlines but warned the rebels that “they can run, but they can’t hide.”

“We will avoid that (blood) as much as possible but we hope since they (communist rebels) know for a fact that since they are forced to surrender… We'd rather ask them to surrender voluntarily and peacefully,” he said.

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