CAMP AGUINALDO, Quezon City — With 2024 close to an end, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) looks forward to a new year with hopes of ending the Communist insurgence by aiming to achieve an zero New People's Army (NPA) guerrilla front ‘within 2025’.

In a radio interview, AFP spokesperson Colonel Francel Margareth Padilla reiterated that there is only “one weakened” NPA guerilla front remaining in the country, rendering the task of achieving an end to the conflict "reachable" to some extent.

“In process na po ito para ma-diklara na wala na. We are looking at really zero na active guerilla front, so isang weakened na lang po yan, within the year so hopefully madala natin yan to zero na po,” Padilla noted.
Earlier, Padilla said the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing NPA can no longer “stage major operations” against the Constitutional government.

She explained that a weakened guerrilla front means it can no longer implement its programs like recruitment and generating resources for their publicized armed struggle.

The AFP spokesperson, however, added that even after attaining this goal, the military will still continue to monitor areas where the presence of armed groups has been detected.

Last December 18, defense secretary Gilbert 'Gibo' Teodoro Jr. said he was not open to a ceasefire with the CCP-NPA after the group announced it would not declare one during this year’s holiday season.

Teodoro’s pronouncement came after the CPP said that it “cannot” declare a holiday truce “in the face of President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr.’s relentless war of suppression, offensive military operations and alleged imposition of martial law in the countryside.”