May 31, 2024 | NEWS DIGEST

 

By API Desk | Date 05-31-2024

 

Anti-insurgency task force defends an Army battalion on “red-tagging allegations

 

The government’s counter-insurgency task force has dismissed “red-tagging” accusations made by two left-leaning lawmakers against an Army battalion in Rizal province.

 

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) in a statement said the Army’s 80th Infantry Battalion had distributed some pamphlets but denied labeling activists as Communist “terrorists.”

 

The pamphlets, distributed during a seminar organized by the battalion and the Department of Education at Taytay Senior High School, only informed students of New People’s Army recruiters’ modus operandi.

 

Kabataan party list said the materials were designed to brainwash people against legitimate activities of progressive groups while the ACT Teachers party list said it was a “clear case of harassment and intimidation.”

 

 

Army shifts to territorial defense strategy

The Philippines’ land forces are slowly adapting Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro’s Comprehensive Archipelagoc Defense Concept (CADC) as the Armed Forces shift to territorial defense from a counter-insurgency force.

 

Army commander Lieutenant General Roy Galido said there was no rush to redeploy combat troops to the coastal areas amid the ongoing fight against Communist rebels in Eastern Visayas and Eastern Mindanao.

 

Under the CADC, a large number of troops from the Navy and Air Force will be moved to areas where emergencies will arise in the West Philippine Sea. The Army will focus on internal security threats.

 

 

US transfers second-hand C-130H transport

The United States handed over the second refurbished military transport, C-130H Hercules, to the Philippines at a ceremony in an air base in Cebu.

 

The first fixed-wing aircraft was turned over in January 2021 as part of the US government’s Excess Defense Article (EDA) Program. The aircraft is the military workhorse for humanitarian, tactical, and strategic missions.

 

The Philippine Airforce has five C-130s, all based in Mactan, Cebu. The country is also acquiring three C-130J-30, the newer Super Hercules model under its 15-year military modernization program.

 

In a 22 billion Peso deal signed with Lockheed Martin last year, the three aircraft will be delivered in July 2026, October 2026, and January 2027.

 

 

 

New military operations chief

 

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has appointed a senior Marine general as the military’s new operations division chief to hasten the defeat of internal security threats.

 

In a directive, Marcos designated Marine Brigadier General Jimmy Larida as the military’s deputy chief of staff for operations, the third highest-ranking military position.

 

Larida is replacing Major General Fernando Reyeg, an Army Ranger, who has been promoted to head the Visayas Command, a three-star position. Larida will earn his second star as the operations chief.

 

Larida is a member of the Philippine Military Academy class of 1991. He was previously the commander of the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region (JTF-NCR).